Individual residencies / Andorra
RAISA JURVA
From Monday, 20 January 2020 to Friday, 31 January 2020
Bio
Raisa Jurva (M.Soc.Sc.) is finalizing her doctoral thesis in Gender Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. Her research interests include ambivalent attachments of intimacy, entanglements of power and affect in intimate relationships, feminist and queer theories and methodologies, and life course perspectives on gender. She has published on discourses of heterosexuality in sex education materials, men’s experiences of prostate cancer treatment, and female complaint as an expression of gender inequality. Her doctoral research is part of the Academy of Finland funded research project Just the Two of Us? Affective inequalities in intimate relationships (31213265711).
Project
During the residency, I will be finalizing my PhD thesis in Gender Studies, for which I have interviewed mid- to later-life women who have experience of a relationship with a substantially younger man. The unconventional age difference brings forth gendered conventions on heterosexuality, such as reproduction and family lineage. Drawing on feminist research on heterosexuality and queer temporalities research, I focus on the affective dimension of intimacy that enables gender hierarchies to get stuck. The study is part of a research project Just the Two of Us? Affective inequalities in intimate relationships (project 31213265711) funded by the Academy of Finland.
I arrived to La Massana, Andorra, by bus from Barcelona. The bus ride allowed passengers to get a sense of the specific characteristics of the region as the bus drove higher and higher along the ascending mountain roads. At the time of my residency, I was in the middle of an intensive writing phase of my research, for which Faber Andorra provided excellent conditions. For taking a break from writing, it was good to go for walks and enjoy the hilly landscape that surrounded the area. There are places that can be reached by foot, such as the neighboring parish Ordino that I visited. During the residency, I felt all the time well taken care of by Faber staff, who made sure that I have a comfortable stay. At the end of my residency period, I had the pleasure to give a public talk at a library. The event was well attended. I was happily surprised to see how many people had showed up on a Friday evening to listen to my talk “Personal is political: case Finland”. I sensed a genuine interest in feminist research on couple relationships that I discussed, and it was an absolute enjoyment to present to such a keen audience. I left Andorra with a light-hearted spirit.