Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva is among the most read and cited intellectuals of our time, not only in France, but internationally. She has long dedicated her academic — and her public — acts to defining, analysing and being involved in “the diseases of our time”, such as abjection, melancholy, narcissism, racism, radicalisation, etcetera. Kristeva is interested in societal issues, political problems and social criticism, and she has contributed to the development of feminist theory since the 1970s.

“Julia Kristeva is one of France’s most admired intellectuals and a world-leading psychoanalytical thinker. The awarding of Kristeva’s honorary doctorate confirms the university’s commitment to important contemporary issues and is a recognition of her leading intellectual achievements, which have had significant interdisciplinary influence spanning more than fifty years. Her Bulgarian roots also align her with the university’s Central and Easter European profile,” says Professor Cecilia Sjöholm, who was one of the people to nominate Julia Kristeva.

Andrea Petõ

Andrea Petõ is professor of gender studies at Central European University, CEU, formerly in Budapest, but now located in Vienna. As a successful gender scholar at CEU, she was one of the current Hungarian regime’s primary targets; she is at the forefront of gender research in Central and Eastern Europe. Her contributions illuminate Stalinist and Nazi persecutions from a gender perspective, and she has travelled widely to lecture and promote gender research, not least in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. She also has long-standing ties to the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies and the subject of Gender Studies at Södertörn University.

“We proposed her as the recipient of an honorary doctorate to support her decisive scholarly contributions to gender research in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as her dedication to promoting this perspective at regional, national and European levels,” says Professor Joakim Ekman, director of CBEES, one of the people who nominated Andrea Petõ.

“Awarding honorary doctorates to researchers of such dignity, both of whom have been vital to the development of research environments at Södertörn University, clearly shows the quality and relevance of the research conducted here, not least that relating to the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe,” says Peter Dobers, chair of the Faculty Board.

Both recipients will formally receive their doctorates at the university’s Commencement Ceremony in 2022, as the ceremony for 2021 has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

Information about the previous recipients of honorary doctorates from Södertörn University is available here.