A Festschrift for Liisa Husu on Gender, Science and Academia
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? A Festschrift for LIISA HUSU EDITORS: Sofia Strid, Dag Balkmar, have a a have have gender gender Jeff Hearn & Louise Morley on gender, science and academia DoesDoes knowledge knowledge DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? PHOTO Ulla-Carin Ekblom B Does knowledge have a gender? A Festschrift for Liisa Husu on gender, science and academia Edited by Sofia Strid, Dag Balkmar, Jeff Hearn and Louise Morley PREFACE It is a great pleasure for me to honour Liisa Husu on her official retirement. As the first Professor of Gender Studies at Örebro University and leader of the multidisciplinary Centre for Feminist Social Studies (CFS), I was very happy to welcome Liisa to both positions, when I retired at the end of 2009. To put it simply: I can hardly think of a better successor. When Liisa came to Örebro we were in the middle of the GEXcel project, the Gender Excellence Centre and the five-years visiting scholar programme we were running together with Linköping University. I continued as a Senior Professor to work with GEXcel and lead the Örebro part of it, now together TITLE with Liisa. From that time of intense collaborative activities and ever since Does knowledge have a gender? A Festschrift for Liisa Husu on – as I continued to be active part-time in the doctoral programme and the gender, science and academia research milieu – we have been working as colleagues in a mutually sup- COVER IMAGES portive and genuinely good spirit. Liina Aalto-Setälä GRAPHIC DESIGN Liisa’s academic career is a very successful combination of Tuomas Kortteinen research merits and femocratic work; and her Alma Mater has awarded PUBLISHED BY her prizes for excellence in both, the University of Helsinki Gender Stud- Örebro University PRINTING ies award in 2002 and the University of Helsinki Gender Equality Prize in Örebro University 2009. In Finland, she was the National Co-ordinator for Women’s Studies ISBN for 15 years and served as Senior Adviser on Gender Equality Policy for the 978-91-87789-36-6 (print) 978-91-87789-37-3 (pdf) government before she went back to full-time research; she completed her ISSN PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2001. Then, for the next decade, fol- 1103-2618 lowed a Research Fellowship, EU research projects, and national research CFS Report Series No. 26: 2020 ÖU project leadership at the University of Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, and at Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. © The authors, 2020 4 5 DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? Liisa’s PhD thesis, Sexism, support and survival in academia: CONTENTS academic women and hidden discrimination in Finland, laid the ground, on one hand, for her future research interests: gender in science, academia Introduction: Gender equality through and knowledge production, and her special focus on gender dynamics and Does knowledge have a gender? assimilation or recognition inequalities in scientific careers, organisations and science policy. On the Sofia Strid, Jeff Hearn, of plurality? Reflections other hand, her research, enriched by her long femocratic work experience Dag Balkmar and Louise Morley on gender equality, equal in Finland and internationally, made her also highly qualified for the many p. 12 opportunity and diversity kinds of evaluative and other expert activities she has taken on after 2001. policies at Swiss universities Clearly, her qualifications speak for themselves given the high demand for Successful implementation Anika Thym her expertise, as shown by the various educational and expert commissions of quotas for rectorate positions p. 74 she has been involved in Sweden and internationally; and she has been – may we rest on our laurels? invited to speak and present her research in many, over 30 I gather, coun- Angela Wroblewski Literary landscapes in tries in all parts of the world. p. 18 Finnish schools: Gender At Örebro University, as in most other universities, the initia- and national diversity tion and development of Gender Studies was – and still is – a struggle on The triumph of ‘Excellence’?? Liisa Tainio, Sanni Leksis several fronts. Besides the never-ending hard work Gender Studies teachers Or the retreat of gender equality and Lotta-Sofia Aaltonen and students have in common with colleagues in other disciplines, a kind efforts? A reflection on gender p. 88 of gender-oriented struggle for academic legitimacy has been with us all and science expertise as along. But if anyone Liisa Husu knows that without “support” no “survival” applied to research councils Faces of gender inequality in Academia, and in 2018 we celebrated the 40 years anniversary of teach- Alison E. Woodward in the Polish academy ing Women’s Studies/Gender Studies at Örebro University. p. 28 Renata Siemieńska I want to thank you, Liisa, for how successfully you have nav- p. 100 igated our discipline and the CFS through periods of sometimes fair wind Knowledge production in and sometimes stormy weather against us, and always acting in a profes- academic fellowships: Paradoxes of gender equality sional manner. I am also happy to be around now when your successor on The role of a feminist ethos in South African decolonial, the professor’s chair has joined the Gender Studies group, although, sadly, Monica Wirz gender justice efforts in it is in the time of the corona pandemic. p. 40 higher education: Thinking However, and finally, it might be good, in these troubling with current times times, to recycle the imperative which the early 1980s Women’s Studies Hostile environments: Experiences Tamara Shefer, Conference in Umeå, Sweden, directed to us feminist academics: of women academics with Floretta Boonzaier Gråt inte – forska! (Don’t cry – do research!) harassment in Dutch academia and Kopano Ratele Marieke van den Brink, p. 112 Anna G. Jónasdóttir, Marijke Naezer Professor Emerita and Yvonne Benschop p. 50 6 7 DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? CONTENTS Organisational change Liisa Husu: “Unfortunately, no quick fix An abundance of metaphors in research organisations A pioneer in gender equality or magic bullet is available ...”: Amund Rake Hoffart – an attempt to put in the academy Reflections on AKKA — p. 310 a concept into practice Pat O’Connor a leadership development Helene Schiffbänker p. 188 programme at Lund University Collaborating with Liisa Husu p. 124 Inger Lövkrona Suzanne de Cheveigné Encounters of gender in p. 244 p. 314 Gender equality projects academia: Effects of at European level: the Covid-19 pandemic Subjects producing knowledge: Feminist theory in theory and Exploring factors for success Charlotta Niemistö, Re-entering the conversation in practice: Some reflections Minna Salminen-Karlsson Leila Gharavi and around power struggles on teaching on gender equality and Helen Peterson Ling E. Zhang in knowledge production in higher music education p. 136 p. 194 Mia Liinason Sam de Boise p. 260 p. 320 Transnational feminist Becoming academic knowledge production Johanna Niemi En pyrrhusseger? A sentimental journey: Zara Saeidzadeh p. 200 Om socialdemokratiska kvinnors Friendship with Liisa Husu p. 146 strid för ökad u-hjälp Jan Currie A conversation on sexism på 1960- och 1970-talen p. 332 Research assessment as gendered in gender policies in research Gunnel Karlsson and gendering practices Ana Luisa Muñoz-García p. 272 The meeting between Julie Rowlands and Jill Blackmore p. 210 feminist studies and art p. 148 Gatekeepers’ gender Ann-Dorte Christensen A letter to my constructions: A contribution p. 338 Liisa naistutkimuksen alkuun- teenage children to stability and/or change sysääjänä ja tasa-arvo- ja Jörg Müller in the gendered university The future of gender equality tiedepolitiikan vaikuttajana p. 228 Heike Kahlert in academia, and what I learnt Eeva Raevaara ja Hannele Varsa p. 280 from Liisa Husu about it p. 172 A labour of love: Anne-Charlott Callerstig Sexism, support and Dear Liisa p. 358 Rejecting business as usual: survival in academia Richard Howson Intersectional claims for Albert J. Mills and p. 306 Speaking of/to gatekeepers social justice and the academy Jean Helms Mills (and gatekeeping) Ann Phoenix p. 236 Ida Maria Börjesson p. 180 p. 370 8 9 DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? Report from a lab coat A successful story Tomas Brage without a happy ending: p. 374 The institutionalisation of Gender Studies at “Context matters”, the University of Novi Sad context inspires: Argentina Zorana Antonijevic and its synergies among p. 402 feminist researchers from different parts of the world Contributors Gloria Bonder p. 417 p. 382 Tabula Gratulatoria Extending the uses of p. 425 Liisa’s notion of ‘non-event’: The cases of gender equality work and sexual violence Tobias K. Axelsson and Lena Gunnarsson p. 390 10 DOES KNOWLEDGE HAVE A GENDER? INTRODUCTION THE TITLE OF THIS VOLUME captures a central question in contemporary Gender Studies and Sociology. It has, in different ways, preoccupied the Introduction: researchers who contribute to this special volume for many years. Inspired by feminist theory and practice, it addresses the gendering, the complex gendering, of knowledge, science, research, policy, equality, academia, uni- Does knowledge versities and higher education, along with many interlinked reflections and memories on working together, collegiality and friendship. This book is special in three ways. First, what it is: it is for Liisa, have a gender? but it is not about Liisa. It is about work inspired by her work, and includes chapters drawing on her work, applying her work in different contexts, and Sofia Strid, Jeff Hearn, describing how Liisa as a person has inspired the contributors and their texts. The volume thus gives multiple responses and reflections on questions Dag Balkmar around the gendering of knowledge, as a celebration of all that work that and Louise Morley has affected and inspired many. Second,what it covers: it very much spans the specifically academic and the specifically personal, as well as some more hybrid academic-personal contributions.