Associate Professor/Docent Lise Eriksson is a senior researcher in Sociology at Åbo Akademi University. Her research involves analyses of inequalities and discrimination in healthcare in relation to migration, religion and gender, and understanding social values and the impact of religion on public debates on families, reproduction and healthcare. Several of her studies have analysed parliamentary debates, policies and practices in relation to assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy, and doulas. Methodologically, she specializes in qualitative research with a focus on discourse analysis and other text analysis methods of interviews, parliamentary debates and documents. She likes to use mixed methods and has experience of survey research in relation to social values of healthcare professionals and best practices of research data management. 

Background

Eriksson is a Principal Investigator of the Academy Project "Surrogacy Agreements and Interdisciplinary Pathways to Minimum Justice: A Comparative Study of Finland, Colombia and Greece"(JustISA, Research Council of Finland, 2026-2029). She was Senior University Lecturer in Sociology during the academic year 2025-2026. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Åbo Akademi University (2012). Eriksson is a research associate at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University. From 2020 to 2022 she was researcher and coordinator of the MigraMed research programme (Swedish Research Council & Forte), which analyses social values and inequalities in healthcare in relation to reproduction and migration. The project aims to improve clinical encounters with patients with migrant backgrounds, and to find solutions on how to deal with the sensitive values related to reproductive rights. She also has a position as research data management specialist at Åbo Akademi University since 2022, and is currently leading a project on the development of courses on research ethics and responsible science for doctoral researchers and master students (2026-2027).  

Eriksson was Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University from 2018 to 2020, and member of the Welfare Research Group. From 2015 to 2018 she was an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher in Sociology at Åbo Akademi University with a research project on surrogacy in the Nordic countries (NORSUR). The comparative NORSUR project studied political debates on surrogacy and reproductive technologies in Finland and Norway and included interviews with Finnish surrogate mothers and intended parents.  

Eriksson was a visiting researcher at The Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CRS) at Uppsala University (2010 and 2016–2018), in the research group Biopolitics and Biotechnology at Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at NTNU, Trondheim (2013–2014), and Department for the Study of Culture at University of Southern Denmark (2016, 2018). She has also attended the Essex Summer School on Social Science Data Analysis at University of Essex (2007). She is an editor of Sosiologia – the national journal of sociology published by the Westermarck Society. Eriksson’s research has appeared in journals such as BioSocieties, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Midwifery, Frontiers in Sociology, and European Journal of Women’s Studies.

Teaching and supervision

Eriksson has experience of teaching courses in sociology, social psychology, sociology of religion, discourse theory, global health, research methods, and research data management.

She is currently main supervisor of two doctoral researchers and second supervisor of one doctoral researcher in Sociology at Åbo Akademi University.

Current research projects

Surrogacy Agreements and Interdisciplinary Pathways to Minimum Justice: A Comparative Study of Finland, Colombia and Greece (JustISA), Åbo Akademi University and University of Lapland. Funded by the Research Council of Finland (Academy Project), 2026-2029.

Global markets of assisted reproductive technologies: Legal and social implications of surrogacy arrangements and parenthood (GLOART). Funded by Eugen Schauman's Foundation, 2024-2027.  

Perceived Ethnic, Religious and Gender Discrimination in Swedish Healthcare (Uppsala University, Sweden). Part of the MigraMed Research Programme, funded by Swedish Research Council (2021–2025). 

Selected previous projects

Migration and Equity in Sexual and Reproductive Health: The Importance of Dynamics in Cultural and Social Values for Improving Practice through Co-production (MigraMed), Uppsala University, Sweden. Funded by Swedish Research Council and Forte (2021-2025).

Assisted reproductive technology and equality – A challenge for health law, social law and society (ART-Equal). Funded by Helsefonden (2023–2025). 

Paradoxes in the Cultural Doula Concept: Implications for Gender-inclusive Maternity Care for Migrant Women (Uppsala University, Sweden). Part of the MigraMed Research Programme, funded by Swedish Research Council (2021–2024).

Nordic Surrogates: The Political and Media Construction of Surrogacy in the Nordic Countries (NORSUR). Funded by the Research Council of Finland, the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation and Jubileumsfonden vid Åbo Akademi (2014–2019).

The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy, The Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CRS) at Uppsala University (member of research programme during 2016–2018).