Always already menstrual activist: elaborations on being activist-scholar

Book chapter, 2026

Persdotter explores her own experiences of being both a menstrual activist and a menstrual sociologist. As one of Sweden’s most well-known menstrual activists her research has always been rooted in engagements with both the menstrual activist movement and wider society. Persdotter delineates how she has come to understand that the notion of activism and scholarship as two separate distinguished units is still strong in academia, despite a growing acknowledgment of researchers’ situatedness, as well as repeated calls for increased public engagement from academics. Utilizing Donna Haraway’s (1988) thinking on “situatedness” and “a view from somewhere,” Persdotter explores and highlights the productive ways the two roles of activist and researcher coalesce, highlights risks and pitfalls, and argues the importance of strengthening the ways scholars engage in the world they are part of. In times where feminist and critical research is increasingly under attack, she argues that rather than fortifying ideals of scholarly neutrality, the way forward is to strengthen public engagement by making visible and tangible how scholars can engage in the world outside of academia.