For English, please scroll down.
May-Britt Öhman. Fil.Dr., teknovetenskapliga forskargruppen, Centrum för genusvetenskap, Uppsala universitet
Jag är filosofie doktor, Fil Dr, i Teknik- och Vetenskapshistoria. I mitt arbete kopplas teknik, naturvetenskap, historia, sociala relationer, genus, känslor, kropp och allt som påverkar - kontexterna - ihop.
Jag disputerade 2007 vid KTH, Stockholm på en avhandling där jag analyserar svenskt bistånd till vattenkraft i Tanzania ur ett postkolonialt feministiskt teknovetenskapligt perspektiv. Se länk http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-4426
Jag forskar, föreläser och skriver om dammsäkerhet(er), risker, vattenkraft, energiproduktion och konsumtion, miljö, vattensäkerhet, mänsklig säkerhet, teknovetenskap i stort, postkolonial teori och metod, feministisk teknovetenskap, urfolksmetodologier, genus, avkolonisering, Sábme- Sápmi - Saepmie.
Jag är med i Gruvrealistiska forskarnätverket och medlem i ArA Antirasistiska akademin. 2009 startades nätverket för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala, som 2011 blev en förening UPPSAM, föreningen/nätverket för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala. Jag var medlem av redaktionsrådet för NAIS, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal, 2012-2015. Jag var ersättare i Sametinget (Mija Gäjnno) 2013-2017. 2011-2015 var jag styrelseledamot av SSR, Svenska Samernas Riksförbund. Jag är sedan 2011 styrelseledamot i den samiska kulturföreningen Silbonah Samesijdda.
Även medlem i NAISA, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Sveriges genusforskarförbund (styrelseledamot sedan 2016), Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
Svensk text uppdaterad 2017-11-08
English short bio:
May-Britt Öhman, PhD, Researcher, Technoscience research group, Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University.
May-Britt is affiliated to the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala university, since December 2008 financed solely through successful research project of which the latest is “Rivers, Resistance, Resilience: Sustainable futures in Sápmi and in other Indigenous Peoples’ territories” (FORMAS, 2012-2015).
May-Britt has set up a Feminist “Technoscience research group”, with specific focus on Indigenous/Sámi perspectives and methodologies. The research group does supradisciplinary collaborations academia-ex-academia, involving scholars, activists, artists, film makers, reindeer herders. Collaboration includes scholars/Indigenous scholars/ activists/artists from Sápmi, Scandinavia, Greenland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Chile, Morocco, Peru, Chile, the US and Canada.
May-Britt’s specific focus is on large scale technical systems, hydropower, energy production/consumption, water resources, environmental issues, decolonization and healing from traumas of colonization – mainly focusing on Sábme/Sápmi, land of the Sámi and also comparative studies and exchanges; human security; dam safety; water security.
English long bio:
I am Lule/Forest Sámi of the Jokkmokk – Lule River/Julevädno region, the Swedish side of Sábme, land of Sámi. I grew up in Luleå, by the mouth of the Lule River. This is my cultural home waterscapes and landscapes.
I also have heritage from the Torne River Valley and the language Meänkieli, from my maternal grandmother, as well as heritage from is Roslagen, north east of Stockholm, where my paternal grandmother came from.
I hold a PhD in History of Science and Technology, from the Division of History of Science and Technology, KTH. (Thesis available here: http://libris.kb.se/bib/10457359 ) and due to long time work in this field I refer to myself as an expert of dam safety- from sociotechnical perspectives. There is currently no other researcher - as far as I know - that has a similar broad take on water resources, dams and design. I collaborate with several specialists in their own fields, under the technoscience research umbrella.
In 2008 I received 24 months PostDoctoral funding from Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) for studying hydropower exploitations on the Lule River "Situated perspectives on hydropower exploitation in Sápmi: Swedish technological expansion in the 20th century
and its impacts on indigenous peoples" . Since then I am a researcher at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala university. My second research project of which I was the initiator and leader is DAMMED: Security, Risk and Resilience around Dams in Sub Arctica (Vetenskapsrådet, 2010-2012, 4, 339 MSEK). Currently I am the leader of the research project “Rivers, Resistance, Resilience: Sustainable futures in Sápmi and in other Indigenous Peoples’ territories” (FORMAS, 2012-2015, 6 MSEK).
In 2013 I set up a Feminist Technoscience research group, the “Technoscience research group” with specific focus on Indigenous/Sámi perspectives and methodologies. The research group works with supradisciplinary collaborations academia-exacademia, involving scholars, activists, artists, film makers, reindeer herders. Collaboration includes scholars/indigenous scholars/activists/artists from Sábme, Scandinavia, Greenland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Chile, Morocco, Peru, the US and Canada.
I have organised several "supradisciplinary" feminist technoscience symposia, workshops and seminars in Uppsala, starting from 2010.
My specific focus is on large scale technical systems, hydropower, energy production/consumption, water resources, environmental issues, decolonization and healing from traumas of colonization – mainly focusing on Sábme/Sápmi, land of the Sámi but also comparative studies and international exchanges.
My involvement in the Sámi society and Sámi /Indigenous studies:
In 2008, I embarked upon the research on my own region, my own river – the Lule River – which ultimately led me back to my Sámi heritage, which I had known very little about, and a history I had tried to avoid for a long time. (Please see my article describing this journey at the start “Being May-Britt Öhman : or, reflections on my own colonized mind regarding hydropower constructions in Sápmi” http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:685126 ) I have been active within the Sámi society since 2009, when I was invited to a first Sámi meeting by my relative and mentor Agneta Silversparf.
I am since 2013 member of board of the Sámi cultural association Silbonah Samesijdda. I was member of board of the National Association of Swedish Saami, SSR, 2011-2015. I was a candidate for the Sámi Parliament elections for Vuovdega (Forest Sámis) and for Mijá Gäjnno in 2013. In the elections of 2013 I became a deputy member of the Sámi Parliament. I am not much involved in Sámi politics, but I consider my participation as a way to both learn more about the issues of importance to the Sámi society as well as to contribute with my own expertise to the Sámi society at large. I am available to provide support to any Sámi parliament party who so wishes on the research and teaching of my expertise. The same goes of course for Swedish politics, when asked questions on my topics I do my best to contribute.
Since 2013 I am member of the editorial board of NAIS, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal.
I was co-founder of UPPSAM, the association for Sámi related research in Uppsala, established in 2011 as an association, and I have been member of the board since then. Since April 2014 I am president of the UPPSAM board.
More about my background and experiences:
From mid 1980s to mid1990s I was active within Swedish politics – mainly in youth politics although I did serve as deputy of the school board in Luleå municipality 1987-88. I was much involved in environmental issues as well as human rights and anti-racism, and participated in the work with the isolate South Africa campaign - ISAK, Isolera Sydafrika Kommittén -a committee which was an umbrella organisation for several organisations and political youth organisations - to promote the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.
I worked as organizer for a socialliberal political youth organization - Folkpartiets Ungdomsförbund/Liberala Ungdomsförbundet, 1986-1988, and was co-editor of the journal Liberal Ungdom 1990-1992.
1990-1994 I was a student at Uppsala University, where I took the following courses: History of Ideas and Science, 1 year; Development Studies, 1 year; Religion 1 semester (I attended the courses History of religions, psychology and sociology of religion; the Old Testament); Arabic, 1 semester; Political Science 2 years. (Yes, I did take some parallel courses, or it would not have been possible to do all of this)
I spent half a year in Lisbon, to study Portuguese, in 1992, and coming back to Sweden, I studied one semester of Portuguese at Stockholm University. In June 1992 I, as an NGO representative for my youth organization, went to Rio de Janeiro to attend the famous “Earth Summit” and the parallel NGO Forum
In 1994 I was an official Swedish NGO delegate to the Preparatory Committee III in New York, for the ICPD – the International Conference on Population and Development.
From fall 1994-95 I was an exchange student in Political science at the Institute for Political Studies of Paris (Sciences Po), followed by a year extra when I stayed in Paris to study French at Sorbonne. I also finalized my BA thesis in Political science, analyzing French-Algerian relationships during the aftermaths of the cancelled Algerian elections of 1992. During this time I was a resident at the Swedish students house at the Cité International Universitaire. I hope more students will be able to have a similar experience and the important and exciting international exchange which made possible through this historical campus set up after the First World War.
1996-97 I spent 8 months in Bamako, Mali. During four months I was an intern to the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to learn more about development assistance to the promotion of democracy. I produced a manual for local electoral supervision (in French), and assisted in the work to train local electoral supervisors. I stayed another four months to follow the electoral developments and to finalize a Master thesis.
Returning back to Sweden in 1997, I spent six months as an intern at the Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC), followed by work as teacher at schools. Since 1998 however, I opted to pull out from both political activities within Swedish politics, and also from development assistance work. I sent in two different PhD candidate applications, of which one was succesful.
In late 1998 I was accepted as a PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology, the Division of History of Science and Technology (and Environment is added, nowadays). My PhD thesis work was on hydropower constructions in the era of transition from colonization to development assistance. The PhD thesis work took extra time due to extensive sick leave. During six years I was (falsely) diagnosed with depression and exhaust syndrom. However, in 2008 a severe Vitamin B6 deficiency was discovered by Björn Westin. B6 deficiency causes the very same symtoms as depression and "burn out".
I relate the defiency to the aftermaths of major medical treatment for malaria at a Swedish hospital (in early 2001) with a well known and still used malaria treatment medicine. When finally discovered, I could be rather easily treated by taking extra Vitamin B6. In quite short time, I was back to feeling more or less normal. It took about two weeks for a significant improvement. Apparently it is hard to diagnose B6 defiency through blood test.
I have earned an embodied experience about physical and mental illness. During these six years, and also afterwards, I had the opportunity to try out different types of treatments , such as psychotherapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and finally Acceptment and Commitment Theraphy (ACT), through zen coaching.
Although not trained as a therapist in any way, I have found that these personal experiences are of great support in my ongoing research work, as the issues I investigate – historically and currently – are connected to traumas and pain.
I am pondering over ways to be able to make use of it also in the work with healing of traumas of colonization and racism, and I see connections to Storytelling methodologies and yoik.
After all - science is a way of telling stories, to understand and communicate about the world, and it is always related to the human bodies that are doing this work as noted by amongst other feminist technoscience scholar Donna Haraway, (1988) in the Cyborg Manifesto and in Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.
May-Britt Öhman. Fil.Dr., teknovetenskapliga forskargruppen, Centrum för genusvetenskap, Uppsala universitet
Jag är filosofie doktor, Fil Dr, i Teknik- och Vetenskapshistoria. I mitt arbete kopplas teknik, naturvetenskap, historia, sociala relationer, genus, känslor, kropp och allt som påverkar - kontexterna - ihop.
Jag disputerade 2007 vid KTH, Stockholm på en avhandling där jag analyserar svenskt bistånd till vattenkraft i Tanzania ur ett postkolonialt feministiskt teknovetenskapligt perspektiv. Se länk http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-4426
Jag forskar, föreläser och skriver om dammsäkerhet(er), risker, vattenkraft, energiproduktion och konsumtion, miljö, vattensäkerhet, mänsklig säkerhet, teknovetenskap i stort, postkolonial teori och metod, feministisk teknovetenskap, urfolksmetodologier, genus, avkolonisering, Sábme- Sápmi - Saepmie.
Jag är med i Gruvrealistiska forskarnätverket och medlem i ArA Antirasistiska akademin. 2009 startades nätverket för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala, som 2011 blev en förening UPPSAM, föreningen/nätverket för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala. Jag var medlem av redaktionsrådet för NAIS, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal, 2012-2015. Jag var ersättare i Sametinget (Mija Gäjnno) 2013-2017. 2011-2015 var jag styrelseledamot av SSR, Svenska Samernas Riksförbund. Jag är sedan 2011 styrelseledamot i den samiska kulturföreningen Silbonah Samesijdda.
Även medlem i NAISA, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Sveriges genusforskarförbund (styrelseledamot sedan 2016), Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
Svensk text uppdaterad 2017-11-08
English short bio:
May-Britt Öhman, PhD, Researcher, Technoscience research group, Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University.
May-Britt is affiliated to the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala university, since December 2008 financed solely through successful research project of which the latest is “Rivers, Resistance, Resilience: Sustainable futures in Sápmi and in other Indigenous Peoples’ territories” (FORMAS, 2012-2015).
May-Britt has set up a Feminist “Technoscience research group”, with specific focus on Indigenous/Sámi perspectives and methodologies. The research group does supradisciplinary collaborations academia-ex-academia, involving scholars, activists, artists, film makers, reindeer herders. Collaboration includes scholars/Indigenous scholars/ activists/artists from Sápmi, Scandinavia, Greenland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Chile, Morocco, Peru, Chile, the US and Canada.
May-Britt’s specific focus is on large scale technical systems, hydropower, energy production/consumption, water resources, environmental issues, decolonization and healing from traumas of colonization – mainly focusing on Sábme/Sápmi, land of the Sámi and also comparative studies and exchanges; human security; dam safety; water security.
English long bio:
I am Lule/Forest Sámi of the Jokkmokk – Lule River/Julevädno region, the Swedish side of Sábme, land of Sámi. I grew up in Luleå, by the mouth of the Lule River. This is my cultural home waterscapes and landscapes.
I also have heritage from the Torne River Valley and the language Meänkieli, from my maternal grandmother, as well as heritage from is Roslagen, north east of Stockholm, where my paternal grandmother came from.
I hold a PhD in History of Science and Technology, from the Division of History of Science and Technology, KTH. (Thesis available here: http://libris.kb.se/bib/10457359 ) and due to long time work in this field I refer to myself as an expert of dam safety- from sociotechnical perspectives. There is currently no other researcher - as far as I know - that has a similar broad take on water resources, dams and design. I collaborate with several specialists in their own fields, under the technoscience research umbrella.
In 2008 I received 24 months PostDoctoral funding from Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) for studying hydropower exploitations on the Lule River "Situated perspectives on hydropower exploitation in Sápmi: Swedish technological expansion in the 20th century
and its impacts on indigenous peoples" . Since then I am a researcher at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala university. My second research project of which I was the initiator and leader is DAMMED: Security, Risk and Resilience around Dams in Sub Arctica (Vetenskapsrådet, 2010-2012, 4, 339 MSEK). Currently I am the leader of the research project “Rivers, Resistance, Resilience: Sustainable futures in Sápmi and in other Indigenous Peoples’ territories” (FORMAS, 2012-2015, 6 MSEK).
In 2013 I set up a Feminist Technoscience research group, the “Technoscience research group” with specific focus on Indigenous/Sámi perspectives and methodologies. The research group works with supradisciplinary collaborations academia-exacademia, involving scholars, activists, artists, film makers, reindeer herders. Collaboration includes scholars/indigenous scholars/activists/artists from Sábme, Scandinavia, Greenland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Chile, Morocco, Peru, the US and Canada.
I have organised several "supradisciplinary" feminist technoscience symposia, workshops and seminars in Uppsala, starting from 2010.
My specific focus is on large scale technical systems, hydropower, energy production/consumption, water resources, environmental issues, decolonization and healing from traumas of colonization – mainly focusing on Sábme/Sápmi, land of the Sámi but also comparative studies and international exchanges.
My involvement in the Sámi society and Sámi /Indigenous studies:
In 2008, I embarked upon the research on my own region, my own river – the Lule River – which ultimately led me back to my Sámi heritage, which I had known very little about, and a history I had tried to avoid for a long time. (Please see my article describing this journey at the start “Being May-Britt Öhman : or, reflections on my own colonized mind regarding hydropower constructions in Sápmi” http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:685126 ) I have been active within the Sámi society since 2009, when I was invited to a first Sámi meeting by my relative and mentor Agneta Silversparf.
I am since 2013 member of board of the Sámi cultural association Silbonah Samesijdda. I was member of board of the National Association of Swedish Saami, SSR, 2011-2015. I was a candidate for the Sámi Parliament elections for Vuovdega (Forest Sámis) and for Mijá Gäjnno in 2013. In the elections of 2013 I became a deputy member of the Sámi Parliament. I am not much involved in Sámi politics, but I consider my participation as a way to both learn more about the issues of importance to the Sámi society as well as to contribute with my own expertise to the Sámi society at large. I am available to provide support to any Sámi parliament party who so wishes on the research and teaching of my expertise. The same goes of course for Swedish politics, when asked questions on my topics I do my best to contribute.
Since 2013 I am member of the editorial board of NAIS, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal.
I was co-founder of UPPSAM, the association for Sámi related research in Uppsala, established in 2011 as an association, and I have been member of the board since then. Since April 2014 I am president of the UPPSAM board.
More about my background and experiences:
From mid 1980s to mid1990s I was active within Swedish politics – mainly in youth politics although I did serve as deputy of the school board in Luleå municipality 1987-88. I was much involved in environmental issues as well as human rights and anti-racism, and participated in the work with the isolate South Africa campaign - ISAK, Isolera Sydafrika Kommittén -a committee which was an umbrella organisation for several organisations and political youth organisations - to promote the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.
I worked as organizer for a socialliberal political youth organization - Folkpartiets Ungdomsförbund/Liberala Ungdomsförbundet, 1986-1988, and was co-editor of the journal Liberal Ungdom 1990-1992.
1990-1994 I was a student at Uppsala University, where I took the following courses: History of Ideas and Science, 1 year; Development Studies, 1 year; Religion 1 semester (I attended the courses History of religions, psychology and sociology of religion; the Old Testament); Arabic, 1 semester; Political Science 2 years. (Yes, I did take some parallel courses, or it would not have been possible to do all of this)
I spent half a year in Lisbon, to study Portuguese, in 1992, and coming back to Sweden, I studied one semester of Portuguese at Stockholm University. In June 1992 I, as an NGO representative for my youth organization, went to Rio de Janeiro to attend the famous “Earth Summit” and the parallel NGO Forum
In 1994 I was an official Swedish NGO delegate to the Preparatory Committee III in New York, for the ICPD – the International Conference on Population and Development.
From fall 1994-95 I was an exchange student in Political science at the Institute for Political Studies of Paris (Sciences Po), followed by a year extra when I stayed in Paris to study French at Sorbonne. I also finalized my BA thesis in Political science, analyzing French-Algerian relationships during the aftermaths of the cancelled Algerian elections of 1992. During this time I was a resident at the Swedish students house at the Cité International Universitaire. I hope more students will be able to have a similar experience and the important and exciting international exchange which made possible through this historical campus set up after the First World War.
1996-97 I spent 8 months in Bamako, Mali. During four months I was an intern to the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to learn more about development assistance to the promotion of democracy. I produced a manual for local electoral supervision (in French), and assisted in the work to train local electoral supervisors. I stayed another four months to follow the electoral developments and to finalize a Master thesis.
Returning back to Sweden in 1997, I spent six months as an intern at the Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC), followed by work as teacher at schools. Since 1998 however, I opted to pull out from both political activities within Swedish politics, and also from development assistance work. I sent in two different PhD candidate applications, of which one was succesful.
In late 1998 I was accepted as a PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology, the Division of History of Science and Technology (and Environment is added, nowadays). My PhD thesis work was on hydropower constructions in the era of transition from colonization to development assistance. The PhD thesis work took extra time due to extensive sick leave. During six years I was (falsely) diagnosed with depression and exhaust syndrom. However, in 2008 a severe Vitamin B6 deficiency was discovered by Björn Westin. B6 deficiency causes the very same symtoms as depression and "burn out".
I relate the defiency to the aftermaths of major medical treatment for malaria at a Swedish hospital (in early 2001) with a well known and still used malaria treatment medicine. When finally discovered, I could be rather easily treated by taking extra Vitamin B6. In quite short time, I was back to feeling more or less normal. It took about two weeks for a significant improvement. Apparently it is hard to diagnose B6 defiency through blood test.
I have earned an embodied experience about physical and mental illness. During these six years, and also afterwards, I had the opportunity to try out different types of treatments , such as psychotherapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and finally Acceptment and Commitment Theraphy (ACT), through zen coaching.
Although not trained as a therapist in any way, I have found that these personal experiences are of great support in my ongoing research work, as the issues I investigate – historically and currently – are connected to traumas and pain.
I am pondering over ways to be able to make use of it also in the work with healing of traumas of colonization and racism, and I see connections to Storytelling methodologies and yoik.
After all - science is a way of telling stories, to understand and communicate about the world, and it is always related to the human bodies that are doing this work as noted by amongst other feminist technoscience scholar Donna Haraway, (1988) in the Cyborg Manifesto and in Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.