The Centre for Gender Research (; STK) is a research centre in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, that is affiliated with the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

. It was established in 1986, originally named the Centre for Women's Studies, and received its current name in 2008. It was established with support from the

Research Council of Norway The Research Council (also the Research Council of Norway; ) is a Norwegian government agency that funds research and innovation projects. On behalf of the Government, the Research Council invests NOK 11,7 billion (2022) annually. The Research ...

as an independent entity, and is not part of the ordinary structure of the university. It was originally a research centre, and started offering educational programmes in women's studies/gender studies in 2003 and 2011. The research at the centre is traditionally mainly based in the humanities and social studies. The centre is one of the smallest independent entities affiliated with the university with 4 permanent academic employees, as well as doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and guest researchers.

History

The Centre for Women's Studies (; SFK) was established in 1986 by the

, as a temporary project that was extended for another trial period in 1990. It was affiliated with the

, but did not form a part of the university's ordinary structure and was not located on the university campus. Former centre director Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen said the centre was often ignored and marginalized within the university, and its research was often suspected of being political and unscholarly by representatives of the university proper. The future of the centre has been debated several times in light of its originally temporary status and funding, and there have been proposals to integrate the centre's staff into an institute at the Faculty of Humanities such as the Department of Philosophy or transfer it to another institution. Eventually the centre was given semi-permanent status as a centre outside the ordinary university structure. The centre published the magazine ''Bulletine''. The centre featured prominently in the 2010

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

TV documentary series ''

Hjernevask ''Hjernevask'' ("Brainwash") is a Norway, Norwegian Documentary film, documentary miniseries about science that aired on NRK1 in 2010. The series, consisting of seven episodes, was created for NRK and presented by the comedian and sociologist Hara ...

'' and in the public debate over the program, both of which focused strongly on literary scholar

Jørgen Lorentzen Jørgen Lorentzen (born 4 November 1956) is a Norwegian literary scholar and independent film producer. His research has focused on the representation of men and masculinities in literature, film and popular culture. He became known to a broad aud ...

, one of the researchers at the centre; the debate in the aftermath of ''Hjernevask'' also featured the centre more broadly and led to a nation-wide debate over its research and focus, and several centre employees took part in the debate. The centre's director Jorunn Økland said that ''Hjernevask'' had had a negative impact on the centre and that "it is clear that the centre has suffered a loss of reputation." A 2008 book by Maud Eduards (a former visiting professor at the centre) and other Swedish gender studies scholars also included a critical analysis of Jørgen Lorentzen in a chapter titled "Bättre med män" en are betterAnna Wahl, Maud Eduards, Charlotte Holgersson, Pia Höök, Sophie Linghag, Malin Rönnblom (2008). "Bättre med män" en are better In: ''Motstånd och fantasi : historien om F''. Lund: Studentlitteratur. ISBN 978-91-44-05225-0Jørgen Lorentzen:
Lammende enighet
. ''Klassekampen'' 29 December 2008, p. 3

References

{{Authority control Gender studies organizations University of Oslo