Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1665 „sexdiversity“

From April 1, 2024, a new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) on the diversity of biological sex will be funded by the DFG at the University of Lübeck

The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) "Sexdiversity - Determinants, meanings and implications of sex diversity in socio-cultural, medical and biological landscapes" brings together 17 research projects from medicine, the life sciences, and the humanities and social sciences. The spokespersons are Prof. Dr. med. Olaf Hiort and Prof. Dr. phil. dipl. Biol. Christoph Rehmann-Sutter (IMGWF).

The emergence and categorization of gender in general and the relationships between biological sex and gender are among the most complex aspects of understanding the human body. New biological and medical findings suggest a number of somatic forms and variants on multiple levels of appearance that cannot always be reconciled with a binary categorization of two mutually exclusive sexes. In addition, gender can never be considered a purely biological trait, but has important psychological, societal and legal effects. The starting point of the CRC is the investigation of variants of sex development.

The central hypothesis is that biological sex manifests itself in context-dependent differences, some of which go beyond the two-gender model, manifest themselves on several levels and can lead to a variety of manifestations. The CRC's transdisciplinary approach includes interaction with those affected by variants of gender development, patient initiatives, and interest groups. The structure of the CRC is to involve social actors in the research process.

Internationally recognized position in DSD research

Due to its leading international position in research on variants of sex development, the University of Lübeck offers an excellent basis for the establishment of an exemplary and unique research consortium on the diversity of biological sex, especially in the clinic of Prof. Olaf Hiort. In addition, there is highly specialized research in the humanities and social sciences in Lübeck, which deals with a reflection on medicine and the life sciences. Previous national and international funding has created networks that form an ideal starting point for the planned CRC project. The CRC, which is anchored in Lübeck with the majority of the projects, also includes projects at Kiel University, Charité Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, European University Flensburg, Otto von Guericke University Magedeburg, Hannover Medical School and Ludwig Maximilian University Munich.

Collaborative Research Centres are long-term research institutions of the universities that are designed to last up to twelve years. With the approval of the new CRC, three Collaborative Research Centres will now belong to the University of Lübeck in the future. With gender and the inter- and transdisciplinary approach, the Collaborative Research Centre "Sexdiversity" (CRC 1665) brings in a new thematic focus that will shape the structure of the University of Lübeck.

The Center for Cultural Studies Research ZKFL is an interdisciplinary research platform that enables cooperation between research in the humanities/cultural studies and biomedical studies. The IMGWF is home to an ethics project (S05), a project on the history of science and ethnography (S06) and a project on the history of psychology (S08). In addition, the IMGWF participates in the overall management of the CRC (Z01), the integrated Research Training Group (Z04/IRTG), as well as in public relations and science communication (Z05/Austria).

To the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1665 at the University of Lübeck.