Update on EPESEP Work Package #3: Reading List

EPESEP
Mar 7
4 min read

Expert Panel for the Austria Feminist Reading List / 10-22

Since 2023, together with an expert committee consisting of authors, literary scholars, educational scientists, publishers, booksellers and teachers, ≠igfem has been developing a feminist reading list for German lessons for the lower and upper level, which we will send to the Ministry of Education after their completion, the educational directorates of the individual federal states as well as to the schools themselves. The aim of the project is to put together a canon that conveys modern female and male role models and depicts the history of women and feminists.

Here is an update on the rest of our wonderful, Austrian expert panel!

📌 Read more here on the ≠igfem website

GERTRAUD KLEMM, born in Vienna in 1971. Studied biology in Vienna, freelance author since 2006. Many of her texts have received awards. She lives with her family in Lower Austria and writes plays, guest commentaries, essays, and novels.
Most recent publications:
1. Einzeller (2023, Kremayr & Scheriau).
2. Current: “Das Ende des Phallozäns”, July 2025, Matthes & Seitz.
ILSE ROLLETT, born in 1961, studied German and Romance languages in Graz; long-time feminist activist and active in feminist adult education (communication, political education; girls' and women's education); co-founder of the Frauenhetz women's education center in Vienna; supervisor; course director for “Coaching and Philosophy”; long-time AHS teacher of German; since 2011 headmistress of the AHS Rahlgasse with a strong focus on gender issues.
ISABELLA MANAGÒ, "Studium Generale" in Tübingen, then German language and literature, history, and Latin in Heidelberg. Doctorate on “Kontingenz im Trojanerkrieg Konrads von Würzburg”. Research assistant there, dissertation scholarship from the state graduate program, associate member of the literary studies doctoral program “What is Tradition?” Since fall 2020, postdoctoral university assistant at the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz, where she is involved in a cluster on Mediterranean histories of interpretation, will chair a panel on “Language and Literature of Women in Times of Crisis” in the summer, and is working on her habilitation on the image of the Middle Ages in German-language fantasy novels.

MAGDA BIRKMANN loves to share her enthusiasm for literature, first as a bookseller and more recently as the person responsible for press and public relations at the Lettrétage literature house in Berlin and as a freelance literary mediator. Together with Nicole Seifert, she publishes the book series rororo Entdeckungen with novels by neglected female authors of the 20th century for Rowohlt Verlag.
LEA SUSEMICHEL studied philosophy and gender studies in Vienna. As an author, journalist, lecturer and speaker, she works on topics such as identity politics & solidarity, feminist theory & movement, feminist art & aesthetics and emancipatory media politics. She has been managing editor of the feminist magazine an.schläge since 2006.
KIRSTIN BREITENFELLNER studied German, philosophy and Slavic studies. Works as a literary critic and author of novels, poems, children's books and non-fiction, as a contributor to Falter and the Poesiegalerie and as a yoga teacher. In 2004 she published her debut novel “Der Liebhaberreflex”, in 2022 her fifth novel “Maria malt” and most recently her poetry collection “Gedichte ohne Ich” (2024).

URSULA EBEL is a literary mediator and literary scholar; studied Comparative Literature and Gender Studies in Vienna, Berlin and Paris, has been a member of the Austrian Society for Literature since 2011, Deputy Managing Director since 2014; project collaborator at the Institute for German Studies (2020-2022); currently completing her doctorate on the new realism in Austrian literature of the 1970s.
BEATRICE VON LÜPKE is a medievalist in German studies. Since 2021 she has been a
postdoc at the University of Vienna, where she recently completed her habilitation on
medieval continuation of the Fall of Man narrative. Her research also focuses on medieval theatre, editorial philology and the rhetoric and stylistics of the Middle Ages.
DANIELA STRIGL is a literary scholar, essayist, critic, has taught at the Department of German Studies at the University of Vienna since 2007, habilitated in 2018. 2019 Johann Heinrich Merck Prize, member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. Among others author of "Wahrscheinlich bin ich verrückt ... Marlen Haushofer - the biography" (6th edition 2022) and “Being famous is nothing. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach" (2016).

JULIA RITTER works in public relations and science communication. She studied theater, film, and media studies as well as English with a focus on literary studies, and has been co-host of the podcast »Die Buch. Der feministische Buchpodcast« since 2020.
SABINE PROKOP, Dr. phil. Mag. art., communication and cultural scientist, systemic consultant, science coach. University teaching in cultural studies, gender studies, media studies, and visual studies. Publications on media and communication theory as well as on science policy and feminist topics. Co-founder of the Association of Feminist Scientists.
Mag.a MAGDALENA MARTHA MARIA SCHNEIDER studied comparative literature at the University of Vienna, university course in library and information studies. Has worked at the Vienna City Libraries since 2010, was head of the Library Education Center from 2013 to 2016, head of the Central Library Education Department from 2016 to 2022, and has been head of the Vienna Central Library since 2022.
Mag. JULIANE ZACH studied German language and literature before working at Residenz Verlag (sales and marketing). Since 2016, she has been responsible for literary education and reading promotion projects as well as the promotion of young children's and young adult authors at the Institute for Children's and Young Adult Literature, and works as an editor for 1001 Buch, the trade magazine for children's and young adult literature.