Lill Hultman

I defended my PhD thesis, Live life! Young people’s experiences of living with personal assistance and social workers’ experiences of handling LSS assessments from a child perspective, at Karolinska Institutet in 2018. Since 2020, I have served as Senior Lecturer in Social Work, and I was appointed Associate Professor in 2024. I hold a degree in social work and am a licensed medical social worker.

My research is positioned within critical disability studies, with a focus on participation, self-determination, and epistemic injustice. I conduct practice-oriented research grounded in the experiences of individuals who receive support, their family members, and the professionals who work with them. I have extensive experience in interdisciplinary collaboration, including partnerships with user and patient organizations.

Methodologically, my work is rooted in qualitative inquiry, with particular interest in participatory approaches that enable knowledge development in close collaboration with people with lived experience.

Key research areas

• Participation and self-determination
  • Inequality, vulnerability, and processes of marginalization
  • Method development aimed at increasing the involvement of people with diverse dis/abilities

Ongoing research projects

I am currently involved in two research projects:

• Experiences of Co‑ External link.Occurring Mobility Impairments and Mental Health Conditions, External link. (Principal Investigator)

I am the principal investigator for this research project conducted at Marie Cederschiöld University. This project explores the experiences of living with a physical disability in the form of a mobility impairment combined with mental health challenges, based on the perspectives of young people and young adults as well as their parents. Funder: DHR and RBU

• Together for Participation External link. (Co‑researcher)

The project is led by Malin Tistad at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and examines how participation is created for adults living with the consequences of acquired brain injury. Funder: Forte.