C(h)ristian’s Blog

Research project

I started my PhD research after being accepted at the Department of Political Science, University of Helsinki  with a research project pertaining to issues of gender studies/gender equality and democracy in January 2007. More specifically, the project entails a cross-country analysis of the extremist masculinity ideals developed and promoted by the means of nationalistic discourses in several countries: Finland, Romania, and Sweden. The subjects of my feminist endeavor are the True Finns (“Perussuomalaiset”) in Finland, the Greater Romania Party (“Partidul Romania Mare”) in Romania, and the Sweden Democrats (“Sverigedemokraterna”) in Sweden. It is aimed to cast more light on the specific places of resistance against gender equality, and against the processes of EU integration.

The research project is an inter-disciplinary dialogue. It draws its resources from scholarship focusing on the study of masculinity and the feminist performativity; at the same time, it is anchored in political sciences, with a special sensitivity to the outburst of rightist extremism within the wider European context. The research project will contribute to the political and scientific goals of cultural diversity as well as democratic equality.