
Mia Liinason
Research Responsible | Professor

Background
I took my doctoral degree in Gender Studies in 2011 on the PhD-thesis Feminism and the Academy. Exploring the politics of institutionalization in Gender Studies in Sweden. In 2016, I was appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellow by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The same year, I was appointed Docent of Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg. 2018 I was elected into the Young Academy of Sweden. In 2019, I was appointed Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg. In 2021, I took up my position as Professor of Gender Studies at Lund University.
Research areas
• Processes of globalization, borders, communities
• Digital technologies in interconnection with the cultural and the social
• Transnational social movements
• Feminist-, antiracist- and LGBTI+ activisms
Ongoing research and teaching
In my research, I am interested in dynamics between transformation and power. Within this interest, I have been exploring diverse forms of feminist and lgbti+ activism in transnational exchanges, in the Scandinavian countries and in Sweden, historically and today. Currently, I am conducting research in several research- and collaborative projects which broadens and deepens my research interests in various ways.
I am the director of the 5-year interdisciplinary research clusterTechnAct: Transformations of Struggle, which examines the impact of digital technologies on social movements and civil society engagements. Together with a cross-disciplinary research team and an international network, this research cluster attends to the interconnections between the digital, the social and the cultural in various empirical sites, such as digital cultures, emergent communities and transnational civil societies.
I lead the project Liveability at the crossroads of religion, gender and sexuality, which seeks to identify what makes, and could make, spaces livable for lgbtq+ people of faith. The project evolves around four case studies with Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic and Sami communities located in the South, West, East and North of Sweden. Bringing together multisited ethnography with digital ethnography and life story interviews, this project explores the religious and social barriers encountered by lgbtq+ people of faith across diverse religious traditions, and develops new understandings of the transformative aspects of religion on multiple scales, from the individual to the collective.
I am also researcher in Change is Key! a RJ-funded research program, that aims to create computational tools to explore how languages, societies and cultures have changed over time. The program spans six years (2022 - 2027) with a total of 11 researchers, one research engineer and six partner universities. The program will develop a methodology to detect change in language. My case study in the program examines the impact of emancipatory language change on cultural transformation, and how shifts in values and norms, in turn, influence the use of language, diachronically and synchronically.
I am part of the network of excellence NETHATE, a Marie Curie Intensive Training Network, which brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers to examine the dynamics of the spread of hate in both offline and online fora, mitigation and reconciliation strategies, and the impact on victims and bystanders.
In addition, I am coordinator of the international research network Gender, secularities and religiosities across the globe, which advances cross-disciplinary and transregional conversations on the intricate dynamics of secularity, religiosity and gender across the globe.
I recently finalized the collaborative project Spaces of Resistance. A study of gender and sexualities in times of transformation, which explored transnational encounters in feminist and LGBTI+ activism across Scandinavia, Russia and Turkey (together with Olga Sasunkevich, University of Gothenburg, Selin Çağatay, Central European University and Hülya Arik, University of Toronto). The book Feminist and LGBTI+ Activism across Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey. Transnationalizing Spaces of Resistance, Palgrave Macmillan Springer International Publishing 2022, presents the insights drawn from this research.
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
Varieties of exceptionalism: A conversation
Mia Liinason, Selin Cagatay, Olga Sasunkevich
(2023) Transforming identities in Europe
Book chapterTransforming identities in Europe
(2023)
BookHomonationalism across borders. Exploring cross-border exchange and strategic homonationalism in the construction of progressive nationalism
Mia Liinason
(2022) Sexualities
Journal articleFeminist and LGBTI+ Activism across Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey Transnationalizing Spaces of Resistance
Mia Liinason, Selin Cagatay, Olga Sasunkevich
(2022)
BookUnsettling the political : conceptualizing the political in feminist and LGBTI+ activism across Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and Turkey
Mia Liinason, Selin Cagatay, Olga Sasunkevich, Hülya Arik
(2022) International Feminist Journal of Politics
Journal articleExploring Transnational LGBT+ Solidarities across the Norwegian-Russian Border: the Case of Barents Pride
Mia Liinason, Olga Sasunkevich
(2022) Sexualities
Journal article‘The loved home’ and other exclusionary care discourses. A multi-scalar and transnational analysis of heteroactivist resistances to gender and sexual rights in Sweden.
Mia Liinason
(2021) ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies
Journal articleInfiltration som motståndstaktik: Om att Rekrytera rätt
Mia Liinason
(2021) Ojämlika arbetsplatser. Hierarkier, diskriminering och strategier för jämlikhet , p.295-322
Book chapter"Drawing the line" and other small scale resistances : Exploring agency and ambiguity in transnational feminist and queer NGOs
Mia Liinason
(2021) International Feminist Journal of Politics, 23 p.102-124
Journal articleForskardrömmar : Berättelser för nyfikna barn
Mia Liinason, Steffi Buchardt, Tove Fall, Robert Lagerström, Christian Ohm
(2021)
Book
Introduction
Mia Liinason is Professor of Gender Studies.
Research projects
• Spaces of Resistance. A study of gender and sexualities in times of transformation (Funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, 2016-2021, KAW 2015.0180).
• TechnAct: Transformations of Struggle. An interdisciplinary research cluster devoted to investigate the relation between digital technologies and emergent communities in transnational space (Funded by the Swedish Research Council, 2018-2024, VR 2018-03869).
• Network of Excellence for Training on the Nature of Hate. Research and training programme to tackle the rise of hate speech and intolerance in different social, economic and political dimensions of society. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers conducts research and training of 15 early stage researchers (Funded by EC/Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 2020-2024, Grant ID 861047).
• Gender, secularities and religiosities across the globe. (Funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2018-2022, RJ F17-1268:1).