Cruising the Baltic Sea: Nation, Gender and Sexuality in pleasure-based ferry traffic between Finland, Åland and Sweden
This presentation introduces our research project “Cruising the Baltic Sea Nation, Gender and Sexuality in pleasure-based ferry traffic between Finland, Åland and Sweden” (PI: Katarina Mattsson, Södertörn University, funding from The Foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies) especially from the viewpoint of history of sexuality. In the presentation, we address three aspects of our study in particular to highlight the ways in which the ferry travel and cruising have been tied to Finnish and Swedish sexualities during the last fifty years. First, we introduce our work on utilizing heterosexual romance in the marketing of ferry cruises in the 1990s. Second, we address the media discussion on sexual violence on the ferries both in Finland and Sweden from the 1980s to the 2020s. Third, we discuss our on-going research on queer cruises conducted on the ferries in the early 1980s and early 2000s based on queer media sources and oral histories.
Associate Professor Klara Arnberg works as a university lecturer in economic history at Stockholm University and is a researcher at Södertörn University. Her research covers marketing and consumption history as well as gender and sexuality history.
Katarina Mattsson is an Associate Professor in gender studies at Södertörn University. Her research addresses intersections of gender and whiteness, and different aspects of tourism and travelling.
PhD Riikka Taavetti works as a university lecturer in gender studies at the University of Turku. Her research addresses queer history, history of sexuality, oral history and cultural memory studies in Finland, Estonia and Sweden.
- this seminar is free to attend, but advance registration is required.
This page was last updated on 23 April 2025
