Christine Roman
Title: Senior Professor School/office: School of Humanities, Education and Social SciencesPhone: +46 19 303000
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Research subject
About Christine Roman
Christine Roman is Professor of Sociology. She has conducted a number of studies primarily within the research area of gender, working life and the family. One main area of interest is continuity and change in gender relations in modern society, with a particular focus on the division of labour, household finances and power in the family and working life.
In 1994, Christine Roman defended her thesis entitled Lika på olika villkor: Könssegregering i kunskapsföretag [Equal Treatment. Different Opportunities: Gender Segregation in Computer, Advertising and Consulting Companies] (1994) at Uppsala University. It studies gender segregation processes in, for example, IT companies, with special emphasis on the interplay between work and family. The interplay between gender, working life and family has been a central theme of her research ever since, which is noticeable in, among others, the books Familjer i tiden: Förhandling, kön och gränslöst arbete[Families in Time: Negotiation, Gender and Unlimited Work] (2011) and Hemmet, barnen och makten [Home, Children and Power] (1997). The relationships between social science and family policy and between family sociology and feminist theory are also important areas of interest. The book Familjen i det moderna: Sociologiska sanningar och feministisk kritik [The Family in Modern Society: Sociological Truths and Feminist Criticism] (2004/2009) is a result of the latter. The intersection of gender and class is central to her research, but that between disability, gender and sexuality has also been examined in, for example, the book Kamper i handikapprörelsen: Resurser, erkännande, representation [Struggles in the Disability Movement: Resources, Recognition, Representation] (2012). Christine is the research leader of the sociological research specialization ‘Family and Intimate Relations’ and heads the multidisciplinary research group FamForsk. She is also the national coordinator of the Swedish Sociological Association’s working group Family and Intimate Relations.
Read more on the research specialization ‘Family and Intimate Relations’ and the FamForsk research group.
Research specialization/current projects
Christine Roman is working with colleagues on three externally financed research projects. In ‘Between Dream and Reality: International and National Studies of Parenting and Work from a Gender Perspective’ – one of the sub-studies in an international collaboration project – the transition to parenthood is studied from a gender perspective. The project is financed by the Swedish Research Council. Read more on the project ‘Between Dream and Reality: International and National Studies of Parenting and Work from a Gender Perspective’. See also transPARENT.
The research project ‘Ensam mamma i en flexibel ekonomi’ [Lone Mothers and Long Hours: Gender and Work in a New Welfare Regime] is also financed by the Swedish Research Council. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of how ongoing changes in working life and family patterns interact through the inclusion of lone mothers in an area of research that has chiefly focused on nuclear families. Read more about the project ‘Lone Mothers and Long Hours: Gender and Work in a New Welfare Regime’.
A third research project‘Projekt barn: Fostransideal, föräldrapraktiker och det professionaliserade föräldraskapet’[The Child as a Project: Parenting Ideals, Parenting Practices and the Professionalization of Parenthood], which is financed by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), investigates the parenting ideals and practices in Sweden in the early 2000s, based on sociological theories on an increased dependence on experts and an intensification of parenting. Read more about the project ‘The Child as a Project: Parenting Ideals, Parenting Practices and the Professionalization of Parenthood’.
Teaching
Christine Roman has teaching experience at all levels. Among other things, she has taught courses on classical sociological theory, modern sociological theory, gender sociology, qualitative method, welfare state changes and family and close relationships. She has supervised many Bachelor’s essays and Master’s dissertations, and as a primary or secondary supervisor has assisted doctoral students in reaching the public defence stage of the thesis.
Other assignments
Christine Roman is currently a member of the Örebro University Equality Committee and of the Swedish Research Council’s Humanities and Social Sciences Review Panel (HS-C).