In 2011 the University of Bremen organized a large exhibition of photos called “Unispitzen” featuring its leading female professors. Three years later on, the spotlight was on its female mid-level faculty: From 29th October to 28th February the >right here< photo exhibition hit on a very special way to draw attention to 30 of the University’s female mid-level faculty: From 29th October to 28th February their large-scale photos with selected captions could be seen hanging in the Gall Hall in the central entrance to the University, easily visible from both inside and outside. The female academics of different nationalities all work at the University, either as PhD candidates, post-docs, senior lecturers or leaders of junior research groups. Their pictures are supplemented with short biographies and citations that give an impression of how varied their work situations are and contain information on what led them to choose a career in academia. In this way the exhibition also draws attention to the ambivalence and risk linked with pursuing a career in the scientific community. This time, too, the portraits were shot by the Berlin photographer, Julia Baier. Birgit Wingrat was the curator and designer. A German-English catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Project created great interest

“When we announced our project idea to the female members of faculty we had over a hundred volunteers within the first two days”, recalls Anneliese Niehoff from the Bureau for Equal Opportunity and Anti-discrimination. There was a huge response from people wanting to have their portraits exhibited with their vitae and so forth. “As much as it went against the grain to do so, we eventually had to whittle the list down to just 30 women, pre-sorted according to the areas they work in.”

Exhibition aims to illustrate gender mismatch

There are currently 800 female members of mid-level faculty working at the University of Bremen, putting the female share at around 37 percent; an increase of seven percent over 2004. Since 2004 the number of female PhD candidates has risen by eight percent to 43%, and the female professors by seven to the current 26 percent. This puts the University of Bremen well-above national average. Nonetheless, the figures still reveal a substantial gender imbalance in the academic area. The >right here< exhibition wishes to be seen as a contribution towards addressing the background for this mismatch, drawing attention to the portraited females in the University and celebrating their achievements.

About the photographer

Julia Baier, was born in Augsburg in 1971. She studied psychology, romance philology and art at the University of Bremen, and graphic design with a specialty in photography at the Bremen University of Art. She has been working as a freelance photographer since 1998, and from 2009 till 2011 she lectured in photography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. She has a special interest in taking portraits. Generally speaking, her focus lies on depicting the person behind the portrait and everyday life. She has already received a number of German and international awards for her work: among others, in 2001 the first prize at a photo symposium for documentary photographs in Bad Herrenalb, and in 2003 the BFF-Förderpreis. The same year she was among the ten-best contestants for the Leica Oscar Barnack Prize, and in 2004 she was nominated to take part in the World Press Masterclass. So far she has participated in several individual and group exhibitions in Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey, as well as in Japan. Julia Baier also works as a photographer for magazines and newspapers: among others for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the ZEIT and the taz, as well as for the Spiegel and Brigitte. Examples of her work are also currently being exhibited at “»Augen auf!« 100 Jahre Leica Fotografie” in the Haus der Photographie in the Deichtorhallen Hamburg. For more information visit: www.juliabaier.de

If you would like to have more information on this topic, please contact:
University of Bremen
Bureau for Equal Opportunity and Anti-discrimination
Anneliese Niehoff
Phone: +49 421 218-60181
E-mail: chancen1protect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
www.uni-bremen.de/chancengleichheit.html