Mia Liinason

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. I was recruited to Lund University as Professor in Gender Studies in 2021. In 2024, I was appointed Wallenberg Scholar by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. I am researcher, supervisor and teacher in Gender Studies. I am also the Head of Division and research responsible at the Division of Gender Studies. 

Ongoing research

My research is located at the intersection of transnational feminism and queer, populism studies, religiosities/secularities, digital cultures and scholarships of hope. Currently, I am involved in several research- and collaborative projects which broadens and deepens my research interests in various ways.

In 2024 I was granted funding for the comparative research program Gender struggles in the new conjuncture. Gender, sexuality and the future of human rights in the 21^st century (Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation, 2025-2030). Three senior researchers, two postdocs, one doctoral student, and one research engineer are working on the program, which uses a transnational and multiscalar comparative method to examine contemporary gender struggles in Europe and its impact on human rights, democracy, and civil society in a time of democratic decline and renegotiation of human rights. The project has as its goal to identify the new shared values and normative foundations for society that emerges in the wake of these conflicts.

I am the PI for the project Networked Resistance in a new era, which is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2025- ). The project aims to map the hybrid alliances established among neo-conservative networks, as well as among emancipatory, feminist and LGBTQI+ movements, and to evaluate whether these groups' efforts to achieve their goals give rise to so-called “perverse effects,” i.e., unintented outcomes. We will use digital ethnography, digital network analysis, and NLP methods to investigate these issues. Three senior researchers and one research engineer are participating in the project.

I am also leading the project Liveability at the crossroads of religion, gender and sexuality, which aims to identify what are, and could be, liveable contexts for religious LGBTQIA+ people (funded by Forte 2022-2025). The project follows queer and trans subjects in Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, and Sami religious contexts and communities in different parts of Sweden.

I am co-researcher in the RJ-funded research program Change is Key! which 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. 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.

I am involved in two graduate schools: The Network of Excellence NETHATE, is a Marie Curie Intensive Training Network that brings together a multidisciplinary international team of 10 researchers and 20 PhD students to investigate the dynamics of offline and online hate dissemination, strategies for its containment and reconciliation, and its effects on victims and bystanders. The FUDEM Graduate School, a national graduate school funded by the Swedish Research Council, brings together ten researchers and ten PhD students to explore threats against democracy, crises and illiberal populist movements from a humanist perspective.

I recently finalized two research projects. The interdisciplinary research cluster TechnAct: Transformations of Struggle (funded by the Swedish Research Council 2018-2024) examined the impact of digital technologies on social movements and civil society engagements. Currently, we are finalizing an edited book with the working title Emerging digital cultures. Feminist struggles and global change. Spaces. Bodies. Revolts, presenting findings from the project.

The collaborative project Spaces of Resistance. A study of gender and sexualities in times of transformation (funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation 2016-2021) 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.