The Cornelia Goethe Center's Sponsoring group regularly hosts the Cornelia Goethe Salon, at which the Cornelia Goethe Prize, endowed with 2,000 euros, has been awarded for outstanding work in the field of women's and gender studies since 2002. This year's salon took place on December 5th, 2024, two days before the birthday of its namesake Cornelia Goethe (1750-1777). This year, Franziska Haug received the Cornelia Goethe Prize for her literary dissertation “Work as a literary process for the production of gender”, which was presented to her by the two chairs of the Förderkreis, Helga Löhr and Gerhild Frasch. The prize-winning dissertation is expected to be published by Verbrecher Verlag.
Professor Birgit Blättel-Mink reported from the jury that Haug's work had impressed them with its thought-provoking approach to social gender relations. The jury's decision was made quickly and by consensus. In her personal acceptance speech, Franziska Haug explained both the influence of her East German origins on her work and her theoretical claim, namely to think queer-feminist and materialist perspectives together instead of positioning them against each other. It is crucial to create a language for the contradictions in gender and labor relations in order to make them visible, said Haug. Haug emphasized that she is aware of the controversial theoretical foundation of her work, but is therefore all the more grateful to have been recognized for her work.
The laudatory speech of the evening was given by writer and musician Thomas Meinecke, who held the Frankfurt Poetics Lecture in 2012 as part of a guest professorship. Meinecke's pop culture-focused speech, which ranged from RuPaul to Butler and from drag to deconstruction, emphasized the constructed nature of gender.
Professor Bettina Kleiner, Managing Director of the Cornelia Goethe Center, reported on the latest news from the CGC and emphasized the importance of academic exchange, which can also be controversial and contradictory at times.
The evening was musically accompanied by baroque music from the 17th century: Judith Freise on the baroque violin, Sophie-Justine Herr on the baroque cello and Toshinori Ozaki on the theorbo delighted the guests with Isabella Leonardas Sonata per Violino solo e Basso and Alessandro Stradellas Sinfonia due a Violino, Violoncello e Basso continuo.
The successful evening ended with a standing reception. The Sponsoring group and the CGC were delighted with the many guests and the successful evening.