Speakers: Raisa Jurva and Marjo Kolehmainen, The University of Tampere, Finland
Date: Friday 9 December 2016
Time: 4.15-5.30pm
Venue: Ingkarni Wardli Level 7, The University of Adelaide
RSVP: Jacquie Bennett (08) 83132421; (jacquie.bennett@adelaide.edu.au)
Independent, Vulnerable or Bitter? Creating Futurities Through Affective Resonances in Women’s Narration on Heterosexual Relationships
In contemporary heterosexual relationships in the Nordic countries, gender equality ideals exist parallel to gendered conventions and power hierarchies. People recognise the gendered conventions and at the same time, invest in problematic relationalities. Drawing on Ahmed’s idea of affect as orientation (2004), this paper focuses on the relationship futurities that are created through affective resonances in women’s narration on their relationships with younger men, and men in general.
Raisa Jurva is a doctoral student in Gender Studies at University of Tampere in Finland. Her work analyses mid- to later life women’s narration on their experiences of relationships with younger men, and men in general. She has published on discourses on heterosexuality from girls’ points of view in sex education materials (2012) and on men’s quality of life after prostate cancer treatment.
Labour of Love? Affect and Atmosphere in Therapy Culture
As a part of widespread therapeutic cultures, several organisations and professionals (across parishes, LGBTQI organisations, psychologists, sex workers), now peddle advice. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Finland this paper explores the emergence of particular understandings of gender and sexuality in the processes of advice seeking and advice giving. Inspired by post-humanist and post-qualitative inquiry and their attempts to question the idea of singular and autonomous human subjects, I examine the possibility to know differently through feeling differently.
Dr Marjo Kolehmainen is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere (Finland). She is working on the Academy of Finland funded research project ‘Just the Two of Us? Affective Inequalities in Intimate Relationships’. Her research focuses on affective labour, feminist theory and therapeutic cultures, especially on the practices of relationship and sex counselling.
Presented by The Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at The University of Adelaide and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100-1800).
Image: Portrait of a Couple as Isaac and Rebecca, known as ‘The Jewish Bride’, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, c. 1665 - c. 1669. © Rijksmuseum.