Interdisciplinary network on men's violence against women and intimate partner violence

Cecilia Strand (PhD) is a senior lecturer and researcher at the Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research has focused on LGBTIQ+ rights activism and, in particular, LGBTIQ+ digital activism in the Global South with a special emphasis on activisms in repressive contexts. Her research has also focused on the role of transnational human rights networks and development actors’ normative influences, policy, and funding priorities impact on local activism. Since 2020, she has also been involved in a practice-oriented research project developing a group-based intervention for survivors of intimate partner violence in Sweden. The research is conducted in close cooperation with ten different women's shelters. Her multidisciplinary work draws broadly on gender, digital media studies, activism, and development studies. Her research is currently funded by The Swedish Research Council and FORTE, as well as an internal research grant from the New School in New York.

Susanne Mattsson has a PhD in medical sciences and specializes in the impacts of intimate partner violence and sexual abuse within intimate relationships, with a particular emphasis on psychological and physical health, as well as quality of life. Her research extends to examining the societal and community responses following the dissolution of violent relationships and the subsequent effects on women and children. Concurrent with her psychotherapy studies and other research activities, Dr. Mattsson has provided medical and therapeutic care to women who have experienced intimate partner violence and/or sexual abuse at the women's clinic within the clinical unit at the National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence Against Women (NCK). Additionally, she has worked with Kvinnofridslinjen, Sweden's national helpline for women subjected to intimate partner violence.

Dr. Mattsson's earlier research, including her dissertation, focused on screening for anxiety and depression, the development and validation of screening instruments, and the design and evaluation of psychological interventions. These interventions, which include psychosocial support and cognitive behavioral therapy, were targeted at cancer patients.

Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies at Uppsala University. Her research interests include literature, gender, history, and interdisciplinary methods and approaches. She currently serves as the Chair of the Centre for Medical Humanities, as a Work Package Leader in the EU project MotherNet, and as a member of the management team of the research centre Womher, Uppsala University. She has published extensively on gender-related topics in the ancient world and its modern reception. Some of her recent publications include the monograph Filomelas förvandlingar. Myten om det outsägliga (2024) and the articles “The Ethics of Motherhood in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives” (2022) and “Procne in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” (2022).

Daniela Lillhannus is a PhD student at the Department of Literature and Rhetoric at Uppsala University, and a part of the interdisciplinary research school Womher – Women’s Mental Health during the Reproductive Lifespan. She is currently working on a dissertation about the function of ghosts and spectral metaphors in contemporary Nordic and North American fiction about rape trauma.

Sofia Orrbén is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University. Her dissertation combines her interest in language and power with her interest in law and sexualized violence. The dissertation examines how language is used to draw boundaries between voluntariness and involuntariness in sex crime judgments. Furthermore, the dissertation examines how established boundaries between voluntariness and involuntariness reproduce discourses about victims and perpetrators pertaining to responsibility. To some extent, victims are held responsible for being assaulted, which testifies to a certain degree of belief in rape myths in Swedish district courts. In her dissertation, she, therefore, discusses what part language plays in the treatment of victims and how language can be used to challenge stereotypical beliefs such as rape myths.

Nicole Ovesen has a PhD in gender studies from Uppsala University, where she wrote a dissertation on intimate partner violence and help-seeking in lesbian and queer relationships. She currently works as an associate senior lecturer at the National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence against Women (NCK) at Uppsala University. Nicole Ovesen’s research focuses on intimate partner violence and help-seeking, queer studies, technology-based violence and gender-based violence in academia.

Lecturer focusing on the law, legal reforms and implementation of laws targeting intimate partner violence. Hanna works at National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence Against Women.

Anna Pérez-Aronsson is a PhD student in Public Health at Uppsala University, with a Medical Doctor degree (MD) from Karolinska Institutet and a Master in Public Health (MPH) from Uppsala University. Anna is interested in equity and social justice, with a particular focus on trauma-informed co-production. In her PhD project, she researches social support together with a group of women with lived experiences of gender-based violence and migration.