Short story competition on technology and gender equality
Do you enjoy writing? Do you find yourself thinking about how technology and gender equality affect each other? Are you a student or PhD student at KTH? Take the chance to explore how technology can change the world – through imagination, creativity and storytelling.
InspireLab invites KTH's students and PhD students to take part in a short story competition on the theme of technological development and gender equality. Deadline for submissions is December 4.
Why a short story competition?
At KTH, you learn to use existing technology and develop new technology to solve problems, build systems and shape the future. But whose problems are we solving? Whose systems are we building? Whose future are we shaping? Technological development never happens in a vacuum – it is influenced by existing social norms and power relations. Developing technology that makes the world fairer and more gender equal requires both technical competence and the ability to understand complex societal challenges, different perspectives and people's lived experiences.
Through fictional stories, we can explore ideas about how technology can help improve gender equality. By reading and writing stories, we can broaden our perspectives, develop empathy, question the familiar and make room for the not-yet-imagined. What feels unbelievable today may be self-evident tomorrow.
The task
Write a short story of no more than 3,000 words that explores the relationship between technology and gender equality. We welcome stories that are hopeful, utopian, critical, dystopian, or somewhere in between, and that are set in the past, present or future. You decide the form – the story should be “free”, meaning not an academic essay. You also choose whether to write in Swedish or English, and whether to write alone or with a co-author.
Prize: Three winners will each receive a scholarship of SEK 2,000 from Bokus, along with a book bag containing books on the theme of gender, equality and technology.
Publication: Entries may be published on InspireLab's website, on social media and in print. When submitting, you indicate whether you wish to be credited as the author or remain anonymous if your entry is published.
Key dates
- 25 August 2026 – competition opens
- Oct–Nov: “Inspiration activities” (workshops, talks/lectures) on the theme of technology and gender/equality (to be published on InspireLab's website and LinkedIn)
- 4 December 2026 – deadline for submissions
- January 2027 – the jury agrees on three winners, who will be notified and receive a prize and diploma
- March 2027 – presentation of the winning entries to mark International Women's Day, 8 March
Assessment criteria
- Literary quality – standard of language, characterisation, and a story that engages the reader
- Relevance – clearly grounded in a phenomenon related to gender equality, for example concrete problems arising from a lack of equality
- Technology perspective – technology must play a central role in the story
- Innovation and original thinking – the ability to use the literary format to challenge conventional ways of thinking and existing structures, or to test new ideas
- Reflection on the writing process and the use of AI – The jury rewards individual creativity over the use of AI. For this reason, all authors are asked to submit a written reflection on their writing process, of no more than 300 words. This should describe how your ideas and format developed, what you found easy, enjoyable or difficult, and what you learned about the subject and about yourself through the writing process. You should also describe whether and how you used AI or other technology during the process. Winners should also be prepared to present and discuss their work orally to the jury.
Submitting your entry
Email your short story, along with your reflection on the writing process, to inspirelab@kth.se
For questions please contact Pia Höök:
The competition is organised by InspireLab in collaboration with Bokus and the KTH Library (KTHB).
