MATILDA at Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Located at the heart of Europe in the dynamic Ruhr metropolitan region, Ruhr Universität Bochum, with its 20 faculties, is an academic home to over 43.000 students from more than 130 countries.

RUB is a unique location for the study of gender history. Its long-established chair in Gender History, whose current incumbent is Professor Maren Lorenz, is one of six Gender chairs at the University, covering subjects such as art history and sociology. Alongside these designated chairs, many other RUB academics share a keen interest and expertise in gender history.

Browse our courses and seminars and visit our Department of History.

From June 2019, the Marie Jahoda Centre for Gender Studies (MaJac) will be enriching RUB’s profile as an institution with an established and productive focus on the study of gender.
The Master’s degree course in Gender Studies offers additional courses, which are open to students on the MATILDA programme.

In addition, the university library and the research library at the history department, the "Frauenbibliothek" Lieselle and the "Frauenarchiv" at the University Dortmund offer unique research opportunities.

I want to join you! - Click here for Applications und Admissions

If you want to learn about the "MATILDA-Experience", read the report Matilda-Student Rabea wrote for us:

Rabea Otto (25 Jahre, studiert im MATILDA-Programm seit Herbst 2020)

Nach Abschluss meines B.A. in Geschichte in Tübingen war ich auf der Suche nach einem Master, der einen expliziten Fokus auf die Geschlechtergeschichte legt. Am historischen Institut in Bochum bin ich mit dem MATILDA-Schwerpunkt fündig geworden. Methodisch interdisziplinär in der Geschlechterforschung angesiedelt, bekam ich hier die Möglichkeit, konkrete historische Themen mit einem Fokus auf die Analysekategorie ‚Geschlecht‘ zu untersuchen.

Die Lehrveranstaltungen mit einer geschlechterhistorischen Thematik reichen in jede Epoche und gewährten mir die Möglichkeit, eigene Interessensschwerpunkte zu legen. So belegte ich bspw. in der Frühen Neuzeit ein Seminar zu sexualisierter Gewalt oder zur Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts eine Veranstaltung zu Biografieforschung bis hin zu einem Kurs zum Thema des Generationenkonflikts im Kalten Krieg in der Zeitgeschichte. Die Arbeit mit/an Quellen/Archivalien und ein transnationaler Ansatz waren mir bei der Seminarauswahl besonders wichtig.

Trotz der eingeschränkten Lage der COVID-19-Pandemie konnte ich das Auslandssemester an der Universität in Wien genießen. An der breitgefächerten Fakultät mit geschlechterhistorischer Ausrichtung bekam ich einen Einblick in einige spannende transnationale Forschungsgebiete. Außerdem konnte ich mich mit anderen MATILDA-Studierenden und Dozierenden der Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte vernetzen.

ENGLISCH

After finishing my Bachelor in History at the University of Tübingen, I was looking for a Master Programme that would put a special focus on Gender history. At the historical institute in Bochum I found the MATILDA Programme that met my expectations. The programme is settled within the method area of the Gender Studies, so I had the opportunity to work on historic topics with an analytical focus on the category of “gender”.

Seminars of the MATILDA programme with their focus on Gender History are set in every epoch, thus giving me the opportunity to follow my own special fields of interest. I attended a seminar in Early Modern History on sexualised violence, one seminar to the research on biographies, set in the 19th century, but also a seminar on the topic of “Generations in conflict” during the Cold War. Working with sources and archival materials during the seminars and keeping a transnational perspective on the topics always were of special concern for me when it came to choosing the seminars.

Regardless of the pandemic in 2020 and the restrictions that came with it, I could still enjoy the semester abroad at the University in Vienna. At their history departement that embodies a broad field of research in gender history, I got insight into many fascinating topics. Adding to this, I was happy to meet other students and Lecturers of the MATILDA Programme and getting to connect with them.