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Med denna Festskrift firar vi att Centrum för genusvetenskap i över fyrtio år har fungerat som en viktig mötesplats för kunskap och vetenskapande – en sådan plats som många uppfattar som absolut nödvändig för sin överlevnad i akademin. Genom att sätta genus i centrum på Centrum skapar vi kunskap över gränser mellan vetenskapsområden, fakulteter och forskningsfält.

Centrum består i grund och botten av de människor som verkar där. Den här Festskriften är också en hyllning till alla dessa människor – deras arbete, engagemang, intelligens, uthållighet och inspirationsförmåga. Centrum existerar också tack vare de viktiga nationella och internationella nätverk inom forskning och utbildning som Centrum är del av. Med denna bok skickar vi alltså en hälsning och ett tack till alla våra kollegor inom fältet. 

Kapitlen i denna volym är en blandning som sträcker sig från essäer och personliga historieskrivningar om Centrum, till reflektioner om arbetslivet vid Centrum eller som genusforskare överlag, till forskningsartiklar om en rad mycket olika områden, vilka i sig också vittnar om den livliga och variationsrika forskningsmiljö som vi fortsätter att bygga tillsammans.

From the intersection of queer studies, area studies and critical kinship studies, this groundbreaking collection explores queer (non-heterosexual) family practices and kinship formations from converging perspectives and in a range of geopolitical settings around the Baltic Sea region and beyond. Empirically grounded and in critical dialogue with international scholarship, the volume simultaneously places (queer) kinship and reproduction at the centre of area studies and contributes to the de-centring of Western, Anglo-American theoretical and empirical dominance within feminist and queer kinship studies. 

Using examples from Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Poland and  Sweden, this book highlights the importance of geopolitics in the understandings of queer kinship. Contributors explore the centrality of sexuality in assisted reproduction, family-making and other forms of queer/ing kinship and intimacy by focusing on equality, the role of the state, of technologies in making and breaking kinship, and further the theoretical discussion on matters of mourning, inter-generationality, embodiment, labour and citizenship.  

In the 2000s, same sex partnership laws, new reproductive technologies, and legislation rendering lesbian couples and single women eligible for state-funded assisted reproduction with donated gametes in the Scandinavian nations has resulted in significant changes in family formation. Drawing on two separate qualitative stud-ies, this paper scrutinizes Scandinavia’s alleged progressive LGBTQ politics by critically examining how ideas of kinship, race and nation shape ideas of ‘donor matching’ amongst queer parents in Sweden and Denmark. Through empirical analysis, we explore how the conditional invitation of queers into family making via state regulated assisted reproduction is entangled with racialised medical and commercial choices of donors that reflect historically specific ideas of race. In particular, we show how whiteness is framed as desirable and how being ‘racialised non-white’ is framed as a risk that ought to be minimised for children who are already considered ‘disadvantaged’ by being born into ‘queer’ families. Thus, we argue that contempo-rary queer reproduction is not only central to homonationalism, it can also be seen as a continuation of eugenic and biopolitical initiatives that have been central to the emergence of Scandinavian welfare states. We conclude by proposing further scru-tiny ofcontemporary queer reproduction as apotential ‘white-washing’ technique to manage populations.