I vetenskapens namn: Ett minnesarbete

Abstract

In the name of science: A work of memory. This article presents a case of memory work carried out by five women graduate students in the hope of getting a better understanding of their experiences as women working in the Academy. "Memory work" as used here is a method developed by the group of researchers working with Frigga Haug. The starting point of this article is the authors' written recollection of presenting their scholarly work in seminars. On the basis of these narratives, the authors discuss how scholarship and sexual politics are intertwined, how scientific conventions and rules are interpreted and institutionalised, and how the authors participate in these processes themselves. Through five thematic models interpretations and insights that emerge from memory work are presented. The first theme is the seminar situation and the question of what it is like to be a graduate student. As a second theme experiences of the body and sensuality are discussed, and the third theme focuses on the experience of finding oneself in a scholarly structure that one is in the process of questioning. The fourth thematic model concerns the possibilities for individual agency in connection with seminars. The importance of responsibility and guilt is the fifth theme. The article suggests that memory work is not only a profitable scientific method, but also in itself a liberating process. Describing and naming one's experiences is a prerequisite for the ability to problematize, criticize and in the last resort change an oppressive order of things.