Tora Holmberg

Biography

My research can broadly be situated within science and technology studies (STS), feminist science studies and human-animal studies. It takes a cultural sociology approach and thus, meaning making and practice are central concerns of previous and current projects and will be the focus of future plans. Cultural sociology is of course a broad field, but holds at its heart a belief that culture as a system of meaning and practice is a more or less self-contained sphere that can be studied in its own right. Another common thread is that I have been interested all along in issues that may appear as somewhat marginal to social science and sociology: science and its objects, sex, bodies, nature, animals, physical space . The advantage of this interest in liminal issues is the potential of furthering sociological theory with the help of multi-disciplinary encounters with other theoretical traditions and not least, through encounters with the objects under inquiry themselves. What challenges can these liminal objects pose to sociology, and how can a sociological approach further the exploration and understanding of these phenomena?

Research Interest