Graduate School Blog

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

In this week’s digest:

• SASNET Panel Discussion: “Sino-Indian Relations in the Light of Global Conflict”
• Seminar: Unequal Exchanges in the Urban/Rural Divide in the Green Transition
• Seminar: The Politics of Gender in a Transnational Context – Roundtable Conversation
• Lecture: China-Watching: Global Knowledge Production about China
• CMES Seminar: Harvesting wind, stirring sands: the expansion of renewable energy frontiers, local resistance, and the European academic gaze on green extractivism in West Asia and North Africa.
• Lund University Academic Support Centre: Lecture on effective writing strategies
• Seminar: The Ghost within the Forest: Campesino Settlers and Environmental Ruination in La Chiquitanía
• Human Rights Lunch Online: The right to give rights – Welfare professionals as guardians of undocumented migrants’ human rights

SASNET Panel Discussion: “Sino-Indian Relations in the Light of Global Conflict”

Lecture

 China and India are two of the world’s most influential rising powers. Both have experienced rapid economic growth and are vying for leadership in the Global South—but their relationship remains tense. From border disputes and military standoffs to competing global strategies, the rivalry between these two Asian giants is shaping the future of international politics. 

• How do nationalism, border disputes, security concerns, tariffs, and global alliances influence their relationship?
• What role do the U.S., Pakistan, and broader geopolitical shifts—like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as well as the Trump presidency—play in this dynamic?

Join us for a thought-provoking panel featuring three leading experts on Asian geopolitics: Dr. Dattesh D. Parulekar, Dr. Rahul Karan Reddy, and Dr. Sriparna Pathak. Together, they will unpack the complexities of Sino-Indian relations and explore what’s at stake for Asia and the world.

Dattesh D. Parulekar (Ph.D), is Assistant Professor at the School of International and Area Studies (SIAS), Goa University, Goa, India. He specializes in issues of India’s Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Sino-Indian Relations, and Strategic Maritime Affairs in the IndoPacific. 
Rahul Karan Reddy is Senior Research Associate at Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA). He works on domestic Chinese politics and trade, producing data-driven research in the form of reports, dashboards and digital media. He is the author of ‘Islands on the Rocks’, a monograph on the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute between China and Japan. He was previously a Research Analyst at the Chennai Center for China Studies (C3S), working on China’s foreign policy and domestic politics.
Dr. Sriparna Pathak is a Professor of China Studies, and the founding Director of the Centre for Northeast Asian Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University, (JGU) Haryana, India. She also serves in the capacity of a Senior Fellow, at the Jindal India Institute. She has previously worked as a Consultant for the Policy Planning and Research Division, working on China’s domestic and foreign polices; think tanks like Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and Kolkata respectively, and the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research in New Delhi.

Date and time: 14 October 2025, 15:15 -17:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies (Sölvegatan 18 B), Lund University
For more information, visit this page

Unequal Exchanges in the Urban/Rural Divide in the Green Transition

Seminar

In this seminar – “And We Get Nothing in Return”: Unequal Exchanges in the Urban/Rural Divide in the Green Transition Eric Brandstedt and Georgia de Leeuw present findings from their project “A Just Transition to a Sustainable Municipality” (Formas). The project is a collaboration between Falköping Municipality and Lund University and is motivated by Falköping’s ambition to integrate social sustainability more systematically in their climate strategy.

An ethically defensible transition to a sustainable society depends on public support for transformative changes, but green energy infrastructures have been criticised and resisted for the impact they have on various vulnerable groups. Research and policy have started to integrate social sustainability and justice dimensions into transition efforts. The initially narrow focus on workers in fossil industries has been widened to include other adversely affected groups and individuals such as spatially impacted communities. 

For the purpose of widening this perspective further, the countryside is an interesting site of inquiry since it is commonly targeted for green energy production. We study countryside sentiments about the green transition by examining a rural municipality in mid-Sweden, where rural residents see plans for an expansion of wind and solar energy as incompatible with countryside values. We show that rural residents display a deep-rooted sense of exclusion relative to centralized decision-making. Structural urban-rural power dynamics and grievances about disproportionate allocations of harms and benefits are perceived as aggravated by green investments. Here, these investments and the centralized decision-making that they are a result of are regarded as dismissive of contributions generated in the countrysidesuch as food production in times of crisis. 

The draft article on which this seminar is based speaks to the literature on local governance and transition justice by examining how the energy transition is compatible with rural efforts to build a vibrant countryside. We contribute with a novel reading of the justice dimensions in rural-urban power imbalances in the green transition as a matter of reciprocity, or lack thereof.

Read more about Eric Brandstedt here.
Read more about Georgia de Leeuw here.

Date and time: 15 October 2025, 13:15 -15:00
Location: LUX, rum A332 (Blå rummet), Helgonavägen 3
For more information, visit this page

The Politics of Gender in a Transnational Context – Roundtable Conversation

Seminar

The Gender Studies Seminar Series invites researchers to share their insight on key issues for gendered and sexualized lives and knowledges, and to engage in critical discussions about the development of gender studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional research field. Bringing together scholars from various research fields and theoretical traditions, this seminar series offers a platform for critical reflexions and new insights.

‘The Politics of Gender in a Transnational Context’ is a Roundtable conversation on the possibilities and challenges for gender research across diverse national and local sites, with a special focus on the academic institution and contemporary political contexts, but also exploring the role of transnational networks for building communities.

Didem Unal Abaday, Academy Research Fellow, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, Finland
Jessie Taieun Yoon, Doctoral scholar, Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Lindsey Churchill, Professor of History, University of Central Oklahoma
Tatsita Mishra, Doctoral scholar at MICA, Ahmedabad, India
Moderator: Mia Liinason, Professor of Gender Studies, Lund University

Date and time: 15 October 2025, 13:15 -15:00
Location: Gamla lungkliniken (House G), Room 335, Lund
For more information, visit this page

China-Watching: Global Knowledge Production about China

Lecture

This presentation is about a book on global knowledge production about China which Julie Chen will publish in 2026. Her book compares the local, regional, and global politics of China-watchers from the twentieth century to the present, with a focus on the past and its connection to the present. There is bourgeoning literature on the challenges facing China-watchers and the institutions where they work in the contemporary era. However, her work differs by exploring the longue durée perspective of China-watchers’ conditions and the perpetuated interactions between politics and the knowledge of China being produced. There is a trend that China-watchers outside of the PRC have to show their distance from the Chinese state and other affiliated Chinese institutions to convince their audiences of their credibility and independent capacities to study China, even though not all China-watchers can professionally and privately disentangle themselves entirely from their study-subject of China. China-watchers are not just passive individuals constrained by the political climate and structure. China-watchers may exercise individual agency to make choices regarding what they wish to present about China to their audiences.

Julie Yu-Wen Chen is Professor of Chinese Studies at Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki in Finland. She is one of the editors for the highly ranked Journal of Chinese Political Sciences, under the auspices of the Association of Chinese Political Studies dedicated to academic and professional activities relating to Chinese politics.

Date and time: 16 October 2025 13:15 – 15:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

CMES Seminar: Harvesting wind, stirring sands: the expansion of renewable energy frontiers, local resistance, and the European academic gaze on green extractivism in West Asia and North Africa

Seminar

The CMES Research Seminar is the main collective seminar at the Centre. LU researchers and invited national and international leading scholars present ongoing research and analyses of a broad range of exciting topics of relevance for the Middle East.

Presentation by Yahia Mahmoud, Human Geography, Lund University.

Yahia Mahmoud is an associate professor at the department of human geography (Lund University). Situated in the fields of development studies and development geography, his research has focused on rural areas in Africa and treated several interrelated themes that are relevant for these sub-disciplines. These topics span from assessing the role of China’s foreign assistance in rural West Africa to the potentials of technical innovation to curb the impacts of climate change and poverty in rural East Africa. When studying these phenomena, he puts special emphasis on knowledge construction, history, and power relations. The overall goal is to gain better understanding of the process of socio-economic transformation, in general, and that of poverty alleviation in particular. In the pursuit of this, he has collaborated with researchers from disciplines ranging from social to natural sciences, both in Sweden and abroad.

Date and time: 16 October 2025 10:00 – 12:00
Location: CMES seminar room, Finngatan 16.
For more information, visit this page

Lund University Academic Support Centre: Lecture on effective writing strategies

Student Support

The Academic Support Centre arranges writing and study sessions for the University’s students each semester. You can read more about how a session works, planned dates and how to register below.

Part one of our lectures on academic writing contains tips and strategies for students who are beginning, or have recently begun, to write on their projects, e.g., how to effectively generate text. Part two covers tips and strategies on how to revise and structure a text as well as how to create a “red thread” in your text. 

Part 1: Writing an academic text

• 16 October, 10:00–12:00 (in English, on site)
• 22 October, 10:00–12:00 (in Swedish, on site)
• 6 November, 11:00–12:00 (short version, in English, via Zoom). The link will be published soon.

Part 2: Strategies for revising your text

• 11 November, 10:00–12:00 (in English, on site)
• 12 November, 10:00–12:00 (in Swedish, on site)

The lectures are open to all students and no pre-registration is required.

Date and time: 16 October 2025, 10:00–12:00
Location: Genetikhuset, rooms 219–222, Sölvegatan 29B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

The Ghost within the Forest: Campesino Settlers and Environmental Ruination in La Chiquitanía

Seminar

In this seminar, Frederik Andersen Tjalve discusses the entanglements between campesino and Chiquitano communities and extractivist-fueled environmental devastation in the rural landscapes of La Chiquitanía. He begins by relating the context of my fieldwork, and how the figure of the campesino ghost settler evoked in media and NGO representations of the causes of ecological devastation and land trafficking in La Chiquitanía brought me to the San Martin Colonies, a cluster of communities with whom he has conducted long-term ethnographic research on campesino and indigenous territorialities within landscapes undergoing rapid agrarian extractivist transformations amid the political, socio-ecological, and monetary crises of Bolivia. He describes how histories of migration within the Bolivian Lowlands shaped the image of the campesino settler and White-Mestizo Cruceño resistance toward these communities and the MAS government, framing settlers as ghosts through the use of remote sensing and environmental governance discourse. Zooming in on the San Martín Colonies, he then seeks to rearticulate campesinos and Chiquitanos as actors in their own right. Sketching out how relations to soil, commodities, fire, machines, and community, territory, and the state are evoked within campesino and Chiquitano communities, he draws these metabolic entanglements together within the landscape of La Chiquitanía. He sketches out how extractivist epistemologies, through technology, bureaucracy, and the interlocal connections of agrarian extractivist trajectories, come to shape ruination and exploitation as an anticipatory response of campesinos to environmental devastation.complementary articles covering 34 OECD countries, the research identifies both structural and strategic pathways to reform.

Frederik Andersen Tjalve is a PhD candidate from the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University, currently visiting the Department of Human Geography at Lund University. 

Date and time: 16 October 2025 10:00 – 11:00
Location: Maathai, 3rd floor, Josephson building, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Human Rights Lunch Online: The right to give rights – Welfare professionals as guardians of undocumented migrants’ human rights

Seminar

 Across Europe, welfare professionals have resisted proposals that they should have a duty to report undocumented migrants to the police. This has been pivotal for protecting migrants’ rights. Consequently, GIVE RIGHTS will develop new conceptual tools for an interdisciplinary understanding of undocumented migrants’ rights as rooted in an interplay between migrants’ rights-claims and welfare professionals’ attitudes, practices, and collective contestations – highlighting the underexamined relational character of rights. The project investigates the politics of undocumented migrants’ rights as an interplay between different actors with converging interests: Undocumented migrants want access to their human rights – in Arendt’s words they want to have a “right to have rights” – and welfare professionals do not want to act as extended border guards but have a “right to GIVE RIGHTS”.

 GIVE RIGHTS will compare Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK where the protection of undocumented migrants’ access to rights are, or have recently been, undergoing intense negotiations. Through its novel theoretical framework and by innovatively combining survey data with policy mapping, qualitative media analysis, participant observation, focus groups and expert interviews, GIVE RIGHTS provides a new research agenda for theoretical and political debates on the future of human rights in Europe.

Jacob Lind is a researcher at the Depart of Global Political Studies and the Malmö Institute for Migration Studies (MIM) at Malmö University. He has recently been awarded an ERC-starting grant. At this digital lunch seminar he will present his ERC-project GIVE RIGHTS, on how professionals in healthcare, education and social services approach the requirement to report undocumented migrants.

Date and time: 17 October 2025, 12:15 – 13:00
Location: Online (Zoom link)
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

In this week’s digest:

• Debate in Lund: Is globalization dead – and if so, should we mourn it? (in Swedish)
• Seminar: The Language of Climate Politics
• Seminar: Reading Hannah Arendt: On Evil – from Totalitarianism to Banality
• Conference: Global South–Global North Developments The Asymmetries of Polycrisis, Risks, and Resilience
• Workshop: Join the creation!
• Student Support: Writing and study sessions with the Academic Support Centre
• PhD defence in Political Science: Evan Drake
• Explore international opportunities at LU

Debate in Lund: Is globalization dead – and if so, should we mourn it? (in Swedish)

Other

After the Cold War, borders opened up and globalization was seen as inevitable. Goods, capital, and people flowed more freely – and democracy and human rights would automatically follow in the wake of global openness.

Now the foundations are shaking. Trump’s tariffs, wars, climate crisis and pandemics have exposed the vulnerability of global chains. And in many parts of the world, democracy is not an ideal. Is globalization about to be rolled back? Or is it just being reshaped – towards a more multipolar world, with several different centers of power?  

Welcome to a Debate in Lund where we discuss whether globalization is in retreat and what that means for prosperity, conflicts and climate.  

In the panel: 

• Fredrik Erixon, economist and author, head of the think tank ECIPE , former chief economist at Timbro.
• Ellen Hillbom, economic historian and Africa researcher at Lund University
• Tabita Rosendal, China expert at Lund University. Expert on China’s new Silk Road and the country’s global ambitions.
• Stefan de Vylder, economist who recently published the report ” From the Ashes to the Fire? On the Rise and Crisis of Hyperglobalization”

The event is free and starts at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. 
Arrive on time, first come, first served.

Date and time: 13 October 2025, 19:00 – 20:15
Location: Grand Hotel, Great Hall, Bantorget 1, Lund
For more information, visit this page

The Language of Climate Politics

Seminar

Speaker: Genevieve Guenther

Fossil fascism is rising in the United States. To build a permission structure for its actions, the Trump regime is suppressing science, taking control of the news media, and silencing communities harmed by extreme weather. Yet at the same time, it does not exactly deny that climate change is real. Rather, while spreading falsehoods about clean energy, the regime advances a more nuanced propaganda that goes something like this: “Yes, climate change is real, but calling it an existential threat is alarmist. And, anyway, phasing out coal, oil, and gas would cost us too much. Human flourishing relies on the economic growth enabled by fossil fuels, which enable innovation and increase our resilience.”

This story has power because it articulates the ideological matrix of fossil capitalism — the overlapping consensus shared by both the fascist right and the liberal centre — that we can keep using coal, oil, and methane and still deal with climate change anyway. Yet climate propaganda is also powerful because it is skillfully manufactured by fossil-fuel interests. These interests appropriate discourse from science, economics, and even activism, exploiting the literary qualities of language such as ambiguity or implicature, so as to normalise disinformation. My talk will ultimately explore the ways this appropriation works and offer strategies to combat it.

Genevieve Guenther is the founding director of End Climate Silence and the author of the acclaimed The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It. While writing for both scholarly and popular audiences, Dr Guenther advises NGOs, researchers, and policymakers on climate communication and disinformation, and she serves as an expert reviewer for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She lives in New York City with her family.

Date and time: 13 October 2025 13:00 – 14:30
Location: Ostrom, 3rd floor, Josephson building, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
For more information, visit this page

30th Anniversary: ​​Seminar, Reading Hannah Arendt: On Evil – from Totalitarianism to Banality

Seminar

Since Malmö Art Academy’s founding in 1995, it has challenged traditional teaching methods by placing the studio and the open work process at the center, characterized by feminist pedagogy and student self-determination through close reading. The teaching method, in which students read complex texts in groups with their peers and professors, has had a significant pedagogical effect, creating a direct connection between theory and practice within the group.

Hannah Arendt struggled with the problem of evil throughout her life. As a Jew, what she called totalitarianism affected her personally, but her thinking is universal. Totalitarian states are the ultimate evil because in them, human beings themselves become unnecessary. This form of evil goes beyond human laws, indeed beyond the human. That was her thinking in the late 1940s. But this would be to demonize evil, when the only possibility, for Arendt, is to laugh at it in all its pitiableness.

The seminar is led by Gertrud Sandqvist, Professor of Art Theory and the History of Ideas , and is part of celebrating Malmö Art Academy 30 years.

Date and time: 7 October 2025, 13:00 – 15:00
Location: Red Room, Inter Arts Center, Bergsgstan 29 (4th floor), Malmö
For more information, visit this page

Symposium Programme: Global South–Global North Developments The Asymmetries of Polycrisis, Risks, and Resilience

Conference

Organized by the Crisis Inequalities and Social Resilience (CISR) group, the International Development Group, and the Society for Critical Studies of Crisis (SCSC), this two-day event brings together scholars, practitioners, and activists to explore crises, resilience, and development from multiple perspectives.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Vandana Desai (Royal Holloway, University of London), discussing Shared Forms of Breakdown: Global South Perspectives on Development and Polycrisis, and Jeremy Allouche (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), presenting on Development in Polycrisis Times. These sessions will offer critical insights into the challenges and strategies of development amid complex global crises.

Participants can join all sessions via Zoom.

Date and time: 7-8 October 2025
Location: Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, Lund University
For more information, visit this page

Workshop: Join the creation!

Workshop

In the temporary art project Schoolwork, artist Loulou Cherinet – together with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University, Public Art Agency Sweden, and Akademiska Hus – invites students and university staff to improvise and create together.

With wowen willow, clay, hemp, and cow dung, participants will explore how knowledge can be shaped and shared physically, relationally and through the body as a tool. The Project is part of the development of Campus Paradis and an initiativ for campus art.

Join on October 6–8! No registration required. Lunch included.

Do you have questions about how you can participate? Contact the artist:
skolarbete@cherinet.com

Date and time: October 6 09:00 – October 8 16:00 2025
Location: Campus Paradis
For more information, visit this page

Writing and study sessions with the Academic Support Centre

Student Support

The Academic Support Centre arranges writing and study sessions for the University’s students each semester. You can read more about how a session works, planned dates and how to register below.

The study and writing sessions take place each Tuesday for the autumn semester. Full-day sessions are 9–16, with a lunch break from 12–13. You are welcome to attend our sessions regardless of whether you study in Swedish or English.

You should bring any relevant, study-related material along to the writing and study session. You might, for instance, bring a written assignment or thesis draft that you are currently working on (or should be working on) or texts to read in preparation for your next lecture or exam. Our language and study consultants are also available to offer their advice on how to plan your study time and put that plan into practice. After a brief introduction, you have time to work towards reaching your individual goal.

You can apply to attend our writing and study sessions by emailing us at study@stu.lu.se. 

Date and time: Tuesdays, 09:00 – 16:00
Location: Genetikhuset, rooms 219–222, Sölvegatan 29B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

PhD defence in Political Science: Evan Drake ‘From Lock-In to Phase-Out: Pathways Towards Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform‘

Thesis Defence

Abstract:
This dissertation investigates the political determinants of fossil fuel subsidy reform in OECD countries between 2009 and 2023. Despite widespread recognition of their economic inefficiency and environmental harm, fossil fuel subsidies remain entrenched, with OECD countries collectively sustaining around USD 100 billion in annual support. The research addresses why some governments successfully reduce these subsidies whilst others do not. It conceptualises these subsidies as critical mechanisms of “carbon lock-in” that entrench fossil fuel dependence and impede climate action. Drawing on multiple strands of political science literature, the dissertation develops an integrated analytical framework that considers the roles of institutional configurations, governing party preferences, policy processes, and affective polarisation in shaping reform trajectories. Using a mixed-methods approach and four
complementary articles covering 34 OECD countries, the research identifies both structural and strategic pathways to reform.

Key findings show that proportional representation and corporatist institutions are associated with lower subsidy levels, by offering electoral insulation and facilitating compensatory strategies. Governments led by environmentally committed parties tend to reduce subsidies, whereas market-liberal parties increase them—particularly when they hold parliamentary majorities. The study also introduces the concept of “dismantling by layering”, where incremental policies such as carbon taxes erode subsidies indirectly, minimising direct political confrontation. Finally, the dissertation develops a research agenda and theoretical framework proposing how affective polarisation may constrain reform by transforming climate policies into partisan identity markers. Together, the findings suggest that the climate governance challenge is not primarily about identifying technically optimal policy instruments but about understanding the political conditions under which necessary policies become feasible—an analytical shift with profound implications for both academic research and policy practice in addressing the climate crisis.

Date and time: October 10 2025, 10:15
Location: Eden auditorium, Allhelgona kyrkogata 14, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Explore international opportunities offered through Lund University

Webinars

International Opportunities Week is a webinar series showcasing the wide range of international opportunities available to students at Lund University. Throughout the week, you’ll gain inspiration and practical advice on how to pursue international experiences during your studies.

Be inspired by fellow students sharing their international journeys and get practical tips from staff on how to get started. Sign up for the webinars that interest you:

• Explore the world – without travelling
• Collect data for your thesis abroad with a travel grant
• Intern abroad – give your CV a unique edge
• Short-term exchanges – a quick way to gain international experience

Date and time: 13, 14, 15 & 16 October | 17:00–17:45
Location: Online
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

In this week’s digest:

• Seminar: The Search for Safety: Police Brutality, Racism and Gay and Lesbian Stereotyping and Separation
• Lecture: Why Enlargement Fails: the Spiral of Double Disappointment in EU Enlargement Policy
• Conference: European AI Act: Transparency Before, Inside, and After the AI ​​Black Box
• CMES Seminar: Bringing in the Other Islamists – Comparing Arab Shia and Sunni Islamism(s) in the Middle East.
• Development Lunch Seminar: “Women and Peacebuilding at Community Level in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Understandings, Contributions and Challenges”
• Lecture: Effective reading strategies
• Opportunity: NAI Nordic Scholarship Programme 2026

The Search for Safety: Police Brutality, Racism and Gay and Lesbian Stereotyping and Separation in the Queer Community, 1980s-2000s

Seminar

The Crip & Queer Seminar series is hosted by the Division of Gender Studies. During the fall term of 2025, the theme of the series is Violence, representation and radical change. After the seminars, which are open to students, staff, and the general public, we serve fika in the kitchen on the fourth floor of Gamla Lungkliniken. 

This presentation examines the police raids and police brutality at the club Angles in Oklahoma City and the subsequent successful ways queer people fought back. Some bars reinforced ideas of white supremacy by requiring multiple ID checks for people of color or arbitrary “dress codes.” In response, queer people of color created their own bars and other spaces for community. I also explore the history of the Black queer bar Soakie’s in Kansas City as well as the separation and stereotyping in the bars between gay men and lesbians.  

Dr. Lindsey Churchill is a Professor of History in the Department of History and Geography at the University of Central Oklahoma, USA. She is the creator of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and directs the WGSS major. In 2015, she worked with the campus community to create the Center which includes the Women’s Research Center and the BGLTQ+ Student Center. The Center is unique to the state of Oklahoma.

Date and time: 1 October 2025, 13:15 – 15:00
Location: G:a köket, Room 107
For more information, visit this page

Why Enlargement Fails: the Spiral of Double Disappointment in EU Enlargement Policy

Lecture

Despite repeated affirmations of support for enlargement, the European Union struggles to sustain momentum in integrating new member states.

This open talk explores the reasons behind the stagnation of the enlargement process, introducing the “Double Disappointment” model – a framework that traces how trust and commitment erode across multiple analytical dimensions such as actor level, policy domain, and evidence type. Drawing on a systematic review of more than 300 scholarly articles, the research reveals how reform fatigue, symbolic compliance, and unanimity rule interact in a negative feedback loop that undermines progress. Can these cycles be broken? And what can the EU learn from its past enlargement waves?

Iveri Kekenadze Gustafsson, Doctoral Student in European Studies
Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Senior Lecturer in European Studies and Deputy Dean at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology

Date and time: 1 October 2025, 12:15 -12:45
Location: Läsesalen at LUX, Helgonavägen 3 Lund.
For more information, visit this page

European AI Act: Transparency Before, Inside, and After the AI ​​Black Box

Conference

The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) marks a groundbreaking shift in AI regulation, laying the foundation for a potential global standard in AI governance, risk management, and transparency. A key pillar of the Act is data transparency, ie, the ability to understand and audit training data, algorithmic processes and AI output. 

For example, the Act establishes the following obligations:

• During AI training (machine learning): Ensuring high-quality, unbiased, and representative training datasets.
• Inside the black box: Documenting and monitoring requirements related to algorithmic transparency, ensuring interpretability and traceability.
• AI output: Enabling human oversight, contestability, and post-market monitoring to mitigate risks and ensure accountability.

The AI ​​Act also introduces transparency requirements to ensure that users are informed when interacting with an AI system. For example, AI systems generating synthetic content (such as deepfakes) must clearly label their outputs as artificially generated. Furthermore, providers of general-purpose AI models must meet specific disclosure obligations, including transparency regarding copyrighted content used for training models.

At the same time, questions remain about how the transparency obligations in the AI ​​Act interact with other legal frameworks, including:

• Fundamental rights under the EU Charter
• Copyright protection for content used as training data in AI development
• Trade secret protection for training data and AI system operations
• Obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding personal data protection
• Competition law restrictions on data access and potential abuse

Against this backdrop, this workshop—featuring leading experts, policymakers, and industry professionals—will explore how these requirements translate into real-world AI compliance strategies and what challenges remain in opening the black box while preserving innovation and competitiveness.

Date and time: October 1 2025, 09:00 -15:30 
Location: Stadshallen (Lund City Hall), Lund, Sweden, and online
For more information, visit this page

CMES Seminar: Bringing in the Other Islamists – Comparing Arab Shia and Sunni Islamism(s) in the Middle East.

Seminar

Presentation by Jeroen Gunning, King’s College & Morten Valbjørn, Aarhus University

Despite being rich and nuanced, the field of Islamism studies has traditionally been narrow, in that it has primarily drawn from a Sunni-centric case universe. In recent years, growing attention has been paid to this Sunni-centrism, reflected in calls to include “the other Islamists”—namely, Shia actors. However, there has been limited reflection on why and how this inclusion matters. In our talk, we argue that expanding the case universe is not merely about adding more data—it requires a deeper understanding of the rationale, methods, and implications of such expansion.

Drawing on insights from fields such as democratization, social movement theory, and international studies, we introduce a typology outlining three ideal-typical ways in which the inclusion of Shia Islamists can enrich Islamism studies: theory-testing, theory-development, and meta-theorizing. These approaches demonstrate how Shia cases can help test existing hypotheses, generate new research puzzles, and prompt critical reflection on the field’s assumptions and boundaries. Ultimately, we invite scholars to reflect more on how knowledge is produced and how case selection shapes both the questions we ask and the answers we arrive at.

Date and time: October 2 2025, 13:15 – 15:00
Location: CMES seminar room, Finngatan 16, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Development Lunch Seminar: “Women and Peacebuilding at Community Level in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Understandings, Contributions and Challenges”

Seminar

Welcome to a Development Lunch Seminar with Rosette Nkundimfura (University of Rwanda/University of Gothenburg).

About the Development Research Lunch Series: The Development Research Lunch is a bi-weekly research seminar for all scholars interested in development research, broadly defined. The series is a collaboration between the Development Group at the Department of Economic History at Lund University, and the Development Research School (in turn a collaboration between the Universities of Lund, Gothenburg and Uppsala, and the University of Ghana). The seminar series encourages both junior and senior scholars to present, from a wide range of disciplines. 

Date and time: 2 October 2025, 12:00 – 13:00 
Location: This is an online seminar, hosted via Zoom. Attend by following this link.
For more information, visit this page

Lund University Academic Support Centre- Lecture on effective reading strategies

Lecture

On a number of occasions each semester, the Academic Support Centre offers lectures that all students at Lund University are welcome to attend.

The lecture about reading strategies looks at strategies that can help you to better understand and recall what you read. During the lecture you will also receive tips about note-taking strategies, and advice about how to handle long reading lists.

Date and Time: 9 October 2025, 10:00–12:00
Location: Genetikhuset, Sölvegatan 29B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

NAI Nordic Scholarship Programme 2026

Opportunities

If you are a student or researcher engaged in Africa-focused studies at a University in Sweden, Finland, Denmark or Iceland, the Nordic Scholarship Programme gives you the opportunity to visit the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala for one month.

Through the Nordic Scholarship Programme, NAI aims to contribute to building capacity in the production of knowledge about Africa, and to promote and establish relations with and between Nordic research communities.

Who can apply?

• You must be a master student, PhD candidate or postdoctoral researcher in the social sciences or humanities.
• You may apply regardless of citizenship, but you must be affiliated to a university or research centre in Sweden, Finland, Denmark or Iceland.
• You must be pursuing Africa-oriented studies/research.

What’s in it for you?

You get access to a workspace in a shared office at the Institute for your one-month stay. The scholarship covers travel expenses, accommodation and a subsistence allowance.

Deadline: 12 October 2025
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

In this week’s digest:

• Seminar: Beyond AI Ethics Frameworks – Ethical Considerations and Responsibility in Public Sector AI
• Lecture: Dilemma and legal advocacy in South Korean queer activism
• Lecture: Study skills by the Academic Support Centre
• Internships: FUF Internships for Spring 2026′
• Lecture: The Politics of Culture and ‘Development‘: Dystopian Presents and Imaginaries of the Future in the Commemoration of the Partition of 1947
• Seminar: Autonomy, Feedback Loops and Human-AI Relations

AI Lund lunch seminar: Beyond AI Ethics Frameworks – Ethical Considerations and Responsibility in Public Sector AI

Seminar

Speaker: Clàudia Figueras Julián, doctoral student at Stockholm University 

Moderator: Ellinor Blom Lussi, doctoral student at Lund University

Excerpt from the Abstract:

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in public sector services—from welfare agencies to higher education—there is growing concern about how to ensure these systems are developed and used responsibly (Dignum, 2019). Much of the focus to date has been on producing ethics frameworks and high-level principles such as transparency, fairness, and accountability. But what happens when these principles meet the realities of day-to-day work in the public sector?

In this talk, I present findings from my PhD research, which investigates how stakeholders in Swedish public organisations—such as developers, project managers, and educators—talk about and make sense of ethics and responsibility in their work with AI systems. Drawing on qualitative case studies, I explore how practitioners interpret ethical principles, the tensions they encounter when trying to apply them, and how responsibility is negotiated across technical, organisational, and emotional dimensions.

Date and time: 24 September 2025,12.00-13.00
Location: Online. Link by registration. 
For more information, visit this page

Dilemma and legal advocacy in South Korean queer activism

Lecture

Open lecture with Yookyeong Im, Lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield

Abstract:

The South Korean LGBTQ+ movement has increasingly used legislative and litigatory means since the late 2000s. Various legal agendas and cases emerged as a key element of activism. Such a trend contrasts with how it put more energy into forming community spaces, support groups, cultural representation and awareness raising in earlier years of the movement. Many queer activists and the interested public are perceiving the law as a primary tool for remedying social discrimination based on heterosexism and gender binarism. More recently, anti-LGBTQ right-wing groups have also adopted legal soundbites as opposed to religious rhetoric. Their discourses revolve around proposed legal changes. My long-term ethnographic research explores how queer activists in Korea face and cope with dilemmas and tension between queering the status quo and institutionalizing queerness in their advocacy. Those dilemmas constitute the very ways in which queer activists engage with the law. As the juridification of politics is intensifying in many local and global social movements, the case of South Korean queer politics has much to offer in understanding the relationship between legal change and broader social justice.

Date and time: 24 September 2025, 15:15 -17:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Lecture on Study Skills by the Lund University Acadmeic Support Centre

Lecture

The lecture about study skills is aimed primarily at new students but might also suit more experienced students who feel a need to improve their study skills. During the lecture, you will learn about routines and planning, reading and note-taking strategies as well as how to use repetition to achieve good study results.

Date and time: 25 September 2025, 10:00–12:00
Location: Genetikhuset, Sölvegatan 29B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

FUF Internships for Spring 2026

Internships

Are you a student interested in global issues, development cooperation and Agenda 2030? In addition to your theoretical studies, do you want to gain insight into what is happening in workplaces that deal with these issues? Then you can apply for FUF’s internship program.

The programme offers a unique chance for an internship in global sustainable development, human rights and international development cooperation – with placements at organisations, authorities and companies.

With one application, students can apply for 26 internships in areas such as analysis, policy, advocacy, advocacy, communication and several thematic areas linked to Agenda 2030. Those admitted also become part ofFUF’s internship program with training sessions, network meetings and study visits that strengthen both knowledge and employability.

Application Deadline: 28 September 2025
For more information, visit this page

The Politics of Culture and ‘Development‘: Dystopian Presents and Imaginaries of the Future in the Commemoration of the Partition of 1947

Lecture

Welcome to a lecture with Prof. Navtej Purewal (SOAS University of London) about dystopian presents and imaginaries of the future in the commemoration of the partition of 1947.

This presentation will share insights from a project called Border Crossings which has focused on the commemoration of the partition of 1947 in the South Asian diaspora in the UK through the increasing presence of the cultural and creative industries and new technologies. A critical backdrop to the rise of the CCIs as a policy agenda across the UK, India and beyond will be linked to and analysed through the ways in which the politics of community, history and ‘development’ over time have interpolated with wider narratives and agendas seeking to shape, monitor, and surveil what is commemorated, what is not commemorated, and the meanings this holds for the present and future ahead.  

Navtej Purewal is Professor and Deputy Director of the Decolonising Arts Institute at University of the Arts London and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London. Her research has focused on borders and bordering, intersectionality and the arts, gender and reproductive rights. She is currently India fellow for the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.

This event is a collaboration between SASNET and the Department of Sociology at Lund University.

Date and time: 26 September 2025, 13:00 – 15:00 
Location: Department of Sociology, Room G133, Sandgatan 11 (House G), Lund
For more information, visit this page

The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series presents: Minna Ruckenstein, “Autonomy, Feedback Loops and Human-AI Relations“

Seminar

The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series (Allmänna seminariet) invites international and national researchers to present and discuss on-going research. Each presenter talks for about an hour, followed by about an hour’s discussion.

This talk explores four dimensions of autonomy in human–algorithm relations, showing how it can be shaped, limited, or supported through everyday interactions with AI (Savolainen & Ruckenstein, 2024). Autonomy is seen as informed choice, backed by technical and algorithmic understanding, but also influenced by emotional and habitual engagement with AI tools.

Examples include students adjusting their writing to fit AI suggestions or patients following app recommendations without consulting professionals. These feedback loops raise important questions about how autonomy develops over time and how it can be nurtured as a public value.

Date and Time: 25 September 2025 15:00 to 17:00
Location: Eden, Room 129
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

• Student event: Sign up for Graduate School’s Potluck!
• Seminar: Gendering Gangs: Critical Perspectives on Youth, Masculinities, Violence, and the Gang Ethos in Sweden
• Workshop: Embodied methods: creative possibilites in research
• Lecture: Gender, Families, and Wealth Accumulation Among Only Daughters
• Film screening: My Five Year Plan
• Webinar: Women Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprises and Women Empowerment
• Student Support: Come by with your text! (drop-in)
• Morning café conversation on sustainability, music, and climate action with Sam Goldscheider
• EUGLOH Sustainable Development Weeks

Sign up for Graduate School’s Potluck!

Student event

Warm Welcome to Graduate School’s Lunch Potluck 18 September between 12:00 to 13:30 at Student Lounge, Gamla kirurgen, second floor.

If you’re keen, bring a dish and come socialize with other Graduate School students. Bonus points to those who bring a dish traditional to the country they come from and/or for vegan dishes! Or maybe you want to bring a light snack or something sweet? Whatever your bike can carry, we welcome it!

The potluck will be held in the Graduate School Student Lounge in Gamla Kirurgen. This is a drop-in event; You are welcome to drop in later or leave earlier depending on your schedule.

Date and time: 18 September, 12:00-13:30
Location: Student lounge, Gamla Kirurgen
Click here to sign up!

Gendering Gangs: Critical Perspectives on Youth, Masculinities, Violence, and the Gang Ethos in Sweden

Seminar

Contrary to international research on gangs there is remarkably little focus on gendered aspects of contemporary Swedish gangs. This is an opportunity missed. Masculine ideals and homosociality are clearly central to gangs’ self-representation and practices, very much in the same way as in male-dominated far-right milieus.

In most gangsta rap, it takes mere seconds for ideas about “how to be a man” to surface, including explicit notions of women’s roles and purposes. The same applies to social media posts or casual conversations among gang members. However, despite Sweden’s long-established approach to issues of gender and sexuality in both society and academia, there is a lack of research examining gendered underpinnings of the gang ethos that can help us better to understand the reality of Swedish gang crime.  

The aim of this research symposium is to facilitate a dialogue between researchers of both criminal subcultures and gender. Hosted by scholars from the Divisions of Gender, Social Anthropology and Sociology at Lund University, it is part of an effort to stimulate further research into gendered structures and cultural expressions of criminal gangs in Sweden.

Date and time: 17th September 2025, 09:00-15:00
Location: Gamla kirurgen, Room R240, Sandgatan 13, 223 50 Lund
For more information, visit this page

Embodied methods: creative possibilites in research

Workshop

Lund Social Science Methods Center together with Yafa Shanneik invites you to a workshop about creative research methods. We will deep dive into body mapping, which is an arts-based research technique, and explore how full body portraits can be used in data collection.

In this workshop Yafa Shanneik will share her experiences and knowledge about the arts-based research method body mapping and its possibilities using virtual reality (VR). Professor Shannaeik’s research employs a decolonial and participatory framework aimed at understanding the lived experience of displaced communities from the Middle East.

To initiate the session Mikaela Linell, PhD student at the department of sociology, will give a general introduction to body mapping research and its unique composition which allows for exploration of embodied perspectives and insights.

Date and time: 17th September 2025, 13:00 -15:00
Location: Sh107, Gamla köket (School of Social Work), Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Gender, Families, and Wealth Accumulation Among Only Daughters

Lecture

Open lecture with Ye Liu, Reader (Associate Professor) at the Department of International Development, King’s College London, UK.

Prior literature on gender and wealth accumulation largely examines the role of families in reproducing inequalities. However, less attention has been paid to families without sons, a significant demographic, particularly within China’s one-child generation, that challenges conventional understandings of familial wealth dynamics. This study addresses this gap by proposing a new conceptual framework: families as sequential and interconnected sites and agents of wealth accumulation across the life course. It specifically applies this framework to investigate the experiences of siblingless daughters from China’s one-child generation.

Drawing upon 82 individual interviews, this research argues that families are dynamic and sequentially unfolding sites of wealth transfers, acting as both enablers and limiters of women’s wealth accumulation. This perspective reveals how family structures, resources, and roles transform and interact at various life-course stages. The findings demonstrate that siblingless daughters are significant recipients of wealth transfers—including cash, valuables, and property—from multiple givers across key life-course stages such as university education, career entry, and marriage and childbirth. This new conceptualisation not only allows for a deeper examination of persistent patriarchal constraints as they evolve and accumulate across life-course points, but also exposes niche spaces where some women negotiate and potentially subvert these constraints to accumulate wealth. Therefore, this study advances research on gender and wealth by illuminating the complex interplay of familial relationships, resources, and roles across the sequential life course.

Date and time: 17th September 2025, 15:15 -17:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Film Screening: My Five-Year Plan

Film Screening

This film follows three young, unmarried women between 2016-2023, Amber, Jingya and Tingting who in different ways struggle to follow their dreams, their loves, their ambitions. The Chinese state today displays increasing worries about falling nativity at the same time that traditional Chinese family values challenges and constrains many young women in China. During the course of the filming, both Amber and Jingya end up in Europe, looking for different lives. But can life in Europe really fulfill their dreams?

Karin Wegsjö the film director is the author of many short and documentary films. Her films have won prizes both in Sweden and abroad (Guldbagge, Golden Spire Award, Karlov Vary etc). Last year her film “If Everyone Just Leaves” won the Angelos Prize at GIFF and Tempo Documentary Award. My Five Year Plan premiered at the Gothenburg film festival this year and will be screened at Swedish movie theatres in the fall.

After the screening there will be a Q&A with the film director. 

Limited seating available. Reserve a seat and contact Marina Svensson by 15th September.

Date and time: 17 September 2025, 17:15-19:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Development Lunch Seminar: “Women Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprises and Women Empowerment”

Seminar

The Development Research Lunch is a bi-weekly research seminar for all scholars interested in development research, broadly defined. The series is a collaboration between the Development Group at the Department of Economic History at Lund University, and the Development Research School, in turn a collaboration between the Universities of Lund, Gothenburg and Uppsala, and the University of Ghana. 

This week’s seminar “Women Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprises and Women Empowerment” is presented by Abigail Zaato (SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Ghana).

Date and Time: 18 September 2025 12:00 – 13:00 
Location: Online
For more information, visit this page

Come by with your text! (drop-in)

Student Support

Are you writing a thesis or an essay or something else? Are you unsure of how to quote that chapter or refer to that YouTube video, or what a Works Cited list is supposed to look like? Do you want some tips on how to make your text more academic? Do you have problems finding previous research or using it in your text? Do you have writer’s block? Or do you have any other questions about academic writing, reading, or searching for literature? Come to our drop-in workshop and get help from an academic writing expert and a librarian! You can find us in the computer room SOL:B210 on the second floor of the SOL Library, every Thursday 15–16.

Date and Time: 18 September 2025 (Thursdays) 15:00–16:00
Location: Sol B210, Helgonabacken 12, 223 62 Lund
For more information, visit this page

Morning café conversation on sustainability, music, and climate action with Sam Goldscheider

Seminar

Sam Goldscheider, founder of the non-profit organisation Harmonic Progression visits Malmö Academy of Music for an open conversation about the potential role of music in the green transition.

In collaboration with the Malmö Academy of Music’s Environmental Board (miljönämnden), Sam Goldsheider will share inspiration, ideas, and foster dialogue on this highly relevant theme.  

Date and Time: 22 September 2025, 10.00 – 12.00 (Drop in)
Location: Malmö Academy of Music, Ystadvägen 25, 214 45 Malmö
For more information, visit this page

EUGLOH Sustainable Development Weeks

Webinar Series
The EUGLOH Sustainable Development Weeks is a collaborative campaign that unites the 9 universities of the EUGLOH Alliance. Its goal is to raise awareness and promote action toward a sustainable future, in line with the European Sustainable Development Week.

From 24 September to 15 October 2025, join us for 4 e-conferences that will focus on key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These e-conferences will be held every Wednesday from 13:00 to 14:30 (CET) via Zoom webinars. They are open to the public and will feature experts, academics, and student associations from all 9 partner universities.

Conference Schedule:

Wed 15 Oct: SDG 13 – Climate Action
“Act on Climate” – Urgent action to combat climate change and protect our planet.

Wed 24 Sept: SDG 6 – Clean Water & Sanitation
“Water for All” – Ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for everyone.

Wed 1 Oct: SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities & Communities
“Resilient Urbanism” – Building inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities for all.

Wed 8 Oct: SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production
“Responsible Consumption” – Promoting responsible consumption to reduce waste.

Deadline to register: 23 September 2025
Date and time: 24 September 2025 – 15 October 2025 (weekly every Wednesday 13:00 -14:30)
Location: Online
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.

• Seminar: CMES Research Seminars
• Seminar: Preparing the Truth Commission for the Sámi people in Sweden
• Seminar: What language models do and don’t do in studies of political behaviour
• Opportunity: Penta Young Reporters Programme 2025–2027
• Other: Swedish for Immigrants, SFI

CMES Research Seminars

Seminar

The CMES Research Seminar is the main collective seminar at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies. LU researchers and invited national and international leading scholars present ongoing research and analyses of a broad range of exciting topics of relevance for the Middle East.
Upcoming events include:

18th September
The Racialization of Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Turkey,
Presentation by Dalia Abdelhady, Sociology, CMES

2nd October
Bringing in the Other Islamists – Comparing Arab Shia and Sunni Islamism(s) in the Middle East.
Presentation by Dalia Abdelhady, Sociology, CMES, on the racialization of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey

Date and time: Thursdays 13.15 – 14.30
Location: CMES Seminar Room, Finngatan 16, 223 62 Lund
For more information, visit this page

Preparing the Truth Commission for the Sámi people in Sweden

Seminar

In this seminar – ”Out of the Ordinary or Business as Usual? Preparing the Truth Commission for the Sámi people in Sweden” – Malin Arvidsson, senior lecturer in Human Rights Studies, will present an article draft (co-authored with Astrid Nonbo Andersen).

This presentation will focus on how the international Truth and Reconciliation Commission model has been imported to the Nordic context. Although the Canadian TRC has been an important source of inspiration in this context, there is a fundamental difference: the Nordic commissions are not the result of a legal settlement, but of political deliberations. In the Nordic countries, claims for historical justice from indigenous groups and minorities have been handled by the established welfare state and been filtered through the state bureaucracy.

Using the theoretical framework ”administrations of memory” (McQuaid & Gensburger 2019; 2023), this article will focus on the role of the Swedish state bureaucracy in handling claims for truth and redress brought forward by indigenous and minority representatives. More particularly, we will trace the policy process leading up to the appointment of the The Swedish Truth Commission for the Sami People.

Date and time: 10 September, 2025 13:15 – 15:00
Location: Room A332 (Blå rummet), LUX, Helgonavägen 3, Lund.
For more information, visit this page‘

AI Lund lunch seminar: What language models do and don’t do in studies of political behaviour

Seminar

This seminar – ”What language models do and don’t do in studies of political behaviour” is presented by Annika Fredén , Associate professor of political science, Lund University and Denitsa Saynova , PhD Candidate computer science, Chalmers University of Technology.

Abstract

A recent trend in social science is to use language models (LMs) such as Chat GPT to mimic human behavior. When the use of similar tools accelerates, it is important to research their foundations to be able to estimate their usability and character when interpreting responses and output from politically oriented questions. We study the usefulness of word embeddings and LMs to detect differences between political parties, including subtleties and jargon and investigate if LMs can replicate results from social science experiments with human subjects. Drawing on results from our recent research, we show that natural language processing of political materials from parties benefit from pre-training on large, general data, rather than specialized data, and that LMs may indicate which social sciences experiments are robust to replication. We allude to a potential distinction between linguistic differences on the one hand, and oppositional differences on the other, when interpreting the performance of language models and their relevance for the social sciences.

Date and time: 10 September, 2025 12:00 – 13:00
Location: Online – link by registration
For more information, visit this page

Penta Young Reporters Programme 2025–2027

Opportunities

The Penta Young Reporters (YRs) Programme seeks to democratise science by making HIV-focused research more accessible and understandable to the communities most affected by paediatric and adolescent infectious diseases – empowering them to engage, question, and lead the conversation. Launched in 2022, the first edition of the project successfully trained six Young Reporters, equipping them to become skilled science communicators.

This project is led by the Fondazione Penta ETS, an organisation working paediatric health research. With a long-standing commitment to improving the lives of children, adolescents, and pregnant people affected by infectious diseases, Penta has been at the forefront of involving young people in research in meaningful, impactful ways. At the heart of this effort is a powerful mission: to share science in ways that are inclusive, understandable, and youth-driven.

YRs programme equips young people with the tools to become trusted science communicators. Through mentorship, media literacy training, expert interviews, and hands-on experience, you’ll learn to break down complex health topics – especially around HIV research and treatment-into content that resonates with youth around the world.

This new edition will train a new group of Young Reporters to:

• Create social media, video, podcast, and article content on HIV research
• Interview leading HIV researchers
• Promote mental health and tackle stigma
• Combat health misinformation
• Attend and report from global conferences
• Explore career paths in journalism, science communication, and public health Programme Timeline

Programme Timeline

• Duration of the project: 18 months
• Recruitment Period: September-October 2025
• Selection, Preparation and Coordination: November-December 2025
• Programme Implementation (training, meetings, events, content creation): January 2026 – January 2027
• Closing & Evaluation: February 2027

Who can join?

Students aged 18-25 with:

• A strong interest in HIV, public health, research and social impact
• At least 12 hours per month of time to dedicate to the program
• Fluent English for learning and collaboration
• Experience using social or digital media for communication
• No prior science or journalism experience is required!

Application Deadline: 28th September 2025, 23:59 CET
Location: Online
Click here to apply
For more information, visit this page

Swedish for immigrants, SFI Lund

Learning

The Swedish for Immigrants course is a qualified language course that gives you basic knowledge of the Swedish language. You learn to speak, read and write in Swedish and get to practice using the language in everyday and working life. After completing the course, you will receive a grade. All tuition is free.

Application Eligibility:

• You must have a personal identity number be registered in the municipality of Lund
• You lack basic knowledge of the Swedish language
• If you are an EU or ESS citizen without a Swedish personal identity number and want to study Swedish for immigrants (SFI) in Lund Municipality, you must first apply for the right to study SFI

Application Deadline: None
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• Fragmented Power : The Reception of China’s Foreign Policy Strategies in Sri Lanka
• EU Days Lund
• In the MOOD for Climate Action
• SASNET Travel Grants & Best South Asia Thesis Award

Fragmented Power : The Reception of China’s Foreign Policy Strategies in Sri Lanka

PhD Thesis Defense

Author: Tabita Rosendal Ebbesen

Summary, in English

This dissertation proposes a theory concerning China’s “Fragmented Power” in its foreign policy pursuits by analyzing the reception of the “Belt and Road” Initiative in Sri Lanka. The initiative has sparked intense debates and counteractions on the global stage and has become synonymous with Xi Jinping’s assertive approach to foreign policy. However, many aspects of the initiative’s goals, implementation, and host country reception have remained underexplored in the academic literature. Through four interrelated and mutually complementary articles, as well as an introductory chapter that ties these efforts together, this dissertation offers novel insights into China’s multifaceted foreign policy strategies, actors, practices, and the perceptions of these engagements among Sri Lankans across various societal strata.

Article 1 examines China’s utilization of Buddhist strategic narratives to facilitate the smooth implementation of the “Belt and Road” Initiative in Sri Lanka, a Buddhist-majority country. Article 2 dives into the case of the Hambantota International Port project, where the interests and efforts of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese state-owned enterprises, and the Sri Lankan government have converged and diverged in manifold ways. Article 3 illuminates the reception of China’s political and economic efforts among Sri Lankans against the backdrop of regional great power competition, highlighting the limitations of China’s current strategy. Finally, article 4 analyzes the increased party-to-party relations between the Chinese Communist Party and various Sri Lankan parties, including China’s role as a regional “Authoritarian Gravity Center.”

Together, the dissertation contributes to several important, emerging bodies of scholarship on the linkages between Chinese domestic and foreign policy practices, including the adverse effects that this decentralization can bring, China’s increasing use of religious and party diplomacy, the strategic use of narratives, and the importance of contextualized, “bottom-up” analyses showcasing local voices. Consequently, the dissertation also highlights the permeability of China’s international engagements and presence – which can be referred to as “Global China” – by presenting insights on host country agency in the face of its “Fragmented Power.”

Date and time: 3 June 2025 13:00 to 15:00
Location: LUX C121, Helgonavägen 3, 223 62 Lund
For more information, visit this page

EU Days Lund

Forum

EU Days Lund is the main Swedish annual EU forum gathering around 500 Swedish and international high-level speakers and participants.

On September 23–24, 2025, EU Days Lund will be held for the fifth time. It is the leading national arena for discussing EU-related issues. This year’s edition will focus on Sweden’s 30-year membership in the EU, the 25th anniversary of the Öresund Bridge, and highly relevant topics such as:

Europe in the world and EU enlargement

• a new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity
• a clean industrial future
• a thriving and competitive EU
• a new era for EU defense and security

Date and time: 23-24 September 2025
Location: The City Hall, Stortorget (9 minutes walk from Lund Central Station)
For more information, visit this page

In the MOOD for Climate Action

Opportunities

The Learning Planet Institute is launching its first Meaningful Open Opportunities for Discovery (MOOD) « In the MOOD for Climate Action » on June 9th. Focusing on climate change and sustainability, this 4-week climate fully funded pilot programme gives students the opportunity to tackle global challenges through real-world projects, and learning socio-emotional skills. Applications are now open.

The Learning Planet Institute is committed to help students better understand and face societal challenges in a rapidly changing world by using scalable experiential learning approaches. MOOD is one of them. Created by the Institute, as part of a United Nations University Hub for youth education, MOODs are immersive, certified learning journeys where students aged 18-25 explore their purpose while tackling global challenges through real-world projects, and learning socio-emotional skills. Through simulations and reflection, students explore their own values and purpose, learning to balance their personal needs with real-world problems.

« In the MOOD for Climate Action » is the first pilot, focusing on climate change and sustainability. Through this learning journey, the participants will : 

• Gain clarity on your values and purpose while taking effective climate action
• Learn more on climate and sustainability
• Work in teams with peers from around the world
• Earn a university-level certificate
• Develop both systems thinking skills and personal confidence
• Join a global network of changemakers

Who can join?

Students aged 18-25 with:

• Stable internet connection for 2-3 hour video conferences
• At least 9 hours per week of time to dedicate to the program
• Fluent English for learning and collaboration
• Curiosity about climate action and personal growth

Date and time: June 9th – July 7th, 2025
Location: Online with live sessions
For more information, visit this page

SASNET Travel Grants & Best South Asia Thesis Award

Travel Grants and Thesis Award

SASNET is opening for travel grants and thesis award as follows:

1. SASNET Travel Grants for Master Students at LU – New! South Asia Travel Grant for Master Students | Swedish South Asian Studies Network
2. SASNET Travel Grants for Doctoral Students at LU South Asia Travel Grant for Doctoral Students | Swedish South Asian Studies Network
3. Best South Asia Thesis Award 2024/2025 Best South Asia Thesis Award 2024/2025 | Swedish South Asian Studies Network

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• AI Lund lunch seminar: Beyond AI Ethics Frameworks – Ethical Considerations and Responsibility in Public Sector AI
• The Higher Research Seminar: Michael Bruter, London School of Economics and Political Science – ‘Democracy and the Intergenerational Challenge’
• CMES Seminar: Research Results from MECW-Project “Beyond Sacred/Secular Cities”

AI Lund lunch seminar: Beyond AI Ethics Frameworks – Ethical Considerations and Responsibility in Public Sector AI

Seminar

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in public sector services—from welfare agencies to higher education—there is growing concern about how to ensure these systems are developed and used responsibly (Dignum, 2019). Much of the focus to date has been on producing ethics frameworks and high-level principles such as transparency, fairness, and accountability. But what happens when these principles meet the realities of day-to-day work in the public sector?

In this talk, Clàudia Figueras Julián present her findings from her PhD research, which investigates how stakeholders in Swedish public organisations—such as developers, project managers, and educators—talk about and make sense of ethics and responsibility in their work with AI systems. Drawing on qualitative case studies, she explores how practitioners interpret ethical principles, the tensions they encounter when trying to apply them, and how responsibility is negotiated across technical, organisational, and emotional dimensions.

Date and time: 28 May 2025 12:00 to 13:00 
Location: Online. Link by registration. 
For more information, visit this page

The Higher Research Seminar: Michael Bruter, London School of Economics and Political Science – ‘Democracy and the Intergenerational Challenge’

Seminar

The Higher Research Seminar is the main collective seminar of the Department. The research staff and invited national and international leading scholars present ongoing research and analyses of a broad range of exciting topics of relevance for Political Science.

Presenter: Michael Bruter, London School of Economics and Political Science
Convenors: Professor Annika Björkdahl and Professor Fariborz Zelli.

Date and time: 28 May 2025 13:15 to 14:30
Location: Large conference room, Eden 367, Lund
For more information, visit this page

CMES Seminar: Research Results from MECW-Project “Beyond Sacred/Secular Cities”

Seminar

Concluding seminar with Torsten Janson, Jayne Svenungsson, Mattias Kjärrholm, Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, on research results from the MECW-project Beyond Sacred/Secular Cities: Exploring Politics of Memory, Space, and Religion in Middle Eastern Nationalisms.

Date and time: 2 June 2025 13:15 to 14:30
Location: CMES, Finngatan 16, Lund
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• Research Seminars on Multilevel Orders of Corruption in Central Asia
• CMES Public Talk with Göran Rosenberg: “Whither Israel”
• UPF Career Talk: From Operations to Negotiations
• What does student activism mean today? A case study from Spain
• Visual Methods in the Social Sciences
• Development Lunch Seminar: Exploring Collaborative Governance Frameworks in Complex Cross-Sector Collaborations in Africa
• Local traditional knowledge for global governance: solutions for the multi-crisis of climate, water, biodiversity, health and food

CMES Public Talk with Göran Rosenberg: “Whither Israel”

Lecture

Welcome to a public CMES talk with Göran Rosenberg on the future of Israel – in conversation with Lisa Strömbom, Department of Political Science.

Göran Rosenberg is a renowned Swedish writer and journalist, recipient of the 2012 August Prize for A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz. His most recent book Another Judaism. Another Zionism. The Unrequited Love of Marcus Ehrenpreis (2021) explores early 20th-century Jewish thought and identity. His book Israel, a Personal History will be published in October 2025. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg and has received numerous awards for his literary and biographical work.

Moderator:  Karin Aggestam, Professor in Political Science, Lund University

This event is a collaboration with Lund Association of Foreign Affairs.

All welcome! 

Date and time: 21 May 2025, 18:00-19:30  
Location: Eden Auditorium (Allhelgona kyrkogata 14, Lund)
For more information, visit this page

UPF Career Talk: From Operations to Negotiations

Multilateralism, Diplomacy, and the Security Sector

Interested in international security, defence diplomacy, and multilateral cooperation?
Join us for a Career Talk with Commander Tyson Nicholas, Strategic Military Advisor at UN Women, as he shares insights from his work in global peacekeeping, UN operations, and gender-responsive security policy-driven by a strong commitment to advancing inclusive and effective international peace and security

Our (joining online) Guest Speaker: Commander Tyson Nicholas is Strategic Military Advisor at UN Women, seconded from the Australian Defence Force. With over 26 years of experience, he has led international peacekeeping, defence diplomacy, and security operations. He is an alumnus of the Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law at Lund University.

CAREER TALKS is a series of events by UPF Lund’s Career Committee, offering students insights into career paths, experiences, and networking opportunities in fields related to international relations. Come learn from inspiring professionals and explore your future!

Free fika and entrance for members
40 SEK for non-members

Date and time: 22 May 2025,16:45 – 18:00
Location: GAMLA KÖKET 128
For more information, please contact: career@upflund.se

What does student activism mean today? A case study from Spain

Seminar

The inauguration of a special series in public philosophy at Lund University

You are cordially invited to the inauguration of a series in public philosophy dedicated to topical (and sometimes controversial) questions. In our current era of polarization, terms such as student activism often hold multiple and contested meanings. What would happen if we were to invite discourse on both sides of the debate? 

Audience participation and engagement (as well as decorum and politeness) are expected and encouraged. 

Host: Melina Tsapos, Phd Candidate, Department of Philosoph,y Lund University

Guest: Jordan Spencer Jacobs, Visiting Researcher, Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University

Respondent: Professor Erik J. Olsson, Department of Philosophy, Lund University

Date and time: 22 May 2025, 17:15 -18:30 
Location: LUX B 237 and online (upon request)
For more information, visit this page

Visual Methods in the Social Sciences

Workshop

The Lund Social Science Methods Centre invites you to a workshop on visual methods with keynote Nicole Milman-Doerr, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, where she is the director of CoMMonS Research Center for Studies of Political Mobilisation and Social Movements at the Department of Sociology.

Drawing on interdisciplinary theories and visual qualitative and computational methods in visual and cultural studies, media and digital communication, narrative, gender studies, and discourse analysis, this workshop will critically investigate how images are constructed and spread in digital publics and news media, among policy makers and in globalized arenas of affective politics, violent conflict, and protest. Strategies of visual persuasion, visual storytelling, and the transformative ‘power of images’ have been studied by media theorists, art historians and by empirical analysts of gender, culture, media, discourse and transnational social movements. We discuss how journalists, bloggers, artists, indigenous and BIPoC activists or non-profit organizations and gender theorists try to challenge autocratic images and stigmatizing representations, and we investigate how cultural codes, familiar stories and specific stereotypes shape the boundaries of democracy and public participation. This workshop is fairly empirical and based on international collaborative projects with theorists of art, computer vision and qualitative methods.

No registration is needed for this workshop. Everyone is welcome (inside and outside the University)

Date and time: 22 May 2025, 10:00 – 12:00
Location: Sh107, Gamla köket (School of Social Work), Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Development Lunch Seminar: Exploring Collaborative Governance Frameworks in Complex Cross-Sector Collaborations in Africa

Seminar

Welcome to a Development Lunch Seminar with Sadiq Gulma (Malmö University).

“Exploring Collaborative Governance Frameworks in Complex Cross-Sector Collaborations in Africa”

Read more about Sadiq Gulma’s research here.

About the Development Lunch Seminars

The Development Research Lunch is a bi-weekly research seminar for all scholars interested in development research, broadly defined. The series is a collaboration between the Development Group at the Department of Economic History at Lund University, and the Development Research School, in turn a collaboration between the Universities of Lund, Gothenburg and Uppsala, and the University of Ghana. The seminar series encourages both junior and senior scholars to present, from a wide range of disciplines.

This is an online (Zoom) event. To attend, please register here before the seminar starts.

Date and time: 22 May 2025, 12:00 – 13:00
Location: Online (Zoom)
For more information, visit this page

Local traditional knowledge for global governance: solutions for the multi-crisis of climate, water, biodiversity, health and food

Seminar

On May 23, LUCSUS hosts a seminar by a Colombian visiting professor, Martha Isabel Gómez Lee. She will give a public presentation on how local traditional knowledge can address the interconnected global crises.

Local traditional knowledge for global governance

Solutions for the multi-crisis of climate, water, biodiversity, health and food

This presentation explores how local traditional knowledge can contribute to addressing the interconnected global crises—climate change, biodiversity loss, water insecurity, health, and food systems—termed the “multicrisis.” Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal experience, Martha Isabel Gómez Lee argues that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) offer vital, place-based knowledge systems that global governance must engage with more equitably. The talk identifies three foundational conditions for integrating traditional knowledge into international policy: ending biocolonialism, recognising Indigenous future temporalities, and promoting Traditional Knowledge Diplomacy (TKD). Through examples from Latin America, particularly the Andean region and organisations like FILAC, the presentation highlights how IPLCs’ lived, cyclical conceptions of time and diplomacy rooted in ancestral wisdom can shape resilient, inclusive global solutions. Ultimately, the presentation calls for a transformative shift in policy frameworks to ensure traditional knowledge is not only protected but also actively influences sustainable development pathways.

Date and time: 23 May 2025, 10:00 – 12:00
Location: Ostrom, Josephson building, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• Witnessing genocide: Experience of Nazi Concentration Camps: Visit of UB’s Ravensbrück Archives
• Changing spatialities and agency at Myanmar’s highest borderlands
• The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development
• How can we together safeguard democracy?
• Bridging East and West – Moldova on the path to the EU

Changing spatialities and agency at Myanmar’s highest borderlands

Open lecture with Karin Dean, senior researcher, Tallinn University

Myanmar’s highest borderlands are defined by naturally connected but politically and geopolitically dissected vast mountainous spaces of the eastern Himalayas around the tri-junction of China, Myanmar and India. Their sweeping extent, but more so the politics and challenges of access allow us to produce knowledge of these places and their societies in tiny bits. The presentation provides a glimpse of the changing socio-political dynamics at the borderlands between Arunachal Pradesh and Kachin State through two key themes. One is the effects of space on theories and local actions, interactions and developments. The other is the community, livelihood and wider cultural resilience at and across Myanmar’s highest borderlands.

Karin Dean is a senior researcher at Tallinn University’s School of Humanities, trained in political geography. She currently heads the Eur-Asian Border Lab (https://borderlab.eu/), an active platform to foster trans-regional dialogue in border studies. Karin’s research interest revolves around borders—on how different actors construct, negotiate and cross physical, symbolic or virtual borders in their claiming of political space. Most of her research has focused on the contested spatialities at Myanmar’s borderlands and the Kachin connectivities across China and Myanmar, while most recently she has extended her research to the Indian ‘side’ at Arunachal Pradesh-Myanmar borderlands

Date and time: 13 May 2025, 15:15-17:00 
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development

Open lecture with Patrick Meehan, University of Manchester

‘Bringing development’ to ‘peripheral’ borderland regions has become a powerful trope in development policy across South and Southeast Asia, evident in strategies like India’s Look East policy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This approach exemplifies what David Harvey critically terms a “diffusionist narrative”, in which regions marked by violence, poverty, and illegality are framed as marginal spaces left behind by the uneven diffusion of capitalism and state institutions. Development, in this narrative, is equated with integrating ‘lagging regions’ into states and markets. This talk challenges that logic. Focusing on Myanmar’s borderlands with China, it explores how the persistence of poverty, violence, and illegality is a consequence of how this region has been integrated into national, regional, and global political economies, rather than a ‘lack of’ integration. Two broader themes frame this analysis. First, the ‘centrality of the margins’ rethinks borderlands as active sites shaping state power and capitalism, rather than passive zones awaiting intervention. Second, drawing on the literature on combined and uneven development, this talk explores how maintaining borderlands as zones of illegality and liminality can benefit political and economic elites and drive development in metropolitan centres, but in ways that further marginalise borderland populations. By exploring the drug trade and rare earth mining, this talk shows how poverty, violence, and illegality are not merely residual effects of conflict, state failure, and economic marginalisation, but are embedded in the DNA of state formation and capitalism in Myanmar’s borderlands, and in the spatially uneven dynamics of accumulation, precarity, and development across East and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Patrick Meehan is a Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies in the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester. His research addresses issues of violence, conflict and development. His work focuses particularly on Myanmar and the borderland and frontier regions of Southeast Asia, where he has conducted research for more than a decade.

Date and time: 14 May 2025, 13:15-14:45
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

How can we together safeguard democracy?

Seminar

On 15 May 2025, the University invites you to a conversation about activism, education and censorship. The importance of communicating research at a time when many people with different knowledge claims are competing for the public’s attention.

Together with Lars Mogensen, invited guests will discuss ways in and out of academia and how the university can safeguard a democratic society based on the following questions:

• Activism, actors and agendas – a question of roles and responsibilities?
• Education, libraries and pictures – in conflict or in line with education?
• Censorship, cancellation and critigue – who is listened to and why?

For whom: employees, students, and anyone interested.

Register for the seminar by filling in your email address at the bottom of the registration page: How can we protect democracy together?

Participants: Anette Novak, Anna Jonsson, Bodil Jönsson, Carl Cederström, Eugenia Perez-Vico, Farshid Jalalvand, Hedvig Ljungar, Jenny Björkman, Jimmie Kristensson, Joakim Lyth, Magnus Thure Nilsson, Mikael Jonsson, Moa Berglöf, Olof Sundin, Rebecca Selberg and Sten Widmalm

Moderator: Lars Mogensen. 

Date and time: 15 May 2025, 15–18,
Location: Skissernas Museum, Lund.
For more information, visit this page

Bridging East and West – Moldova on the path to the EU

Penal Discussion

On 25 June 2024, the EU held its first accession conference with Moldova, formally opening the membership negotiations. However, Moldova’s aspirations have been complicated by geopolitical challenges. The ongoing war in Ukraine has put Moldova under immense pressure, particularly from wide Russian-backed disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining Moldova’s European ambitions – notably during the last presidential elections of November 2024. Moldova also tackles a significant number of other challenges, such as large numbers of refugees, inflation, threats to its energy supplies and violations of its airspace.Despite all this Moldova has already started the process of integrating to fulfill its commitments to one day be a part of the European Union.Welcome to a panel discussion that will discuss opportunities and well as challenges to Moldova´s EU integration.

The seminar is arranged by Europe Direct Lund and Malmö University.

Registration closes by: May 19 2025 at 12:00 AM (Registration is required as drinks and a snack will be offered)

Date and time: 20 May 2025, 18:00 – 19:45
Location: Malmö stadsbibliotek, Röda rummet.
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• Sustainability Week 2025
• UPF Career Talk. International Human Right Careers: Gender Equality, Development & Local Impact
• SASNET Book Talk with Rhys Machold: “Fabricating Homeland Security: Police Entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel”
• Defending Livelihoods in the Speculative City: The Politics of Class and Solidarity for Tenant Shopkeepers in Urban Korea
• Girls Sc(AI)ence 2: Pushing boundaries of research design: Future Making through (re)mixing creative methods
• A New Look at an Old War: Examining Burma’s Long Running Civil Wars
• Transformation Food System: Rights, Land, and Justice

International Human Right Careers: Gender Equality, Development & Local Impact

UPF Career Talk

Interested in human rights, gender equality, anti-corruption, and international development? Join us for an engaging Career Talk as Isis Sartori Reis shares her journey from Lund to global institutions like the UNDP and the European Commission, offering insights on navigating a career in human rights and development!

Our guest speaker:
Isis Sartori Reis is a human rights professional specialising in gender mainstreaming, anti-corruption, and local-level capacity development. She holds a Master’s in Asian Studies from Lund University and has worked with the UNDP, the European Commission, and currently serves as Programme Officer at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund.

CAREER TALKS is a series of events by UPF Lund’s Career Committee, offering students insights into career paths, experiences, and networking opportunities in fields related to international relations. Come learn from inspiring professionals and explore your future!

☕ Free fika and entrance for members
40 SEK for non-members

Date and time: 6 May 17:15 to 18:30
Location: Eden ED 222A,, Lund
For more information, visit this page

SASNET Book Talk with Rhys Machold: “Fabricating Homeland Security: Police Entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel”

Seminar

Welcome to a book talk with Dr. Rhys Machold (University of Glasgow) on homeland security and efforts to reproduce it as new state form of policing around the world.

When we hear ‘homeland security,’ we often think about the aftermath of September 11th and the dramatic consolidation of domestic mass surveillance in the United States. Less well-known are the term’s origins and the subsequent efforts to reproduce it as new state form and “model” of policing around the world. Tracing homeland security’s origins in the colonization of Palestine and subsequent efforts by Israel’s homeland security industry to ‘penetrate’ India in the course of the ‘war on terror’, Fabricating Homeland Security locates homeland security as a universalizing transnational project of contemporary capitalism and empire, staged through ongoing practices and encounters across time and space. 

This book tells this story by weaving together fragments gathered through more than a decade of ethnographic research across Palestine/Israel, India and the UK. It traces the political fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, often known as “India’s 9/11” or simply “26/11”, concentrating on the efforts of Israel’s homeland security to advise and equip Indian city and state governments. By charting homeland security’s less known histories and geographies, the book raises urgent political questions about the actually existing extent of security’s self-implied universality and inevitability, even in places and societies deeply imbricated in empire and capitalist social relations.

Date and time: 5 May 2025 13:15
Location: CMES Seminar Room (Finngatan 16), Lund
For more information, visit this page

Defending Livelihoods in the Speculative City: The Politics of Class and Solidarity for Tenant Shopkeepers in Urban Korea

Open lecture with Yewon Lee, Department of Korean Studies at University of Tübingen

Tenant shopkeepers are micro-entrepreneurs or petit bourgeoisie that are often dismissively labeled as unrevolutionary, reactionary, and individualistic. Scholarly literature contributes to this invisibility. However, tenant shopkeepers in urban Korea are collectively organizing against the trend where urban spaces they depend on to eke out a living being captured as an investment commodity and resulting in their rent hikes and evictions. My in-depth ethnographic research in the larger metropolitan area of Seoul analyzes how once fragmented tenant shopkeepers come to embrace class politics to align their interest with various precariats of the city while demanding recognition of the value created through their “work.” As speculation on urban real estates are intensifying all around the increasingly urbanizing world, there is much to be gained from exploring and evaluating this South Korea’s case of building what scholars have coined as “cities for people, not for profit.” More broadly, through the case of tenant shopkeepers organizing, I investigate the path to generate new class politics for the previously fragmented.

Yewon Lee (She/Her) is a Junior Professor at the Department of Korean Studies at University of Tübingen. She is a political and labor sociologist and urban ethnographer whose work has been centered on unraveling how speculative real estate interests increasingly dictate the shape and character of urban landscapes and urban (work) lives. 

Date and time: 7 May 2025 15:15 to 17:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page

Girls Sc(AI)ence 2: Pushing boundaries of research design: Future Making through (re)mixing creative methods

Workshop

An online lecture and on-site seminar in the serie Girls Just Want To Have Sc(AI)ence. Topic: Pushing boundaries of research design: Future Making through (re)mixing creative methods.
Invited speaker: Annette Markham, Chair Professor of Media Literacy and Public Engagement in the department of Media and Culture at Utrecht University, Netherland

Read more about the  workshop series “Girls just want to have Sc(AI)ence” at ai.lu.se

Programme:
10.00 – 10.45: Keynote by Annette Markham Pushing boundaries of research design: Future Making through (re)mixing creative methods

Abstract: How can we create methodological mindsets and sensibilities that give rise to alternate futures? How can critical perspectives, reflexivity, creativity, and data science co-mingle? In this talk and workshop, Professor Markham focuses on how to dismantle and then reconfigure disciplinary traditions for research design. The mindset of remix is one way to consider how methods are not just tools, but make worlds. This talk encourages researchers to reflect on how all scientific practices embody fundamentally playful, inventive, and generative forms of interrogation and embracing less restrictive frameworks for engagement and analysis can form novel pathways through wicked polycrisis. To build the case for pushing boundaries, Markham draws on her work conducting algorithmic literacy through arts-based community engagement as well as her work conducting close level sociological analysis of human-AI interactions.

Date and time: 8 May 2025 10:00 to12:30
Location: Hybrid, Zoom & Lund
For more information, visit this page

A New Look at an Old War: Examining Burma’s Long Running Civil Wars

Seminar

Burma’s conflict holds the distinction of being among the world’s longest civil wars – dating back to 1948. This multimedia public roundtable considers new perspectives for understanding the longevity of Myanmar’s civil wars by looking at the roles of militias, drugs, and human rights abuses against civilians through historical, feminist and cinematographic perspectives.

The seminar features footage from Adrian Cowell’s The Warlords – a documentary film shot in Shan State in the early 1970s to highlight the continuity of the roles played by militias and drugs across over fifty years of armed conflict from an on the ground perspective. The panelists will examine the Burmese military’s use of its militia system as part of larger strategy for managing conflict and discuss shortcomings of scholarly and practical interventions which focus too narrowly on armed actors and governance solutions, ignoring local contexts and longstanding grievances and potentially replicating harms.

Panelists include scholars and practitioners: 

• Dr John Buchanan is a Researcher at Tallinn University and focuses on politics in Southeast Asia
• Melissa Booth, independent researcher on security and justice reform and gender and conflict
• Dr Jenny Hedström, associate professor of war studies at the Swedish Defence University
• Dr Patrick Meehan, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HRCI), University of Manchester; 

Moderator: Dr Elizabeth Rhoads, Human Rights Profile Area member and researcher at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University

Date and time: 12 May 2025 17:15 to 19:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B
For more information, visit this page

Transformation Food System: Rights, Land, and Justice

Lecture

📖 This lecture explores food and land as fundamental human rights, challenging their treatment as commodities. We examine how corporate control, land grabs, and toxic trade practices threaten food sovereignty, biodiversity, and local farming communities—especially in the Global South—and discuss pathways toward just, sustainable food systems rooted in human dignity and ecological care 🌱🌍

Gloria Jimwaga is a Policy Advisor on Food and Land Rights at AfrikaGrupperna, with over 11 years of experience in land tenure, food rights, and climate justice. She holds degrees from SLU and the University of Dar es Salaam and is passionate about women’s land rights and sustainable development systems.

☕ Free fika
70 SEK for non-members

Date and time: 12 May 2025, 17:30 – 18:30
Location: Gamla Köket 128, Allhelgona kyrkogata 8, Lund, Sweden
For more information, visit this page

This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled by Graduate School students.

• Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability (GPODS) Fellowship
• Acts of balance: The dual emotion work of legal professionals in Danish rape trials
• Last April and 1st May celebrations 2025
• Sustainability Week 2025

Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability (GPODS) Fellowship

3-month online programme (fees apply, up to 60% scholarship for early bird registration)

Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability (GPODS) Fellowship, a prestigious 3-month online program designed to empower students, young professionals, and scholars to advance their careers in the fields of public policy, diplomacy, and sustainability.

At GPODS, we are committed to providing a holistic career upgrade for our Fellows, helping them gain access to top-tier graduate programs and invaluable career opportunities. Our Fellows benefit from a comprehensive approach that not only enhances their academic knowledge but also prepares them for impactful careers. Below are some of the key ways in which GPODS supports its fellows:

1. Mentorship and networks: Our Mentors are members of NATO, the UN, various national ministries, diplomats, and executives from Fortune 500 companies and multilateral organizations – all world leaders come in as mentors. 

2. Knowledge: From 3 courses of 20 hours each benchmarked with the best courses from Ivy League Universities and taught by people (profs and alumni) from Cornell, Stanford, Cambridge, etc.

3. Skills: As per our stakeholder interviews at the World Economic Forum at Davos last year we developed a battery of cross-cutting skill-building workshops on Policy Writing and Communications, Systems Thinking, Case Studies in Public Policy, Behavioral Economics, and Fundraising.

4. Speaking opportunities: We give our fellows many speaking opportunities where they participate as panelists in the GPODS International Ideation Summit and other organizations that we have collaborated with such as UN-Habitat, New York Climate Week, European Geological Association, International Dialogue on Migration, the Indian Forum for Public Diplomacy, etc. We see this as a great opportunity for learning by doing for the Fellows.

See more…

Early Bird Application Deadline: 30 April 2025
Location: Online
For more information, visit this page
Register here

Acts of balance: The dual emotion work of legal professionals in Danish rape trials

Brown Bag Seminar on Ongoing Research

Speaker: Louise Høyer Bom

The department’s lunch seminar series is an informal arena for our own researchers to present and discuss research ideas and findings. Each presenter talks for about half an hour, followed by a discusson. Feel free to bring your lunch!

This is our research-in-progress seminar series (in Swedish: Forskning på gång) where the department’s own researchers present their ongoing research.

We especially invite staff and master’s students of the Department of Sociology. If you are not a student or member of staff and would like to attend the event please email one of the contact persons no later than 48 hours before the start of the seminar to inquire about available places.

Date and time: 1 April 2025 12:05 to 13:00 
Location: The Department of Sociology in Lund, Gamla lungkliniken (House G).
For more information, visit this page

Last April and 1st May celebrations 2025

Various Events

Join us for a festive series of spring celebrations in Lundagård, featuring a variety of cherished traditions and events!

From April 30 to May 1, enjoy the Hat Parade, the lively Rector’s Court, and Lund’s Student Singers welcoming spring with song. These events include inspiring speeches, music, and community spirit, marking the arrival of spring in true Lund University tradition.

Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate together with students, faculty, and the Lund community in the heart of the city!

Date and time: 30 April – 1 May 2025
Location: Lund
For more information, visit this page

Sustainability Week 2025

This year’s programme consists of over 80 events – open to all and free of charge!

5-10 of May the Sustainability Week will be back!

Sustainability Week is an annual event where Lund University and Lund Municipality organise a week full with activities focusing on sustainability. During the week, both current societal challenges and hopeful visions of the future are explored in the form of lectures, workshops, debates, exhibitions and guided tours.

All events are organised by staff at LU and Lund Municipality, and student organisations at LU. Most events take place around Lund and the surrounding area, and this year events will also be organised at Campus Helsingborg and at the Malmö Academy of Music.

You find the programme at hallbarhetsveckan.event.lu.se
You find all the English speaking events here | hallbarhetsveckan.event.lu.se/calendar

Date and time: 5 May 2025 08:00 to 10 May 2025 17:00
Location: Lund
For more information, visit this page