Research seminars

Every semester, the Division of Gender Studies host research seminars where researchers from around the world are invited to present and discuss their research. Our research seminars are open to the public and usually held in English. 

Gender Studies Seminar 

The Gender Studies Seminar Series invite researchers to share their insight on key issues for gendered and sexualized lives and knowledges, and to engage in critical discussions about the development of gender studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional research field. Bringing together scholars from various research fields and theoretical traditions, this seminar series offers a platform for critical reflexions and new insights. Seeking to provide a space for intellectual exchanges around the role of knowledge production in turbulent times.

During spring 2025 the Division of Gender Studies are hosting a series of seminars within the Gender Studies Seminar Series.

Contact: Professor Mia Liinason

Programme spring 2025

The Weaponization of Time: Legal Liminality and the Reproduction of Disposable Lives in Sweden’s Migration System

Sara Philipson Isaac, Postdoctoral researcher at at the Center for Sustainability Research at the Stockholm School of Economics

Wednesday 12 February

When: 13.15-15.00
Where: Gamla lungkliniken, Rum 335

This presentation draws on my dissertation, Temporal Dispossession: The Politics of Asylum and the Remaking of Racial Capitalism in and Beyond the Borders of the Swedish Welfare State. The thesis delves into the transformation of Swedish asylum legislation post-2015, marking a shift towards temporary residence permits as the new norm and intertwining migration policies with labour market dynamics. Through a lens of temporal dispossession and racial capitalism, it examines how dispossession operates in and through the border regime and, more specifically, through time, and how the latter is weaponized to dispossess people of their life chances. Drawing on a denationalist approach, the thesis explores how temporal dispossession affects citizens and non-citizens alike, highlighting migrants as subjected to the sharpest end of temporal control. Drawing from four years of ethnographic engagements with people who sought asylum in Sweden after 2015, it scrutinizes the temporal governance of migration bureaucracy, the dynamics within asylum camps and enforcement archipelagos, and the temporal dispossession in and through the labour market. Ultimately, the thesis contributes to understanding how border regimes sustain racial capitalism and exacerbate labour market exploitation through the operation of legal liminality and deportability.

Internet Prosumer and the New Gig Economy: A Political Economy Perspective on Users Agency and Activities in Social Networking Platforms

Jiang Fengyu, PhD-student at Beijing Normal University and visiting PhD-student in Gender Studies, Lund University. In recent years, Fengyu’s research has primarily focused on digital labor studies from the perspective of political economy and Engels' theory of gender division of labor, which involves European continental philosophical thought such as Marxism. 

Wednesday 5 March

When: 13.15-15.00
Where: Gamla lungkliniken, Rum 335

This presentation builds upon Christian Fuchs' theories of digital labor and internet prosumer. In the era of platform capitalism, where social networking platforms increasingly permeate daily life, user activities on these platforms have drawn growing scholarly attention. What transformations do these activities bring to users? How do they contribute to the massive wealth accumulation of social media platforms? According to Fuchs, these users can be understood as internet prosumers, whose activities constitute the sole source of platform profits. Grounded in Marxist political economy, his perspective has sparked both critique and debate. Fuchs’ framework not only sheds light on the identity and labor forms of users on social media platforms but also prompts us to consider whether the digital labor represents a new iteration of the gig economy—one characterized by the independent labor of internet prosumers. From this point, the emerging gig economy may possess transformative potential that should be further explored.

Queer and trans assisted reproduction in a Norwegian context – (re)producing ordinariness?

Lærke Munk Rigtrup-Lindemann, doctoral student in sociology from Nord University in Norway. Educational background in gender studies from the Department of Gender Studies here at Lund University. 

Wednesday 26 March

When: 13.15-15.00
Where: Gamla lungkliniken, Rum 335

How do queer cis women and trans men think about conception? What can their experiences with donor conception and gametes preservation tell us about kinship and notions of belonging? How are assisted reproduction with donated gametes and “race” connected? And how are they related to kinship, belonging and nation? These questions are central in my current analytical work with my doctoral thesis, and they are framing this seminar which draws on findings and analytical reflections from the thesis. 

One of the findings in the study, so far, is that the experiences of queer cis women living in Norway who have reproduced with donor sperm to a large extent are confirming to homonormative ideas of family. In this presentation I will take a step further and focus on the interviewees’ experiences with “gametes matching” which refers to a medical practice that seeks to match genetic characteristics between intended parents and gametes donors in third-party reproduction. Experiences with “gametes matching”, donor conception more broadly and gametes preservations are at the center of the analysis. These point to notions of “race”, kinship and belonging both to the family and to the nation which I shall unfold. In Norway, the practice of “gametes matching” differs from the practices in other Nordic welfare states as it is not the intended parents who choose the gametes donor, but rather the clinical staff. This, together with the fact that trans men cannot legally access assisted reproductive technologies due to the gendered Biotechnology Act, makes it urgent to study queer and trans assisted reproduction from a biopolitical perspective. 

South-East Conversations Roundtable on Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Roundtable with reception afterwards

Tuesday 15 April

When: 13.15-16.00
Where: R240. Reception will take place at 16.00 in the library at the 4th floor of Gamla Lungkliniken.

This roundtable will share transnational perspectives on feminist, gender and sexuality studies in the context of global power relations, and develop new conceptual frames on anti-gender movements situated in and across local, national and transnational sites. 

Participants: 

• Manuela Boatcă (Professor of Sociology at Freiburg University, Kerstin Hesselgren Professor (2025) Södertörn University)
• Neferti Xina M. Tadiar (Moa Martinson Guest Professor (2024-2025) Lingköping University, Sweden, Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University), 
• Mia Liinason (Professor of Gender Studies Lund University, Wallenberg Scholar) 
• Ov Cristian Norocel (Reader of Gender Studies, Lund University). 
• Diana Mulinari (Senior Professor of Gender Studies, Lund University).

Andrea Petö: Making room for a new gender contract for Europe

Seminar presentation with discussant

Wednesday 14 May

When: 13.15-15.00
Where: Gamla lungkliniken, Rum 335

Feminism and gender equality currently stand at a contradictory crossroads: they have simultaneously become widely popular and yet also increasingly undermined. The event discusses the feminist future of the EU and how gender can become a unifying force in crafting a transformative, inclusive, and fairer Europe in the years to come. Building on the idea that the future of Europe is shaped by gender equality, authors in a collective volume analyze current challenges whilst outlining tangible policy answers in a wide range of fields. This book aims to offer a true political reflection towards an inclusive and all-encompassing feminism by gathering progressive voices with multidisciplinary backgrounds. The idea is to launch a comprehensive reflection on how to move away from the “gender backlash” rhetoric by making room to imagine a “new gender contract” for Europe for policymakers to unite around.