Re-framing in Friction: On Trans-inclusive Enactment of Gender Equality Aims

Re-framing in Friction: On Trans-inclusive Enactment of Gender Equality Aims

Toby Odland

How and why do inequalities become reproduced in interventions that aim to combat them? In my doctoral thesis Re-framing in Friction: On Trans-inclusive Enactment of Gender Equality Aims (Odland 2025), I explore this question about recursive dynamics with a focus on the complexity of, and ambiguity in, practical labor for institutional change. I consider how these dynamics manifest both in the organization of labor of addressing and intervening in gendersexed inequalities (könsbaserade ojämlikheter), and through various modes of framing gendersexed inequalities (what they are, what they do, and how they are most efficiently combated). 

In this study, I draw on accounts from gender equality practitioners (jämställdhetsarbetare) about how they, in different ways, seek to make their own work and their organizations' ambitions for gender equality more inclusive of Trans people and our experiences. Through an interdisciplinary inquiry, I have studied both institutionalization of gender equality work and aims in public organizations in Sweden, and how some ideas of Trans-inclusive enactment become possible, desirable, and hopeful, while others become impossible, undesirable, and fearsome.

In this presentation, I will speak about how I developed and used a feminist approach for following the situated criticality of those who do within organizations what would otherwise not be done by them. I will also discuss some of my main conclusions concerning recursive entanglements in the constitution of i) legitimate and illegitimate subjects for gender equality efforts, and ii) legitimate and illegitimate tools and strategies for carrying out such efforts.

Bio

Dr. Toby Odland is part-time researcher and teacher at Örebro University, with a PhD in Gender Studies from Linköping University (2025). In his research, Toby asks questions about how Trans subjectivity, intelligibility, and livability is shaped and (re)produced in state policy discourse (Odland 2020), and in tandem with interventions in public organizations that seek to intervene in gendersexed inequalities (Odland 2025). Together with Luca Karhu Tainio, Toby has edited a special issue on Trans Autoethnographies in Tidskrift för genusvetenskap.

In the future, he hopes to get the opportunity to conduct a project on the effects of anti-gender mobilization on practical labor with gender equality, as well as a project devoted to theoretical accounts of ignorance and of measures put in place to address ignorance in local settings.

Crip & Queer Seminar Spring 2026

Accessibility: The room is accessible for wheelchair users (automatic doors, elevator, accessible toilet).

The Crip & Queer Seminar series is hosted by the division of Gender Studies. After the seminars, which are open to students, staff, and the general public, we serve fika in the kitchen on the fourth floor of Gamla Lungkliniken. 

Warmly welcome!

Contact

• Elin Lundell elin [dot] lundell [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se (elin[dot]lundell[at]genus[dot]lu[dot]se)
• Irina Schmitt irina [dot] schmitt [at] genus [dot] lu [dot] se