Theme 4-5: Sexual Health, Embodiment and Empowerment: Bridging Epistemological Gaps

By Stine Adrian on 27 Aug | 1 comment

Theme 4 & 5 will be carried out as a collaboration of two research teams, one led by Barbro Wijma and one led by Nina Lykke.

Embodiment and sexuality have, for decades, been a central pivot of gender research and theorizing and attracted the attention of feminist researchers from a broad spectrum of different disciplinary backgrounds – from biology and medicine to philosophy, literature, linguistics, history, anthropology and sociology. Medical constructions of sexed bodies has, for example, been studied by feminist researchers from biology, anthropology or science history (eg Oudshorn 1994), while bodily health and empowerment have been studied by medical doctors and psychological researchers (eg. Schenk-Gustafsson 2003, Wijma et al 2003). Important strands of feminist philosophy have, in addition, made theorizing of the relations between sex, body, subjectivity and epistemology a central focus of their research (from sexual difference theorists (eg. Grosz 1994, Braidotti 1994) to feminist queer theorists (Butler 1993). Theorizing of the body has also been linked to discussions of feminist perspectives on ethics. How to theorize the relationship between sexed bodies and gendered subjectivities in non-essentializing ways has, moreover, been central in the feminist critiques of the sex/gender-dichotomy, which many strands of feminist thought have underlined.

While the focus on embodiment and sexuality, on the one hand, has attracted a very broad attention among gender researchers and given rise to crucial theoretical and empirical research developments within Gender Studies, it is,on the other hand, characteristic that the different strands of feminist reflections on the body often have communicated very little with each other. Among others, it is characteristic that empirically oriented research, carried out by eg. medical researchers, and theoretically oriented research, carried out by eg. philosophers and literary scholars have had difficulties in bridging the disciplinary barriers preventing a synergetic dialogue, even though both groups have shared the ambition to include the sexed body and embodied empowerment forcefully into the field of feminist inquiry.

The aim of this thematic programme is to bridge the mentioned gaps, constructed by disciplinary boundaries, in order to create new synergies and understandings beyond the reductionist dichotomizing of sex and gender. The idea is to attract researchers with excellent records in studies of sexed embodiment, gendered subjectivity and empowerment from different disciplinary perspectives, but with an outspoken ambition to transgress disciplinary barriers and epistemological boundaries. In particular, it will be considered important to include, on the one hand, researchers with a background in medicine and biology and a high level of knowledge of ways to empower women in clinical and therapeutical situations, and, on the other hand, researchers with a background in the human and social sciences and a high level of knowledge of feminist theories of embodiment.

The programme is inspired by and will further explore ideas and successful research experiences, which the two theme leaders (Wijma and Lykke) have generated within the framework of joint research projects (“Visualisation and simulator-technologies in gynaecological education,” VR, 2004-07; "New technology for fetal monitoring: a gender perspective on changes in work organisation, professional boundaries and everyday practices", FAS, 2005-07). The work will, moreover, be organized so that both differences and commonalities between the approaches of medical doctors and biologists, on the one hand, and human and social science scholars, on the other hand, can be fully explored for the development of new synergies. To meet this goal, the call for researchers will aim at setting up two parallel, but closely collaborating research groups, one led by Wijma and one led by Lykke:

1) Sexual problems and empowerment. Biology, gender and ethics (led by Barbro Wijma):
This sub programme will analyse and theorize sexual problems from three perspectives:
a) medicine
b) gender studies theories and
c) theories of ethics
Projects that aim to synthesise the three perspectives will be prioritised. Methodologically the projects should combine critical analysis with implementation of constructive problem solving and evaluation of interventions.
Key words are: Male and female bodies; Sexual problems; Gender relations, partner relationship; Norms, needs, rights; Power, communication, abuse/violence, evil, suffering; Adaptation, education, therapy, empowerment.

2) To bridge gaps in feminist understandings of the sexed body (led by Nina Lykke):
This sub programme will review different kinds of feminist theorizing of the body, including theories of sexual health and problems, and analyse the genealogies of feminist critiques of the dichotomizing of gender and sex. The aim is to explore possible synergies between different feminist approaches and to do it in close and continuous dialogue with the empirical research on sexual problems, carried out by group 1.