Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

This course explores how legal and scientific institutions construct and regulate sex and gender. It begins with a fundamental question: What is considered ‘natural’? Who defines what counts as norm and deviation?
Participants will investigate how scientific discourse and legal norms intersect to reinforce—or challenge—binary gender models. In law, binary classifications continue to shape rights and recognition. In science, meanwhile, biological research increasingly reveals the limitations of such binaries—yet these findings are often filtered through social, political, and institutional lenses.
Drawing on feminist legal theory, science studies, and eco-critical perspectives, the course combines conceptual tools with case-based inquiry. Students will examine how both fields contribute to the construction of gendered identities and the regulation of bodies and behaviors.

Participants will:
• gain insight into how gender is constructed through legal and scientific discourses,
• engage with critical legal theory, feminist epistemologies, and ecofeminist thought,
• analyze the implications of binary systems in science and society,
• develop tools to critique and rethink legal and scientific frameworks with a view to more inclusive, non-binary approaches.

Further information on teaching evaluation: https://www.leuphana.de/en/teaching/quality-management/evaluation/course-evaluation.html