Anti-Discrimination Officers
As anti-discrimination officers at the university, we, Professor Josefine Heusinger and Professor Claudia Wendel, are here to help answer your questions about discrimination. We provide advice and awareness-raising about the subject, including in collaboration with specialists and institutions within and outside of the university. Our consultations are absolutely confidential, and we do not do anything against your wishes or without your knowledge. If you wish, we can help you navigate any further steps that you take.
As long-established members of the university, we are familiar with its structures and can initiate change. We believe it is our duty to uncover discrimination at our university, to rectify it where it occurs and ideally to prevent it. To this end, causes of discrimination need to be understood, its forms recognised and counter-strategies established. For us, taking the experiences of those affected seriously and supporting them through them within the university are how we practice social fairness and express our democratic attitude. Human rights are not divisible and apply without restrictions or limits.
As a place to live, the university should be experienced as safe, respectful and enriching. Diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging at the university require specific organisational framework conditions. A democratic and transparently organised university supports people from different backgrounds and encourages them. Protected spaces are essential and irreplaceable for people affected by discrimination in order to be able to study and work successfully at the university. This is the only way to foster a sense of belonging - it is not the job of the individual but an obligation for the university community. Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences is a learning institution that cares about the wellbeing of its members.
Our agenda is to uncover discrimination, to share experiences and knowledge, and to change and/or organise structures jointly and equitably. This all needs respect and a basis of trust. We are here for you, are committed to the aspirations set out here and are keen to listen to your concerns and questions.
What is discrimination?
Discrimination describes the individual, institutional and structural disparagement, disadvantage and exclusion of social groups and of people who are categorised as belonging to them. While individual discrimination relates to the actions of individual people towards others, institutional discrimination means forms of unequal treatment that are practised by and within organisations, for example universities, and that go beyond the conscious actions of individuals. Structural discrimination is, in turn, closely connected to practices of organisations and in its broadest sense describes social conditions as a result of which people routinely and regularly experience disadvantage in comparison with the majority society.
Discrimination is based on different, sometimes attributed characteristics. Particularly affected are women and people whose lived and felt gender identity falls outside of the binary concept of male and female, people with an actual or supposed background of migration, who, for example due to their skin colour, are considered to be “other”, people with a low socio-economic status or with chronic illnesses or disabilities. For those affected, discrimination often goes hand in hand with exclusion and a lack of appreciation, it can intimidate and frighten and lead to withdrawal, isolation and a decline in performance. Discrimination can happen intentionally or unintentionally.
What is discrimination? Explanatory video (in German) from the Bavarian Association for Intercultural Work (Verband für Interkulturelle Arbeit; VIA) (3:49 minutes):
Duties of the anti-discrimination officers
The duties of the anti-discrimination officers include (among other things):
- Confidential initial consultation and referral advice in the case of discrimination
- Support with complaints due to discrimination
- Confidential receipt of information about discrimination
- Coordination of preventative methods
- Coordination and ensuring of advisory services
- Anonymously documenting cases of discrimination
- Information for members and affiliates as well as for the senate of the university regarding matters relating to protection against discrimination
- Organisation of training courses and other formats concerning protection against discrimination
In September 2023, the university senate elected Prof Dr Josefine Heusinger (SGM department, Magdeburg campus, right in the photo) and Prof Dr Claudia Wendel (AHW department, Stendal campus, deputy, left in the photo) as the university's anti-discrimination officers. Photo: Kerstin Seela.
Contact
Anti-Discrimination Officer
Prof. Dr. Josefine Heusinger
Phone: 0049-391-886 41 17
E-Mail: josefine.heusinger@h2.de
Magdeburg Campus, Building 1, Room 2.37
Deputy anti-discrimination officer
Prof. Dr. Claudia Wendel
Phone: (03931) 2187 4817
E-Mail: claudia.wendel(at)h2.de
Stendal Campus, Building 3, Room 1.19
