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 Agreeable AI – How LLMs Personalise Political Bias Through Moral Alignment
- Seminar: Margaretha Järvinen, University of Copenhagen – ‘Gender and careers in Academia’
- Seminar: Defending a Living Earth: Transnational Action Beyond COP30
- Conference: Knowledge for Sustainable Development 2025 – Breaking barriers to climate solutions
- Seminar: “Rice and Rubber in Malaya”
- NEXUS AI: Education, Research & Society
AI Lund lunch seminar: The Agreeable AI – How LLMs Personalise Political Bias Through Moral Alignment
Seminar
The rapid growth of AI use has transformed how citizens acquire political information in democratic societies. This shift raises significant concerns about political bias and its contribution to societal polarisation. This study examines sycophancy in large language models (LLMs), defined as excessive agreement and flattery toward users, and its manifestation in political contexts. Unlike traditional algorithmic bias, sycophancy uses LLMs’ personalisation capabilities to tailor responses to individual characteristics, potentially making biased information more persuasive.
Drawing on moral foundations theory, which identifies moral underpinnings of political beliefs, this research examines whether chatbots exhibit political bias aligned with users’ expressed moral convictions. We hypothesize that LLMs demonstrate rightward bias when presented with conservative-associated moral foundations and leftward bias when encountering liberal-associated foundations.
Employing a novel methodology combining prompt engineering with probabilistic analysis, we generated a dataset of political questions and analysed GPT-4’s responses. By comparing response probabilities with and without identity-specific information on moral foundations, we quantified sycophantic tendencies against a baseline condition. Our findings provide compelling evidence that LLMs exhibit sycophantic behaviour, adapting their political outputs based on users’ moral belief systems rather than maintaining consistent, unbiased responses across interactions.
Minahil Malik is a doctoral student in Political Science at Lund University. Her work sits at the intersection of computer science and political psychology, focusing on how AI can facilitate the spread of disinformation, polarisation, and the resulting challenges for democracy.
Hanna Bäck is a Professor of Political Science at Lund University a collaborator in this project . Her research focuses on political parties and political behaviour, focusing on topics such as elite communication and affective polarisation.
Date and time: 26 November 12.00 to 13.00
Location: Online – link by registration
For more information, visit this page
The Higher Research Seminar: Margaretha Järvinen, University of Copenhagen – ‘Gender and careers in Academia’
Seminar
The Higher Research Seminar is the main collective seminar of the Department of Political Science. 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.
Margaretha Järvinen presents on “Gender and careers in Academia”.
Date and time: 26 November 2025 13:15 to 14:30
Location: Large conference room, Eden
For more information, visit this page
Defending a Living Earth: Transnational Action Beyond COP30
Seminar
How can we use law, policy, and transnational advocacy against global ecological destruction? In this round-table talk, environmental defenders and allies reflect on strategies they have used in their work to fight for socio-ecological justice using transnational networks.
In a time when environmental harm disregards borders, transnational networks are a core part of the response. This online roundtable event highlights diverse cases, from coral reef protection and pesticide regulation in Mexico to legal resistance against copper mining in the Colombian Amazon, where defenders, legal clinics, and transnational networks are using legal tools and advocacy strategies to protect ecosystems under threat.
Environmental defenders are at the forefront of developing new advocacy strategies to challenge destructive practices, influence policy, and build new pathways for ecological justice. Their tools include legal accompaniment, parliamentary advocacy, international solidarity, and digital mobilisation.
Speakers
- Rosa Galvez, Senator of Canada and member of Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future
- Margarida Ravara, Environmental Defender Law Center, LU Alumni
- Alejandra Ancheita, Executive Director of ProDESC (The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project – Mexico)
- Gustavo Alanís-Ortega, President of the Mexican Environmental Law Center (CEMDA)
- Amazon Watch (tbc)
Moderators
- Claudia Ituarte Lima, Raoul Wallenberg Institute
- Ana Maria Vargas, Lund University
Register here: https://forms.gle/YCRz5w9qDYC3yEyo7
Date and time: 27 November 2025 16:30 to 18:00
Location: Online and in the lecture hall Ostrom, 3rd floor, Josephson building, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
For more information, visit this page
Knowledge for Sustainable Development 2025 – Breaking barriers to climate solutions.
Conference
Welcome to this interdisciplinary research conference on Breaking barriers to climate solutions. The conference aims to encourage knowledge sharing and dialogue between Lund University and the University of Cambridge.
At the conference, we will broaden scientific horizons through interactive roundtable discussions and dialogue between disciplines and universities, aiming to better tackle some of the key challenges of our time. In the morning, the themes include:
- Energy transition: To combat climate change and improve energy security, a shift in how energy is produced is needed. But how do we get there and how do we make an energy transition that is also fair?
- Biodiversity and climate: Climate change and biodiversity loss are interconnected. A change in one will affect the other. But they are also intertwined with our social, cultural and economic processes. How can we better handle the link between biodiversity, climate change and people?
- Adaptation, loss and damage: The changes in climate is and will have long lasting effects on people’s lives and on the planet. It affects our health, our livelihood and our surroundings. And it hits differently between communities and people. How can we address these changes and what can be done about it?
In the afternoon, the interactive discussions will continue, but with a focus on the bigger picture and how disciplines can interact to find new solutions. There will be a panel discussion on A sustainable future – at what cost? with panelists from both Lund University and University of Cambridge, as well as two parallel roundtable discussions titled:
- Understanding future risks in a changing climate and society.
- No space to spare – how to balance natural space and societal needs?
Register by 27 November here.
Date and time: December 9, 2025
Location: AF-borgen in Lund and online
For more information, visit this page
Development Lunch Seminar: “Rice and Rubber in Malaya”
Seminar
Welcome to a Development Lunch Seminar with Sascha Klocke and Tobias Axelsson (Lund University). Seminar title: “Rice and Rubber in Malaya”.
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: 27 November 2025 12:00 to 13:00
Location: Department of Economic History, Room Alfa 1: 2067
For more information, visit this page
NEXUS AI: Education, Research & Society
Symposium
This event is part of the NEXUS AI Advanced Seminar Series at LUSEM. Nexus is an advanced seminar series at LUSEM, designed to foster collaboration and dialogue across departments and sometimes beyond. It brings together researchers and teachers to explore interdisciplinary themes in depth. Each session focuses on a topic of broad interest, creating a space where diverse perspectives converge to inspire new ideas and deepen shared understanding.
This symposium brings together leading researchers who, based on their respective expertise, shed light on AI and its implications for Education, Research and Society.
Date and time: 1 December, 08:30–12:00
Location: The Crafoord hall at LUSEM (Lund University School of Economics and Management)
For more information, visit this page