UNIT FOR GENDER RESEARCH

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI, FINLAND

1998

Objectives

  • To cross the boundaries of disciplines and to carry out especially at the interface between the research of culture and society. Currently, the research focuses on, among other things, the study of the texts of the feminist thought tradition and the political analysis of the use and history of concepts; research into the gendered structures and operating practices of working life and organizations; feminist critical animal research, critical male research, queer and trans research and their connections to social and cultural animal and environmental research; research on the status of various minorities; and feminist research on violence.
  • To publish in international and Finnish science journals and works, and our field of science supplies the first scientific journal Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory implemented on the principle of open publishing by Helsinki University Press.

Research and results

Finished Projects (46) – Related to Heritage and Humanities:

  • Body and Sex in the Phenomenological Tradition (Sara Heinämaa, 1998-2000).
  • Subject, Sexuality and Equality: Theories of Sexual Difference in Modern Philosophy (Dr Sara Heinämaa, 2001-2003).
  • Ontologies and Genealogies of Sexual Difference (Sara Heinämaa, 2005-2006). Publication: Sara Heinämaa (Ed.), Phenomenology and the Transcendental, Routledge, 2014.
  • Representing and Sensing Nature, Landscape and Gender (Saarikangas, K., Oikkonen, V., Mäkinen, K. & Lintonen, K., 2007-2011).
  • Age, Generation and Changing Work-Life Balance and Boundaries: An Intersectional and Interactive Ethnographic Study (Jyrkinen, M., 2012-2014).
  • Feminized Actors or Masculine Institutions? Gender, Power and Political Parties in Finland (Kantola, J., 2012-2017).
  • Studying Women, Violence and War (Penttinen, E., 2013-2015). Publication: Elina Penttinen, Joy and International Relations: A New Methodology (War, Politics and Experience), Routledge, 2013.
  • WILL – The will to defend the country and the will to fight in Finland in the 21st century (Tallberg, T., Kosonen, J., Jyrkinen, M. , Laitinen, K. & Tiilikainen, M., 2016-2018).
  • Sexology, LGBTIQ lives and mental health, c.1880-1950 (Sorainen, A. & Bauer, H., 2018).
  • Russian lesbian samizdat in 1990s and its language as a source of building lesbian identities, communities and culture (Zhabenko, A., 2022). Publication in process

Ongoing projects

  • Dissertation: Queer Families and Close Relationships – Perspectives to Everyday Life and Lived Experiences in Finland (Setälä, EEA and Olvi-Säätiö, since 2022).
  • En Route to Recovery: Diversity and Vulnerability in care work during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic (Jyrkinen, M., Lehtonen, J. & Steel, T., 2022-2024).
  • UGEN: UNA Europa Seed funding project Dreams or Reality? Doing gender studies and creating equality and diversity at Universities in post-pandemic times (Bogacz-Wojtanowska, E., Pantelmann, H., Jyrkinen, M., MacKey, F., Laugier, S., Van Laar, C. & Härkönen, H., 2022-2023).
  • Friendships, networks and the blurring boundaries of work (Karjalainen, M., 2022-2023).
  • Will to relevance – Ideals in Finland-Africa Collaborations in Biomedicine and Gender Studies (Oinas, E., Onali, A., Aldrin Salskov, S. & Huttunen, KE, 2020-2024).
  • Norwegian Research Council (2020-2025): A cultural history of queer domesticities in Norway, a 5-year research project (Sorainen, A., Hellesund, T., Engebretsen, EL, Cook, M. & Vider, S., 2020-2025).
  • Queer Divorce Research Project (Annukka Lahti, Sorainen, A. & Lahti, A., 2020-2023).
  • Protolesbian Life History and Nationalist Sentiment in the 1920-30s Finland, a SKR grant research project (Sorainen, A., 2019-2024).
  • SEXDEM: Sexuality and democracy: Exploring the links and re-thinking the concepts for Feminist politics (Kahlina, K., Taavetti, R. & Rundgren, H., 2019-2023).
  • Equality information for the economy (Elomäki, A., Kantola, J., Koivunen, A. & Ylöstalo, H., since 2016).
  • Embracing vulnerability: a research project on the experience and recovery of emotional abuse (Penttinen, E., since 2015).
  • Gender Violence and Justice book project (Penttinen, E., since 2014).
  • SKY: PhD program in Gender, Culture and Society Studies (SKY) (Pulkkinen, T., 2014-2024).
  • Gender Studies Research Community (Elomäki, A., since 2011).
  • INTERSECT – Intersecting Inequalities: Expanding the Bounds of Non-Discrimination in Legal and Political Praxis (Spring Nousiainen and Kantola, J., since 2010).
  • GENIE – Paradoxes of Finnish gender power order: a research project on law, politics and Multilevel governance (Spring Nousiainen and Kantola, J., since 2007).