Clary Krekula, Professor of Sociology

Clary Krekula was born in Kaunisvaara in Tornedalen. She qualified as a dentist at Umeå University and practised as a dentist, for example in Nicaragua in the early 1980s. At the end of the 1990s she started studying social psychology and sociology in Uppsala where she also did her doctoral studies. She obtained her PhD in Sociology in 2006. Her thesis was on the ageing of women, and problematised the interplay between age and gender in processes creating privilege and subordination.

After completing her PhD, Clary Krekula worked for a year at Gävle University College before she was appointed as senior lecturer in social care with specialisation in ageing at Karlstad University. 

“My research is on age and ageing, often taking a gender perspective. I have for instance developed an approach I call critical age studies. Instead of focusing on delimited age groups, the approach calls attention to age norms and age normalcies in society, how these create opportunities and conditions for different age groups, and how this makes power and age-based inequality visible.”

During recent years, Clary Krekula’s research has primarily focused on work organisation related to age and its effects, mainly on the elderly workforce. She works with these questions in national and international networks and projects, for example in the management of a large European network studying the steps currently being taken on a broad international front to raise the retirement age. 

“In my research, I for example collaborate with pensioners’ associations and labour unions. Because my research concerns social and political processes related to equality and age, it also has a place in the political debate.”

Clary Krekula enjoys exercising and she for instance completed most of the races on the Swedish Classic Circuit. She relaxes by spending time with her children and friends and taking long walks with her daughter’s little Yorkie, Ernst. Something that definitely combats stress is picking cloudberries in Tornedalen – it requires strict mental and physical focus to avoid swallowing gnats and mosquitos!