Mind_the Gap Diversity Awards 2025

Two Mind_the Gap Diversity Awards at Graz University of Technology were presented this year to researchers and teachers from the Faculty of Architecture in recognition of their outstanding academic work on diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities. Antje Senarclens de Grancy, Clara Neuhold (both Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies), together with Bettina Paschke (Architekturarchiv Steiermark), were honored for their research and publication project “Architektinnen in/aus Graz” (Women Architects in/from Graz), which has been based at the institute since 2023–24. Initially supported by the Faculty of Architecture’s Gender Task Force, their research brought to light the names and biographical information of 232 women who completed their architecture degrees at the former Technische Hochschule Graz between 1924 and 1989. Many of these women established themselves successfully in a male‑dominated professional field—as independent architects, as partners or employees in architectural firms, or in public building administrations. Until now, most of them had been scarcely documented, and their contributions to architectural production had often gone unacknowledged. As a first outcome of the project, a series of articles was published on the Austrian online architecture platform gat.news in 2025.

Rose‑Anne Gush also received one of the six awards for her elective course “Finding the Shape Described by an Absence: On Reading the History of Sites,” taught at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The course invited students to engage with absences and erasures in the histories of places. Through feminist and situated research methods, archival work, and oral history, students developed new approaches to critical historical interpretation. The course’s focus on gender, ethnicity, and the history of National Socialism made structural blind spots within academic knowledge tangible. The strong desire expressed by students to see the course extended further attests to the lasting impact of a teaching format that not only conveys knowledge but also shapes critical attitudes.

Martina Hanke