Kristin Spilker

Research interests
Kinship studies, assisted reproduction technologies, feminist theory, anthropological perspectives on the body, science and technology studies, ethnographic research methods

Research Project 2009-2012:

"Reproductive relations. Production of gendered meanings in the field of reproduction", Merete Lie, Malin Ravn and Kristin Spilker

The project will study the production of gendered meanings - that is, cultural conceptions of femininities and masculinities, motherhood and fatherhood, female and male bodies - within the context of reproduction and gendered relations. Reproduction is a crucial site of gendered meaning, taking place in public policy as well as in private relations, and it is a site where gender is generally constructed in terms of difference between biological bodies. We ask how the idea of gender equality and emphasis on fatherhood interfere in the cultural production of gender in reproduction. Do cultural values of gender equality have the potential to challenge and displace perceptions of differences and similarities between gendered bodies? And what is gender equality when it comes to reproductive choices? This is an urgent question today because women's right to control over their bodies meet with new demands of gender equality.
The project design will cover three important changes in reproductive relationships: the production of masculinities associated to men as fathers, the blurring of nature and culture related to assisted reproduction, and the new matrimonial law as a step to normalising parenthood among same-sex couples. These changes are combined with certain established rights: the almost uncontested right of women to control their fertility, the focus on gender equality, and men's strong position as fathers. These dimensions mark the crossroads that we will enter, theoretically and empirically, and where the particular Norwegian context provides a unique field internationally.

Former research projects
Perceptions of Gender, Genes and Reproduction,
Strategies of Inclusion: Gender and the Information Society

PUBLICATIONS

Lie, Merete & Spilker, Kristin: Assistert befruktning og nye familier. I Rosenbeck B. (red) Etnisitet, Velferd og reproduksjon (Eng: Assisted Conception and New Families. In Ethnicity, Welfare and Reproduction] København, Makadam Forlag, 2010

Spilker, Kristin: Assistert slektskap: Biopolitikk i reproduksjonsteknologienes tidsalder. [Eng: Assisted Kinship: Biopolitics in the Age of Assisted Reproduction] PhD Thesis, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, 2008

Spilker, Kristin: "Eggcellens representasjoner: Vitenskap og kultur" i "Vitenskap som dialog, kunnskap i bevegelse. Tverrfaglighet og kunnskapskulturer i endring", [Eng: Representations of The Egg cell: Science and Culture. In Science as Dialogue, Interdisciplinarity and Cultures of Knowledge in Movement] Knut H. Sørensen, Eva Amdahl, Helen Jøsok Gansmo og Vivian A. Lagesen (red), Trondheim: Tapir, 2008

Spilker, K; Lie, M. Gender and Bioethics Intertwined. Egg Donation within The Context of Equal Opportunities. The European Journal of Women's Studies 14(4):327-340, 2007

Spilker, Kristin: "Teknologiske trekanter? Om assistert reproduksjon i et komplisert normativt landskap", i "Når heteroseksualiteten må forklare seg". [Eng: Technological Triangles? Assisted Reproduction in a Complicated Normative Landscape. In When Heterosexuality Has to Explain Itself] I Andersen, Britt, Annfelt , Trine og Bolsø, Agnes (red). Trondheim: Tapir, 2007

Spilker, Kristin: "I slekt med far? Forhandlinger og forestillinger om farskap i genets tidsalder". [Eng: Related to Father? Negotiations and Perceptions about Fatherhood in The Century of the Gene. I  Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning, 2006(1-2)

Hestflått, Kristin: "The Baba-House as a Symbol of Identity". I Sparkes, Stephen og Howell, Signe (red.): The House in South-East Asia. London: Curzon Press, 2003

Hestflått, Kristin: "Strategies of Inclusion in three web-based magazines: For 'Women', for 'The Advanced' and for 'The Home User'". In MacKeogh, C. And Preston P. (eds): Strategies of Inclusion: Gender in the Information Society, Vol. II, 65-2003. ISSN 0802-3581, 2003

Hestflått, Kristin: "Er du tyrkisk eller…" Om minoritetsungdommers identitetsskaping i møte med IKT. [Eng: Are you Turkish? On Minority Youth  and Online Identity management] ITU's utredningsserie. ISBN 82-7947-015-8, 2002

Hestflått, Kristin: "Etnisitet som forsvar for det kontinuerlige selvet. En antropologisk studie av identitet blant babaer og nyonyaer i Melaka, Malaysia", [Eng: Ethnicity as Defense for The Continous Self. An Anthropological Study of Identity among Babas and Nyonyas of Melaka. Master thesis.] Hovedfagsoppgave i sosialantropologi, NTNU, 1999