Anna Siverskog

Short presentation

Anna Siverskog is a senior lecturer at the department of social work. She has a PhD in Ageing and Later Life, and is an associate professor in Gender Studies. Her primary research interest is LGBTQ ageing, including intersections of age, gender and sexuality; life course; eldercare; dementia.

Keywords

• ageing
• sexuality
• lgbtq
• eldercare
• dementia
• queer theory
• critical gerontology

Biography

Anna Siverskog is a senior lecturer at the department of social work. She has a PhD in Ageing and Later Life from Linköping University, and is an associate professor in Gender Studies. Her research interests revolve around age, gender, sexuality, power, and the life course with a specific interest in LGBTQ ageing.

Siverskog's dissertation Queer lines : Living and ageing as an LGBTQ person in a heteronormative world is based on life-course interviews with 20 LGBTQ-identified people, born between 1922 and 1950, 62-88 years old at the time of the interviews. The overarching aim of the study is to explore experiences and meanings of living and ageing as LGBTQ in a changing heteronormative world. The theoretical framework in this study refers to critical gerontology, feminist theory and queer theory. The dissertation (in Swedish, but with an English summary in the end) can be found here.

Siverskog's post doc project at the School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University explored LGBTQ people's experiences of receiving eldercare.

She has also, with Linn Sandberg, studied LGBTQ and dementia in policy and practice within Swedish dementia care (FORTE). The project consists of interviews with LGBTQ people living with dementia, and significant others. Interviews were also conducted with dementia care staff, and a policy analysis of dementia care policy.

She has also worked with eldercare policy and welfare technology.

Research

At present, Siverskog leads the project Social relationships, health and life conditions among LGBTQI people 65+ (FORTE) where she with Max Kleijberg and Richard Bränström explores relationships, health and life conditions among LGBTQI people 65 and older. The project build on public health data, a survey to the target group, and interviews with older LGBTQ people and organizers of groups aiming to prevent involuntary loneliness in the group.

She also works in the project Sustainable and inclusive social services for older LGBTQ-people: Developing, implementing, and evaluating in partnership with LGBTQ and social service stakeholders, with Max Kleijberg (PI) and Ida Goliath 2026-2030.

She also leads the project Tracing Queer Political Histories in Croatia, Romania and Sweden through Intergenerational Narratives: Explorations of LGBTQ+ Life Stories, Södertörn University (founded The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies) with Ramona Dima och Dora Jandríc 2026-2029.

She also works with the project Remembrances of cruising: queer public sex during 1900s funded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, with Linn Sandberg och Sam Holmqvist, 2026.

Publications

Siverskog, A. & Sandberg, L.J. (forthcoming). “What if I lose the ability to say fuck off”: Relationships and social networks among queer people living with dementia. Lambda Nordica.

Bränström R., Kleijberg, M., & Siverskog, A. (2025). Resilience and distinct lifeways: Sexual orientation and gender minority status differences in health, well-being, and social determinants of health in a population-based sample of older adults. BMC Public Health, 25(1):4276.

Siverskog, A., & J Sandberg, LJ. (2025). Gender Identity, Sexuality, and LGBTI Perspectives in Swedish Dementia Care Policies. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 68 (7): 956-977. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2025.2472971

Sandberg, LJ. & Siverskog, A. (2025) True inner self or fantasies and fabulation? Discourses on gender identity, sexuality, and LGBTQ among care workers in Swedish dementia care. Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 24 (8): 1537-1557. https://doi.org/10.1177/14713012251319821

Sandberg, LJ. & Siverskog, A. (2024) Still here, still queer? Queer lives and subjectivities in dementia care. Sexualities.28 (4): 1526-1543.

Svärdh, S. A., Lorenzini, G. C., Siverskog, A., Schmidt, S. M., Iwarsson, S., & Fristedt, S. (2025). Detangling experiences of agency in welfare technology use by home care recipients and their staff. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 20(4), 1104–1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2024.2435566

Siverskog A. (2023). Heteronormative silences and queer resistance in queer people’s experiences of eldercare and home. Sexualities, 28(1-2), 654-667 https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231212810

Siverskog, A., Bromseth, J. (2023). ”He went back into the closet": Older LGBTI people´s interactions with health and social care in the Nordic countries TemaNord 2023:552. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers

Dybdahl Jakobsen, M., Bromseth, J., Siverskog A., & Sollund Krane, M. (2023) The provision of healthcare services to older LGBT adults in the Nordic countries: a scoping review, Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, DOI: 10.1080/02813432.2023.2242713

Smolle, S., Siverskog, A. (2023). Transgender, Human Rights and Social Work. I Webb, S. A. (Red.) The Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work: New Perspectives and Agendas. Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Siverskog, A. (2022). Jack Halberstam: Att queera omvärlden och söka motståndets potential. In Mattsson, T., Andersson, E. (eds.) Teorier för socialt arbete. Del 2. Malmö: Gleerups.

Siverskog, A. (2022). Möjligheter och hinder att vara hbtq-person inom äldreomsorgen: Hur påverkar normer för kön och sexualitet? in Sandberg, L. & Larsdotter, S. (eds.) Äldres sexualitet: Hälsa, rättigheter och njutning. Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande.

Boström, A., Lindén Åkerlund, N., Lindmark, U., Ludvigsson, M., Saveman, B-I., Simmons, J., Siverskog, A. (2022). Förekomsten av våld i nära relationer bland äldre personer. I Östlund. L (eds.) Äldre männniskors utsatthet för våld i nära relationer. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Johansson, L., Lindmark, U. Siverskog, A. (2022). Äldre personer och våldsutsatthet. I Östlund. L (eds.) Äldre männniskors utsatthet för våld i nära relationer. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Siverskog A. (2021) Queer äldreomsorg? Att möta äldre lhbtq-personer inom vård och omsorg. Stockholm: RFSL Stockholm.

Siverskog, A. (2021). Health, well-being and life conditions of young LGBTI persons in the Nordic countries. TemaNord 2021:534. Nordic Council of Ministers.

Siverskog, A., Jönson, H. (2020) Vart är äldreomsorgen på väg? Argument för och emot förenklad biståndshandläggning. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift. 27(1), 91-110

Siverskog, A., Bromseth, J. (2019). Subcultural spaces: LGBTQ aging in a Swedish context. The International Journal of Aging & Human Development. 88(4), 325-340.

Fabbre, V., Siverskog, A. (2019). Transgender Ageing: Community Resistance and Well-Being in the Life Course. I King, A., Almack K., Jones. R. (red.) Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities. Multidisciplinary international perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press

Siverskog, A., Bromseth, J. (2018) Queers livsforløb. I An-Margritt Erdal (red.) Gerontologi. Kobenhavn: Gads forlag.

Siverskog, A. (2017) “Att åldras som lhbtq-person”. In Stina Johansson (ed.) Social omsorg i socialt arbete : grunder och fördjupningar. Malmö: Gleerups

Siverskog, A. (2016). Queera livslopp. Att leva och åldras som lhbtq-person i en heteronormativ värld. (Akademisk avhandling). Linköping: Linköpings universitet. Institutionen för samhälls- och välfärdsstudier

Siverskog, A. (2015). Ageing Bodies that Matter: Age, Gender and Embodiment in Older Transgender People's Life Stories. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Studies. 23 (1), 4-19

Siverskog, A. (2014). “They just don’t have a clue”: Transgender aging and implications for social work. Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 57, 386–406.

Bromseth, J., Siverskog, A. (red.) (2013). LHBTQ-personer och åldrande: Nordiska perspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur

Siverskog, A. (2013). "Den internationella forskningen om äldre hbtq-personer" I Bromseth, J., Siverskog, A. (red.) LHBTQ-personer och åldrande: Nordiska perspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur

Siverskog, A. (2013). "'För oss blir ju hela livet en teater': Äldre transpersoners erfarenheter av åldrande och könsidentitet" I Bromseth, J., Siverskog, A. (red.) LHBTQ-personer och åldrande: Nordiska perspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur

Jönson, H., Siverskog, A. (2012). "Turning vinegar into wine": Humorous self-presentations among older GLBTQ online daters. Journal of Aging Studies. 26 (1): 55-64