New network with a focus on women's health

Lisa Guntram, Associate professor in technology and social change at Linköping University, has recently been awarded an initiation grant of 450,000 kronor from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The purpose of this grant is to facilitate the establishment and development of a network for research in the field of women's health, with a focus on social sciences and humanities. This initiative is a collaborative effort led by Lisa Guntram and Marjolein de Boer, an Assistant Professor from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Initially, three workshops will be organised as part of this project. The network taking shape, named WoMaHN: Women's Marginalized Health Network, aims primarily to deepen knowledge about and challenge the marginalisation of women's health.

Shedding Light on a Marginalised Discussion

In recent years, increased attention has been directed towards women's health in both the field of medicine and in societal debates. However, it has become increasingly apparent that this subject has often been marginalised for a long time. Research has highlighted this issue from historical and contemporary perspectives, but there is still a lack of understanding regarding the consequences and underlying causes of this marginalisation.

– Despite women's health being a crucial topic in feminist research within both the humanities and social sciences, there are currently no networks that specifically focus on women's health from these perspectives, either on an international or national level, says Lisa Guntram.

Lisa Guntram's new network will initially conduct three symposia addressing key challenges within the field:

1. Women's Health and Corporeality: The first symposium will focus on deepening the understanding of women's health and corporeality.
2. Overlooked, Unexplored, and Silenced Topics: The second symposium will shed light on subjects within women's health that are often overlooked or silenced.
3. Medicalisation of Women's Health: The third symposium will examine how certain health issues and bodily changes are categorised and stigmatised within the medical field.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Challenge Marginalisation

Each symposium will bring together researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including qualitative social sciences, philosophy, cultural studies, feminist studies, ethnic studies, disability studies, social and science studies, and medical humanities. The interdisciplinary approach is expected not only to enable new international collaborations but also to bolster the development of a network for researchers dedicated to exploring and challenging the marginalisation of women's health and corporeality.

The initiation grant awarded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond supports the project's overarching goal of increasing awareness and understanding of women's health within the fields of social sciences and humanities. With this network and workshop series, the project is expected to contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding women's health and corporeality.

– The network fills an important gap and opens up opportunities for exciting collaborations and research projects, concludes Lisa Guntram.