Queer University

Queer University

With nearly 10,000 employees and approximately 100,000 students at the University of Vienna, diversity is a part of daily life, and sexual orientation and gender identity are important components thereof.

u:queer is a networking group for queer university members that aims to:

  • strengthen networks of university employees and students,
  • enable networking with people and organisations outside of the University of Vienna,
  • offer a space to reflect upon experiences together,
  • improve the situation at the University of Vienna with regard to queer topics,and
  • increase the visibility and awareness of queer issues and people, both within and beyond the University of Vienna.

You can find more information concerning upcoming networking meetings as well as other networking groups here.

Diversity at the University of Vienna

Sexual orientation and gender are part of human diversity, and therefore a part of the University of Vienna. The University of Vienna has a responsibility to protect its members from discrimination (according to the Federal Equal Opportunites Act and the 2002 Universities Act). Protection isn't the full extent of its duties, which include empowering the people affiliated to it and strengthening the plurality of perspectives.

More on diversity at the University of Vienna can be found here.

Language

On the word "queer"

The word "queer" was once used as a slur for those who did not conform to heteronormative ideas and lifestyles. Nowadays, queer has been successfully (re-)claimed as a self-designation. For example, Queer Studies deals with the topic scientifically. Typically, queer is used as an umbrella term for people who aren't heterosexual, cis, dyadic, binary, and/or allosexual/-romantic. This is also how we use it here. With this usage, queer replaces the different variations of LGBTQIA+, albeit without excluding groups by not naming them. Some people do use queer as their label, though, and not as an umbrella term.