Maria Ducia Research Prize 2022 awarded – University of Innsbruck
On May 11, 2022, Lydia Kremslehner, MA received the Maria Ducia Research Prize, which is endowed with 2,000 euros. Donated by the SPÖ Tirol state parliament club, the prize was awarded by the state parliamentarian and women’s spokeswoman for the SPÖ Tirol, Elisabeth Fleischanderl, and the jury chairperson, Ass.-Prof.in DRin Presented to Heike Welte. The organization of the award was handled by the Office for Equality and Gender Studies.
With the Maria Ducia Research Prize, which is being awarded for the 7th time today, we are pursuing two goals: the prize of 2,000 euros is intended to support young researchers in completing their work and it is intended to attract a broader public to critical, feminist women’s and gender studies manufacture.
The complex focus is on historical, political and social developments, which are examined from the perspective of feminist and women-specific research. Particular support is given to works that have a high level of socio-political relevance, ie the SPÖ Tirol also wants to use the Ducia Prize to promote a rapprochement between science and politics. A connection that has become a loser in the last few centuries, but which was linked to a fruitful exchange for both sides and can and should be again.
The awardee…
Lydia Kremslehner, this year’s prizewinner, completed her bachelor’s and master’s degree in educational sciences in Innsbruck. Her first master’s thesis is entitled “Hearing impairment – diverse tactics in communication”. At the same time, Lydia Kremslehner is also studying the master’s degree in gender, culture and social change. She wrote the award-winning concept for her second master’s thesis as part of this course, it is entitled “The field of tension between sexualization and desexualization in women* with visible and invisible disabilities”. In both master’s theses she deals scientifically with the topic of disability.
Her commitment is not only scientific, but also social in nature, for example she is active as a trainer at the Tyrolean Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and is involved in a wide variety of ways, especially for initiatives on Usher syndrome, hearing impairment and deaf-blindness. “Overall it shows […] In Lydia Kremslehner’s career to date, her interest in scientifically critical examination of the issue of disability and gender, in the implementation of the knowledge gained in practical action and both levels with reference to socio-political relevance,” said jury chair Heike Welte in her laudatory speech.
… and her work
In her master’s thesis, Lydia Kremslehner deals with the interplay of sexuality, disability and violence. One goal is to break the taboo associated with the topic and, as she writes, “to bring the voice of women* with disabilities to the fore, who are not sufficiently heard in this connection between sexuality and disability, neither scientifically nor socially and politically Find”.
The jury chose this concept because this topic makes a significant contribution to a research area that is still relatively unadvanced, even in feminist research, and which is also of high social relevance. Theoretical approaches of Disability Studies should be combined with feminist theoretical approaches and queer theory approaches in order to understand the contradictions of social sexualization and desexualization.
“The author has succeeded in creating an exciting, intersectional concept that arouses curiosity about the finished work. I am convinced that this master’s thesis has achieved its goal,” said jury chair Heike Welte.
Price information: https://www.uibk.ac.at/leopoldine/gender-studies/preise/ducia.html