Networking feminist knowledge: i.d.a. and DDF launch EU project

TOGETHER WE PRESERVE OUR FUTURE is the first European education project for feminist remembrance work to be launched by i.d.a. and DDF. From Iceland to Cyprus, it brings feminist archives and libraries into exchange via the EU programme Erasmus+ and thus promotes equality and diversity in research and science.

International solidarity and networking has always been a central approach within feminist movements. They have mutually conditioned, exchanged and inspired each other across national borders. In order to make this approach visible in current adult education, the i.d.a. umbrella organisation (i.d.a.) has initiated the project TOGETHER WE PRESERVE OUR FUTURE. For over 30 years, i.d.a., the umbrella organisation of German-speaking lesbian/women’s archives, libraries and documentation centres, has been committed to preserving and communicating feminist history and knowledge.

Promoting feminist education

The one-year project with feminist remembrance institutions from 15 European countries will start in July 2024, financially supported by the EU education programme Erasmus+ and organisationally accompanied and supported by the Digital German Women’s Archive (Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv, DDF). The focus is on job shadowing and workshops: 30 experts will take part in bi-nationally organised work shadowing sessions across Europe.

The exchange of expertise promotes dialogue and knowledge transfer and raises awareness of local conditions: How is knowledge about lesbian and women’s movements collected and preserved in the countries? How could a unified European search area of specialised cultural heritage institutions and their intersectional collections contribute to the democratisation of knowledge? And how can these central sources and data on women’s history, feminism and gender studies be sustainably secured as part of a common European heritage and opened up to the public? In May 2025, all participating institutions will come together for a final workshop, and a ceremonial event is planned to mark the official founding of a European specialist network.

Strengthening European networking

The project is therefore embedded in the META-EU initiative launched by the DDF. The aim of this initiative is to connect feminist remembrance and cultural heritage organisations in a European network and to share their knowledge in a unified database in the future. From Portugal to Estonia, from Iceland to Cyprus: numerous organisations from 15 European countries are already actively participant in the initiative as well as the Erasmus+ project.

“The Erasmus+ project offers the i.d.a. the unique opportunity to deepen our networking beyond the German-speaking context and to enable mutual learning in the preservation of feminist history,” says the i.d.a. board, consisting of Inga Müller (DENKtRÄUME, Hamburg), Margarethe Kees (FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar, Saarbrücken) and Margit Hauser (STICHWORT, Vienna). “Especially in these times of a shift to the right and growing anti-feminism, cooperation between feminist projects needs to be strengthened,” they emphasise.

Sharing experiences of coping amidst anti-European and anti-democratic developments in many countries can contribute to the development of joint counter-strategies. The Erasmus+ awarding jury therefore also emphasised openness, inclusion and democratisation as key objectives of the joint project. These are particularly “important for the whole of Europe with regard to the current and future situation of women’s movements”.

Background

TOGETHER WE PRESERVE OUR FUTURE is a project of the i.d.a. umbrella organisation in cooperation with the DDF and the META-EU initiative, funded by the European funding programme Erasmus+.

Since 1994, i.d.a. has been the umbrella organisation for over 40 lesbian/women’s archives,-libraries and documentation centres from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy.In 2018, the Digital German Women’s Archive (DDF) supported by i.d.a. went online. The DDF is the specialist portal for German-language feminist movement history. It presents and contextualises material from the i.d.a. memorial institutions and enables their digitisation via the DDF project fund. In 2020, the DDF launched the META-EU initiative #UnitedWeSearch for the long-term implementation of a pan-European research tool. Since 2020, the DDF has been institutionally funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ).

Contacts

The project managers will be happy to answer any questions or queries:i.d.a.-Dachverband e.V. c/o DENKtRÄUME, Grindelallee 43, 20146 Hamburg

i.d.a. board: Inga Müller, Margarethe Kees, Margit Hauser, E-MailErasmus+ project: Marius Zierold und Nicolli Povijač, E-MailMETA-EU initiative: Dr. Karin Aleksander, E-Mail

DDF press: Steff Urgast, +49 30 23 94 21 77, E-Mail