How caring is academic research? :
Project kick-off and call for participants

On the one hand, measures to reconcile care responsibilities and needs with activities at the university are demanded in the programme. On the other hand, they do not always reflect the reality of university members' lives. In line with applicable equal opportunities and diversity principles, universities are called upon to consider all groups of people in their concerns in a diversity-appropriate manner (e.g. bukof; diversity audit of the Stifterverband).

The joint project "Research and Care (WiSo)" addresses this aspect with the aim of investigating care (responsibility) at the university in an intersectional-explorative manner, sounding out needs and providing recommendations for action. The approach is explorative, as care (responsibility) has hardly been considered in higher education research to date. This project is carried out from an intersectional perspective by including the dimensions of difference such as body, class, gender and race, which can manage multiple stigmatisation and discrimination in their overlap. The network comprises a total of four subprojects (see information on the project partners), which are designed to be interlinked. The subproject "University policies of documented care in the light of diversity justice" - "DoSo" for short - was launched in February 2025 at the Department of Health Sciences under the project manager Prof Dr Eva Tolasch and academic research assistant Janet-Lynn Holz (M.A. Sociology). In this subproject, the normative negotiation of care is (re)constructed based on a document analysis. Central University Administration documents can be strategy papers, guidelines, regulations, but also university development planning and equal opportunities and diversity concepts.

Information on the partners:

The three other project partners are based at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Dr Hanna Haag (lead), Dr Annette Hilscher), Bielefeld University (Prof. Dr Saphira Shure, Ayşe-Nur Yalçınkaya) and the University of Cologne (Prof. Dr Julia Reuter, Anja Mallat). The project partners are managing group discussions with doctoral candidates, post-docs, university secretaries and interviews with experts. Call for attendance in the "Research and Care" study at Fulda University of Applied Sciences: Are you a university secretary, doctoral candidate or post-doc at Fulda University of Applied Sciences? Do you take responsibility for topics such as equal opportunities, diversity or similar at the university? Are you involved in caring relationships with, for example, students, colleagues, employees, research participants or similar and do you deal with the topic of (caring) responsibility?

If so, we would be delighted if you would be willing to take part in an interview or group discussion. Please send us an e-mail(janet-lynn.holz(at)gw.hs-fulda.de). You will then be forwarded to the relevant colleagues in the joint project. Alternatively, you can also write directly to the relevant colleagues. You can find the contact details and further information about the network at: www.frankfurt-university.de/de/hochschule/fachbereich-4-soziale-arbeit-gesundheit/forschung-am-fb-4/forschungsinstitute/gender-und-frauenforschungszentrum-der-hessischen-hochschulen-gffz/wiso-startseite/

Kind regards from Janet-Lynn Holz & Eva Tolasch