Gender Studies
Gender Studies at Tampere University has a strong interdisciplinary and social science orientation. Our key research areas include economy, politics and sustainability; studies on sexualities and genders; illness, wellness and care; and transforming futures. Our research draws on and contributes to recent developments in feminist theories and methodologies and engages actively with the societal and political contexts it arises from. We approach gender both as a complex context-dependent category and a dynamic, relational and materially entangled process. In our empirical research we analyse how gender emerges in relation to other categories of difference, especially sexuality, class, age, disability, race and ethnicity.
We use a range of feminist theories and approaches, including affect theory, black feminism, critical feminist gerontology, critical studies on men and masculinities, crip theory, ecofeminism, feminist cultural studies, feminist political economy, feminist political ecology, feminist standpoint theories, feminist psychology, feminist institutionalism, Marxist feminism, new materialist approaches, queer theory, trans studies, and utopian studies. Our methodological approaches vary from political analyses to feminist ethnographies, participative methods, and arts-based and creative methods. We constantly broaden our perspectives by welcoming new theoretical and methodological insights.
We strive for an inclusive and democratic feminist research and teaching community that makes significant contributions to feminist theory, methodology, pedagogy and to the society. In addition to publishing research in English and other languages, we write to academic and non-academic audiences in Finnish to invigorate gender studies’ concepts and vocabularies in Finnish. Our research addresses ongoing global and local crises – ecological, economic, democratic, and care crisis as well as rising social inequality and as such paves way for alternative futures. We are invested in co-creating knowledge with society and societal actors, and for their benefit, without compromising feminist theoretical ambitions.
We offer opportunities for our master’s level students to write their theses within our various research projects. We offer a PhD specialization in Gender Studies and welcome new doctoral and post-doctoral researchers and their projects, just as visitors with a strong gender studies focus. PhD candidates and scholars from different disciplines at Tampere University are welcome to join our research seminar. If you wish to be part of our research community, please contact Head of Gender Studies Hanna Ylöstalo.
Banner: Art by Jukka Metsäaho, photo by Samuli Turunen
