We are happy to announce that Kulturhistorische Menstruationsforschungen: Perspektiven aus den Period Studies is under contract with De Gruyter.
In recent years, international research on menstruation as a biological, cultural, and social phenomenon has steadily developed in the fields of anthropology, sociology, law, and gender and queer studies. Nevertheless, the socio-historical, cultural, and literary fields remain largely unexplored.
This edited volume proposes the definition of Period Studies as a new field of research and methodological approach: The menstrual cycle is used here as a central category of analysis to examine representations, interpretations, and narratives from a cultural-historical and literary perspective. In doing so, it reveals complex interrelationships between bodily knowledge, gender orders, and cultural attributions of meaning—as well as the power and knowledge systems that shape and benefit from these social constructions.
This volume makes a crucial contribution to establishing a transdisciplinary field of research that understands menstruation as an integral component of historical, cultural, and social processes and opens up new perspectives for literary, cultural, and gender studies.
Edited by Kerstin Mayerhofer and Lisa Tenderini. Forthcoming with De Gruyter Berlin in 2027.