News

Ericka Johnson elected to The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Published: September 21, 2020

Ericka Johnson is elected to The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is a Professor of gender and society at Linköping University and also project leader in WASP-HS.

She was elected to the Class for humanities and for outstanding services to science. Her research focuses primarily on medical technologies and their relation to sex, gender, body and identity. With a starting point in feminist science studies, medical sociology and science and technology studies (STS), she is interested in how knowledge of the body is constructed and reproduced. In particular, she has studied Viagra, the HPV vaccine and the prostate. She is currently working on issues that appear when care robots are developed.

Now, Ericka Johnson has been elected member number 1743 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in recognition of her outstanding scientific achievements.

Regarding how she wants to contribute to the academy, she says:

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to discuss the advantages of interdisciplinary research – the way it’s conducted at LiU and how it’s expressed by way of the recently established Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics here.”

Ericka Johnson is project leader in the WASP-HS project “The ethics and social consequences of AI & caring robots. Learning trust, empathy and accountability”.

Photo: Charlotte Perhammar.