(Term: three years, starting January 1, 2026)

In recent years, pornography has spread rapidly due to advances in digitalization and new platform economies, while simultaneously becoming a more prominent topic in public debates. The discourse is often highly emotionally charged and deeply permeated by prejudice and half-truths. Although this normalization of pornography requires scientifically grounded knowledge for its meaningful classification, research on pornography remains marginal and fragmented, both in German-speaking countries and internationally. A diversity of definitions and methodological approaches further complicates the development of a coherent interdisciplinary framework. Pornography consistently operates at the intersections of media, audiovisual, aesthetic, corporeal, gendered, cultural, legal, educational, health, psychological, sexological, and economic discourses.

The DFG Network “Interdisciplinary Pornography Research” has therefore set itself the tasks of remedying the lack of interdisciplinary and disciplinary networking opportunities and exploiting the potential for the development of interdisciplinary pornography research. Interdisciplinarity requires that scholars from different research traditions engage with and learn from one another. For this reason, the network brings together twenty scholars from a range of disciplines to collect and combine subject-specific expertise and methodological commonalities, but also to highlight differences and debates. The network’s goal is to create a research matrix that identifies central axes, intersections, and gaps in the field and provides inspiration for further research projects. It strives thereby to establish pornography research as a sustainable interdisciplinary field in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).

Döring, N., Zilch, L., Boll, T., Briken, P., Busse, E., Fitsch, H., Lewandowski, S., Härtel, I., Horntrich, P. M., Huber, S., Markert, C., Nastold, F., Oeming, M., Rehberg, P., Schumacher, N., Schmidt, A., Siegel, M., Stark, R., Thuswald, M., & Wehrlin, R. (forthcoming). Interdisciplinary Pornography Research in German-Speaking Countries: A Report on Networking Experiences. Journal of Sex Research.

Nastold, F. & Zilch, L. (2024). “Connected for the First Time” – Conference Report on the Scoping Workshop “Critical Pornography Research.” Journal of Sex Research, 37(03), 176–177. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2366-3783