Emma Goldman Award goes to Anelis Kaiser Trujillo

Prof. Dr. Anelis Kaiser Trujillo from the Chair of Gender Studies in MINT at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg has received the Emma Goldman Award, which is endowed with 50,000 euros. The prize is awarded to female scientists who conduct research about inequality and feminism in Europe.

At the award ceremony at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, her innovative work examining gender in neuroscience was recognized. In addition to empirical language research in which she uses fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, she analyzes how sex/gender is operationalized and measured as a variable in cognitive neuroscience.  In doing so, she examines how biological gender intersects with and influences social gender in experiments. In her research, Kaiser Trujillo often steps outside the boundaries of the natural sciences to use social science methods to expand her approach. Conversely, she brings biological and natural science elements into gender studies.

Through her work, she came to the realization that other variables play a crucial role in brain differences, such as ethnicity, origin, disability or sexuality. Consequently, it was not enough to simply compare female brains to male brains; an interdisciplinary approach to this type of research was needed. In her teaching, she carries critical feminist thinking into technical subjects. For her interdisciplinary approach, she is involved in projects at the University of Freiburg in cognitive neuroscience, computer science, environmental research, biotechnology, as well as gender studies and science research.

About Anelis Kaiser Trujillo:
Kaiser Trujillo studied psychology in Basel and received her PhD there in 2008 with studies in neurolinguistics and sex/gender in fMRI research. She has been a professor of Gender Studies in MINT at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg since April 2017. She is co-founder of the network Neurogenderings: Critical Studies of the Sexed Brain and is committed to increasing the proportion of women in STEM subjects.

About the award:
The Emma Goldman Award is presented annually in memory of the American feminist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) by the Dutch FLAX Foundation. The prize money is invested directly in research projects. Selection criteria for the award are originality, future potential, and relevance to science, as well as relevance to the issues of feminism and inequality in Europe.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Anelis Kaiser Trujillo
Chair of Gender Studies in MINT
Department of Computer Science
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-54080
E-Mail: anelis.kaiser@tf.uni-freiburg.de

Natascha Thoma-Widmann
Marketing/PR, Faculty of Engineering
University of Freiburg
Tel: 0761/203-8056
E-Mail: thoma-widmann@tf.uni-freiburg.de

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Photo: Klaus Ranger/Flax Stiftung