Love and Sexuality

This research theme encompasses research on the gendered organization of love, intimacy and sexuality and research on LGBTQ+.

Love studies
CFS has a long tradition of theorizing how gendered power structures relate to the heterosexual organization of love and sex. One strand of research contributes to feminist theory through novel conceptualizations of the relationship between gender, love and power. A more empirically oriented strand examines various expressions of gendered intimacy and other phenomena related to gendered needs for love and sex, including commodified and violent practices. The research analyses practices of love and sex as conditioned by changing societal and economic contexts, while being grounded in an ontology that foregrounds intimate ties as a human and societal necessity.

LGBTQ+
This research encompasses empirical and theoretical studies of gender, sexual practices, and trans experiences in social relations and structures at all levels of society.  The research strand is transdisciplinary and builds on theories of gender and sexuality. Research within this area includes violence targeting queer people and the trans community’s negotiations with medical professionals and politicians. The research seeks to tease out the variety of knowledge and experiences relating to people’s gender and sexual embodiment in different geographical, relational, racial, temporal and material contexts.