Guest Researcher - Kaisa Ilmonen

Disciplinary background:
My disciplinary background is in Comparative Literature

Areas of expertise and research areas:
My PhD (2012) was on Caribbean Women’s Writing. I consider my areas of expertise to be something like:

• Queer Studies
• Critical Race Studies
• Postcolonial Literature
• Diasporic Queer theorizing
• African-American Lesbian/Feminism
• Intersectionality

I am also the current editor-in-chief of SQS Journal, published by the Finnish Association of Queer studies.

Why did you choose to come to the Centre for Gender Research?
I felt that both my shared interests between queer and postcolonial studies could be balanced in Uppsala Centre for Gender Research. Moreover, I had some contacts at the Centre, and I concluded that I could really benefit on the research period at the Centre now that I am on the early stages of my current research project. I am truly looking forward to meeting you all!

Shortly describe your current research project:
“From Poetry to Intersectionality: Reading Feminist Experience Across the Theorìa/Poiesis –Binary”, which aims to map the poetic roots of intersectionality. My literary cases are Audre Lorde, Michelle Cliff, and Adrienne Rich.

Selected Publications

Books:
Ilmonen, K. 2012, Caribbean Journeys. Intersections of Female Identity in the Novels of Michelle Cliff. Annales Turkuensis. University of Turku Press.

Ilmonen, K et al. (eds.) 2008, Seeking the Self – Encountering the Other. Diasporic Narrative and Ethics of Representation. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar’s Publishing.

Ilmonen, Kaisa & Kekki, Lasse (eds.) 2004, Pervot Pidot: Homo-, lesbo- ja queer-näkökulmia kirjallisuuteen. Helsinki: Like.

[Queer Symposium. Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Perspectives on Literature. An Anthology.]

Articles:
Ilmonen, K. 2014, ”Vapaus (post)koloniaalisen modernin myyttinä.” Teoksessa Säännellyt vapaudet: Tulkintoja toiseuden tuottamisesta. Marianne Liljeström ja Marko Gylén (eds.). Turku: UTU-kirjat, pp. 19-40.

[”Freedom as the Myth of (Post)Colonial Modernity.” In Liljeström and Gylén (eds.).]

Ilmonen, K. 2011, ”Intersektionaalisen Queer-tutkimuksen kytkentöjä: Pohdintoja postkoloniaalisen ja intersektionaalisen seksuaalisuudentutkimuksen lähtökohdista ja keskeisistä kysymyksistä.” SQS-Lehti 2:2011.

[”Intersectional Queer: Linkages Between Postcolonial and Intersectional Studies of Sexuality.” SQS: Journal of Queer Studies in Finland].

Ilmonen, K. 2008, “Healing the Traumas of History. (Trans)sexual Diasporas in Caribbean Literature.” In Huttunen et al. (eds.): Seeking the Self – Encountering the Other. Diasporic Narratives and Ethics of Representation. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 229-246.

Ilmonen, K. 2005, “Creolizing the Queer: Close Encounters of Race and Sexuality in the Novels by Michelle Cliff.” In Roy Goldblatt et al. (eds.). Close Encounters of an Other Kind. New perspectives on Race, Ethnicity & American Studies. Joensuu: University of Joensuu Press. pp. 180-195.