Sweden is the most gender equal country in the world and paid parental leave for all parents, a high number of women in leadership positions, progressive sex education, and equal rights for LGBTQIA+ persons are among the hallmarks of all Scandinavian societies. However, Sweden also has the most gender-divided workplace in the world and gender equal policies do not automatically lead to gender equal behaviors. With a comparative look to neighboring countries in Europe, this course explores how concepts of gender, body, sexuality, and race intersect in current debates about changing family structures, children’s rights, and new ethical dilemmas in Scandinavia.
You only take one Core Course per semester, and each Core Course includes two Study Tours: one Short Study Tour to a nearby destination for three days, and one Long Study Tour to another European country for six days.
Led by your faculty, Study Tours take you into real-world settings where you will apply what you’ve learned outside the classroom.
Iwo Nord is a trans researcher and educator interested in transgender and queer lives and culture, nuances of agency and power, intersections of the transnational and the local, and questions concerning mobility (travel and migration). The past years he has been committed to building and strengthening Transgender Studies in both the Nordic region and in the former Yugoslav space. Devoted to social change for trans people, he is involved in trans academic and activist alliances, resulting in the forthcoming collaborative volume In Transition: Trans Lives, Activisms, and Culture in the Post-Yugoslav Space, edited by Bojan Bilić, Iwo Nord and Aleksa Milanović. He was one of the founding members of Trans Fest Stockholm, an activist collective that strives to create inclusive and empowering cultural and community events in the Swedish capital. Iwo is a PhD candidate in Gender Studies at Södertörn University, and is affiliated with the Center for Baltic and East European Studies. His doctoral project ethnographically explores Belgrade as a transnational destination for gender-affirming surgery. He holds an MA from the University of Oslo, Norway, and has formerly taught at the Institute of Scandinavian and Finnish Studies at the University of Gdansk, Poland. Iwo’s publications include “Routes to Gender-Affirming Surgery: Navigation and Negotiation in Times of Biomedicalization” in Body, Migration, Re/constructive Surgeries: Making the Gendered Body in a Globalized World, edited by Gabriele Griffin and Malin Jordal (Routledge 2018). With DIS Since 2020.
Long Study Tour
About this tour
Before arriving in Berlin, we’ll start in Copenhagen, which allows us to gain insights into a third Scandinavian country and capital. During one of the workshops there, we will explore DIY archives and DIY resistance practices among queer and BIPOC grassroots groups.
Berlin was chosen for this Study Tour because it’s a thriving hub for LGBTQIA+ communities and a key destination for queer expats, migrants, and tourists. In Berlin, we’ll explore why these communities thrive through visits to queer spaces, workshops, and museums. Our perspective is intersectional. Among other things, we will examine challenges faced by transgender asylum seekers, explore drag as an art form, and discuss sex education at a queer sex shop. The tour blends academic and experiential learning.
Learning outcomes
Analyze how LGBTQIA+ lives and activism have been historically and contemporarily shaped in Berlin and across Europe, with a focus on the intersectional challenges faced by minorities, including the experiences of transgender asylum seekers and the impact of Nazism historically
Critically engage with community-building, advocacy, and resistance practices among queer and BIPOC grassroots groups, by exploring DIY practices and drag as a tool for identity exploration and activism
Engage in critical discussions on sex education, queer sexuality, gender, desire, and lust, and explore how these issues are navigated in various contexts, acknowledging the complexities and challenges in a time when sex and sexuality are increasingly debated and contested
Possible activities
Create your own zine as part of a DIY resistance workshop
Join a queer walking tour of Berlin
Take part in a drag workshop
Visit a queer sex shop and join a workshop on “Queer Sex Shop Basics”
Short Study Tour
About this tour
Your short Study Tour is a time early in the semester to get to know fellow students and faculty. Academically, our travel to Oslo, Norway aims to deepen our knowledge about intersectional perspectives on gender, sexuality, race, culture, power, and change in Scandinavia. We will connect our course curriculum to the history and context of Oslo/Norway and speak with individuals and organizations working to make change in their respective areas. Some of the academic activities will give us perspectives on new issues that we will return to later in the semester, while other visits will deepen our understanding of issues that we have already begun to address in class. In this way, we will build the short Study Tour into our evolving understanding of Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Equality in Scandinavia.
Learning outcomes
Learn the history of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement in Norway
Understand racism and related discrimination in the Norwegian context
Explore what the situation is like for sex workers in Norway
Discuss what a vision of a socially just society might look like from an intersectional perspective
Possible activities
Gain insights into the work of The Norwegian Organization for Sexual and Gender Diversity and The Patient Organization for Gender Incongruence, as well as the LGBTQIA+ rights movement in Norway more broadly
Learn how the Antiracist Center works to uncover, document, and oppose racism, and how they work to mobilize people with minority backgrounds, discussing right-wing extremism and anti-discrimination protection in Norway
Visit PION, an interest and rights organization for all women, men, and trans people who work as sex workers, escorts, and with erotic service and intimate massage in Norway, learning about the organization’s work and sex workers’ lives and situation
Looking for some advice? We’ll support you every step of the way.
