Programme

Keynote lecture

Professor Kate Fisher (University of Exeter): "I couldn’t find myself in history. No one like me seemed to have ever existed." Who needs the History of Sexuality?

See professor Fisher's introduction and lecture abstract.

Chair: Senior Research Fellow Satu Lidman (Tampere University)

Parallel session 1: Methods and sources to cover silences and rumors

Chair: Hannah Yoken

• Tuula Juvonen: Rainbow Dictionary: Accessing queer history through digitized newspapers
• Kirsti Salmi-Niklander: Loud silences - studying the controversial life of Kasperi Tanttu (1886-1918)
• Rebeka Põldsam: From myths about homosexuality in Soviet Estonia to historical narrative

Parallel session 2: Gender diversity and trans histories

Chair: Jan Wikman

• Amy Jefford Franks: Double the Burial, Double the Queer: Two Queer Interpretations for the Inhumatio
• Signe Bremer Gagnesjö: In search of community: How the Swedish pornmagazines Raff, Paff and Piff served as trans friendly sites of hope during the 1960ties
• Elizabete Elīna Vizgunova-Vikmane: Perception of trans persons in contemporary Latvia: public opinion survey results

Parallel session 3: Sexual health and authority

Chair: Kaarel Piirimäe

• Miina Keski-Petäjä & Matleena Frisk: The shift to modern contraceptive attitudes and recognition of premarital birth control needs in Finland from the 1950s to 1970s
• Jens Rydström & Lena Lennerhed: When the state won’t do: Self-help groups in the Swedish AIDS epidemic 1982-2000
• Anna Ratecka & Justyna Struzik: The Politics of condoms. Doing HIV/AIDS and sex work activism in post-state socialism

Parallel session 4: Lesbianism, female homosexualities and women’s same-sex affections

Chair: Joonas Säntti

• Lene Laitinen: Same-sex affections in Toini Topelius’ novel for girls in the late 19th century
• Tone Hellesund: The longing for home
• Runar Jordåen: “A case of homosexuality in a woman.” Female same sex desire in rural Norway

Keynote panel discussion: The histories of homosexualities in the Nordic and Baltic countries

Chair: Senior Lecturer Tuula Juvonen (Tampere University)

Panelists

• Associate Professor Andrés Brink Pinto (Lund University)
• Professor Tone Hellesund (University of Bergen)
• Associate Professor Uku Lember (Tallinn University)

• Senior Researcher In­eta Lipša (University of Latvia)

See speakers' introductions.

Parallel session 5: Sexual desires, sexual knowledges

Chair: Leena-Maija Rossi

• Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen: Queer Ritual Play among Vikings and Afro-Brazilians
• Jenny Sundén: The pull of the recent past: Tracing sexual deviance in Swedish online kink
• Laura Saarenmaa: Short-lived Play: Trans-European Travels in Sex Edutainment
• Kitti Suoranta: Hidden Intimacies: Traces of Queer in the Social Networks of Older Finnish Men

Parallel session 6: Sexuality, body, and activism

Chair: Rebeka Põldsam

• Varpu Alasuutari: Navigating the Affective Landscapes of Christian Queer Activism in Finland
• Hannah Yoken: Locating Nordic Lesbian Feminism: The Femø Women’s Summer Camps
• Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen: Invisible women in ‘women-friendly’ Norway: The Lesbian Bus Campaign, 1988
• Anna Puhakka: Turning to queer possibilities: A reparative reading of Finnish body positivity

Keynote lecture

Postdoctoral Researcher Julian Honkasalo (University of Helsinki): Desiring gender: care as a radical political concept in 1960s Nordic trans activism

See Dr Honkasalo's introduction and lecture abstract.

Chair: Associate Professor Johanna Rainio-Niemi (University of Helsinki)

13.45 (UTC+3)

Parallel session 7: Negotiating sexual pasts in the present

Chair: Riikka Taavetti

• Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä: The Sex-Related Kalevala-Metric Poetry in the Finnish Media in the 21st century
• Kate Sotejeff-Wilson: Erikoissuomalaiset*: narrating queer history with new Finns
• Satu Lidman: Rooting out harmful attitudes and violence: a training for school professionals

Parallel session 8: From sexual outlaws to model citizens: The intersections of queer sexualities and nationalism at the margins of the Nordics

Chair: Elsi Hyttinen

• Ásta Kristín Benediktsdóttir: The Gay Capital of Iceland: ‘Sexual refugees’ in Copenhagen and Danish influence on early identity politics
• Hafdís Erla Hafsteinsdóttir: Recovering the HIV/AIDS crisis in Iceland in post-AIDS times: Stories of pink sheep, A-bombs, (in)gratitude and more
• Íris Ellenberger: The construction of the gay consumer in Icelandic magazines 1990–2010

Parallel session 9: Round table: Queer(y)ing kinship in the Baltic region: A retrospective on Conversations, contestations, collaborations

Round table discussion participants

• Ulrika Dahl
• Joanna Mizielińska
• Raili Uibo

Parallel session 10: Sexuality and identity in arts and media

Chair: Una Bergmane

• Susanna Paasonen, Mari Pajala, Laura Saarenmaa: Monsieur Mosse: camp, shameless, othered
• Kari O. Silvola: Darkroom; development of portraits of a hockey player, dancer, photo model, and Tom of Finland in a writing laboratory and the predictions of a face recognition algorithm in constructing, representing, and concealing masculinity; A sensitive poetic inquiry utilizing digital data.
• Janis Ozolins & Karlis Verdins: "Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown": Embodied Affects of Atis Jākobsons