"Our lives are increasingly being reshaped by multiple changes, such as increased mobilities of people and goods, digitalisation, and rapid changes in the labour market. New challenges include, for example, the cutting of public sector resources, the increased market conformity of societal systems, social polarisation, violence, climate change, biodiversity loss, and increased global and local inequalities due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges require thinking differently in open, inclusive, and responsible ways. As an interdisciplinary field of research, Gender Studies and feminist research play an important role in producing knowledge about multifaceted social problems and inequalities.
The conference seeks to produce new feminist and Indigenous thought to reimagine future solidarities and ways of knowing. The conference calls to explore how rich transdisciplinary collaboration can help feminist research matter in the effort to build more sustainable, intelligent and humane world(s) in the Arctic and beyond. In addition to alluding to the ethico-political significance of feminist research, the keyword matterings in the conference title also refers to new materialist inspirations and the material aspects of knowledge production. In the spirit of Science and Technology Studies (STS), we wish to investigate the material aspects of epistemic practices and the complex relationship between knowledge and power. The conference also welcomes scholars who are interested in developing different ways of decolonizing feminist knowledge, including, indigenous STS studies, antiracist knowledge production, arts activism(s), ethics of knowledge, and queering knowledge and research methodologies. The location of the conference at the University of Oulu, in northern Finland, also provides a unique opportunity to approach these themes from the perspective of Arctic research.
The keynote speakers at the conference are:
- Professor Suvi Keskinen, The Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism, Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki.
- Professor Dorte Marie Søndergaard, Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University, Denmark.
- Associate Professor Kim TallBear, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, Canada.
The Gender Studies 2022 conference is organized and hosted by the Gender Studies at the University of Oulu. It is organized in collaboration with the Association for Gender Studies in Finland (SUNS) and the Giellagas Institute, which focuses on research on the Sámi language and culture at the University of Oulu.