The purpose of the research is to critically examine the processes that serve either to exclude or include when society is divided into the categories of “women” and “men”. The goal is to generate new knowledge which can contribute to creating equal conditions, both locally and globally.
A field which is growing at the university is posthumanist gender studies. It looks at how people and culture should be understood in relation to technology and media, medicine and natural sciences, other animals and environmental change. The world is thus not to be divided into either culture of nature; they are perspectives that must act together.
Gender in working life and medicine
In the same way, gender is at the centre of some of the research into working life conducted at Linköping University. Here we study the relationship between gender and enterprising and entrepreneurship, for example, with the purpose of building a working life which can be considered “sustainable”.
Gender and medicine is also an important area in gender research at LiU. In this area, the focus is on problems raised in neuroscience and the researchers look at questions concerning patienthood, for example, in order to gain new understanding of sick and healthy bodies.
Gender research as a field also involves epistemology and philosophical ethics. This means that many gender researchers critically investigate their own role as researchers and the role of research in society. The purpose of this is to develop new understandings of what research is and how science can contribute to creating a better life for all people.
