Description

• Title:
  Lesbian Studies as a Way of Countering Non-Sexual Feminisms in Poland
• Creator:
  Olasik, Marta
• Contributor:
  Desperak, Iza;
  Anafiliated scholar;
  Marta Olasik’s area of expertise is lesbian studies, which she reflects on from the perspectives of the sociology of knowledge and geographies of sexualities primarily. Her efforts concentrate on re-introducing the component of sexuality into feminism in general and academic analyses of gender in particular. Her PhD dissertation is a pioneering interdisciplinary conceptualisation of lesbian subjectivities (due to be published in both languages) and aims at introducing a proper separate lesbian-studies discourse into the Polish academia as well as promoting the branch of human geography. The next step for Dr Olasik will be to conduct proper empirical research into the question of lesbian subjectivities in Poland. Her international academic activity is extensive and includes the cooperation with prominent geographers of sexualities in the attempt to generate a plurality of lesbian feminisms; she has also given a seminar for postdocs and senior academics in the International Gender Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Her general objective is to promote an intertextual attitude, where lesbianity (sic!) is an open field of possibilities for emotional and sexual self-creation.
• Description:
  This article offers a reflection on the current state of affairs regarding sexuality studies in general and the representation of non-heterosexual women in particular in contemporary academia and feminisms. As a lesbian scholar based in Poland, I am attempting to establish a separate lesbian-studies discourse in the Polish academia on the one hand, and encourage a great dose of interdisciplinarity in moving towards re-adjusted and re-defined lesbian feminisms on the other. Having defended my doctoral dissertation, I am going to re-visit and summarise one of its parts, namely the question of inadequacies of contemporary gender studies. Although the overall character of my activity can be situated within the sociology of sexuality, I tend to conceptualise the problems in question through the prism of sociology of knowledge and human geography, and especially the branches of feminist geography and geographies of sexualities. Altogether, I am going to briefly look into several contemporary gender and/or women’s studies programmes in Poland in order to show both their incapacity to deal with female sexuality and, as a consequence, their erasure of lesbianity. Needless to say, the brief analysis herein is merely the start of the discussion as it offers only a sample of exploratory efforts with regard to the question of academic feminisms, but it is one that reveals some alarming tendencies.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 ;
  Uznanie autorstwa-Użycie niekomercyjne-Na tych samych warunkach 4.0 Międzynarodowe
• Date:
  2021.10.27;
  2018
• Type:
  Article
• Language:
  English
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Publisher:
  Katedra Socjologii Polityki i Moralności, Wydział Ekonomiczno-Socjologiczny
• Relation:
  Władza Sądzenia;14
• Subject:
  lesbian studies;
  sociology of knowledge;
  gender studies;
  lesbian feminism;
  geographies of sexualities
• Identifier:
  2300-1690;
  http://hdl.handle.net/11089/39623
• Data provider:
  Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  image