Irina Schmitt

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Centrum för genusvetenskap, and also teach at the master programme in the social sciences.

My interests in research and teaching are

*gender, youth and migration research
*feminist, queer and postcolonial theories
*qualitative methods and methodologies, esp. discourse analysis, qualitative interview and data collection methods (also visual), the role of the researcher in research

My current research

focuses on the interdependences of gender-sex-sexuality with issues of migration and racialization. I am interested in the ways gender and sexualities are regulated and negotiated in schools. Are school regulations and curricula heteronormative (I think they are) and what might that mean for everyday life in school? How do teachers and students draw on and move in discourses and rules about ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ gender and sexualities? Are there different sets of discourses for migrant and non-migrant young people? Are there relevant national differences? What are the implications for the feeling of belonging of young people and the understandings of citizenship? I will compare German, Canadian and Swedish regulations and discourses (and, in a next step, plan to do empirical research in schools).

Earlier research has shown that many young people feel either confused by conflicting sets of norms (wanting to be ‘tolerant’ but feeling uneasy about homosexuality) or are clearly homo- and transphobic, and the same goes for teachers. For young people (and teachers) to consider and present non-heteronormative gender and sexualities in such an environment can seem difficult or even impossible. Also, there is in some national context a still influential understanding of ethnicized/racialized young people’s gender expressions and norms that creates an opposition, for example, between emancipated non-migrant girls and women and migrant girls and women who are apparently restricted by ‘traditional’ values. While it is also clear that such a dichotomy obscures heteronormativity and gender inequalities that are part of mainstream society, is informs policies and regulations as well as public and political discourses.

This research is part of an international project on policies of youth participation. We aim to understand the role of policy frameworks in the understanding of belonging and the participation of young people, with and without migration experience.

Publications

Monograph
Schmitt, Irina (2008): 'wir sind halt alle anders' – Eine gesellschaftspolitische Analyse
deutscher und kanadischer Jugendlicher zu Zugehörigkeit, Gender und Vielkulturalität. Göttingen: V+R Unipress. http://www.v-r.de/de/titel/389971452/
[‘we are just all different’ – A socio-political analysis of German and Canadian young people on belonging, gender and many-culturality.]

Anthologies
*Hoerder, Dirk/Yvonne Hébert/Irina Schmitt (Eds.) (2005): Negotiating Transcultural Lives: Belongings and Social Capital among Youth in Transnational Perspective. Göttingen: V+R Unipress (North American edition: University of Toronto Press, 2006). http://www.v-r.de/de/titel/38991179/

*Harzig, Christiane/Danielle Juteau/with Irina Schmitt (Eds.) (2003, 22006): The Social Construction of Diversity: Recasting the Master Narrative of Industrial Nations. New York: Berghahn Books.

*Harzig, Christiane/Dirk Hoerder/Annika Lieby/Irina Schmitt (Eds.) (2001): Bunte Metropolen: In der Vielfalt liegt die Zukunft – Ansprachen und Texte anlässlich der kanadisch-europäischen Konferenz 'Recasting European and Canadian Consciousness'. Bremen.

Articles
*Schmitt, Irina (2008): 'Ich besorg' dir Viagra für deinen Freund' – Heteronormativität als methodologische Herausforderung in der Forschung mit Jugendlichen. In: Ulrike Freikamp/Matthias Leanza/Peter Ullrich/Janne Mende/Stefan Müller/Heinz-Jürgen Voß (Eds.): Kritik mit Methode? Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden und Gesellschaftskritik. Berlin: Dietz-Verlag, 253-268.

*Schmitt, Irina (2008): From 'Security Risk' to Charter Rights – Gender, Sexuality and the Canadian Politics of Integration. In: Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 1/2008.

*Schmitt, Irina (2007): 'It's just a name?' – young people in Canada and Germany discuss 'national' belonging. In: Christine Riegel/Thomas Geisen (Eds.): Jugend, Migration und Zugehörigkeit. Subjektpositionierungen im Kontext von Jugendkultur, Ethnizitäts- und Geschlechterkonstruktionen. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 81-96.

*Schmitt, Irina (2005): Germany speaking? Rap and Kanak Attak: Dominant Discourses on Language. In: Dirk Hoerder/Yvonne Hébert/Irina Schmitt (Eds.): Negotiating Transcultural Lives: Belongings and Social Capital among Youth in Transnational Perspective. Göttingen: V+R Unipress, 215-236.

*Schmitt, Irina (2005): Ansätze und Fragestellungen zum Transkulturalitätsbegriff. Transfer kultureller Praxen und Normen. In: Imke K. Meyer/Paula Krüger (Eds.): Transcultural Studies. Interdisziplinarität trifft Transkulturalität. University of Bremen, 52-58.

*Schmitt, Irina (2002): Queering Multiculturalism. A Critical Analysis of Multiculturalism in Canada from a Queer Perspective. Unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Bremen.

*Schmitt, Irina/Dirk Hoerder/Yvonne Hébert (2005): Introduction: Transculturation and the Accumulation of Social Capital: Understanding Histories and Decoding the Present of Young People. In: Dirk Hoerder/Yvonne Hébert/Irina Schmitt (Eds.): Negotiating Transcultural Lives: Belongings and Social Capital among Youth in Transnational Perspective. Göttingen: V+R Unipress, 11-36.

Review
For: Kaufmann, Margrit E. (2003): KulturPolitik – KörperPolitik – Gebären. Opladen: Leske+Budrich. Femina Politica 1.2003.

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