National graduate schools

The Education, Learning and Globalisation (ULG) graduate school is a collaboration between Malmö University, Södertörn University and Uppsala University. Its aim is to train future teacher educators at doctoral level. Funding is provided by the Swedish Research Council as one element of the investments in enhanced academic expertise in teacher education.

The graduate school’s theme means that doctoral students investigate the implications and consequences of the ways in which pre-schools, schools and higher education institutions are increasingly operating in an international context characterised by migration flows, global policymakers and multinational companies. How can this be understood socially, culturally and historically, and from the perspective of teaching and learning?

The graduate school focuses on three areas: 1) Globalisation processes and education; 2) Language, learning and internationalisation; 3) Intercultural and norm-critical perspectives on preschool, school and teacher education. The graduate school offers an environment that embraces interdisciplinarity and internationalisation, and has clear links to schools and teacher education.

It was founded in the autumn of 2020 and has had nine doctoral students in the following subjects: Language and Literature Didactics, Natural Science Didactics, Education, Ethnology, Swedish, the Sociology of Education, and Teaching and Learning.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Maria Zackariasson

School, Sport, Screen (2022-2026) is a graduate school that aims to improve knowledge of the relationship between education, physical activity and digital media. The graduate school is a collaboration between three higher education institutions and brings together three subjects – the Sociology of Education at Uppsala University, Sports Science at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, and Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University. It has nine doctoral students that have been admitted to programmes in the three subjects at the participating higher education institutions.

The graduate school focuses on three strategic and value-laden areas of learning: school, sport and screen. It adopts a comprehensive approach to these areas, examining how they are interrelated, the extent to which they reinforce or undermine one another, and how they function in different social and geographical contexts.

The starting point is that the boundary between school and society is increasingly porous. Digital tools mean the world is always accessible at school. Parents have greater insight into their children’s education via school portals where they can monitor their child’s progress. Schools’ increasing focus on sport, culture and the media also blurs the line between recreational activities and school, necessitating a comprehensive approach. The graduate school investigates the differences in children’s learning using integrated studies of school, recreation and family in various online and offline contexts, as well as in their specific educational, social and geographic contexts.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Stina Bengtsson

This graduate school is a cooperation between the University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Södertörn University and Uppsala University, and will educate a new generation of doctoral students in the history of modern political thought. There is a particular focus on issues related to democracy, citizenship, climate and the political sphere. The aim is to improve understanding of the history of political thought and what it can contribute to the analysis of contemporary global crises.

Doctoral students are trained in theoretical and methodological tools drawn from the historical study of political life, such as conceptual history and various types of contextualisation. Taken together, this provides a scientific foundation and deeper understanding of the changing nature of politics, and equips doctoral students for conducting independent historical analysis in both academia and other professional contexts.

Contact persons at Södertörn University: Anders Burman and Leif Runefelt.

The Graduate School in Gender, Humanities and Digital Cultures (GENHDI) explores how gender matters in digital cultures and academic contexts, and teaches digital methods and research skills, while also strengthening gender humanities research.

GENDHI is partially funded by the Swedish Research Council and is a collaboration between the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University (coordinator), and the School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, and the Department of Ethnology, History of Religion and Gender Studies (ERG), Stockholm University. It also cooperates with the Centre for Digital Humanities at Uppsala University. Nine doctoral students (three per university) work at the graduate school.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Ulla Manns

The Future of Democracy: Cultural Analyses of Illiberal Populism in Times of Crises (FUDEM) is a multidisciplinary graduate school in which junior and senior researchers in cultural studies, ethnology, gender studies, and musicology investigate the various cultural forms through which illiberal populism reveals itself in times of crisis.

Illiberal populism can be understood as a symptom of multiple crises – cultural, economic and societal – which place the future of liberal democracy on the line. Illiberal populism consists of different but overlapping ideologies, cultural practices, aesthetic expressions and discursive struggles.

It unites nationalist, climate-sceptic and anti-gender ideas with criticism of progressive mobilisation for equality, anti-racism and climate policy. Illiberal discourses can be understood as antagonistic and contradictory – they encompass seemingly irreconcilable values, such as secular individualism and religious collectivism, trust in science and belief in conspiracy theories, and a simultaneous appeal to feelings and rationality through “cherry picking” methodology and a strong confirmation bias.

They are popular among populist authoritarian leaders who use these discourses to make a populist appeal to the “people”. Drawing on a wide range of theories and methods from the humanities, researchers at the graduate school analyse cultural, aesthetic and discursive representations of illiberal populism.

The graduate school is a collaboration between six Swedish universities: The University of Gothenburg, Södertörn University, Linnaeus University, Linköping University, Lund University and Uppsala University.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Jenny Gunnarsson Payne

ReSource is a graduate school funded by the Swedish Research Council (2023–2026). It is coordinated by the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) at the University of Borås and includes all Sweden’s library and information sciences schools and departments. Other participating universities are Södertörn University, Linnaeus University, Linköping University, Lund University, the University of Gothenburg and Uppsala University.

The ReSource graduate school’s point of departure is the current information crisis, which is characterised by the spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, the commercialisation of information infrastructures, the increasing use of AI technologies, and declining trust in institutions that have traditionally been seen as trustworthy. Its aim is to explore information literacy and source criticism by analysing of the interplay between changing (commercial) information infrastructures, social institutions, and the demands placed on people in differing roles.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Pamela Schultz Nybacka

Islamic studies is a collective term for the academic study of Islam as a religious tradition around the world, both historically and in the present day. The subject was established at Lund University in the early 1980s and, since then, has been significant for the study of religions in Sweden. The graduate school’s aim is to train a new generation of researchers in Islamic studies in Sweden.

Linnaeus University is the coordinator of the Islamic Studies graduate school, in which Södertörn University, Lund University, the University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Uppsala University and Umeå University participate as equal partners. Doctoral students at the graduate school have been admitted to one of these universities.

The graduate school’s task is to provide an infrastructure for these doctoral students, in the form of supervisory cooperation and joint courses, seminars and other activities.

Contact persons at Södertörn University: Simon Sorgenfrei and David Thurfjell.

TRANSPLACE develops and implements ambitious initiatives for the sustainability transformation and works with key actors in Swedish urban development and transport planning. Its work focuses on practice-based, action-oriented research that helps challenge existing working methods and strengthen the reflective capacity of Swedish urban planning.

TRANSPLACE is run by the Department of Urban Planning and Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in cooperation with the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge at Södertörn University, the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University, and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute. The graduate school also has partners outside academia: Region Stockholm, the Swedish Transport Administration, Botkyrka Municipality, Huddinge Municipality, Knivsta Municipality, Hägerstensåsen’s medborgarhus (community centre) and Omställningsnätverket.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Jonna Bornemark

Research on Collaboration in Teacher Education (ROCIT) is a graduate school that will contribute to the development of models for long term, sustainable structures for collaboration between accountable authorities and the higher education institutions, in and through teacher education. The purpose is that research will support future teacher education programmes in cooperation with schools and teachers.

Matters relating to the development and production of knowledge within the profession are central to the graduate school. One important aim is to develop participants’ understanding of the tension between experience-based and scientific knowledge, as well as of teachers’ working conditions and the organisational framework for the profession’s development.

The graduate school is a cooperation between Lund University, Södertörn University, Malmö University, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Uppsala University, Linnaeus University, the University of Gävle and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Doctoral students are admitted to Educational Sciences, specialising in research into collaboration in teacher education, at Lund University and are based at one of the participating higher education institutions.

Contact person at Södertörn University: Cecilia Ferm Almqvist