Eva Lundgren (born November 24, 1947) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

sociologist. She is an expert on

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...

and

sexual violence Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...

, particularly in religious contexts. She is Professor Emerita of sociology at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. Lundgren is best known for developing the theory of the process of

normalization Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside of ...

of violence, according to which, abused women gradually adopt the perspective of their abusers. Lundgren has written several books on

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. She held a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

-appointed

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of sociology at

1993–2011, to study "the relation between power and gender in family and society, particularly in regard to men's violence against women", and has been a Visiting Professor at several universities, including

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Since 2017 she has been active in the Me Too debate.

Career

A native of

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are lo ...

, she started her career as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

and studied at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

, where she earned her (6-year) Candidate's degree in Theology in 1978 and her doctoral degree in 1985. She was first employed as a Research Fellow at the University of Bergen, and was appointed an Associate Professor in 1986. She was head of the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Bergen 1987-1988, and was found to be competent as a full professor in 1988. In 1989, she was appointed a

Docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

(Reader) in Theology at

, relocating to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. In 1993, she was appointed Professor of Sociology at

by the

government of Sweden The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the ...

, to study the "relation between power and gender in family and society, in particular men's violence against women". She was installed as a Professor with a military parade and gave her inaugural lecture on eroticised power in

Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala Cathedral ( sv, Uppsala domkyrka) is a cathedral located between the University Hall of Uppsala University and the Fyris river in the centre of Uppsala, Sweden. A church of the Church of Sweden, the national church, in the Lutheran tra ...

. She was a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

from 1996 to 1997, and has also held visiting professorships at the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

, the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

and

Åbo Akademi University Åbo Akademi University ( sv, Åbo Akademi , ) is the only exclusively Swedish language multi-faculty university in Finland (or anywhere outside Sweden). It is located mainly in Turku (Åbo is the Swedish name of the city) but has also activiti ...

. In 2003, Lundgren became head of department for the newly created Department of Gender Studies (Samgenus) at Uppsala University.

Work

Normalisation process

Theoretically, Lundgren has focused on developing the concept of the process of normalisation, a model to explain how battered women gradually break down and accept the violent situation. Lundgren has also argued that men who systematically use sexualised violence against their partner do so in order to consolidate their position of power, rather than to satisfy a sexual desire.

Knutby murder

In recent years, Lundgren's research has focused on the

Knutby murder The Knutby murder ( sv, Knutbydramat) refers to a murder in the village of Knutby east of Uppsala in Sweden, on January 10, 2004. Murder and arrests At around 04:40 in the morning, 30-year-old IT entrepreneur Daniel Linde was shot in the head and ...

. Her 2008 book ''The Knutby Code'', published simultaneously in Swedish and Norwegian, is a critical analysis of the Knutby case.

Reception

Political influence

Lundgren's research has had considerable influence on public policy in Sweden, particularly under the

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

governments in the 1990s and early 2000s. One of her supporters is

Margareta Winberg Gun Margareta Winberg (born ''Gustafsson'' 13 August 1947) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician. Winberg held various ministerial posts in the Third cabinet of Ingvar Carlsson and the Cabinet of Göran Persson from 1994 to 2003, and was Dep ...

, the former deputy PM and Minister for Gender Equality, who once described Lundgren as "cool". The 1998 Violence Against Women Act (Kvinnofridslagen) is said to be based on Lundgren's research.

2005 controversy in the wake of "The Gender War"

A controversial TV documentary on

radical feminism Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...

in Sweden titled ''

The Gender War ''The Gender War'' ( sv, Könskriget) is a documentary in two parts by journalist Evin Rubar on radical feminism in Sweden and its influence on Swedish politics. It was produced by Nordisk Film and broadcast by Sveriges Television in the series ...

'', which was aired in 2005, generated debate on Eva Lundgren's work in both Sweden and Norway. This led Uppsala University's rector Bo Sundqvist to first announce a public debate on Lundgren's research, then cancel the debate and appoint a commission consisting of political scientist Jörgen Hermansson and philosopher Margareta Hallberg to investigate Lundgren's research. The inquiry cleared her of any wrongdoing, although Hallberg and Hermansson aimed criticism at her conclusions. However, the inquiry and the report were criticized by Uppsala University's chief lawyer Marianne Andersson, who stated that Hallberg and Hermansson's criticism of Lundgren's conclusions was inappropriate and illegal in the context of such a report, and not in their mandate, which was solely to investigate claims of wrongdoing. Lundgren dismissed the criticism. 14 leading researchers in Lundgren's field of study also criticized the "unique" inquiry, stating that Hermansson and Hallberg were not competent to assess Lundgren's research. The university committed itself to restoring Lundgren's reputation, granting her and her research group increased funding in compensation for having subjected her to an unjustified inquiry.

2011 resignation

In 2011, Eva Lundgren resigned from her chair at Uppsala University, stating that she will concentrate on her international career in the future, and criticizing Uppsala University for not doing enough to support her. She had previously criticized the university for not honouring the agreement to restore her reputation. Lundgren is writing a book on what she considers an attack on feminist scholarship in Sweden.

Lundgren in the Me Too debate

In the context of the Me Too debate in 2017, the Swedish newspaper ''

Svenska Dagbladet ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the ...

'' wrote that Lundgren had been proven right and that the criticism of her in the early 2000s had been discredited. In 2018, also in the context of the Me Too debate, Lundgren and legal scholar Jenny Westerstrand wrote that the Swedish journalistic profession bore a large part of the blame in Sweden for the problems the debate had highlighted because Swedish journalists had systematically attacked critical discussion of and research on men's violence against women for over 20 years. In 2019 the National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters in Sweden described the criticism of Lundgren in 2005 as a

hate speech Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...

campaign orchestrated by

trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

and

incels An incel ( , an abbreviation of "involuntary celibate") is a member of an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one. Discussions in incel forums are often character ...

, which they linked to a broader assault on

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

by right-wing populists; the organisation lauded Lungren's "enormous influence in Swedish feminism, the women's shelter movement, academia and politics."Forskaren Eva Lundgren lämnar Sverige
/ref>

Selected publications (in Norwegian or Swedish)

*2018: '. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. . *2008: '. Oslo/Stockholm. . *2001: '. Oslo. *2001: '. Stockholm. *1994: '. Oslo. *1993: '. Oslo. ( en, There Must Be Some Limits to Gender: Violent Empiricism and Feminist Theory) *1992: '. Stockholm. *1990: '. Oslo. *1987: '. Oslo. *1985: '. Oslo. *1985: '. Doctoral thesis (), Bergen. *1984: '. Bergen. *1982: '. Oslo. *1981: '. Oslo.

Literature

*Eldén, Åsa and Westerstrand, Jenny (eds.),
Guts and Glory: Festskrift till Eva Lundgren
'. Uppsala University, 2007.

References

External links

— official information page at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundgren, Eva Articles needing translation from Swedish Wikipedia 1947 births Living people Norwegian feminists Swedish feminists Norwegian sociologists Norwegian women sociologists Feminist studies scholars Gender studies academics Academic staff of Uppsala University New York University faculty University of Bergen alumni Academic staff of the University of Bergen People from Flekkefjord Norwegian women academics