UCGS Annual Report 2011 by Umeå centrum för genusvetenskap

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies Visiting Address The Social Sciences Building (Samhällsvetarhuset), fourth floor, Umeå University

Director Ann Öhman Phone +46 (0)90 - 786 92 19 E-mail: ann.ohman@ucgs.umu.se

Director of Studies, Graduate Level Ann-Louise Silfver Phone: +46 (0)90 – 786 69 78 E-mail: ann-louise.silfver@ucgs.umu.se

Director of Studies, Undergraduate Level Nea Mellberg Phone: +46 (0)90 – 786 76 30 E-mail: nea.mellberg@ucgs.umu.se

Educational Coordinator Monica Forsell-Allergren Phone: +46 (0)90 - 786 60 43 E-mail: monica.forsell-allergren@ucgs.umu.se

Economic Administrator Leila Lexelius Phone: +46 (0)90 - 786 59 77 E-mail: leila.lexelius@ucgs.umu.se

www.ucgs.umu.se

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies Umeå University

Annual Report 2011 Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS) www.ucgs.umu.se

Annual report 2011 Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS)

Content: Umeå Centre for Gender Studies – a strong research environment at Umeå University Svensk sammanfattning/Swedish summary Gender Studies – a crucial part of future politics Quality – knowledge, demands and engaged teachers The Graduate School of Gender Studies The Graduate School made Ann understand the importance of interdisciplinarity Big in Japan: Going to Osaka and back again Dissertations at the Graduate School of Gender Studies 2008–2011 The Challenging Gender Programme 2007–2011 Driven by curiosity for new discoveries - UCGS’ Gabriele Griffin appointed Honorary Doctor at Umeå University Umeå Centre for Gender Studies received 22.5 million Swedish crowns in external funding in 2011 Seminars at UCGS A selection of guests at UCGS 2011 Great interest for UCGS’ half-day seminar on violence against women Second annual NNI meeting and conference held in Umeå Umeå University awards gender researchers in Görel Bohlin’s honour GenusFokus – Popular science conference with gender scholars from five universities Six new postdocs at UCGS! Meet two key figures at UCGS: Leila Lexelius and Monica Forsell-Allergren

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Ann Öhman, Director of UCGS Photo: Mikael Lundgren

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies – a strong research environment at Umeå University

Another year has passed with a variety of challenging and exiting activities at Umeå Centre for Gender Studies. The centre was appointed as a ‘Strong Research Environment’ at Umeå University for the 2011–2015 period. This was, of course, a great success, which will further enrich and develop Gender Studies in Umeå through junior posts, research activities and guest professors.

increase the appeal of the centre. The teaching in Gender Studies, at both basic and advanced levels, has a good reputation and constantly maintains a high level of quality. The Graduate School of Gender Studies conducted regular activities, such as workshops, tailormade courses and seminars for the graduate students. For the supervisors, seminars and workshops were held on supervision.

Within the ‘Strong Research Environment’ appointment we recruited three new guest professors: Professor Jeanne Mareçek, Professor Jacqueline van Gent and Professor Susan Philips. They will contribute to our research and teaching environment for a twoyear period, 2012—2013, and we are, of course, extremely happy about and look forward to that. We also recruited six new postdocs: Anna-Britt Coe, Liselotte Eriksson, Anna Foka, Mario Liong, Linda Sandberg and Maria Wiklund. They all bring new perspectives on Gender Studies to the centre, with their projects on feminist movements in Latin America, economy, gender in pre-modern studies, masculinities, regional studies and youth health and gender.

The centre also conducted several activities in order to reach society with knowledge on gender. For example, several researchers connected to UCGS presented their research in an open event called ‘GenusFokus’, in Stockholm. We also delivered a course on gender, power and gender equality policies, which was aimed at civil servants within municipalities in the Umeå region.

In addition to the Strong Research Environment appointment, the centre’s researchers were very successful in attracting research funding from several research funding agencies. All this adds to the already very active research environment and will hopefully 2

Our Chair of the Board, Jonas Sjöstedt, is quitting and I want to thank him warmly for all his contributions for the centre. Last, but not least, all this exciting development also requires a stable and skilled administrative organisation. UCGS is fortunate to have such competent, committed and focused administrative staff – without these co-workers we would not be able to continuously reach new goals and develop the centre in accordance with our activity plans.

Ann Öhman Director

UCGS entrance

Photo: Elin Andersson

Svensk sammanfattning/Swedish summary 2011 har varit ett händelserikt år vid Umeå centrum för genusstudier. UCGS har ännu en gång blivit utnämnt till ”Stark forskningsmiljö” vid Umeå universitet och får därmed extra finansiering från universitetet under åren 2011-2015. En del av finansieringen har gått till att rekrytera tre nya internationella gästprofessorer: Jeanne Mareçek, Professor emerita i psykologi vid Swarthmore College, USA, Jacqueline Van Gent, Professor i engelska och cultural studies vid University of Western Australia och Susan Phillips, Professor vid School of Medicine, Queen’s University, Kanada. Utöver utnämningen till ”Stark forskningsmiljö” har genusstudier vid Umeå universitet under 2011 också varit mycket framgångsrika i kampen om externa medel. Fyra projekt, varav ett EU-projekt, har beviljats sammanlagt 22,5 miljoner kronor från externa finansiärer. Undervisning i genusstudier på grund- och avancerad nivå fortsätter att hålla hög kvalitet. För att också attrahera fler internationella studenter har UCGS stärkt sina kontakter med flera utländska universitet, och har nu student- och lärarutbytesavtal med universiteten i Jyväskylä, Roskilde och York. Vid Genusforskarskolan har tre doktorander försvarat sina avhandlingar under året: Thomas Persson-Slumpi, informatik; Ingrid Schéle, psykologi och Ann Sörlin, folkhälsovetenskap. Efter dessa disputationer har Genusforskarskolan nu 34 doktorander. Forskarskolan har också fått en ny koordinator: Linda Berg har tagit över rollen efter Hildur Kalman.

Vid årshögtiden i oktober 2011 blev UCGS gästprofessor Gabriele Griffin utnämnd till hedersdoktor vid Umeå universitet. Hon nominerades på grund av sitt livslånga engagemang för kvinnoforskning och senare genusforskning. UCGS har arrangerat en rad öppna evenemang under 2011. Tillsammans med universiteten i Linköping, Uppsala, Örebro samt Mittuniversitetet anordnade UCGS den 16 mars ”GenusFokus”: en populärvetenskaplig föreläsningsdag om genusforskning, i Kulturhuset i Stockholm. UCGS har också haft en öppen föreläsningsdag om våld i nära relationer, och en föreläsningsdag om genusforskningens framtid för att uppmärksamma före detta Landshövding Görel Bohlin. Dessutom har UCGS tillsammans med forskargruppen Challenging Emotions samarrangerat den årliga konferensen inom nätverket Nordic Network for Intimacy Research (NNI) Under 2011 och början av 2012 har UCGS anställt 6 nya postdoktorer: Anna-Britt Coe, Liselotte Eriksson Anna Foka, Mario Liong, Linda Sandberg och Maria Wiklund. Deras projekt presenteras på sid. 26 och framåt i denna skrift. 2011 var Jonas Sjöstedts sista år som styrelseordförande i UCGS styrelse. Han kommer nu att ägna sig åt politik på heltid, och alla vid UCGS tackar honom för de tre åren som han på ett föredömligt sätt har lett styrelsen.

”Gender Studies and its questioning of societal norms has been one of the catalysts for a newly awoken political engagement among the public in Sweden.”

Jonas Sjöstedt

Photo: Johan Gunséus

Gender Studies – a crucial part of future politics After over three years of chairing the UCGS board, it is now time for me to step down. It has been three very interesting years. As a non-academic I have been able to get a glimpse of the creativeness and energy that characterises UCGS. I feel encouraged when I see all the hard work that the scholars at UCGS do. Every time I have been at the centre I have been caught up in lively discussions about politics, society, economy and ideology. There is a genuine interest among the staff at UCGS to investigate how our society functions, and why – it is a truly inspiring environment! Gender issues are some of the most hotly debated topics in our society today. They are issues that stir up our lives because they involve the most fundamental parts of our everyday life: our family, our identities and our society. Gender Studies demands that you look at yourself from a different angle. As a Swedish white middle-class man, this is not always easy to do – I can say this from my own experience. Gender Studies and its questioning of societal norms has been one of the catalysts for a newly awoken political engagement among the public in Sweden. More and more people discuss gender, class, racism, politics and economy, both over the dinner table and in the press, and this is something I hope will continue. When it comes to policymaking, I think it will be crucial to take gender issues and research into consideration when we try to find solutions to some of our greatest political challenges. For example, to tackle the problem of the ageing population, Sweden will need more people working within elderly care and health care in the future, and this raises several questions: How do we make these jobs attractive? Are higher salaries the only solution? I will, with great interest, follow the results from Ann Öhmans’ study ‘How can elderly

care become more attractive and recruit competent health professionals in a time of increasing numbers of elderly in the population? A gender analysis’. To be able to change female-dominated areas of the labour market from low-paid, low-status jobs into attractive and modern workplaces is an extremely important task for politicians today. Another area where policy can use gender research is the area of foreign aid politics. I think Sweden must have a feminist view when it decides how to distribute its foreign aid funds, by for example helping women to fight for their reproductive rights. To give women the right to abortions, contraceptives and, by that, the right to their own bodies, is one of the key elements to gain higher standards of living and a higher level of education. I hope that, for example, Anna-Britt Coe, UCGS, can give us some insights on how Sweden can support the women who fight for these rights in her studies on reproductive rights’ activists in Latin America. Finally, I would like to send my gratitude to all of the employees at the centre. Thank you for trusting me to be your chair in these first shaky years with a new organisation. I am proud of what has become of the research centre, and I hope and believe that UCGS will continue to be successful in the future.

Jonas Sjöstedt Chair of UCGS Board 2008-2011

Report from the undergraduate education:

Quality – knowledge, demands and engaged teachers “I appreciated that the demands on the students were already high from day one, and that being opinionated and having verbal diarrhoea didn’t gain much credit. Now that I have been working with gender equality for many years, I realise how important the training we received was in using knowledge and research, to penetrate the rhetoric, analyse what we saw and to use that newly gained insight while formulating new thoughts and solutions.” These are words from a student in an alumni study that UCGS conducted some years ago. Needless to say, such responses are very gratifying, but critical feedback from students is also important for UCGS to take into consideration as it strives to continuously develop the courses on offer and also offer top-quality courses. During 2011, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education performed a major evaluation of undergraduate education in Gender Studies in Sweden. The selfevaluation UCGS conducted in this context impacted the second semester of the year. With the deadline set the day before Christmas, everyone was kept busy until the very end. The evaluation work continued during the beginning of 2012, as teachers and students were interviewed. The results, expected in June, will hopefully show what UCGS often proclaims: We are small in size but great in quality. Nevertheless, the ambition to increase the volume and range of courses available during 2011 was larger than ever. In addition to the campus-based basic level courses in ‘Gender Studies: Power and Gender’, an Internet-based, part-time A-level course was offered throughout the whole year. The first master’s thesis course in Gender Studies was also held, along with four 15 ects courses: ‘Gender, Welfare and Power’, ‘Gender Studies: Feminist Theory and Intersectional Analysis’, ‘Gender, Sex, Bodies: Theories and Debates’ and the brand new course ‘Critical Perspectives on Nordic Gender Equalities’. Three of the courses were given in English and attracted a number of foreign students. Umeå University has a generally small number of students from overseas, particularly on the advanced level, and these numbers have decreased since the new fee 6

system was put in place. Despite this negative trend, UCGS has managed to attract advanced level students, both from Sweden and abroad. But we want more – not least when it comes to internationalising education – and we have continued to place a special emphasis on this area during the past year. Among other efforts, we have strengthened the study administrative function for foreign students and expanded the international collaborations to include Roskilde University (Denmark). Previous agreements for teacher and student exchange continue between UCGS and York (UK) and Jyväskylä (Finland). The broad range of activities at UCGS during 2011 may be further exemplified with the contract education course for employees working with gender equality issues in the Umeå region. The course was called ‘Gender, Power and Society: advanced skills enhancement on gender equality and social sustainable development’, and turned out to be highly appreciated and valued by the participants. In the course evaluations, a number of concrete examples were found which illustrate that the courses at UCGS are of great quality. In addition to encouraging and demanding intellectually high-level efforts, the participants repeated their appreciation for the knowledgeable and enthusiastic teachers. This is a response UCGS happily carries into the next year, alongside the new challenges that it is constantly faced with in the world of Gender Studies. Photo: Private

Nea Mellberg, Director of studies

The Graduate School of Gender Studies The Graduate School of Gender Studies provides a comprehensive PhD program for more than 30 doctoral candidates who are working towards PhD degrees in over 20 PhD subject areas. Our aim is to provide an intellectually challenging and socially supportive environment through courses, seminars, workshop activities and intensive meetings, both in Sweden and abroad. 2011 was, as usual, a year filled with activities. Hildur Kalman, Coordinator of the Graduate School of Gender Studies, stepped down from her position after devoting almost five years to developing the Graduate School’s activities. She was replaced by Linda Berg, who has a background in Ethnology and Gender Studies. We therefore take the opportunity to thank Hildur for her committed and engaging work! Five doctoral courses were offered during the year. Two courses were from the existing course programme: ‘From sex role to gender’, 7.5 credits, held by PhD Åsa Andersson (History of Science and Ideas) and PhD Johanna Overud (History/UCGS), and ‘Gender within the research process’, 7.5 credits, held by PhD Linda Berg (UCGS) and PhD Sara Edenheim (UCGS). A new course, ‘Perspectives on (research on) men and masculinities’, 7.5 credits, was developed and taught by Professor Bo Nilsson (Ethnology). Two courses were also developed in collaboration with InterGender, the

Linda Berg and Ann-Louise Silfver

Research School in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies: ‘Working with affect in cultural theory’ and ‘Transnational Feminisms’, both 7.5- or 15-credit courses. The first was developed and taught by PhD Ingeborg Svensson, UCGS, PhD Anu Koivunen, Stockholm University, and Professor Jackie Stacey, University of Manchester. The second was developed and taught by PhD Catrin Lundström, UCGS, Professor Nira Yuval-Davies, University of East London, and Professor Diana Mulinari, Centre for Gender Studies, Lund University. A workshop, ‘Gender and embodiment’, was conducted by Associate Professor Hildur Kalman, UCGS, and Professor Jennifer Bullington, Ersta Sköndal University College. Guest lecturer Marianne Winther Jørgensen, UCGS and University of Linköping, arranged a study circle on Sara Ahmed’s book Queer Phenomenology. Two intensive meetings were also arranged during 2011. A three-day meeting was held in Medlefors, in Västerbotten County, in April, where the focus was on the text productions of the doctoral candidates. The second intensive meeting was located in Glyfada, Greece, in October, and lasted for a whole week and included text seminars, individual work and joint thematic workshops. UCGS and the Graduate School for Gender Studies have a mission that cuts across all faculties at Umeå University, which we are successful in accomplishing. However, we see the need for further development of collaborations with the Faculty of Science and Technology, a task which has been focused on during 2011, resulting in a jointly financed doctoral position advertised during 2012. Finally, three doctoral candidates: Thomas Persson-Slumpi, Informatics; Ingrid Schéle, Psychology; and Ann Sörlin, Public Health, successfully defended their theses and were thus welcomed into the group of Graduate School alumni – at the end of 2011 this consisted of 34 PhD students.

Photo: Elin Andersson

Linda Berg, Coordinator Ann-Louise Silfver, Director of Studies at the Graduate School of Gender Studies 7

The Graduate School made Ann understand the importance of interdisciplinarity

Ann Sรถrlin, Graduate School of Gender Studies Alumni

Photo: Mattias Pettersson

Ann Sรถrlin worked as a physiotherapist and a health teacher for many years before becoming a PhD student in Public Health at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine and the Graduate School of Gender Studies. She had no experience of Gender Studies prior to her doctoral studies. - Do not expect that your time at the Graduate School will be easy! You will have to work hard and challenge yourself. It will stir you around, turn things upside down and put your beliefs on the spot. But thanks to the Graduate School, I have submitted another dissertation and I have another PhD, and I am a better doctor than I would have been without it, says Ann.

On 23 September 2011, Ann Sörlin defended her thesis ‘Health and the elusive Gender Equality– can the impact of gender equality be measured?’ In her thesis, Ann Sörlin studied how to measure gender equality. She discovered that the problem in measuring gender equality was how you define it. Often people that lived in families and worked at companies that were objectively unequal (one parent took care of the household work and women had lower salaries than men in the same position) still reported that they experienced their own lives as equal.

”I was able to travel to Australia thanks to funding from the Graduate School. There I was able to work together with Raewyn Connell, who is connected to Umeå through the Challenging Gender research programme. It was a fantastic experience.” - What you measure and what results you get from your data all depends on who has the interpretative prerogative. The data may interpret your life as unequal, but you may interpret your life as equal. If researchers want to measure complex phenomenon, such as equality or health, they have to carry out measurements on different levels and conduct both quantitative and qualitative studies.

Interdisciplinary challenges

When Ann started her doctoral studies she had no experience of Gender Studies. She was nervous before meeting the other Graduate School PhD students. - There are a lot of ideas about gender research in society, and before becoming a part of the Graduate School I had many ideas as well. I thought that everyone was going to be very pretentious, but I was wrong! Everyone was very nice and we had many intensive and interesting discussions. As a PhD student in the school, I have been forced to question my own

ideas about knowledge and to consider other theoretical frameworks than those that are usually covered by my subject. At my mid-seminar, for example, my work was read by a political scientist. She questioned how I related to different scientific theories, and forced me to see my work from a different perspective. - Through the Graduate School I was able to exercise my interdisciplinary scientific skills. I had to cooperate with PhD students from the humanities and the social sciences. It was not always easy, we were often critical towards each other and we often had a hard time accepting other people’s points of view. But I had to become more open to the fact that I might need theories from other scientific fields.

Collaborating with Raewyn Connell

Being a part of the Graduate School, you will be given some extra financial resources. - I was able to travel to Australia thanks to funding from the Graduate School. There I was able to work together with Raewyn Connell, who is connected to Umeå through the Challenging Gender research programme. It was a fantastic experience. I also got to go with all the other PhD students on ‘away days’ to Malta and Spain. It was a great opportunity to be able to concentrate on the Gender Studies part of my work, says Ann. Ann continued to work at Umeå University after defending her thesis. - Now I am responsible for the doctoral studies at the Medical Faculty. After that, I hope to get a lectureship at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation. If someone is considering applying to the Graduate School of Gender Studies, my advice is: It will be hard work and you will have to challenge yourself. But it is really worth it, so do it!

The Botanical Garden in Kyoto.

Photo: Private

Big in Japan: Going to Osaka and back again

The debut song from the pop group Alphaville’s album Forever Young, has become a well-known popular expression in the Western world ever since the lyrics of ‘Big in Japan’ hit the world charts in 1984. And yes, in Japan everything is big, very big. There are skyscrapers everywhere and the landscape is, well, super modern. The urban city of Osaka is a network of transport facilities, from the subway system to JR-Line trains and finally the monorail lines, some of which are built to run above the ground (the view is amazing). Everywhere from the Shinkansen to the buses, people are electronically equipped, and they are always online. From young people to businessmen, women and the elderly, all are connected through their mobile phones.

children to the other side of the world? This was totally new to us, so we made an effort to plan everything that we could regarding their needs on the trip. Do we need babysitters? What about the sun? In August, in Osaka in the south of Japan, the temperature can rise to 30°C. We found out that there was a nursery that the conference organisers had arranged for families attending the conference. This worked out really well. In fact, everything during the trip was prearranged by our hosts. The Japanese are extremely kind and helpful. We strongly recommend PhD students with children to travel to conferences and not to be afraid of travelling with small children! In fact, this made the whole trip worthwhile.

When we got the chance to go to Japan, to Osaka, to present our PhD projects at the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) conference 2011: ‘Tradition, Innovation, Community’: Osaka, Japan, 2–7 August, we saw the opportunity to bring the family along and combine a holiday with international research, and that way make family-style contacts for the future. We sent our papers for referee, and we were both accepted.

At the conference Ann was able to join the ‘Feminist Working Group’, including Tiina Rosenberg and others. At her presentation, other senior researchers were very positive and interested in her PhD project about emotions and contemporary actors from a feminist point of view.

Once we were invited we started to plan the trip. As we have three daughters, aged between 18 months and 9 years old, we knew that we would have to arrange things well in advance. How do you travel with small 10

During Ann’s three days of conference work, Magnus helped out at the nursery, which meant that he could be with the children. He went on some short excursions and took part in Japanese-style childcare (our three daughters went all over the place, painting and playing with the toys, and our Japanese hosts were a bit surprised by Swedish children’s whereabouts!). For

Ann, the conference meant that she received important input for her upcoming thesis and is now included in the Feminist Working Group. Magnus made his international conference debut in the open section for PhD scholars. He presented his work on Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) culture in the ‘Culture Across Borders’ category. His presentation was really different, as he decided to drop his prepared script and improvise. With a huge karate scream, dramatising his field of martial arts, he opened up his paper presenta-

Dining at Universal Studios in Osaka

The trip also included many visits with the family to different places in Osaka, such as Osaka Aquarium. This was a fantastic place, where the children could see manta rays, sharks, dolphins and many other creatures that live in the sea close up, with just an acrylic glass wall separating the visitors from the ocean. We also went to the Kunami Sport Centre twice, where one of the world’s biggest waterslides is located. The swimming pools were, of course, our children’s favourite place during the trip. Finally, the visit to Universal Studios in Osaka was a very special experience. Our oldest daughter could try the most fantastic rides, such as a Space ride, and a Snoopy ride, Back to the Future rides and many others. The most daring ride was the Jurassic Park ride, which had a screaming T rex at the end before you went down a giant slope into the water. Both Ann and Magnus tried it out – at the end of the ride your photo is taken as you come face to face with the giant T rex, which showed a terrified Magnus and Ann and the children laughing. For the younger children, the Hello Kitty area and Snoopy Country where perfect playing areas. On the whole, the trip to Japan was exciting and overwhelming. We had a fantastic 10 days, which ended with a visit to Kyoto, the Botanical Garden and the Imperial Palace.

Photo: Private

tion imitating MMA fighters (being at the IFTR drama and performance conference, one should believe that researchers studying the life of theatre are prepared for dramatic scenery!). The audience jumped out of their seats, only to realise that this was part of a theatrical act. In Japan, martial arts is, of course, very, very popular, and the auditorium was filled to capacity. The spontaneous presentation, with Magnus acting and playing a martial artist while presenting his results and findings on MMA culture, was very well received. He was able to answer many questions, and at the end of the day he was invited to visit The City University of New York, USA, where they currently are working on American wrestling culture. Several months after the conference Magnus was awarded a prize for the best presentation in the New Scholars Forum, receiving funds to go back to Tokyo to conduct fieldwork studies in martial arts.

We hope that our trip also motivates other PhD students who want to travel with children, and that our journey can be an inspirational story. The chance to present papers at an international conference is something that we encourage. It really gives you confidence and a real boost when struggling with your PhD thesis back home!

Best wishes Ann Enström and Magnus Stenius, both PhD-students at the Graduate School of Gender Studies, and our daughters

Dissertations at the Graduate School of Gender Studies 2008–2011 23 September 2011 Health and the elusive gender equality: Can the impact of gender equality on health be measured? Ann Sörlin – Public Health, Umeå University 25 March 2011 Making the Systemically Desirable Culturally Feasible – Towards the Integration of Gender-Knowledge into Informatics Study Programs Thomas Persson Slumpi – Informatics, Mid Sweden University 25 March 2011 Gendered experiences of work environment – A study of stress and ambiguity among dental students in Sweden Ingrid Schéle – Psychology, Umeå University 9 October 2010 Den välsituerade flickan. Om den svenska flickscoutrörelsens historia 1910–1940 Bodil Formark – History, Umeå University 12 March 2010 Social inequity in Health. Explanation from a life course and gender perspective Masuma Novak – Public Health, Umeå University 26 February 2010 Sitting on the Fence – Critical Explorations of Participatory Practices in IT Design Johanna Sefyrin – Informatics, Mid Sweden University 22 January 2010 “Det är ju inte hela tiden bara lycka heller” Äldre kvinnors berättade liv- om arbete, omsorg och åldrande i landsbygdsmiljö Marie-Louise Snellman – Social Work, Umeå University

8 January 2010 Gender and physiology in ice hockey – a multidimensional study Kajsa Gilenstam – Sports Medicine, Umeå University 2 November 2009 From young to adult: Public health consequences of unemployment from a gender perspective Ieva Reine – Public Health, Umeå University 24 April 2009 Normalisering och andrafiering – Om hur ”hon” och ”han” i en thai-svensk parrelation konstitueras och gör genus (lic.) Åsa-Helena Hedman – Social Work, Mid Sweden University 3 April 2009 Fysik, lärande samtal och genus. En studie av gymnasieelevers gruppdiskussioner i fysik Karin Due – Educational Work, Umeå University 13 February 2009 Imitation och omtolkning – entreprenörers identifieringsprocesser ur ett genusperspektiv Jaana Kurvinen – Business Administration, Umeå University 6 February 2009 Constituting the healthy employee? Governing gendered subjects in workplace health promotion Erika Björklund – Education, University of Gävle 20 January 2009 Konstruktionen av kön i skolpolitiska texter 1948–1994, med särskilt fokus på naturvetenskap och teknik Maria Hedlin – Educational Work, University of Kalmar

21 November 2008 Röstens anatomi. Läsningar av politik i Elin Wägners Silverforsen, Selma Lagerlöfs Löwensköldtrilogi och Klara Johansons Tidevarvskåserier Anna Bohlin – Comparative Literature, Umeå University 5 June 2008 Making a Living in the World of Tourism: Livelihoods in Backpacker Tourism in Urban Indonesia Erika Sörensson – Human Geography, Umeå University 30 May 2008 Lärare och konflikthantering – en undersökande studie ur ett könsperspektiv (lic.) Agneta Lundström – Educational Work, Umeå University 9 May 2008 Spelets regler; raggning och flirt på krogen Hans Andersson – Sociology, Umeå University 11 April 2008 Genus & genrer: forskningsanknutna genusdiskurser i dagspress Kerstin Engström – Media and Communication Studies, Umeå University 28 March 2008 An Analysis of Patients’ and Nurses’ Descriptions of Home-based Nursing Care – With a Focus on Ethics and Gender (lic.) Stina Öresland – Nursing, Umeå University

The Challenging Gender Programme 2007–2011 Umeå University was one of three winners when the Swedish Research Council called for proposals for ‘Centres of Gender Excellence’. The press release in November 2006 reported that Umeå University’s gender scholars were successful in the competition for excellence grants from the Swedish Research Council. Previous research has shown that defining and measuring excellence often rules out women scholars. This specific gender excellence grant made it possible for a research field where most researchers are women to increase its status and for many women scholars to achieve their best results in terms of scientific productivity. The overall goal in the application for Challenging Gender was to become an internationally highly regarded Centre of Gender Excellence, attractive to

researchers worldwide. The work was built on three cornerstones: interdisciplinarity, openness/collaboration and internationalisation. The programme includes five broad interdisciplinary themes: Democracy/Social Justice, Emotions, Violence, Health, and Normalization (the theme Normalization was situated at Mid Sweden University). The themes were connected by an arena for reflection and theoretical development by transcending disciplines and overlapping research themes. The programme as a whole has been a tremendous journey – discussing, reading, writing, questioning and challenging. How to conclude these five years of collaboration in a big research programme as Challenging Gender? One way is, of course, the usual counting exercise: the number of people involved, the number of books and articles written, the number of international contacts made, guest professors, conference talks, successful re13

Challenging Gender did not start out of an empty space. It was a continuation of a previous long experience of collaborative work within the Gender Studies community at Umeå University and Mid Sweden University – in research projects, seminar series and the development of research courses in the National Graduate School of Gender Studies. Also important is an earlier longterm research programme ‘Gender, Visions and Revisions’, which started in 1997 at the Centre for Women’s Studies. This programme had no special financing, but depended on the enthusiasm and voluntary efforts of many scholars. It is important to consider this history, as it formed the base for the research collaborations to come. The big difference for Challenging Gender was that we now had a financed programme and had achieved a label of excellence – factors that framed the interdisciplinary collaborations in many ways. Because governmental and market-based expectations for excellence continue to grow, Umeå, like most universities, has as an overarching strategy: the development of excellent research in particular interdisciplinary fields. In practice, this must be realised within specific disciplines and departments in relation to their own goals and performed by strong individuals with different affiliations and loyalties. A label of excellence puts great pressure and strain on researchers to produce ‘perforUCGS and Challenging Gender Photo: Elin Andersson mance’ and measurable ‘output’, but what is considered to be a valid performance and search applications, etc. These are all items that help to what it is possible to measure varies between individumake up research reports and written self-assessments als and disciplines. These differences between tradiwhich are carried out before audit visits. Another way tions and norms for scientific achievement constitute goes through different reflexive reviews conducted in one example of the many goal ambiguities that characsynthesising articles and book projects. Several forthterise academia today, and especially a programme of coming works from researchers in the programme will this kind. Other examples concern leadership (collegial each, in their own manner, contribute to the knowledge model vs about the processes of collaboration in large research managerialistic model; democratic or participatory structures. My aim in this short text is to focus on some processes vs top-down leadership) and the disseminareflections on the practices of interdisciplinary collabotion of research (publication impact factor for career ration and academic leadership. progression vs knowledge transfer for emancipatory goals; English language vs national language) etc. 14

These ambiguities colour the structure and content of research collaboration and need to be reflected upon.

”Challenging Gender did not start out of an empty space. It was a continuation of a previous long experience of collaborative work within the Gender Studies community at Umeå University and Mid Sweden University – in research projects, seminar series and the development of research courses in the National Graduate School of Gender Studies.”

Much has been said about the advantages of interdisciplinary approaches and also about the need for disciplinary knowledge to accomplish a successful interdisciplinary journey. In Challenging Gender, there was no questioning of the need for disciplinary knowledge or the need for interdisciplinarity. This also made it possible to keep up the ‘two-legged strategy’ that had been in place since the 1980s. But interdisciplinarity places special demands on academic leadership. In practice, it was important to sort out which kind of strategic leadership should be practised in different strategic situations.

In Challenging Gender, we chose a model of leadership that combined different roles: formal leadership, collective leadership and diffused leadership. The formal leadership carried out by the main applicant (research leader/principal investigator) contained the overall responsibility for the programme, with its administrative and economic duties, but also softer issues, to create a good environment for progress and research development. The formal leadership role was responsible for preserving structure and continuity in the programme and also served as an overarching leader, more of a facilitator than an expert in all fields. The collective leadership was carried out in the steering group by the research leader and the theme leaders. This collective leadership was responsible for the guiding principles to keep the programme together, for planning the arena work, and for communicating between themes and with other Centres of Gender Excellence in Sweden and elsewhere. The diffused leadership was carried out by each theme leader in their respective themes. Here, the research topics were in the foreground and the contributions from the theme leaders relied on their expertise and research knowledge. This kind of mixing of different leadership roles was developed in a continuous

strategy-as-practice approach and preserved the benefits of both the disciplinary and the interdisciplinary traditions.

The working methods in Challenging Gender, regarding leadership forms and also different tools for transcending disciplines and developing knowledge (techniques such as working with core statements, core questions, memory work and key moments) can be considered as acts of political reflexivity in response to the contemporary audit culture. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary practices developed in the themes in Challenging Gender and in the arena work have, in many ways, shown how they “interrupt business as usual, allow new objects of study to emerge, furnish new resources for scholarship and ask new questions” (Reed and Traweek, 2000:7). This makes the Challenging Gender journey a source of added value, added knowledge and added reflexivity.

Britta Lundgren Scientific Leader, Umeå Centre for Gender Studies and Challenging Gender Photo: Mattias Pettersson

References: Reid, Rodney and Traweek, Sharon (2000) Doing Science + Culture. New York and London: Routledge. 15

Driven by curiosity for new discoveries - UCGS’ Gabriele Griffin appointed Honorary Doctor at Umeå University A passion for research led UCGS’ Guest Professor Gabriele Griffin to studies in Literature, Feminist Theory and Psychology. For her important contributions, as a researcher, supervisor and consultant, she was appointed as one of Umeå University’s Honorary Doctors in 2011. Gabriele Griffin completed her BA in English, German and Psychology in 1979 at the University of Leicester. Subsequently, she took an MA in Tradition and Innovation in 20th Century Literature at University College London (1983), a postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Curriculum Development in Higher Education at the Institute of Education, London (1986) and a PhD on the work of feminist writers and philosophers Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch at the University of Leicester (1989). Currently, she is a professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York.

Early interest in women’s issues

While she was finishing her dissertation, Gabriele also worked as a full-time lecturer. Her interest in research was an important incentive that helped her to finish her studies. - I love doing research, and I love the stimulation of trying to discover new things. Working on Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch was fun because of all the other reading places their work took me. However, combining philosophy, theology, literature and feminist theory in my PhD was not easy, and my examiners – coming from traditional disciplines – gave me quite a hard time. Still, the academy was definitely changing. Gabriele’s passion for women’s issues was awoken early in life. - I come from a family of many women, with three sisters and one brother. But my parents’ marriage was

Gabriele Griffin

Photo: Private

in many ways traditionally bourgeois, with my mother staying at home, having been denied the possibility of going to university, which she regretted all her life, and my father acting as provider. I did not want that kind of life. My family is also a fairly academic one, as on my mother’s side we have a long tradition of academics. In the 1970s, the feminist political and philosophical movement was very exciting, and I had a lot of friends who were interested in feminist ideas. This raised my curiosity. I wanted to understand gender relations and why women were treated in certain ways.

Non-traditional literary studies

Supervising and research collaborations

- At the time that I started to teach, the ‘canon wars’ During her time in academe, Gabriele has supervised raged in British academe. These were exciting times, about 25 PhD students to successful completion, and when there were huge debates about making curricula that is something she will continue doing. more inclusive and moving away - I love teaching; nowadays, it from ‘dead white male’ authors. ”I love doing research, and I is mostly supervising PhD and This created brilliant opportunilove the stimulation of trying master’s students. My current ties for including work by women research involves the relation writers – white, black, working to discover new things!” between biotechnology and class etc. – in syllabuses, and cultural constructions of the fasince there was no precedent, one could set up complemily. Today, we have the first generation of adults that tely new course content. This really fuelled my passion had donor fathers. I want to investigate these donor for women’s writing. In my research, I started to move offspring’s imaginary in relation to their biological fathers. For this, I look at different cultural phenomena: plays, films, blogs and other online material, to see how ideas of family and fatherhood are articulated in the narratives of offspring. Together with colleagues from Umea, I am also working on a study of the emotional politics of research collaborations. The ‘affective turn’ in the social sciences and in Cultural Studies has enabled the exploration of emotions in a range of contexts, where they are frequently unacknowledged but play a significant role, as in research collaborations. Contrary, for example, to the notion that one chooses to collaborate with ‘the best’ in the field on the basis of their research excellence, issues such as trust, the reliability of co-researchers, indeed, whether one actually likes them or not, play a significant role in deciding whom to collaborate with. Gabriele receiving her honorary title

Photo: Private

more and more into Women Studies, and I expanded from more traditional Literary Studies to also looking at other popular cultural phenomenon, says Gabriele. In the 1980s, there were big changes in the British higher education system. Money became an even bigger issue than it had been, and the more students you taught, the more money you received. - Women Studies turned out to be one of the winners in this system, because we had a lot of students. We were able to recruit many women to our courses – often women in their forties who had been left outside of the educational system earlier in life. They now wanted to take the opportunity to educate themselves, and were very keen to explore Women Studies.

In the future, Gabriele hopes to continue her collaborations with Swedish researchers. Apart from UCGS, she also collaborates with Heidi Hansson, Professor in English Literature at Umeå University. When Gabriele found out that she had been appointed honorary doctor, it was a big surprise. - I was delighted when I found out! It is a great honour and I am really pleased! This is really recognition for the entire research field of Women Studies and Gender Studies, not only for me. I had a really good time at the ceremonies; I was amazed at how much singing and games went on at the banquet dinner. I have never been to a dinner where people stand on their chairs singing songs! It was fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable.

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies received 22.5 million SEK in external funding in 2011 Participants in ‘Critical Studies on Gender Equality – Theorising Politics and Practice’ Malin Rönnblom (project leader), UCGS; Kerstin Alnebratt, Gothenburg University; Maria Carbin, UCGS; Maud Eduards, Stockholm University; Ulrika Jansson, Karlstad University; Elin Kvist, UCGS; Johanna Overud, UCGS; and Katharina Tollin, Stockholm University.

Participants in ‘How can elderly care become more attractive and recruit competent health professionals in a time of increasing numbers of elderly in the population? A gender analysis’ Ann Öhman (project leader), UCGS; BrittInger Keisu, Umeå University; Birgit Enberg, Umeå University; and Malin Rönnblom, UCGS.

Participants in ‘Transnational migration in the forest berry industry, labour market deregulation and new spatial representations’ Erika Sörensson (project leader), UCGS; Madeleine Eriksson, Umeå University; and Aina Tollefsen, Umeå University.

When the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) decided who would receive funding, UCGS was one of the big winners, receiving funding for three new projects. In addition to this, UCGS is one of the partners in a new EU-funded project, which will strengthen the centre’s international collaborations even further. Malin Rönnblom received 9 million SEK from VR during 2012–2016 for her project ‘Critical Studies on Gender Equality – Theorising Politics and Practice’. - Equality issues have been a part of Swedish politics since the 1960s, and since then Women’s Studies and Gender Studies have evolved into a research field involving studies of gender and politics. Despite this, there are very few critical studies on Swedish equality policy, says Malin Rönnblom. Ann Öhman received 4.8 million SEK from FAS during 2013–2014 for her project ‘How could the care of the elderly become more attractive and how will we be able to recruit competent staff in times of increased numbers of elderly? A gender analysis’. Elderly care in Sweden faces many challenges during the coming 15 years. One big problem is how to recruit staff with the right competence, to be able to provide good levels of care and rehabilitation for the growing numbers of elderly people in society. - An earlier project that I was involved in showed that elderly care is one of the least attractive places to work for newly qualified nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. In this study, we want to identify factors that can make a career within elderly care more attractive, says Ann Öhman.

Photo: Elin Andersson

Erika Sörensson received 4.4 million SEK from FAS during 2012–2014 for her project ‘Transnational migration in the forest berry industry, labour market deregulation and new spatial representations’. Berry pickers make up the largest group of seasonal migrants to Sweden under the new (December 2008) law on labour migration. The law represents a new position in relation to labour migration – a shift from a restrictive policy towards labour from third countries to a demand-driven and less regulated immigration in which employers have the mandate to decide the need for labour power. - The aim of the project is to study driving forces and consequences of the transnational seasonal migration to Västerbotten’s berry-picking industry against the background of an increasingly deregulated labour market and the new law on (temporary) labour migration, says Erika Sörensson.

International collaborations

UCGS is one of the partners in the 7th framework project: ‘EUBORDERSCAPES – Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas: Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border Concepts in a post-Cold War World’. Nira Yuval-Davis is the project leader for Umeå’s part of EUBORDERSCAPES: ‘Borders, Intersectionality and the Everyday’, which will receive 4.3 million SEK from the EU during 2012–2014.

Seminars at UCGS UCGS holds three seminars, each with a different aim. The UCGS Feminist Research seminar has a long tradition at Umeå University and is open to gender researchers from all departments at the university. Since 2009, an internal seminar has been developed by the postdoctors, following Maria Jönsson’s initiative – this is open only to the research staff at UCGS. The seminar works informally and discusses work in progress, ideas for research projects, applications for research grants etc. In addition, since 2008, a seminar with an emphasis on post-colonial issues has emerged, under the guidance of Linda Berg and Maria Carbin. The Post-Colonial seminar is open to participants from all over the university. At the seminar, texts are discussed and guests are invited. For example, in May, gender researcher and activist Reihana Mohideen, from Philippines, visited the seminar. The UCGS Feminist Research seminar has been privileged to discuss current research with prominent Swedish and international scholars: Fanny Ambjörnsson

and Anka Ryall have presented their new books on the colour pink and Virginia Woolf respectively, and Sara Ahmed and Anu Koivonen have discussed the issue of emotions. Christine Beasley has challenged the theoretical understandings of masculinities and Michael Parker has taught us about women migrants in Irish literature. Jackie Stacey has challenged the ongoing discussion in feminist theory on new materialism. We have also continued to examine research projects at UCGS, such as Ann Öhman’s and Isabel Goicolea’s study of the construction of more equitable masculinities among young Ecuadorian men. Elin Kvist has presented new data about the Swedish tax credit on domestic services and Nira Yuval-Davis has submitted her interpretation of the European politics of belonging. The seminar has also worked with a text in progress by Eva Skåreus about emotions experienced by students in teacher education.

Kerstin Norlander, Senior Lecturer, UCGS

A selection of guests at UCGS 2011 Professor Sara Ahmed, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Associate Professor Anu Koivonen, Filmvetenskapliga institutionen, Stockholms universitet

Dr Fanny Ambjörnsson, Institutionen för etnologi, religionshistoria och genusvetenskap, Stockholms universitet.

Professor Michael Parker, School of Journalism, Media and Communication/Literature and Culture, University of Central Lancashire.

Associate Professor Christine Beasley, Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender, University of Adelaide.

Professor Anka Ryall, Senter for kvinne- og kjønnsforskning, Universitetet i Tromsø/Norwegian Study Centre, University of York.

Professor Philomena Essed, Critical Race, Gender and Leadership Studies, Antioch University.

Professor Jackie Stacey, Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture, University of Manchester.

Photos from the seminar with Professor Philomena Essed: Who Cares? Seeking Justice and Dignity in Higher Education, UCGS, October 26, 2011 Photo: Elin Berge

Great interest for UCGS’ half-day seminar on violence against women When UCGS’ research group Challenging Violence presented their latest results, over 150 social workers, students, health-care workers and others came to listen. Violence is an important issue that truly engages!

A big and engaged audience!

- I am so very happy that so many of you were able to come! Research on violence is a field where researchers really need to collaborate with practitioners; therefore, it is extra rewarding to see so many of you here, said Ann Öhman, Director of UCGS and leader of the Challenging Violence group, to welcome the filled auditorium to the half-day seminar: ‘Men’s violence against women in Sweden – the land of equality’ on 24 November. Four researchers from the Challenging Violence group presented their research at the seminar. Maria Wiklund, physiotherapist and postdoc at UCGS, talked about her study of young women’s exposure to stress and violence. Kerstin Edin, Public Health, and Bo Nilsson, Ethnology, had interviewed men in violence prevention programmes and tried to find out whether the programmes had any effect. Katarina Weinehall, Pedagogy, studied the Swedish police force and interviewed police officers about their thoughts on domestic violence. A large number of the male officers stated that the abused women could have played some part in the violence, as being demanding, complaining or causing the men stress could make the men violent. 22

Practice and policy lectures

Photo: Elin Andersson

In addition to the researchers, three lecturers from outside the university, but who were knowledgeable about the subject of domestic violence, also gave talks. The ASTA team treats patients that experience different kinds of psychological problems related to physical, psychological or sexual abuse. Åsa Söderberg and Lena Vännman, psychotherapists from the ASTA team, shared some of their experiences of working with these patients. After hearing about consequences of violence, Gudrun Nordborg gave a talk on Swedish policy in relation to domestic violence. Gudrun is Head of the Information Department at the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority in Sweden and a Honorary Doctor at Umeå University. She was awarded her honorary title for her lifelong commitment to crime victims, especially women and children. On 24 November, she gave a very interesting talk on how Swedish policy does not always help children exposed to abuse, but sometimes forces them to stay with their abuser.

Second annual NNI meeting and conference held in Umeå

Professor Sara Ahmed

On 25–26 May 2011, the research group Challenging Emotions hosted ‘Emotions, affects … and other intimacies’, the second annual meeting and conference within the Nordic Network for Intimacy Research (NNI). Challenging Emotions is a part of UCGS’ big research programme Challenging Gender.

Annelie Bränström Öhman, Theme leader for Challenging Emotions, and host for the conference. Photo: Eva Skåreus

At the two-day conference, there were 18 presentations and two keynote lectures. The presentations were a mixture of 20-minute paper talks and 10-minute ‘standpoints’. The standpoints were short presentations – a maximum of 5 minutes, plus a 5-minute discussion. The form was ideal for the presentation of ideas for new projects, theoretical or methodological issues – or simply just ‘standpoints’ of different kinds in connection to the research field.

Photo: Eva Skåreus

Keynote speakers at the conference were Professor Naomi Scheman, University of Minnesota and Guest Professor at UCGS, and Professor Sara Ahmed, Department of Media and Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London. Both speakers gave talks which were greatly appreciated by the audience: Naomi Scheman on the topic ‘To See it Feelingly: On Knowingness and (In)Vulnerability’ and Sara Ahmed on ‘Feminist Killjoys (and Other Willful Subjects)’. The NNI was established in Oslo in May 2010 in connection with the conference ‘Seksualitet – kulturelle och politiske utfordringer’ [Sexuality – cultural and political challenges]. The network is currently engaging participants from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark with an interest in the expanding field of research on emotions, affects and intimacy. During the conference, Challenging Emotions took the opportunity to release their new anthology: Att känna sig fram. Känslor i humanistisk genusforskning (To feel one’s way. Emotions in gender studies within the humanities).

Görel Bohlin

Photo: Sveriges riksdag

Umeå University awards gender researchers in Görel Bohlin’s honour

In September 2011, UCGS and Umeå University arranged a symposium to honour the former County Governor Görel Bohlin. Bohlin became the first woman governor of Västerbotten County, in 1992, and was very interested in gender and equality issues. To support research in these areas, she established a fund that, every year, awards a prominent gender researcher at Umeå University.

Västerbotten County and Umeå University fund gender research together

As a big surprise for gender researchers in Umeå, Umeå University’s Vice Chancellor, Lena Gustafson, and the current Västerbotten County Governor, Chris Heister, announced that Umeå University and the County Administrative Board of Västerbotten would take over the funding of the Görel Bohlin Gender Research Award. This is a guarantee that the prize will be handed out annually, for many years to come! At the symposium, four researchers who had previously received the award gave a talk each: Britta Lundgren, Sylvia Benckert, Anne Hammarström and Annelie

Bränström-Öhman. They all come from different scientific fields: Ethnology, Physics, Public Health and Literary Studies, and they all gave interesting insights on how gender is dealt with within their subjects. Britta Lundgren also presented the history of gender research at Umeå University: from the Nordic Women’s University meeting in 1992 to the inauguration of UCGS in 2008. The symposium ended with a panel debate, held by UCGS’ Malin Rönnblom, on the following issues: How do we spread results from gender research in society? What new questions and fields of knowledge should gender research focus on in the future? The audience mainly consisted of politicians interested in gender issues, and many stayed after the talks and took part in lively discussions.

GenusFokus – Popular science conference with gender scholars from five universities On 16 March 2011, UCGS, together with the Universities of Linköping, Mid Sweden, Uppsala and Örebro, arranged GenusFokus. GenusFokus was a popular science conference aimed to highlight the diversity and complexity that characterises Swedish gender research today. The conference was held at Kulturhuset, in central Stockholm, and 30 researchers presented their latest results. Nyamko Sabuni, Minister for Gender Equality and Deputy Minister for Education in Sweden, inaugurated the event, and the moderator was the well-known Swedish journalist Ulrika Knutson. With short popular scientific lectures, the audience gained an overview of the best of new Swedish gender research.

GEXcel: Gendering Excellence (Linköping and Örebro University). The three have been appointed as ‘Centres of Gender Excellence’ by the Swedish Research Council and are funded during 2007–2011. The funding was made available in order to promote the internationalisation of Swedish gender research. Innovative thinking and concrete plans for how to become an international leader in the field were the most important criteria for selection by an international panel of experts. All researchers who made presentations at GenusFokus were funded by the excellence-money.

GenusFokus was a collaboration between the research programmes Challenging Gender (Umeå and Mid Sweden Universities), GenNa: Nature/Culture and Transgressive Encounters (Uppsala University) and

Six new postdocs at UCGS! UCGS has employed six new postdocs during 2011 and the beginning of 2012. During their two-year emloyment at the centre they will contribute to UCGS growth as a research- and learning environment. In the following pages you can read about the post docs and their research projects.

From left: Linda Sandberg, Maria Wiklund, Anna Foka, Anna-Britt Coe, Liselotte Erksson and Mario Liong

Photo: Elin Andersson

Name: Anna-Britt Coe

Name: Liselotte Eriksson

Background: I started my

Background: In 2011, I defen-

academic career when I was 38, and before that I worked in different non-profit organisations promoting feminism, women’s rights and reproductive rights in the USA and Latin America. In 2010, I defended my thesis in sociology ‘How social movements influence policies: Advocacy, framing, emotions and outcomes among reproductive rights coalitions in Peru’ at Umeå University. In the thesis, I studied organisations and individuals that formed coalitions to promote reproductive rights (the right to abortion, the right to contraceptives, equality issues and so on) in Peru. How were they were organised? How did they reach the public? How did they influence policy and what changes did they achieve? I found that changes at policy level were easier to achieve than the actual implementation of the policy.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

I will continue my studies of social movements in Latin America by interviewing feminist activists from different generations in Ecuador and Peru. I will ask how they look at gender equality and equality opportunity policies, what issues they think are important to pursue and what their idea of feminism is. I am travelling to Latin America to do my interviews, and I have already been to Ecuador once since I started my postdoc.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

It is a very creative and open environment. It is also quite a small place, so it is easy to find collaborations and to discuss research issues with other researchers.

ded my thesis in Economic History: ‘Life after death: The diffusion of Swedish life insurance – Dynamics of financial and social modernization 1830–1950’. Part of my thesis dealt with the transformation of life insurance from being a service exclusively for privileged middle-class men to a service that was also accessible to women and the working classes. The thesis also argues that married women’s lack of property rights limited the development of the life insurance industry. The interest of life insurance representatives and the Organisation for Married Women’s Property rights therefore went hand in hand. Before my PhD studies, I also studied Gender Studies at the Universities of Lund and Umeå.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

I am going to study women’s sickness funds. The sickness fund system in Sweden existed until the 1950s, when public sickness insurance was introduced. Sickness funds were an early type of sickness insurance that was founded on the basis of, e.g. workplace, union, region and/or occupation. The most frequent ground for exclusion was, however, gender, as women were often excluded from being members of sickness funds. The excluding practices and homogeneity were important for reducing moral hazards and fraud, and allowing women to become members would have challenged this homogeneity. Because of this exclusion, women established their own sickness funds. No research has been carried out on these funds, so a lot of basic research is needed: How many women were members in sickness funds and how did it change over time? Who joined the funds? In what way were they organised? There are a lot of statistics, but they have never been analysed before, so I will start my postdoc looking at these statistics.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

I think that UCGS is very well organised, and I think the centre has an overall positive feel to it. 27

Name: Anna Foka

Name: Mario Liong

Background: I studied ancient

Background: In 2010, I defended

cultures and theatre studies in Athens for four years, and then I moved to the UK and took my Master of Arts in Ancient History at the University of Liverpool. After that I got a scholarship to continue my doctoral studies in Liverpool. In 2009, I defended my thesis ‘Animals beasts and humans: relations of power in Greek comedy’, in which I studied the definition of human in Greek comedy.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

During my PhD period I became more and more interested in how women were portrayed in ancient comedy, and that is what I will study during my postdoc at UCGS. By looking at comedy you can get a better understanding of how everyday life in ancient Greece worked. Many images of the ancient world in modern popular culture give an image of women as very suppressed, but that is not entirely true. I want to complicate that picture. If you study humour and study how people were looked down upon, you can get an image of social discrimination and social discipline. Humour becomes a measure of what society thinks is normal, we joke about what is not within the ‘normal’ frame.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

Brilliant, friendly, supportive! The academia in Sweden is also very humane; everyone works very hard and are very productive, but it is still important that you make time for family, children, friends and hobbies. I do not sense the type of negative competitiveness that I have sometimes felt in other academic systems; people care about each other here. I think it is really interesting and challenging to work with people that are not within my field of knowledge. I have so much to learn, especially within feminist theory, and that is really one of UCGS’ strongest points! I have also met researchers within my field at the Umeå Group for Premodern Studies, so I really get the best of both worlds!

my thesis ‘Between Responsibilities and Privileges: The Gender Construction of Fatherhood in Hong Kong’ at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My dissertation was a study on gendered constructions of fatherhood in Hong Kong. Since 2008, I have also been teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Community College of City University in Hong Kong.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

I would like to further develop my studies of families and fatherhood in China by interviewing parents living in urban areas of mainland China. There is a big cultural and political difference between Hong Kong and mainland China, for example, Hong Kong do not have the one-child rule. I am also considering interviewing Chinese fathers living here in Sweden. If I have time, I hope that I will also be able to finish some articles I am writing on from my dissertation project.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

The people at UCGS are nice and helpful. Before I came here I was a little bit worried, as I had read a lot of stereotypical views of Swedes. The stereotypical ideas are that Swedes are shy, quiet and hard to get to know. Fortunately, this seems to be really wrong, the Swedes are very nice and friendly! I also find UCGS to be a very free environment, both intellectually and physically. I thought it would be a problem for me to be allowed to go on my fieldwork trips, but that seems to be totally OK! The research environment is really supportive, you can share your research ideas at seminars, for example, and you get a lot of constructive feedback. This is an environment that gives me a lot of input and new ideas!

Name: Linda Sandberg

Name: Maria Wiklund

Background: In 2011, I defen-

Background: I am a physioth-

ded my thesis in Geography ‘Fear of violence and gendered power relations: Responses to threats in public spaces’ at Umeå University. Before my doctoral studies I studied, among other things, Development Geography and took a bachelor’s degree in Social and Economic Geography. In my thesis, I examined different aspects of fear and safety in public spaces, such as the views of those who are fearful; of those who are feared; perceptions of both women’s and men’s bodies; their emotions and experiences in relation to fear of violence in public spaces; and the significance of space and place for our understanding of fear.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

I am doing a study on the relocation of Kiruna, a city in the far north of Sweden. The city is built around a big iron ore mine, and to be able to expand the mine the city must be relocated. All Kiruna’s citizens will be affected by the city’s relocation. I am looking at how the move is planned, how different groups are positioned in the official rebuilding processes of Kiruna. Which actors and interests will be placed in the forefront and which actors and interests risk not being heard at all? How do you make people commit to this big process, and how do you keep their interest alive when the project takes such a long time? My postdoc project is a part of a bigger project led by Malin Rönnblom from UCGS, and in addition to us, Johanna Overud, UCGS, is also working on the project.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

It is a very nice and friendly place! It feels open and dynamic, and I feel really welcome here.

erapist by profession, before my academic career I worked mostly within primary and psychiatric health care. I have also worked as a teacher at the physiotherapist programme at Umeå University for many years, and I am now a lecturer in physiotherapy. At the physiotherapist programme I have been teaching psychosomatics, stress and trauma therapy, communication and counselling, body knowledge, empathy training and more. In 2011, I defended my thesis in Public Health: ‘Close to the edge: discursive, gendered and embodied stress in modern youth’.

What are you planning to do during your postdoc period?

I have a lot of unprocessed data from my PhD project, so during my postdoc time I will analyse some of that. In my studies, I investigate how gender structures affect youth health and how gender structures in that way can take expressions in the human body. I have interviewed young people who have been in contact with the youth health services in Sweden because of problems with stress. How do they talk about their problems? How do school demands correlate with their stress and health problems? What different problems do girls and boys experience? I let them tell me their experiences of performance demands, perfection, status, feelings of being incompetent, discontentment with their own body and so on. In my PhD project I focused a lot on the interviews with girls that had finished high school. Now, I want to include boys more in my studies as well as high school students.

What are your impressions of UCGS so far?

It is a vivid and exciting environment! It is really challenging to meet researchers with different backgrounds to my own. I really learn a lot here! The interdisciplinarity is really important for my research and also for me. I think you get a better understanding of ill health if you also study more aspects than only the strictly medical.

Meet two key figures at UCGS: Leila Lexelius and Monica Forsell-Allergren

Leila Lexelius and Monica Forsell-Allergren, administrative staff at UCGS

Photo: Elin Andersson

Name: Monica Forsell-Allergren

A large part of my work is with the Graduate School of Gender Studies: finance, reports and follow-ups. Every year I work with the preparation of new PhD positions, and I am one of the contact persons for the different departments involved in the school. I prepare material for evaluations of the Graduate School and I manage the logistics of the school’s courses, workshops and conferences. When I am not working with the Graduate School, I handle the logistics concerning UCGS’ international guest professors, and I also arrange the centre’s staff days. I administrate the Challenging Gender research programme and the Strong Research Environment project. I am secretary of the UCGS board and I help to prepare items for the board.

How long have you been working here?

Name: Leila Lexelius

I am an economic administrator, so I mostly deal with different economic issues at the centre. For example, I establish the budget proposal and present it to the board, manage the closing of the accounts, write different economic reports and economic prognoses. I am also responsible for the economic administration of the external funded projects. All in all I manage 40 different accounts right now! In addition to the finances, I review all the travelling our researchers do and I buy new furniture and computers if needed. I am responsible for different service agreements and licences that UCGS has, some internal information, our archive and some other administrative tasks.

How long have you been working here?

I started at the Centre for Women’s Studies in 1991, and I started working with the Graduate School when it was founded in 2000.

I started at the Centre for Women’s Studies in 2007, just before the unit merged together with the Graduate School of Gender Studies and became UCGS. But, all in all, I have been working at the university for 36 years!

What is the best thing about working at UCGS?

The interdisciplinary environment! You get to meet and work with researchers from different fields and different parts of the world – I like that. That also makes the work interesting and diverse. You do not do the same thing every day – you always find yourself dealing with new tasks.

What is the biggest challenge working here?

For me, the biggest challenge is to be able to work as long as possible before I retire and still stay healthy and strong. Therefore, I try to exercise a lot; I like to ski in the wintertime and hike in the summertime.

Do you have a special memory from UCGS 2011?

The Graduate School was going to a workshop in Athens in the autumn of 2011, and I had arranged the transport, hotels, restaurants and so on. We were going in the afternoon, and when I woke up on the morning of our trip I felt ill and had a terrible pain in my ear – I had an ear infection! So I had to give all my papers and all the information to Linda Berg, and then I had to stay at home, in bed, and rest. No trip to Greece for me!

There is such a diverse range of tasks! The management here trust me with many things, and I am allowed to take responsibility for my own work. It is very nice to be trusted. Because of the diverse range of tasks I have to challenge myself and learn new things all the time. There is also a nice atmosphere of belonging together. My co-workers are so nice and the working environment is very good!

What is the biggest challenge working here?

To finish everything on time! I have a lot to do every day, and I have to really plan my time well to manage everything. For me, it is also a big challenge to find a new economic administrator who can do my work when I retire part-time in 2012.

Do you have a special memory from UCGS 2011?

All the millions in funding UCGS received this autumn! I am so proud of all our researchers; they do such a good job!

Thank you for reading! For more information about UCGS, go to: www.ucgs.umu.se All texts, unless otherwise stated, is written by Elin Andersson, Information Officer at UCGS. Editor: Elin Andersson Cover Photo: Elin Berge, The photo is taken at the seminar with Professor Philomena Essed: Who Cares? Seeking Justice and Dignity in Higher Education, UCGS, October 26, 2011 Graphic design: Elin Andersson Print: Print & Media, Ume책 University, 2012 32