Hi everybody!

If someone is interested to travel to northern Finland in May, I am organizing a workshop there about queerness and social work together with doctoral researcher Emilia Brusila. Welcome to submit abstracts before 15.3.2025! The language of the workshop is both Finnish and English. It is organized as part of the Social work research days in Rovaniemi 15.-16.5.2025, which gathers together social work researchers, students, and teachers in Finland. The general conference program will be mainly in Finnish, but also some keynotes and workshops in English and some workshops in Swedish.

Info about the conference: https://www.ulapland.fi/FI/Tapahtumia/Sosiaalityon-tutkimuksen-paivat-2025

And our workshop:

Queerness and vulnerability: Norms, rights, and social work possibilities
Workshop leaders:
Emilia Brusila, social work university teacher & PhD researcher, University of Lapland (emilia.brusila@ulapland.fi)
Inka Söderström, social work university teacher, University of Helsinki (inka.soderstrom@helsinki.fi)

Working group language: Finnish, English

The diversity of sexuality, gender, and relationships affects all people, but societal norms often limit how these identities and relationships are recognized and valued. Norms around sexuality, gender and relationships can place individuals, families and communities who differ from these norms in a vulnerable position, with multiple social consequences. This diversity is often referred to as LGBTQIA+ identities, queerness, or sexual, gender and relationship minorities. International social work research has identified that strengthening knowledge and skills to improve the situation of LGBTQIA+ people is a key issue. Studies have addressed issues such as the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people in social services, the everyday lives of queer families, the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ youth in child protection, and the wounding effects of normative mindsets such as hetero-, cis and mono-normativity. In Finland, research, education and professional debate on these topics are still limited, which undermines the capacity of social workers to respond to the needs of queer people and to promote human rights-based work. Without comprehensive research, the specific service needs of LGBTQIA+ service users and the processes that place them in vulnerable positions cannot be adequately identified.

In recent years, Finnish LGBTQIA+ social work research has begun to grow, but the need for knowledge sharing and networking remains significant. This workshop provides a platform for increasing the visibility of research and practice in the field of LGBTQIA+ social work. The workshop invites researchers, students, practitioners, NGO actors and experts-by-experience to share knowledge and discuss the links between queerness and social work.

The workshop welcomes submissions on topics such as:
• The experiences of LGBTQIA+ service users and professionals in social services
• Norm-critical social work
• Specific issues related to queer families and youth
• The diversity of gender and sexuality in social work education
• Creative approaches to LGBTQIA+ social work

The workshop encourages a variety of forms of participation: presentations of research results, descriptions of research in progress, contributions from experts-by-experience or creative presentations such as performances. The presentations can be in Finnish or English and the discussion will take place in the language of the presentation.

Best regards, Inka Söderström

Inka Söderström

Sosiaalityön yliopisto-opettaja

Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta

Helsingin yliopisto

Inka Söderström

Social work university teacher

Faculty of social sciences

University of Helsinki

inka.soderstrom@helsinki.fi