Professor Dr. Teresa DeGeneres is retiring

She has been an activist from the beginning, a rebel, fighter and pioneer

Professor Dr. Theresia Degenere She has been campaigning for the rights and equal treatment of people with disabilities for more than 40 years.

The lawyer was heavily involved in the creation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and founded the Bochum Center for Disability Studies (BODYS), which under her leadership became an important institution in research and teaching in the field of disability rights.

Professor Degener has now retired after 26 years at the Evangelical University of Bochum (EvH Bochum).

“Theresa Degener embodies the perfect combination of disability activist, human rights activist and scientist. When you leave working life, an era ends. I hope she will be with us for a long time with her wisdom, candor and fighting spirit.” Sigrid Arnade From the Speakers' Council of the German Council for the Disabled (DBR) Farewell to Professor Dr. Teresa DeGeneres is retiring.

“As a prominent figure in the fields of law and disability studies, Theresa Degener has not only shaped the academic landscape in Germany, but has also provided great impetus at the international level,” said EvH University Rector Prof. Dr. doctor. Sigrid Grumman In her words.

She is an impressive person, and has always understood how to combine a scientific perspective with her commitment to the disability rights movement. It gave students the opportunity to participate directly in operations. Everyone has benefited greatly from this.

Theresia Degener has conducted research in international human rights, gender and disability studies, and anti-discrimination law. In her farewell lecture, she talked about how disability research has changed in Germany and the obstacles that researchers with disabilities face in the academic world.

Regarding EvH Bochum, she said with appreciation: “What is particularly pleasing is the increased accessibility. While I had to organize the sign language interpretation myself for my inaugural lecture, today the university does this through a vessel specially prepared for this purpose. A lot has also happened in terms of Structural.

In her final lecture, Theresa Degener emphasized the particular importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), in which she played a key role – first as co-author of the seminal study, and then as an independent expert. And the representative of Germany in drafting the international agreement.

From 2011 to 2018, she defended the rights of persons with disabilities as a member and then chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides the legal basis for implementing the rights of persons with disabilities in various countries.

According to Theresa Degener, one of the basic principles is the motto “Nothing about us without us” in both a collective and individual sense. This also requires rethinking research, “because human rights-based research calls into question traditional power relations between researchers and those being researched.”

Jürgen Dussel, Federal Government Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, also addressed this idea in his welcome address: “Theresa Degener has shown us that realizing the rights of persons with disabilities is not a nice thing, but a good thing.” About the question is which country we want to live in. “Unfortunately, we see that people who have problems with democracy often also have problems with inclusion.”

The roots of the protest movement

Professor Degener had already demonstrated her libertarian stance in her early publications – for example when she co-authored the first book for women with disabilities in Germany entitled “Disabled Sexuality, a Special Characteristic of Women” (1985). Involvement in feminist activism remained close to her heart until the end of her career.

I must reiterate the importance of considering the intersections between gender and disability and highlighting the specific challenges faced by women with disabilities.

In addition to research, teaching and outreach, the scholar has never forgotten her roots in the disability rights movement, with which she made her first public appearance in 1981 as a co-prosecutor in the so-called “Court of the Disabled.” Degener invited fellow activists to EvH Bochum to celebrate its anniversary, so that students at the university would always have the opportunity to meet contemporary witnesses to the history of the disability movement.

In 2013, Professor Degenerès brought the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “home” in Bochum and at the EVH. Together with Sigrid Groman, she organized the university's first barrier-free international conference entitled “Integrating Human Rights.”

Professional life:

Professor Dr. Theresia Degener studied law in Frankfurt am Main and Berkeley, USA. In Frankfurt, she passed the first state law exam in 1986 and the resident exam in 1993. In 1992 she obtained a doctorate on the subject “Outpatient care relationship as a model of the social law relationship” at the Faculty of Law of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, where she also worked as a researcher ( C1) from 1995 to 1995. 1998.

She gained professional experience outside the university as a lawyer in several organizations concerned with people with disabilities at home and abroad. (Liar eV Marburg, DREDF, Berkeley). In 1998, Theresia Degener became Professor of Law, Management and Organization at the Department of Special Education at Yves H. University Bochum. In 2010 she moved to the Department of Social Work, Education and Diakonia as Professor of Law and Disability Studies.

I also worked part-time as an expert and consultant for many governmental and non-governmental organizations. It has advised the German Parliament, the German Federal Government, the United Nations, the European Commission and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as the International Organization of Persons with Disabilities, the Open Society Foundations and the European Disability Forum. As a visiting professor, she has taught at law schools in the USA, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Theresa Degener is also considered one of the founders of German-language disability studies. Bochum Center for Disability Studies (BODYS) I have led since 2015.