In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Special section of this mdw Magazine issue is devoted to the many and varied facets of women’s activities in the arts and culture:
mica head Sabine Reiter, the mdw alumna, freelance author, and filmmaker Mirjam Unger, and mdw Vice Rector Gerda Müller discuss the most recent cultural policy developments relating to equality, quotas and their effectiveness, women’s networks, women’s presence in orchestras, and ways of successfully increasing women’s visibility.
You’ll learn how strong an influence historical thought patterns have even today, and you’ll also find out what gender studies and the working group queer_mdw contribute to diversity both at the university and in society, as well as how they also sensitise our view of the world and our gender-related notions.
This jubilee year is also a time for taking stock: the project spiel/macht/t/raum – Women* at the mdw, 1817–2017 analyses our institution’s 200-year history in terms of gender (in)equality. And on the occasion of the International Hilde Zadek Singing Competition, to be held from 17 to 22 April 2017 at the mdw, we join Hilde Zadek herself for a look back at her eventful life.
The filmmaker, (film) theoretician, author, and composer Trinh T. Minh-ha will be coming to the mdw in March to take part in the interdisciplinary lecture series Transculturality – so we’ve taken the opportunity in this issue to present a closer introduction to her extraordinary work. We also introduce a recent publication on “Practices of Composing”, which provides insights on this topic by examining it from the vantage points of sociology, epistemology, and musicology.
Last but not least, the calendar year of 2016 ended on a very positive note for the university: we joined with Maestro Zubin Mehta to open a room named for him that will be used for the instruction of conducting students, star tenor Plácido Domingo received honorary mdw membership, and the band project All Stars Inclusive was awarded the 2016 Diversitas Prize.
I wish you an enjoyable read!
