Maastricht University, Centre for Gender and Diversity

Gender may be understood as a process in which cultural scripts of masculinity and femininity are enacted and performed. Gender strongly impacts on social processes of inclusion and exclusion, while intersecting with affiliated categories of difference such as age, religion, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and nationality. The scripts for the performance of social identities continually re-define

each other. We analyze these intersections, focusing on the arts. In our view, the arts vitally contribute to the recycling and transformation of behavioural scripts. We study art forms from high culture and popular culture, i.e. fiction, poetry, film, photography, life writing, the performing arts, and children’s media. While we are a humanities group, our interest in art as a shaping social force implies that we cross the gap between the humanities, the social sciences, and the life sciences, not just in the formulation of our research questions, but also in the selection of our methodological tools and in our choice of research partners. Besides engaging in innovative research, we also teach courses on gender and diversity at Maastricht’s University College (UCM) and in the BA and MA programs Arts and Culture of FASOS.