Linn J Sandberg is a senior lecturer and associate professor in Gender Studies. She joined the School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University in 2017. Sandberg is also the director of studies of the doctoral programme in Gender Studies.

Sandberg’s main research focus is on gender, sexuality and embodiment in intersection with old age and ageing. Her work spans both empirical studies, primarily through qualitative interviews, and theoretical interrogations, where she is in particular interested in combining queer and feminist theories with critical gerontology and more recently also dementia studies.

Sandberg is currently the Principal investigator of two research projects. The first, entitled" LGBTQ and Dementia in policy and practice in Swedish Dementia Care" is conducted in collaboration with Dr Anna Siverskog. This project is funded 2022-2024 by Forte - the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare. The second project is entitled "Imagining Queer Aging Futures: a study of LGBTQ Aging in Estonia, Poland and Sweden" and is funded by the Baltic Sea Foundation 2023-2026. This project is a collaboration with researchers Joanna Mizielińska, Agata Stasińska och Rebeka Põldsam.

Sandberg is the founder and cordinator of Critical dementia studies network External link., an international network of scholars and activists with a shared interest in critical approaches to dementia. Sandberg is also co-manging editor of the series Dementia in Critical Dialogue, published by Routledge. The first book in the series, Critical Dementia Studie: an Introduction External link., co-edited by Linn Sandberg and Richard Ward, was published in March 2023.

Sandberg is the Editor in Chief of International Journal of Ageing and Later life.  External link. She is also involved in several international collaborations, including as as a research fellow at Trent University’s Centre for Aging and Society External link., Canada.

Background

Sandberg received a PhD in Gender Studies from Linköping University, Sweden (Getting intimate: a feminist analysis of old age, masculinity & sexuality 2011 External link, opens in new window.). Her doctoral research focused on masculinity, sexuality and old age through the narratives of 22 heterosexual men born between 1922 and 1942).

Completed research projects (after PhD graduation).:

2011-2014 Children and young people living in rural areas witnessing violence at home (post- doc, project led by professor Margareta Hydén funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond).

2014- 2019 Alzheimer's disease, intimacy and sexuality: a study of dementia and intimate couple relationships (PI- funded by Forte)

2020-2022 "MASCAGE: Gendering Age: Representations of Masculinities and Ageing in Contemporary" (PI/ teamleader of the Swedish team, consortium funded by the Horizon 2020 ERA-Cofund).

2021-2022 Critical Dementia Studies: alliances, resistance and dialogues. (Sabbatical funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond).