It's Nuttin' but a Bitch-Thang, Baby! -- Prof. Dr. Reyhan Şahin aka Lady Bitch Ray
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Lecture performance and talk
Dr. Benjamin Sprick and Jan Schlüter (moderation)
After-Lecture Vinyl Set
The new event format of the HfMT research context Cultural Studies Hip Hop @HfMT "Dilla Time" goes into the next round! This time with a focus on the semester topic "Sex & Gender".
Feminism and hip hop are not necessarily immediately associated with each other by many people. Yet feminist rap also has a rich history. In her interactive lecture performance, Prof. Dr. Reyhan Şahin aka Lady Bitch Ray shows how patriarchal criticism and feminism have developed in German rap. The doctor of linguistics refers to several song examples and rap song analyses and invites the audience to interact. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for transdisciplinary exchange and beataffine interaction.
Reyhan Şahin has taken up a one-year guest professorship for cultural studies in the Studium Generale at the UdK Berlin in the winter semester 2025/26. She is a linguist, semiotician and interdisciplinary Islam, gender and migration researcher. Dr. Şahin also works as a rapper, book and journalistic author, educational consultant, fashion designer, concept and performance artist and actress. Her doctoral thesis "The meaning of the Muslim headscarf", which was awarded the German Study Prize, is still the only basic research in this field of study. Dr. Şahin has given keynotes and lectures at numerous national and international universities, including Duke University (North Carolina/USA), University of Knoxville (Tennessee) and Emory University (Atlanta/USA). With her readings for her book "Yalla, Feminismus!" (2019/ Tropen Verlag), in which she applies feminist and anti-racist intersectionality and critique of racism to areas such as Islam, Turkey and Muslim communities in Germany and explains them in an easily understandable way, she has performed at numerous theaters and universities.In her first postdoctoral study: "Religious (self-)representations, gender and religiosity of young Muslims in social networks", which was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of the special program "Islam, nation state and transnational movements", she dealt with the diversity and religiosity of Muslim communities in Germany. In her habilitation project: "Racism, right-wing extremism, Islam and gender. The intersectional view of discourses on anti-Muslim racism and its interactions with anti-Semitism, nationalism, feminism, anti-evitational and anti-Kurdish racism and (legalistic) Islamism in Germany" at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, she is investigating the simultaneity of different forms of discrimination and racism in post-migrant society in Germany. As an educational speaker, she also passes on her knowledge in numerous event formats and as an expert and artist she is a welcome guest in various TV and radio formats. In Sept 2025, her most recent publication "Amazonenbrüste - wie ich den Brustkrebs bekämpfte" was published by Tropen Verlag.
As a pioneer in (queer) feminist sex rap in Germany, Reyhan Şahin presented her overall artistic concept of "Vagina Style" under her artist name "Lady Bitch Ray". Based on Black American rappers such as Lil' Kim or Missy Elliott, in 2006 she was the first woman to introduce the term "bitch" into German rap in a self-empowering and sex-positive way. She also conveys her political messages through conceptual performances and self-designed stage outfits on German television, making her known to a wide audience in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. There are numerous academic theses and a doctoral thesis on the artist "Lady Bitch Ray", also in the international, English-speaking world.
Eintritt frei
Registration is required and can be done via eventbrite.
The event is part of the collaborative research project "HipHop Academy Certificate @HfMT", which is funded by Hamburg Innovation GmbH as part of the funding series "Calls for Transfer" financially supported.