Promotionsprojekt: 

Queer Jewish Groups in Europe (1972-1990s) – Creating a Movement under American Influence 

The 1970s represent a notable decade for those Jews who felt that their sexual desires didn’tfulfill the norms of the heterosexual matrix. Queer Jews in the United States and Europe began to unite and started founding organizations for their needs. This project will focus on those groups that emerged in Europe and will trace back their history: the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group (JGLG) in London, Beit Haverim in Paris, and Sjalhomo in Amsterdam. These groups first became institutionalized and later cooperated in their shared goal of acceptance and integration of queer lives into Judaism. Meanwhile, the movement of gay outreach synagogues in the United States began with the foundation of Beth ChayimChadashim in Los Angeles. These synagogues promoted the foundation of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations in which the European groups also became active.The project will illustrate the relations between the organizations in the United Statesand Europe in regard to their political aspirations and the merging of two shared identities: Jewishness and Queerness.

Hauptbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Sina Rauschenbach, Universität Potsdam

Zweitbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Martin Lücke, Freie Universität Berlin

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Forschungsschwerpunkte:

- LGBTQ+ im Judentum

- Queer (Jewish) History

- Jüdischer Feminismus

- Gender Studies

- Erinnerungskultur(en)

- Provenienzforschung

Monographien:

Queer Jewish Groups in Europe (1972-1990s): Archiving Their Histories and Network. Europäisch-jüdische Studien - Beiträge (73). Berlin, Boston, 2025. Link zur Publikation: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111478470/html (ebenfalls Link zum kostenlosen ebook)
"Jewish, Gay and Proud" – The Founding of Beth Chayim Chadashim as a Milestone of Jewish Homosexual Integration. Pri HaPardes (13). Potsdam, 2020. Link zur Publikation: https://shop.verlag.uni-potsdam.de/en/shop/jewish-gay-and-proud/ (ebenfalls Link zum kostenlosen ebook)

Wissenschaftliche Artikel:
Jewish Studies (gemeinsam mit Sina Rauschenbach), in: Handbuch Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien, hrsg. v. Jonas Nesselhauf und Florian Weber. Berlin, Boston, 2025.
Queer Jewish Studies - Ein Fach neu denken, in: Medaon. Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung. Vol. 16/31, 2022, S. 1-13, Link: https://www.medaon.de/pdf/medaon_31_wilkens.pdf 
Vom Dachstuben-Salon zur Synagoge. Eine Topographie jüdischer Salonnièren und jüdischen Lebens um 1800 (Version I, 2018), in: haskala.net. Das online-Lexikon zur jüdischen Aufklärung, hrsg. von Christoph Schulte und Marie Ch. Behrendt. 

Zeitungsartikel:
Congregation Kol Ami Prays for Pittsburgh (Oct 31, 2018), in: Los Angeles Blade. America's LGBT News Source (online).
LA reacts to mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue (Oct 29, 2018), in: Los Angeles Blade. America's LGBT News Source (online, with Karen Ocamb).
LA queer synagogue brings 1920s Berlin cabaret to life (Oct 17, 2018), in: Los Angeles Blade. America's LGBT News Source (online).