News

Welcome to discuss the present stage and the future of gender studies (UH / 7.5.2012)

The cross-disciplinary Gender Studies Research Community (RC) at the University of Helsinki (UH) has been evaluated as part of the 2011 Evaluation of Research and Doctoral Training.

The results of the UH research evaluation will be released on the 7th of May. To provide an opportunity to reflect on the evaluation, and to discuss the future of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies research and doctoral training in the UH, we will organize a meeting on the same day. This meeting will take place on the 7th of May, University Main Building, Lecture Hall 5, at 11.00h - 16.00.

In addition to general discussion, a number of Gender Studies RC members from different disciplines and at different stages of their research career will present their opinions, ideas, and visions on the evaluation and future prospects. All members of the RC and all others interested in the topic are invited to discuss the present stage and the future of gender studies research and doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki.

You are warmly welcome!

The evaluation report is available here: http://www.helsinki.fi/genderstudies/research/documents/genderstudies_evaluation_2012.pdf

Programme:

11.15 –12.30 Opening words (Tuija Pulkkinen) and first comments (Anne Holli, Venla Oikkonen, Johanna Niemi)

12.30–13.15 Lunch break

13.15–14.15 Second round of comments (Elina Vuola, Pirkko Moisala, Johanna Oksala, Jemima Repo)

14.15–14.30 Coffee break

14.30–15.30 Third round of comments (Kirsi Saarikangas, Soili Petäjäniemi-Brown, Anna Moring)

15.30–16.00 General discussion and closing words

The event will be held in English

 

Course Catalogues for 2012-2013 has been published

The course catalogue for 2012-2013 has been published in WeboOdi.

The primary catalogue can be found here

Gender Studies offers a minor study programme Interdisciplinary Gender Studies designed primarily for international students and exchange students with special interests in the humanities and social sciences, but it is also open to Finnish students.

Read more about Interdisciplinary Gender Studies in WebOodi

The catalogues only contain information about study degrees. Information about upcoming courses will be submitted during the summer 2012.

Gender Studies' open research seminars, spring 2012

Welcome to an open research seminar organised by Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki!

We are organizing two research seminars this spring to showcase recent research in the field of gender studies and to provide a discussion forum for all those interested in these topics within the University and beyond.

Forthcoming seminars:

Johanna Oksala: Foucault, Feminism and Neoliberal Governmentality

Time:Monday 12th March 2012, 2–4 pm,
Venue: Metsätalo (Unioninkatu 40) sali 18

The paper argues that Foucault’s thought provides an important theoretical framework for analyzing the new challenges that face feminist politics due to the hegemony of neoliberalism. It identifies the distinctive strengths of the Foucauldian approach and analyzes its consequences for feminist theory and politics.

Johanna Oksala is Senior Research Fellow in the research project 'Philosophy and Politics in Feminist Theory' at the University of Helsinki. She has previously worked at the University of Dundee (UK) and The New School for Social Research (USA). She is the author of Foucault on Freedom (2005), How to Read Foucault (2007) and Foucault, Politics, and Violence (forthcoming in 2012).

Elina Oinas: Queering postcoloniality - the international alarm around African anti-gay populism

Time:Monday 16th April 2012, 2–4 pm,
Venue: Porthania P723

The paper will analyze international responses to the proposed parliamentary bill tightening the old colonial “Sodomy laws” in Uganda. The responses illustrate a variety of agendas that both negotiate,  strengthen and challenge neo-liberal rights discourses, “Modernity” as a specific hegemony, as well as battles over definitions of culture, nation, state sovereignty, “tradition” and intimacy. The paper discusses queer theory as an analytical tool in post-colonial struggles for freedoms.  

Elina Oinas is University Lecturer in Development Studies at the Department of Political and Economic Research, University of Helsinki. She is docent in Sociology and Women’s Studies. She has been editor of Naistutkimus (2002-2003) with Ann-Catrin Östman and NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research (2007-2009) with Tutta Palin. Her research deals with girls, the body, health and politics.

***

You are all warmly welcome!

THE NATIONAL GENDER STUDIES DOCTORAL PROGRAMME INVITES
applications for six (6) doctoral student positions (with already guaranteed funding; with a research grant, holding a research position, or being employed by a university research project) for the period of 2012–2015.

The Gender Studies Doctoral Programme is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Academy of Finland. During 2012 - 2015 universities contributing to this programme include the Universities of Eastern Finland, Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Lapland, Tampere, Oulu and Turku as well as Åbo Akademi and Hanken. This programme is coordinated by the University of Helsinki, and led by Academy professor Tuija Pulkkinen.

The Gender Studies Doctoral programme board consists of professors and docents in the field of Gender studies. Gender studies is a dynamic and growing field of research and study; it includes women’s, queer and men’s studies. Due to the character of the discipline, the Gender studies doctoral programme is multi- and cross-disciplinary in its approach and research questions. This programme has been in operation since the establishment of the Finnish graduate school system; between 2007 and 2011 it functioned as the Finnish Research School in Women’s and Gender Studies.

The Gender studies doctoral programme board offers now six (6) doctoral students an opportunity to participate in the doctoral programme, beginning this spring term (2012). Doctoral students accepted to this programme are expected to commit themselves to full-time work and to participate actively in the events and meetings organized by the programme.

For more details visit the doctoral programme's webpage

Kantola acting professor in Gender studies. Oikkonen continues as acting university lecturer

PhD, adjunct professor, Johanna Kantola has been named the acting professor in Gender Studies for the Autumn term 2012. PhD Venla Oikkonen will continue as the acting university lecturer.

Theory Sex Matters: A doctoral workshop by Jami Weinstein and Myra Hird

3.-4.11.2011
University of Helsinki

Organized by the Finnish Research School in Women’s and Gender Studies (2 op/credits)

Sexual difference theory has become one of the cornerstones of continental feminist philosophy over the past couple of decades. While its historical relevance remains clear, we want to investigate ways in which we might move the discussion to another level. Thinking about how we might retain the import of sexual difference by employing the concept as a theoretical and methodological tool instead of seeing it as a fundamental ontological fact might be one avenue to explore. In turn, this might help us realign our focus by moving away from the notion of sexual difference and its inextricable humanistic bent and toward notions of sex and reproduction reinterpreted from a microontological perspective. This seminar will attend to those methodological and ontological reinterpretations toward the aim of “thinking differently.”

More information and progam on the Finnish Research School in Women’s and Gender Studies homepage

Feminist Theory and the Philosophical Tradition, 2nd December 2011

This symposium will explore the connections and the tensions between contemporary feminist theory and the tradition of philosophy. Contemporary feminist thinkers have appropriated the tradition of philosophy in imaginative ways, but these allegiances also divide
feminist thinkers: they sometimes appropriate very different or even opposing philosophical ideas about the subject, gender and power, for example.

Keynote speaker: Dr Stella Sandford

This symposium is free and open to all. If you would like to attend the conference dinner (at your own expense), please send an email to Tuija Modinos (tuija.modinos@helsinki.fi) by November 15, 2011.

Organizer: Research team Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG), Centre of Excellence Political Thought and Conceptual Change, University of Helsinki.

Further information: Coordinator Tuija Modinos

Program of the symposium

Changes in staff members

Venla Oikkonen is the new university lecturer for Gender Studies during the fall term 2011.

Nina Järviö will be the Academic Affairs Ffficer during the academic years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

IAPh Helsinki Summer Symposium on Feminist Philosophy
17th - 18th June 2011

IAPh Helsinki Summer Symposium on Feminist Philosophy features a line of researchers in the field of feminist philosophy to the University of Helsinki (Metsätalo-building in Unionkatu 40) Keynote speaker for the Symposium is Denise Reiley from the University of Cornell, UK. Her keynote lecture is titled "‘Time lived, but without its flow’: on an altered experience of temporality, after a child’s death". Other speakers for the symposium are Penelope Deutscher (Northwestern University, USA), Waltraud Ernst, (Johannes Kepler University, Austria), Federica Giardini (Università Roma Tre, Italy), Annemie Halsema (VU-University Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Veronica Vasterling (Radboud University, the Netherlands) ja Stella Villarmea (University of Alcalá, Spain). In addition, presenting their papers will be some members of the Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG) research team from the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Political Thought and Conceptual Change. Summer Symposium is organized by The International Association of Women Philosophers (IAPh), Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG) and Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Symposium is open to public and attendance is free of charge. Welcome!

Print the whole program for the Helsinki Summer Symposium (.pdf)