The university canceled a seminar on Kajsa Ekis Ekman's book

On Thursday, a digital breakfast seminar would have taken place in Mid Sweden University's Forum for Gender Studies, which would have partly been based on Kajsa Ekis Ekman's book On the Existence of Gender.

The seminar would have been part of a series of conversations that address different perspectives on the construction of gender, but the Forum for Gender Studies chose to cancel the seminar.

"What has happened is that before the seminar we realized that the form, a digital seminar of 45 minutes, is not a good form for such a discussion and that there was a risk that people would be offended, so we chose to cancel the seminar." , writes researcher Sara Nyhlen, who is the leader of the Forum for Gender Studies in an email to Kulturnyheterna.

"Not a place for transphobia"

The Forum for Gender Studies wrote in a mailing a few days before the seminar that it was canceled and stated that the reason was the breakfast seminar format did not suit the topic.

The mailing also states that:

"Based on questions and comments received in connection with the seminar, we want to point out that the Forum for Gender Studies is not a place for transphobia and trans hatred."

Kajsa Ekis Ekman's book has been criticized both for containing factual errors and for being disrespectful to transgender people.

Sara Nyhlen says in an interview in DN that she does not want to comment on whether she believes that what is presented in the book constitutes transphobia and transhat.

- The book must stand on its own.

There is a lot written about it, it has been very debated in recent weeks.

RFSL has written a good text about the factual errors in the book, she tells DN.

Comments on Instagram

Kajsa Ekis Ekman has commented on the canceled seminar by posting a picture of the mailing on her instagram account with the comment:

"So at first you thought you had a place for 'dance phobia and transhat' but did you regret it?"

She has also met the critics of her book in an article in Aftonbladet where she writes that the accusations of factual errors are unfounded.