The number of people living without a partner is growing in Finland, in Europe, and globally. However, this demographic change has not disrupted the tenacity of the couple norm, and despite the shift, there is a paucity of research on singlehood. This event brings together scholars from different fields of social sciences and humanities to discuss singlehood, from the perspective of technology and well-being in particular. It aims at sparkling academic discussion on singlehood and at serving as a kick-off event to a series of future collaborations.
The event consists of three parts: 1) Public keynote talks by four distinguished scholars 2) Workshop for invited researchers who are currently conducting research on singlehood or related themes 3) A launch event of the recently established Research Network of Singlehood Studies with panel discussion on couple-normativity.
The keynote talks and the launch event with a panel are open to the public and participation is free of charge. All welcome!
Registration to the Launch event is recommended but not required:
Registration form
The Keynote talks will be livestreamed: Singlehood studies live stream
Program:
Day 1: Mon 16 December
10-10.45 Opening words, introduction
11-13 Workshop: Session 1
13-14 Lunch
14-16.30 Keynote 1 & 2 (Linna K103) OPEN TO ALL!
Christopher Swader (Lund University, Sweden): Disentangling Living Alone, Being Alone, and Feeling Alone: between Cultural Pessimism and Optimism with ‘Modernity’ at Stake
Andreas Henriksson (Karlstad University, Sweden): The communal lives of singles. How singledom reproduces and reconfigures social communities
17-18 Drinks & mingle
19 Dinner
Day 2: Tue 17 December
11-13 Workshop: Session 2
13-14 Lunch
14-16.30 Keynote 3 & 4 (Linna K103) OPEN TO ALL!
Rachel O’Neill (University of Warwick, UK): Singlehood and Seduction: Reconsidering the Category
Katrien De Graeve (Ghent University, Belgium): The figure of the polyamorous single woman in ethical non-monogamy discourse in Belgium: reflections on an unfinished (online) ethnographic study
17-18 Launch event: The Research Network of Singlehood Studies (Linna K103) OPEN TO ALL!
Panel on couple-normativity with Tuula Juvonen (University of Turku), Riikka Homanen (University of Tampere) & Annukka Lahti (University of Jyväskylä)
Drinks & nibbles
Participation to the public events of the workshop require no registration. Still, if you plan to participate the Launch event, we kindly ask to fill out the registration form, so we can be prepared with the serving:
Organiser
Coordinators: The Research Network of Singlehood Studies The event is organized in collaboration with Gender Studies at Tampere University and with the Academy of Finland-funded SRC project Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture The kick-off event is supported by The Sustainable Welfare Systems (SWS) initiative by Tampere University
Further information
Dr Marjo Kolehmainen (marjo.kolehmainen@tuni.fi) Dr Annukka Lahti (annukka.p.lahti@jyu.fi)