Incorporating Vulnerability: a non-fragmented approach to feminist research on violence

This multidisciplinary project, pursued at the Gender Studies program of the University of Helsinki, builds a non-fragmented approach to feminist research by challenging conventional distinctions between physical and non-physical violence, mind and body, self and others. In this study the configuration and gendered experience of violence is studied at three levels, the interpersonal, institutional and international. It takes a unique perspective by focusing on the felt-sense of the body as a means of healing and transforming the trauma resulting from emotional and physical abuse and shows how vulnerability is integral in forming connections with others. The project brings together four interconnected case studies in order to build a new research agenda which recognizes the physical effects of emotional abuse with the emotional effects of physical abuse. The project crosses disciplinary boundaries between social sciences and the humanities, comprising interview, archival, fiction, music and film materials. The research results will be useful to various health care professionals.