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