Kristina Fjelkestam is professor of gender studies at Stockolm University. As she sees it, gender studies builds on three pillars that are grounded in theory, politics, and history. Theory is the binding element in the interdisciplinary field of study; politics is the idea that the subject not only wants to describe oppressive mechanisms but also change them, which is based on an emancipatory struggle with historical roots.

She is particularly interested in research on language and sexuality, as these are such central aspects of people’s lives, but she is also interested because they are complex and, paradoxically, represent both the best and the worst that can happen to us. Language can be artistically enjoyable but also exert violence; sexuality can lead to both wonderful and horrific experiences.

Her research profile is generally based in feminist cultural theory with a historical focus. She is currently interested in research on queer temporality, which involves alternative notions of time, and I focus on this in the research programme Time, Memory, Representation: On Transformations in Historical Consciousness, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. In the past, she has worked with cultural memory (i.e. what and how a society chooses to remember) and different perspectives on the theory and practice of historiography.

Latest publications:

(2018) ”Does Time Have a Gender? Queer Temporality, Anachronism, and the Desire for the Past”, The Ethos of History. Time, Location and Responsibility, ed. Stefan Helgesson & Jayne Svenungsson, Oxford:Berghahn.

(2018) ”Retrofili och begäret efter det förflutna”, Tidskrift för genusvetenskap nr 2-3.

(2018) ”Våldsam extas”, Ord och Bild nr 4.

Contact

E-Mail: kristina.fjelkestam@gender.su.se

Web