The Queer Staff Network aims to create a space for queer employees at Freie Universität to network informally, share stories and experiences, have fun, and plan activities together.

Membership of the network is open to people who identify as queer in the broadest sense of the word. That includes minoritized sexual orientations and gender identities, as well as people who identify as fluid, questioning, or who are in the middle of a coming-out process or transitioning (LGBTQIA+).

Queer@FU wants to help create spaces for queer staff to meet in a relaxing setting to chat and share their experiences. We hope to work together in proactive and constructive ways to reduce exclusion, isolation, and discrimination and to contribute to the empowerment of queer staff members. Along these same lines, the network wants to increase the visibility of queer employees at Freie Universität Berlin, while also helping to foster a work environment where queer and non-queer individuals treat each other with respect and care.

As a grassroots network, we want to work together with the university in productive ways to support other diversity activities. We discuss and organise our activities and formats together, ensuring that our experiences, needs, interests, challenges, and perspectives as queer employees receive the focus that they need.

The network meets monthly for jointly organized get-togethers, joint lunches or excursions in informal settings.

The Queer Staff Network has joined forces with queer networks within the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). As part of the Diversity and Gender Equality Networks (DiGENet) of BUA, the DiGENet working group Queer Networks advocates for more empowerment and visibility of queer people in science, studies, teaching and university administration throughout Berlin.

To join the network, simply sign up for our mailing list: https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/QueerStaffNetwork. We’ll use it to send out information regarding events and meetings.

Contacts for the Queer@FU staff network: Kris Lewandowski and Pia Linscheid