![Dr Sonja Erikainen Dr Sonja Erikainen](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/s01se2/avatar/3s24QMiDqyGFsqZSdRyDe8q7reUb7jI5QTsnypqq.jpeg)
Lecturer
- About
-
- Email Address
- s.erikainen@abdn.ac.uk
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
Sonja (Sone) Erikainen joined the University of Aberdeen Sociology Department in 2022 as a Lecturer in Sociology.
They completed their PhD in Sociology at the University of Leeds in 2017, after gaining an MSc in Gender Research at the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA (hons) in Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Prior to taking up their current post, they held three different research fellowships at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leeds. Their research focuses on the science-society intersection and examines social and cultural issues around biomedicine and health, scientific knowledge production, sports, gender diversity and sex difference.
- Research
-
Research Overview
My research focuses on the science-society intersection, and aims to understand the social implications of the changing relationship between science and wider society and culture. I am especially interested in social and cultural issues around biomedical knowledge production and the uses of scientific knowledge in the construction of social categories. Driven by this wider theoretical interest, my research concentrates on two different but overlapping areas: new and emerging biotechnologies and new approaches to medical research, and gender diversity and sex difference.
Within new and emerging biotechnologies and approaches to medical research, I am especially interested in questions around how these technologies and approaches are changing the meaning and practices of medicine and healthcare as well as how they are changing what it means to be a patient. Much of my work in this area has examined especially the implications of digital health technologies, citizen science and participatory public engagement initiatives on medical knowledge production, healthcare delivery, and the roles and experiences of patienthood.
My research around gender diversity and sex difference focuses on trans and non-binary identities and bodies as well as on intersex and diverse sex development especially in the sphere of sports but also within wider culture and social life. I am most interested in social and cultural issues around the sex binary and the sex / gender distinction, and how these binaries and distinctions are socially and scientifically constituted, applied, and disrupted, including in social spheres that tend to rely on strict sex and gender divisions, such as sports. My work has especially examined historical and contemporary sex and gender categories in both elite and community sports, social and cultural issues around the science of sex difference, and the uses of biomedical science in sports governance in relation to trans, non-binary, intersex and diverse sex development.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Sociology.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Sociology
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- Gender Studies
- Health Studies
- Sociology of Science and Technology
- Sports Studies
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Publications
-
Page 1 of 2 Results 1 to 25 of 29
“Different Names for the Same Thing”?: Novelty, Expectations, and Performative Nominalism in Personalized and Precision Medicine
Social Theory and Health, vol. 22, pp. 139-155Contributions to Journals: ArticlesHow and why to use ‘vulnerability’: An interdisciplinary analysis of disease risk, indeterminacy, and normality
Medical humanities, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 125-134Contributions to Journals: ArticlesHormonal stories: a new materialist exploration of hormonal emplotment in four case studies
BioSocietiesContributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-023-00317-8
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
HORMONAL THEORY: A Rebellious Glossary
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.. 234 pagesBooks and Reports: Books- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350323025
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Hormonal cascades: An Introduction
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Forewords and Postscripts- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350323025.0005
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Beyond the Hype: ‘Acceptable Futures’ for AI and Robotic Technologies in Healthcare
AI and SocietyContributions to Journals: ArticlesExploring Nurses’ Online Perspectives and Social Networks During a Global Pandemic COVID-19
Public Health Nursing, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 586-600Contributions to Journals: ArticlesTowards a feminist philosophy of engagements in health-related research
Wellcome open research, vol. 6, pp. 58Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSpecific detriment: barriers and opportunities for non-binary inclusive sports in Scotland
Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 75-102Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Promissory Visions of DIYbio: Reimaging Science from the Fringe
Science as Culture, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 287–310Contributions to Journals: ArticlesParticipatory public engagement in digital health and care: Moving beyond conventional engagement methods
Commissioned by Scottish Government. NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). 49 pagesBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsWhat Makes AI ‘Intelligent’ and ‘Caring’?: Exploring Affect and Relationality Across Three Sites of Intelligence and Care
Social Science & Medicine, vol. 277, 113874Contributions to Journals: ArticlesHuman Rights, Trans Athletes and Intersex Athletes in Sport
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsCredibility Contests: Media Debates on Do-It-Yourself Coronavirus Responses and the Role of Citizens in Health Crises
Frontiers in Sociology, vol. 5Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPublic involvement in the governance of population-level biomedical research: Unresolved questions and future directions
Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 47, pp. 522-525Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Story of Mark Weston: Re‐centring Histories and Conceptualising Gender Variance in 1930s International Sport
Gender & History, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 304-319Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12474
Imagining Life with “Immunity Passports”: Managing Risk during a Pandemic
Discover SocietyContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesMarketing Experimental Stem Cell Therapies in the UK: Biomedical Lifestyle Products and the Promise of Regenerative Medicine in the Digital Era
Science as Culture, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 219-244Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGender, love, and sex: Using duoethnography to research gender and sexuality minority experiences of transgender relationships
Sexualities, vol. 23, no. 1-2, pp. 28-43Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460718796457
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Afterword: TERF wars in the time of COVID-19
The Social Review Monographs, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 677-698Contributions to Journals: ArticlesBeyond Binaries: Dissolving the Empirical/Normative Divide
AJOB empirical bioethics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 17-19Contributions to Journals: ArticlesNon-binary Inclusion in Sport
Uclan Publishing. 40 pagesBooks and Reports: Other ReportsTERF Wars: an introduction
The Social Review Monographs, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 677-698Contributions to Journals: ArticlesTelling Hormonal Stories
So Hormonal: Essays About Our Hormones. Horgan, E., Dickson, Z. (eds.). Mostrous Regiment PublishingChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Gender Verification and the Making of the Female Body in Sport: A History of the Present
Routledge, United KingdomBooks and Reports: Books- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429316159