GUJ5-2014English

NO 5 | SEP-OCT 2014

Defying constraining norms Marcus Jahnke, the engineer who became a designer NEGATIVE SPIRAL

MALE PROFESSOR FROM THE WEST

TOP RECRUITMENT

Natural scientists put at a disadvantage

Mostly men among the honorary doctors

Meet top researcher Ellen Lust

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Vice Chancellor

Does it matter who governs higher education policy?

A MAGAZINE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF GOTHENBURG

September–October E D I TO R - I N C H I E F A N D P U B L I S H E R

W E LCO M E BAC K after the best summer in living memory! I hope everyone has had the opportunity to be free from work responsibility and simply to enjoy their time. A new term is already underway and the students are streaming in, In other words, everything as usual. But not quite nevertheless.

Recently, Sweden went to the polls and we will soon see a change of power. Does it matter for higher education policy which party or parties governs the country? I have some difficulty believing this. Especially after this year’s politicians at Almedalen Week, who, on the contrary gave clear signals of a broad consensus between the political blocs.

This year all of the universities and other institutions of higher education came together to a common higher education policy day in Almedalen. It was arranged by The Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF), and was organised along four different themes: the allocation of resources system, autonomy, educational programme and matching on the labour market, and gender equality. It became clear during the day that we, as institutions of higher education, are united behind the demands for a long-term allocation of resources, increased basic resources, and an overall allocation in a financial framework. The latter would benefit the independence of the institutions of higher education and is important in order to make clear that all education should be based on scientific grounds. We also took a clear stand for the position that education in general has an intrinsic value for its own sake and that we cannot predict the labour markets of the future.

W E W H O W E R E there understood that our joint positions were supported by the politicians who attended. Both the governing party and the opposition said they were favourably inclined concerning the issue of increased basic resources and an overall allocation in a financial framework. The image of political unity was strengthened when, late in the Almedal Week, I appeared on Vetenskapsradion’s live programme on how Sweden should strengthen academic research in the country. Both of the two politicians who participated, the Moderate Party’s Per Bill and the Social Democrat Ardalan Shekarabi (both PhDs), showed a strong consensus and supported what was said earlier in the week. For example, they were entirely in agreement on the need for long-term resources and predictability in employment contracts in order to strengthen Swedish research.

The starting point for the radio program was a comparison with Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, who with equivalent or even less resources than we

Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E D I TO R A N D V I C E P U B L I S H E R

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D R E P R O D U C T I O N

Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G R A P H I C F O R M A N D L AYO U T

Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se

T R A N S L AT I O N

Charles Philps, Semantix ADDRESS

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

GU Journal, University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg E-MAIL

have in Sweden, have achieved great success.

What is common to the three countries is that they have a stable long-term core funding with which to recruit academic researchers to foreseeable career paths and security in employment. Given these conditions, the researchers think they’ve got a good foundation from which to bring home external funds but also dare to engage in more risk-emphasised research.

gu-journalen@gu.se

note by saying that I do not think there are any major differences between the political blocs in terms of higher education policy. Possibly, in terms of educational instruction, the situation may differ somewhat. Actually during the election campaign the Social Democrats promised 17,500 new student places at universities and other institutions of higher education. The present governing party has been less clear, but from what I understand, the alliance parties agreed in principle, however it was unclear as to exactly how many new places. A bit clarity from the government in this matter could be useful, which during a number of years has invested heavily in research.

Irrespective of which party or parties win the election, and even if everyone were to agree on just about everything, what we from the country’s universities and other institutions of higher education want to see is broad parliamentary backing for a long-term and sustainable higher education policy. Then we as a sector and as individual educational institutions can have peace and quiet in order to work on developing our institutions and gaining a higher profile for their activities.

17 October 2014

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Contents

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

3

FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR

2 We want a long-term and sustainable higher education policy.

NEWS

4 Not a penny of the Government’s billion kronor investment went to natural scientists at GU. 6 Now all teachers can apply to be excellent, but the requirements are tough.

7 Male professor from the West? Then you can receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg.

7 GU says yes to controversial proposal concerning the introduction of certain student tuition fees.

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8 This is why the GU finds it difficult to assert itself in the academic rankings.

PROFILE 10 Marcus Jahnke – the designer who believes in more collaboration between art and industry.

Design can change the world

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Marcus Jahnke was in Almedalen to talk about the Gender lab.

NEWS

13 Grand slam for small institution.

14 Meet Ellen Lust, an expert on the Middle East and North Africa and new GU researcher.

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INTERVIEW 16 Anna Peixoto about the ambiguous situation doctoral students find themselves in.

Soon in Gothenburg Ellen Lust moves closer to the countries she studies.

Big differences between faculties Anna Peixoto about what it is like to be a doctoral student.

The Editors: Dashing through Visby I N CO N N EC TI O N W IT H the super election year our photographer, Johan Wingborg thought that it would be a nice idea if the editors - Allan, Eva and Johan - would go to Almedal on a reporting trip. One reason was of course to monitor the University of Gothenburg’s participation. But another was try out filming in real-life situations; Johan and Allan had just completed a course in video production.

Putting aside our initial doubts in the beginning, in the end we decided to go. But by that time it was already the middle of May. All flights to Visby

were of course already fully booked, but that did not stop us. Keeping GU’s environmental policy in mind, we decided to travel with an ethanol-powered car to Oskarshamn and take the ferry.

W E W E R E N OT quite sure if all of us would actually fit into the house in the middle of Visby that the Sahlgrenska Academy had rented and where we supposedly would find mattresses on the floor, including enough for us.

So as a precaution, Allan and Johan each took their own tent with them.

The car journey actually went faster than we thought it would, just under

four hours, then followed three hours on the boat. At 12 o’clock midnight we were in the Port of Visby. We were not entirely sure where the house we were going to stay in was and any taxi, of course we saw no sign of. So with tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, still camera, video camera and everything else you can imagine in our packs, we struggled forward in the darkness of night.

After making a few wrong turns, we finally tumbled into the yard of our house and after some searching, we even found the key.

We thought that we had had

enough with hardships, but the same thing was repeated on the trip back.

We ordered a taxi, but it did not show up. Slightly panicked, we were rushing through Visby again with bags, tents, sleeping bags, cameras and Allan’s gifts for his kids at home.

When we exhaustedly arrived at the terminal, at first we were denied boarding due to that the ticket for the boat voyage had not been endorsed in time.

We tell you this, only so that you, dear reader, will get a little insight into the adventurous lives the editors live.

4

News

No investment in the natural sciences -1,5 %

56,9 mkr Gothenburg

+ 8,8 %

+ 29,7%

+ 17,1%

+ 13,4%

90,8 mkr

68,6 mkr

42,5 mkr

21,8 mkr

Lund

Uppsala

Stockholm

Umeå

The amount of resources that went to natural sciences from the last Government investment.

What happened with the Swedish government’s massive investment scheme last year for research and innovation?

Well, among other things it led to major investments in the natural sciences, in Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm and Umeå.

Though not in Gothenburg.

In fact here, quite the opposite occurred – the natural scientists received less money.

OV E R T H E PA ST five years the funding for research at the University of Gothenburg within the natural sciences has fallen from a situation where it represented one-quarter of the faculty’s total resources to only one-fifth. So shows the figures that Ann-Christin Thor, Head of Faculty Administration at GU’s Faculty of Science, worked out.

“From the beginning, the system with faculty allocations had been built up via the awarding of a number of professorships in specific subjects that were requested by the university in an annual request for funding appropriations. The research in various scientific fields were considered to cost different amounts depending on the discipline. The natural sciences, which often requires expensive equipment and laboratories with technical staff, therefore received about 30 percent more in funding per professor than, say those in the humanities or social scientists. Nowadays the universities allocates funding to “research” without being more specific as to the particular discipline or purpose. The universities decide themselves on the distribution to various different activities or faculties/institutions.”

One reason for the decline is the allocation model which was introduced in 2009, following a decision by the Government of Sweden. At that time 10 percent of faculty funding became performance-based, something which the University Board also decided is to apply within the University of Gothenburg’s operations and activities. Beginning in 2014, it is about 20 percent.

“The Faculty of Science has lost its effectiveness relative to other faculties at the University,” observes Lars Nilsson, Head of the Finance Department. “The faculty has also underperformed the corresponding faculties at several other universities.”

Why this is so, Dean Elisabet Ahlberg doesn’t have a good answer for. The Faculty of Science has several of the university’s most proficient scientific researchers, both in terms of publications in well-reputed journals and external financing.

“But when one measures the performance, the Faculty is compared solely with itself based on a rolling average. If one starts, such as we do, from a high initial position, it becomes difficult to have an increase each and every year. With the relative decline in the allocation of faculty resources there is also at risk of reduced output. There is, for example, a clear correlation between the size of the faculty allocations and the ability to attract external funding.”

M AT TI A S G O K S Ö R , Head of the Department of Physics, also has a difficult time in understanding the claim that faculty is performing poorly.

“In many areas, our researchers are world-leading; one

example from my Institution is spintronics.

Last year, the government made a major commitment to research with 4 billion kronor to be distributed until 2016. Of the more than 68 million kronor that went to Uppsala University, it invested nearly half in the natural sciences. Also, Stockholm, Umeå and Lund invested heavily in research in the natural sciences.”

At the University of Gothenburg, none of the almost 57 million kronor that the allocation resulted in went to the natural sciences. In fact, the Faculty of Science’s research budget actually declined by SEK 1.5 million in 2014.

T H I S M E A N S T H AT the University of Gothenburg, which even before the Government’s investment provided less faculty funding for the natural sciences than comparable universities, is falling behind even more within the field.

“In 2014, we strengthened the core allocation to the School of Business, Economics and Law as well as the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Education. Since we want to build up complete environments, we also count the allocation in relation to instruction,” explains Lars Nilsson. “And in the survey we made in order to achieve a better balance between research and teaching, the natural scientists did not stand out especially compared with other faculties.

Next year, for example, a small investment will be made on the IT Faculty due the same reasons.”

The financial situation at the Faculty of Science has led to fewer and fewer new doctoral

students. Last year, the number was down to a record low of 19 newly beginning graduate students. In the short term perspective, this means a saving – in the long, however, the number of graduate students is now down to such a low level that the scientific environments risk being depleted, warns Mattias Goksör.

Mattias Goksör

Elisabet Ahlberg

Ann-Christin Thor

brings in a really significant amount of external resources, but because we are so underfunded, we can no longer use the money for such things as funding doctoral students.

Instead, the researchers are required to pay a large share of their own salaries via external funding. This is not the way things are at other science faculties in the country. In the past, external funds were icing on the cake; today it is a prerequisite to be able to work at all.”

Elisabet Ahlberg doesn’t think that it is unreasonable that external funding also goes to partially cover researcher’s salaries.

“I think that it is quite natural that a part of these funds are used for salaries. The important thing is that one looks at the big picture for a research team, and that faculty resources and external resources together allows for research of a high quality.

If external funds would not be used for salaries of teachers and researchers, it would mean, with the allocation of faculty funding we have today, that the number of permanently employed teachers and researchers would need to be reduced.”

“ T H E FAC U LT Y

B U T M AT TI A S G O K S Ö R considers that his institution has already made major cutbacks. Over

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GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

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Poorer performance After the year’s six months, the University of Gothenburg reported a deficit of 70 million kronor. The forecast for the full year is a deficit of SEK 17 million, which is a decrease of SEK 47 million compared to the budget that was adopted at the end of last year.

So shows the interim report that was recently submitted to the Government.

“The primary reason is that we have increased the number of personnel in that we have 138 more full-time employees at the end of June than a year ago. In addition, we will have a new salary agreement in the autumn. It is an indication of a change in the trend, i.e. that we have finally begun to consume money via employing more teachers and researchers. It is hoped that this will lead to more teacher hours and that we can carry out the research commitments that we have taken upon ourselves,” notes Head of the Finance Department Lars Nilsson.

The positive trend of increased revenue remains unchanged. For the year, revenues are expected to increase by SEK 132 million.

GOArt is shut down

»If one starts, such as we do, from a high initial position, it becomes difficult to have an increase each and every year.« ELISABET AHLBERG the past five years, the number of teachers has declined from more than 80 to 60.

“Even though we are hyperefficient and bring in more and more external funds, our financial situation only gets worse. We are risking falling into a negative spiral where less money leads to poorer performance, which in turn can lead to even less funding …”

Elisabet Ahlberg does not agree that the faculty is in a downward spiral, but rather thinks that the financial situation requires that all activities to be reviewed.

“It is important to create prerequisites for the instructors and researchers who are to work within the university. This may mean that we have to prioritise which activities should exist.”

The Faculty of Science is careful to use its money, points out AnnChristin Thor. Despite that several faculties have a saved-up capital of

100 million kronor or more, they have received additional money from the University Governing Board.

“Our capital is at only SEK 18 million. That estimate might even be seen as a bare minimum.”

Next year, however, the Faculty of Science will be allocated an additional investment of SEK 15 million. The money is earmarked for infrastructure, the Swedish NMR Centre, and the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences, explains Lars Nilsson.

“The offices, lab space, and equipment at Kristineberg and Tjärno is of course a heavy expense for the faculty. The investment next year means that some funds are freed up so that they can be used in other areas, for research for instance, or to increase the core allocations to the institutions.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

The world’s only organ research centre has been closed down. Despite several international protests, the Vice Chancellor made the decision during the summer to close down GOArt, Centre for Organ Research at the University of Gothenburg, which was established in 1990 and since 2011 has been located at HSM, the Academy of Music and Drama.

“We have received no rational answer as to why GOArt is being closed down,” explains Johan Norrback who until the end of the year was the Centre’s Director. “The Vice Chancellor made the decision without the evaluation which GU’s rules for formation of centres speaks about. Formally, according to information, it was handled properly, but that does not create confidence in decisionmaking at the University of Gothenburg if one as personnel cannot rely on what is supposed to apply. The preparatory background materials are weak and contain factual errors, lacks facts, and was made without any contact with the staff.”

The decision means that the Academy of Music and Drama is to take over the contracts GOArt has entered into on GU’s behalf. Projects, staff and resources are being transferred to a department within the college for choir, piano and church music.

Grundtvig Institute phased out The Grundtvig Institute, which has established in 1997, has been in charge of promoting cultural education in the university’s educational planning and student recruitment. The Vice Chancellor made the decision during the summer that the institute would be shut down on 31 October. Meanwhile, the Education Committee received a special assignment to monitor how the cultural educational perspective should be part of the educational programmes. At the meeting, the students expressed their reservations against the decision.

6

News PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

“It should not have any significans where at GU one works,” says Mette Sandoff.

Tough requirements to become excellent teacher This autumn, a reform was implemented that will call attention to and reward good efforts in teaching education – however there won’t be two separate levels of recognition but rather only one title, “excellent teacher.” Compared with other universities, GU tightens up the requirements in that the teacher must also have a connection with research in some form in order to be considered.

IT ’ S TA K E N S O M E time to come up with a draft proposal that all the faculties and departments can accept. The more than 30 consultation responses indicated a strong interest but views on pedagogical paths split the university into two camps. After the proposal had been reworked, established anchoring among the deans, the University leadership and the Education Committee, during the summer the Vice Chancellor made the decision to introduce the system.

“The fact that we now have only one level was a result of the consultation documents, which included everything from hip hip hooray to scathing criticism,” relates Mette Sandoff, Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for issues regarding education.

“There were many who thought that ‘qualified teacher’ was a strange concept and the two levels would give rise to an unnecessarily complex system. We are now talking not about teaching career pathways but rather about teaching skills. It is the educational academy that will be the network where we spread

good pedagogical experience and conduct an ongoing discussion about educational issues within the University. However, this academy will consist not only of excellent teachers who sit and discuss pedagogical issues, but rather shall open to everyone.”

In the original proposal, the intention was that two experts would assess the application; but according to the new decision, one external expert in pedagogy, with specific experience in the subject, will examine the application. who thought that it was too cumbersome with two experts. We start with one person, and we think this will be fully sufficient. But in order to reduce the concern that may still exist, the applicant will also be interviewed in the process, so that we can see that he or she has the knowledge and skills presented in the application.

Mette Sandoff stresses the importance of university-wide assessment criteria.

“The point is to have a single uniform system. It should not have any significance where at

“THERE WERE MANY

GU one works specifically. But the interpretations of the criteria may vary somewhat between disciplines.”

In the decision, it states that the title of “Excellent Teacher” will be included in the university’s pay criteria and be given weight in salary reviews, but that is hardly a guarantee of an increased salary.

Why is there not an established set salary increment as other universities have introduced?

“The University is reviewing the way salaries are set and a salary increment of a fixed amount would be at odds with

»Good pedagogical contributions are very important for an educational institution to be of a high quality and be successful.« METTE SANDOFF

this. We will closely monitor that it really has an impact. For me, it’s a given that the pedagogical issues are given equal weight with the research efforts.”

All teachers will be able to apply to be considered, but the requirements are rather stringent. Have you set the bar at an appropriate level?

“We should wait and see, and have a strong stomach in the meantime. Now we’ll do a trial period for the first year and then the Committee may evaluate whether the criteria are reasonable. But we’re not doing this to make it more difficult, but rather we want to encourage and stimulate the pedagogical issues at our university. Our hope is that many will succeed.”

M E T T E SA N D O FF emphasises that there is a breakthrough in that GU is now focusing attention on pedagogical competency.

“It is an area that not so much attention is paid to in the academic world, and it is high time that we begin to evaluate this type of efforts and contributions.

Good pedagogical contributions are very important for an educational institution to be of a high quality and be successful, not only for the individual but for our students and the community in general. The entire society benefits from it.”

“To me, it feels really exciting and encouraging that we finally can launch a system that we believe in and want.”

ALLAN ERIKSSON

FACTS The proposal essentially means that all teachers can apply to be considered for the title. The consideration, which takes place at one’s own faculty, will be based on the applicant’s “documented and reflective practice, and be based on university-wide assessment criteria.” The head of the department shall determine whether the teacher meets the three preconditions to be considered: the applicant must have a subject-related foundation, university/higher education teaching training education, and have links with on-going research and/or an artistic connection. The teacher is to then compile a teaching portfolio, be recommended by their department head, and fulfil the seven criteria that are specified in the application.

The Education Committee has appointed a committee, headed by Per Cramér, which will monitor and evaluate the first round of applications. More information is available at: www.pil.gu.se/resurser/excellent-larare/. One can also find tips here on how to assemble a teaching portfolio.

Simultaneously the Pedagogical Development and Interactive Learning unit commences with the preparations for establishing the Pedagogical Academy, a collegial network that is supported by the excellent teachers.

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

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Few honorary doctorates to women The majority of the University of Gothenburg’s honorary doctorates are men from the West. Of fifteen honorary doctorates, all are from the West and only four are women.

I N M AY L A ST Y E A R , the Vice Chancellor announced her decision concerning new rules for the awarding of an honorary doctorate. There are no rules in terms of nationality, but on the other hand a gender equality perspective should be considered.

Nevertheless, among the recipients of honorary doctorates, men remain in the vast majority.

“It’s unfortunate,” comments Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz. “The Vice Chancellor has been clear that in this area too, gender equality should be considered, and it is sad when we see that the work is not properly progressing. Old structures underlie the resistance.”

The School of Business, Economics and Law has awarded two honorary doctorates this year, both to men.

“As only 1-2 people should

be appreciated per year, it is difficult to take gender equality into account at every occasion,” explains Vice Dean Olof Johansson Stenman. “But of the seventeen honorary doctorates we have appointed over the past ten years, only two have been women, and of course we are not proud of this.”

IT I S T H E I N D I V I D UA L institution that proposes honorary doctorates. Often it’s someone whom they have had a long-term relationship with, or have done a lot with over the years, explains Olof Johansson Stenman.

“The individuals who are selected are in fact often professors, and the higher up in the academic world one goes, the fewer women one finds; unfortunately. But there are large differences between different academic fields, it is certainly

not the case that there is a lack of female professors everywhere. In any case we will review the nomination of candidates for honorary doctorates and place more stress on the importance of also suggesting women, and generally to have a more diverse perspective, for the institutions.”

Also, the Faculty of Science’s sole honorary doctor this year is male.

“We have made the appointment to an honorary doctor who is valuable to the faculty, but we

»The higher up in the academic world one goes, the fewer women one finds.« are working to get more female honorary doctorates,” relates Vice Dean Ola Wetterberg. “Attention is given to the issue each year when the nominations are discussed, and we regret that no additional suggestions for women came in from the institutions.”

Over the past 10 years, the faculty has awarded honorary doctorates to 16 men and 4 women.

“This actually exceeds, in percentage terms, our women/ men professor ratio,” explains Ola Wetterberg. “The situation mirrors the structure within the field internationally. But we will continue to actively work to produce more nominations of women candidates.”

O F T H E 3 0 8 honorary doctorates awarded at the University of Gothenburg during the period from 1993 to 2014, 70 were women, i.e. 23 percent. During the period, nine honorary doctors came from Asia, four from Japan and just one from South America (Venezuela).

Of this year’s 15 honorary doctors, five are from Sweden and eight from the rest of the European Union EU, while there is one each from the United States and from Israel.

EVA LUNDGREN

Yes to hotly debated proposal The Government of Sweden wants to allow, under certain circumstances, to charge tuition fees to students participating in educational programmes that take place within the framework of a joint cooperation between a Swedish and a foreign university­ or other institutions of higher education T H E U N I V E R S IT Y O F Gothenburg is supportive of the idea but is concerned that it goes against the Higher Education Act requirement of education without tuition fees.

According to the University’s consultative response, the proposal would make it easier for international education partnerships which the University

of Gothenburg is part of to “be able to offer a high-quality educational programme and prepare the students for the international labour market.”

Nevertheless, the University of Gothenburg has two reservations.

O N E I S T H AT the tuition fees do not accrue to the Swedish university. Another is that the proposal needs to be clarified so that there is no ambiguity about which programmes the proposed legislation affects. The University of Gothenburg recommends that the wording should be changed to: “... does not refer only to courses or educational programmes which are provided by universities and other institutions of higher education.” Although what is meant by an educational

partnership or joint educational cooperation should be clarified, in the view of the University of Gothenburg.

IT ’ S A M U C H - D E BAT E D and controversial proposal which led to very sharp criticism from student organisations. Even the University of Gothenburg shares this criticism, that the proposal is contrary to the requirement that education at institutions of higher education be free of charge, something which is a fundamental democratic right.

“There is a risk that the adoption of this proposal would mean that higher education is becoming a commodity.” The University of Gothenburg additionally notes that the proposal does not take into account the financial

implications for the financially resource-poor students who will be compelled to take out additional loans.

The background to the Government’s proposal is that since 2009 the Swedish institutions of higher education have had the right to award joint degrees with the one or more Swedish or foreign universities or other institutions of higher education. Several institutions have pointed out, however, that in practice it is difficult to enter into partnerships with many foreign universities as they charge tuition fees and Swedish education is, as provided by law, free of charge.

ALLAN ERIKSSON

8

News

Quite unknown out Year after year the University of Gothenburg is far behind the rankings of its closest competitors. Why is that so?

Till viss del beror det på listornas konstruktion, men det är inte hela sanningen.

TO S O M E E X T E N T it is due to how the lists are constructed, but this is not the whole truth.

“Rankings provide neither an accurate nor complete picture, but this simply seems not to matter.

They are here to stay”, observes Magnus Gunnarsson, at the unit of analysis and evaluation, who in a new report has gone through the results for the University of Gothenburg in the three major ranking lists Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai), Times Higher Education (THE) and QS. If the rankings have any significance in Sweden is difficult to really know, but studies show that foreign students make use of them, especially at the graduate and postgraduate level. It also becomes more and more common for governments and the university to regard the rankings as a kind of accreditation. So how is it then that the University of Gothenburg is lagging behind the institutions of higher education that we measure ourselves against?

University 4th place.”

The picture is not entirely bleak. For example, the University of Gothenburg is rich in resources measured in revenue per teacher/ researcher, and in the citation rates we are at par with Uppsala and Lund.

“But if we look at the number of publications, the University of Gothenburg has considerably less than Lund, Karolinska and Uppsala, which put us at the bottom of the barrel in several indicators.”

PA R T LY, T H I S S IT UATI O N is due to the subject matter profile. That the University of Gothenburg has a higher proportion in the humanities and social sciences than in other fields explains the low results in terms of the number of articles published.

And partly the results have some relationship to the fact that the University of Gothenburg has a high proportion of undergraduate education. Both of these factors reduce GU’s per-

»Increased internationalisation is likely to lead to a better reputation.«

M AG N U S G U N N A R S S O N has carefully examined the most important indicators in area after area in the most recent years. Among other things considered were citations, financial resources for research, the relationship between teachers and students, and the degree of internationalisation.

“Although there are major differences between the lists, there is a fairly good agreement between the various rankings. The University of Gothenburg does not reach higher than 10th place in the Nordic region in any of the measurements, for example, while Lund University reaches as high as 2nd place and Uppsala

Magnus Gunnarsson

formance in the rankings.

“There are reasons that can be described as flaws in the methodology employed by the rankings.

Stockholm University certainly has a large percentage of humanities and social sciences, but that is outweighed by the fact that their natural science faculty is almost

twice as large as ours is - with a high rate of citation, many articles published in Science and Nature, and several old Nobel Prizes.”

T H E R E A R E S E V E R A L indicators where the University of Gothenburg performs worse than comparable educational institutions, but this can easily be

explained away by deficiencies in the methodology, in the opinion of Magnus Gunnarsson.

“In these aspects, we are lower in all measurements. The primary reason for our weak showing is that the reputation indicator weighs heavily in both the QS and THE rankings. We have a significantly lower global reputation

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GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

in the world and less international jointly authored publications, it is only natural that it will have consequences for how well known the University of Gothenburg is out in the world.”

M AG N U S G U N N A R S S O N believes that ranking results, reputation and international recruitment are interrelated in an intricate interplay. Positive results on the rankings means a higher reputation among international students, which in turn raises the ranking results. In the same way: a good reputation among international researchers means that the reputation increases, making it all that easier to recruit international scholars and researchers, which in turn raises the values on the indicators.

The harsh truth is that University of Gothenburg is quite unknown in the world, in the view of Magnus Gunnarsson.

The question then is how to make a university better known internationally?

“We will of course continue to maintain the high quality in what we do, but we also need to increase awareness of the University of Gothenburg.

Reputation may seem an unimportant goal, it’s what we do that matters, not how famous we are.

However, our reputation affects recruitment which in turn affects the quality. It is a whole lot easier to recruit talented academic researchers, teachers and students at a university with a good reputation than to some unknown institution. However increased internationalisation is likely to lead to a better reputation.”

ALLAN ERIKSSON

ILLUSTR ATION: TOMA S K ARL SSON

than Lund, Uppsala or Stockholm University.”

In the THE rankings, Lund University gets 20 points reputation for its educational programme and 26 for research.

The corresponding figures for the University of Gothenburg is 8 for the educational programme and 8 for research.

“There are quite large differences. It shows up even clearer in the QS rankings, where the total score for the University of Gothenburg is 54, compared to 89 for Lund University. Internationalisation and reputation are linked together. If we have fewer foreign researchers and students, a lower degree of international networks,

FACTS In the report How did we get here?

- An analysis of the University of Gothenburg’s performance in international rankings, Magnus Gunnarsson attempted to find out why the University of Gothenburg falls far behind Uppsala, Lund and Stockholm University.

9

Meet our researchers at the Book Fair A large number of GU researchers are participating in this year’s Book Fair, held on 25-28 September. On Thursday, for example, Anders Wallin from the Sahlgrenska Academy lectures about how to identify disorders in the brain. Staff from the Centre for Person-Centred Care (GPCC) talk about how the medical care can be improved.

On Friday, the staff from the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research discuss the little word “hen”.

On Saturday, it’s time for the Film Studies to present a project in which the camera works as a tool for greater integration and more democracy. On Sunday, historian Britt Liljewall talks about how the women’s struggle for equal rights has progressed over the years.

Soon time for Global Week This year’s Global Week takes place from 17–21 November and the theme is global health.

The programme will consist of contributions from both the faculties/institutions as well as a centrally organised programme where external experts on the topic meet with GU researchers.

The opening speaker is Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet and an honorary doctor at Sahlgrenska Academy. Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute, will also contribute with his participation.

Video about European Studies alumni The Centre for European Studies at the Department of Political Science has produced a video, recently posted on YouTube, which features interviews with the alumni who have graduated from the bachelor’s and master’s programmes.

The video has been produced by the project leader Johanna Sjöström, herself an alumnus of the Europe Studies Programme, and the young filmmaker Jonathan Wilhelmsson. One basis for the video is the interviews made with alumni which Johanna Sjöström conducted during a period from autumn 2012 to spring 2013, and which culminated in a report on the experiences of the Europe Studies alumni’s academic studies and the way out into the working world.

“Johanna has tracked down a number of promotional videos, primarily from universities in the US, but they portray students in their campus life and most of them are unbearably sugary extravaganzas.

We believe that the video is one of the first of its kind in the world, with its focus on the alumni and their serious contributions,” comments Urban Strandberg, Director of Studies at the Centre for European Studies, who initiated the production of the video.

The aim is to attract prospective future students, to show the connection between the working world and the business environment, and also to give hope and inspiration to current students, so that they successfully complete their education.”

The link to the video: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=ouyIIRyDhfE.

10

Profile

He wants us to stretch boundaries

What is especially fun with design is that you’ll never know what people will use it for. So remarks Marcus Jahnke, wellknown for his distinct craftsman kilt and for the t-shirt for soon to be fathers, with a foetus printed on the front.

He is an engineer by profession who became a designer and who thinks that we live in a far too narrow world.

A RC U S JA H N K E is in Visby to talk about the Gender Lab project, which he is the research leader of. We have managed to get away a bit from the crowds in order to sit down in a quiet part of Almedal Park.

“This is the first time I am here and it is such a bewildering experience. But there is more festival here than I expected, and actually it’s pretty cool.”

Marcus Jahnke, who recently completed his doctorate in design, thinks we live in a far too narrow world of artificial distance between, for instance, technology and art.

And perhaps his opposition to restrictive norms had its early stages at home in his childhood Åkarp, a bit from Malmö.

an engineer, particularly interested in vintage cars which he restored at home in the garage. My mom was an invisible mender and worked to restore fabrics and the like, including for Kulturen in Lund.

So I grew up in a home environment with the influence of both a mechanical as well as a textile workshop. There wasn’t so much art in the house, but for me personally, I was interested in painting. As I wasn’t sure what I wanted do in life, I followed in my father’s footsteps and studied at four-year technical gymnasium (upper secondary school).”

But the industrial designer Ferm Morgan, who lived in the same neighbourhood, encouraged him to study design.

“We knew each other because we shared the same interest for Citroen 2CV cars. Right after graduating gymnasium, I attended several art courses in parallel with that I worked as a cleaner and eventually aircraft builder at SAAB in Malmö. Then I applied for admission to the industrial design program as my first choice, but gained admis-

“ M Y FAT H E R WA S

sion to my second choice, development engineer in Halmstad. After three years, I built on this foundation with a one-year environmental engineering program in Kalmar.”

H I S W I FE A N E T T E has her undergraduate education in mathematics and began her studies in Lund. After spending a year in Canada, she completed her academic studies in Gothenburg, where the couple moved to in 1995 as Marcus got a job here as a consultant for Volvo.

“I was super lucky to come in precisely when Volvo wanted to invest in environmental management. But I also felt that in the midst of it all I was about to lose the tangible experience of artistic creation and, therefore, began to study drawing techniques and sculpture at night.”

After three years, he moved on to a job as an environmental manager for NCC’s building unit.

“But I became increasingly disappointed with the industry. Everything had to be certified by 2000 but that was more about grandstanding than about any real commitment to the environment.”

I N 1 9 9 9 , he experienced himself standing at a crossroads. Maybe it was time to do something with that interest in cars and motorcycles that he inherited from his father? He bought a 1975 Moto Guzzi, in parts, rebuilt it by himself, and decided, along with the three friends, to go to the USA to ride a motorcycle across the continent. They shipped their motorbikes in containers to New York, and soon they were on their way.

“The journey took six weeks, and during the 9700 kilometers in the saddle from the

east coast to the west coast, I had the time to really think about a few things, about what I wanted in life. It was during that trip that I decided to find a way to return to the world of design, that I touched upon earlier.”

So when Marcus Jahnke was back home again, he began studying 3-D rendering, i.e. making drawings and photos in 3-D software programs, and at the same time he found a new environmental consultant job. His first child Otto was born and during the parental leave he took advantage of the opportunity to put together a portfolio in order to apply for the master’s program in design. The same day he was laid off by the consultancy firm, which had gone bankrupt, he was admitted to the School of Design and Crafts (HDK).

“I thought I would remain involved

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

“My hot-rod is archetypical in a fun way,” says Marcus Jahnke.

with environmental issues, but I became more and more interested in gender. This was partly due to my wife Anette, who experienced academia, at least in the field of mathematics, as masculine hierarchy. But since I became a father I had also begun to think about children’s clothes. So I threw myself into something really crazy – though I was neither a fashion designer nor particularly well-informed about gender issues.”

B U T TO E M BA R K on uncharted waters was the best thing he’s ever done, explains Marcus Jahnke.

“Fashion and clothing contains both visual and physical elements, something that I had to contend with down to the smallest detail, such as the pockets and buttons, in order to create functional yet expressive

garments. To make something commercially viable that nevertheless violate the norms, that became the real challenge!”

The Children’s Collection Trots became his thesis graduation project, a concept he developed in collaboration with preschoolers.

“At first, I had planned to do something gender neutral, but the children’s reactions made me see the needs that I previously could not have imagined. They did not want boring unisex garments, but rather skulls and bones, princesses, and glitter. When I talked to the kids, they were also very firm in their girls’ and boys’ roles.

So Marcus Jahnke decided to make an experiment. He did a bit of sewing on a number of garments so that pink hats got skeleton hands and girls’ shirts were embellished and adorned with the BMX bikes

and dinosaurs. Then suddenly, something happened.

“The boys put on glitter belts, and the girls put the dinosaur shirts on. All the gender thinking that they carried around with them with their language loosened up. And I felt that this was something to build upon and expand further.”

While working on the collection, he realised that the world we live in is very narrow compared to what it could be.

“I defied this by going a little beyond the familiar and ingrained, but I think there is so much more to do.”

The collection was received with great attention in the media and contributed to the discussions concerning children’s clothing and gender that were underway at the time.

“The strength with the design is that all

12

Profile

people can relate to it without being experts.

But rocking the boat of the prevailing norms is not easy, one has to take that in small steps. I think that what the collection best shows is how my thinking about the norms and how I work together with others.

Talking, listening, analysing – that is the only way for me to gain an in-depth understanding about what something is really about.”

But what Marcus Jahnke is most famous for, is probably for craftsman kilt, a skirt with a lot of pockets meant for laddish construction workers, which became the tech-garment of 2007.

“To get large companies to seize on the idea proved very difficult. But the company Blåkläder became interested, though in the beginning they probably regarded it mostly as a marketing thing to gain attention. By now it has sold some 20,000 units, something that probably had not been anticipated. Typically for me, I never asked for royalties for the pattern.”

H I S M E T H O D, to work via listening to others, he also used in his PhD project. It deals with how the designer can contribute to innovation in traditional industrial and engineering companies. Five designers were paired with five different companies. Among other things, the designers were able to show that companies often have a rather stereotypical view of their products, making it difficult to think about something new. One is also unfamiliar with these types of processes which require a tolerance of different points of view.

“What was interesting was how knowledge was developed between the individuals when we see the designer and those who worked at the company working together, and how large a role interpretation and design, i.e. tangible creativity with the materials and images, played in these processes.

I hope that my doctoral thesis will increase the understanding for innovation as a social process as well as increasing the realisation that the humanities and the arts are needed within industry, not for their short-term usefulness but rather to be critical and challenging. Innovation and new ways of thinking takes time and is not something one does in a couple of quick brainstorming exercises.”

that our society has such a strict division between the artistic and the technological world, observes Marcus Jahnke.

“I think we forget that the early innovations that our industry is based upon, are rooted in a more fused preindustrial tradition where there were not so clear demarcations between technology, art, crafts and the humanities, or Bildung. But I think we are moving towards such a union again, where more artistic and individuals educated in the humanities find a place in business enterprises.”

But having a dual career, and spending time at making exhibitions for instance, is nothing that is seen as an asset or merit at the University.

“There is talk about that the University of AC T UA LLY, IT ’ S O D D

for the environment and a passion for motor vehicles, is something that Marcus Jahnke doesn’t disagree with.

“I don’t go in for new technology so much, rather I like old things. My hot-rod is archetypal in a fun way. It was an ordinary car in the post-war United States, when it was popular to remove everything unnecessary, tune your car and drive fast in the desert. What I really like is rebuilding, drive a bit simply for fun, go and figure out what I should do next, and then implement the plans in the garage.”

But with three children, there really isn’t much spare time available for this kind of puttering around with different cars.

“Eight year-old Minna likes to tinker with her bicycle and I help out of course. Eleven year old Lillit plays football, which we think is really great because we ourselves are not so very interested in sports. For our 13 year old, Otto, is mostly about freerunning.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN & ALLAN ERIKSSON PHOTO : JOHAN WINGBORG

»New ways of thinking takes time and is not something one does in a couple of quick brainstorming exercises.«

Gothenburg should be more involved in the development of society. But then you’d have to revise the qualification systems. Other professional or business experience is not particularly highly valued today and defending one’s dissertation at age 44 is hardly an advantage.”

Project, which he works with today, is an assignment from Vinnova and involves joint collaboration with other researchers and designers from various universities. They work together with 10 different industries, including the restaurant, social care, workwear and computer games industries.

“The idea is to attempt to break ingrained patterns in order to get a picture of stereotypes. How is it, for example, that the cook or chef is usually a man, while the person serving is a woman? Or that in bathroom advertising it is always a woman who is in the shower? We want to create a norm critical discussion that challenges our notions of what is masculine and feminine, and find unconventional solutions.

But in his free time, it’s still cars and motorcycles that attract his attention.

“The best car I have ever had was a Renault, an electric car that I drove around with every day for at least five years. But when the batteries started to give up two years ago, I sold it and bought a Ford from the 1930s instead, which I rebuilt to a hotrod.”

That there is a conflict between concern THE GENDER LAB

MARCUS JAHNKE CURRENTLY: Research Director in the Gender Lab project, an assignment for Vinnova. The objective is to develop a process for norm-critical innovation.

Is planning a course for students in the master’s program in design at the School of Design and Crafts (HDK).

THESIS: Doctoral degree in 2013 at HDK with the dissertation: Meaning in the Making. Introducing a Hermeneutic Perspective on the Contribution of Design Practice to Innovation.

OCCUPATION: Senior lecturer.

Designer educational program at MFA during 2002–2005. Doctoral student in Design from 2007 to 2013.

INTERESTS: Constructing a 30s hotrod, motorcycling, biking.

THE BEST THING ABOUT THE PROFESSION: That sometimes one gets the feeling of making a difference in a student’s development and personal growth.

MOST RECENT BOOK READ: The Cats Table by Michael Ondaatje.

AGE: 45 years old.

MOST RECENT FILM SEEN: Winter’s Bone.

LIVES: In Tolered on Hisingen.

FAVOURITE DISH: Panang nau.

FAMILY: Wife, Anette, who works at the National Center for Mathematics Education at GU, and who recently defended her PhD in the field of profession practice at the University of Nordland, Bodø, Norway. Three children: Minna, age 8, Lillit, 11 years old, and Otto, 13.

MY RESEARCH MODEL: The ethnographer Magnus Mörck.

BACKGROUND: Development engineer, with continued studies in environmental engineering; worked within Volvo with its environmental management system and at NCC Entreprenad as Environmental Manager in the 90s. Various preparatory arts courses.

THIS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT MARCUS: He played tennis with the science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke in Colombo, Sri-Lanka (Marcus lost 11-21; Marcus was then 24 and Clarke 77 years old).

STRENGTH: Naive.

WEAKNESS: Naive.

MOTIVATING FORCE: Fighting injustice.

MOTTO: This we can easily resolve.

News

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

13

Small institution gets two top researchers Like winning the lottery! But the fact that the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science has received two top international researchers is not only a matter luck.

With an investment of 300 million kronor, the Department’s research in moral responsibility and computational linguistics is expected to become leading in Europe, and perhaps in the world.

PAU L R U S S E LL , professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, is one of the world’s foremost theorists in the field of the philosophy of action.

“His research deals with issues about how moral responsibility and free will can be understood in a wide sense of the scientific worldview,” explains Gunnar Björnsson, coordinator of the centre Moral Responsibility Research Initiative (MRRI), where Paul Russell will soon join to take an active part in its activities and programme.

“He has primarily focused on the role of emotions in moral thinking, especially the way we perceive people as responsible for various different acts and how our feelings of pride, shame, and especially guilt and indignation affect moral thinking. He combines this with his naturalistic view of humanity, i.e. the idea that mankind is a part of nature.

Professor Russell shares both the interest in the importance of emotion for morality and naturalism with the eighteenth century philosopher David Hume, whom he just happens to be an expert on.”

Within MRRI, its members have so far primarily been engaged in applied research in medical ethics, business ethics and political philosophy. Paul Russell will tie together the various different research areas and enrich primarily the theoretical and historical elements, explains Gunnar Björnsson.

“Russell’s research also has links to the strong metaethical research underway at the

Paul Russell

Shalom Lappin

»University of Gothenburg becomes a centre for computational linguistics in Europe, and in the world.« STAFFAN LARSSON

Department. We have recently completed a major project dealing with moral motivation and have begun, together with academic researchers at other universities, another project relating to non-descriptive thinking and speech, both being funded by the Swedish Research Council.

We now hope to expand MRRI to perhaps the most prominent institution in Europe within research on moral responsibility and attract guest lecturers, postdocs and graduate students.”

T H E OT H E R TO P research scientist, Shalom Lappin, also works within a wide range of areas. He is a professor at King’s College, London, and is coming to Gothenburg to lead the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability, explains Staffan Larsson, professor of computational linguistics.

“He has written, for instance, a widely-acclaimed book about children’s language acquisition in which he argues against Noam Chomsky’s idea that language has an innate base. But what is especially interesting is his manner of combining linguistic theory with statistics. Most often

linguistics deals with what is grammatically correct or not. But Shalom Lappin has expanded linguistics to also deal with vagueness and how one gradually learns a language.”

These insights can be used in computer assisted translation, or in dialogue systems, explains Staffan Larsson.

“For example, if I want talk to my smartphone, I have to know exactly how to express myself, otherwise it simply will not work.

But in the future maybe the computer can become more like a human and, like us, adapt to the particular person they are talking to. The appointment of Shalom Lappin means that the University of Gothenburg becomes a centre for computational linguistics in Europe, and in the world.”

T H AT B OT H TO P researchers have been recruited to join the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science is no coincidence,” points out Head of Department Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist.

“The investment builds upon academic research profiles that are already in place with great future potential and a high

degree of relevance in the international arena. In recent years, the Department has additionally put much effort into creating an environment where people are able to invest in the really large applications on the basis of international cooperation. And we have been fearless when it comes to joint financing and liberal support with the preparation of large applications.”

Large investments will also provide additional opportunities in other areas, observes Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist.

“It is virtually impossible to avoid synergistic effects for other subject areas. Are we purposefully working so ensure that all conditions for the institution as a whole will benefit from the recruiting, for a long time to come, even long after the external funding has ceased.”

EVA LUNDGREN

FACTS The Swedish Research Council has made the decision to support the recruitment of the expert in computational linguistics Shalom Lappin and the philosopher Paul Russell with a total of approximately SEK 189 million. At the same time, the University of Gothenburg participates with a total contribution of approximately SEK 91 million. Both researchers will be attached to the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science. Altogether, a projected twenty graduate students and 18 postdoctoral researchers will be recruited during the next decade. The project also includes several senior positions.

So far, the Swedish Research Council has made the determination to award 16 grants for top international researchers, of which four have been awarded to the University of Gothenburg. The others are political scientist Ellen Lust and diabetes researcher Patrik Rorsman. The University of Gothenburg has been awarded three of four professorships within the investment grants that have been made within the humanities/social sciences.

14

Interview

Tracking democracy

in the Middle East

“There are few things in this world I would exchange with being a professor at Yale University. But to be at the University of Gothenburg is one of them.”

So comments Ellen Lust, world-leading expert on politics in North Africa and the Middle East. Professor Lust is one of 16 top international scientists recruited to Sweden with the assistance of the Swedish Research Council.

N A D D ITI O N , T H E K I D S are excited, explains Ellen Lust when GU Journal met up her in Department of Political Science at the beginning of the summer. The first time she was here was in December, but when she returns with her husband to a country in full summer splendour it is like coming to a completely different place, she points out.

“My husband Steve and I have a pretty chaotic situation, with family members scattered in different directions. He works for the World Bank and has just been posted to Kabul, and so I think the kids are greatly relieved that at least their mother has a job in a much calmer place. To move to a country one hardly knows, is however like jumping off a cliff. What will happen now?

We have absolutely no idea. But Sweden is considered one of the best countries to live in, and my gut feeling says that if I don’t take this chance, I will only regret it.”

R I G H T N OW E LLE N Lust is engaged primarily in two projects, both focusing on the Middle East and North Africa: The Transitional Governance Project is about the processes that support decision-makers’ attempt to create better governance, the research project Program on Governance and Local Development is a collaborative interdisciplinary research programme concerning governmental power and local development in the Arab world.

But that Ellen Lust ended up being engaged in precisely these areas is actually a coincidence, she explains.

“When I started my university studies, I was actually generally interested in developing countries, perhaps primarily in Africa, but for various different reasons I started studying the Middle East. I learned Arabic, earned a Master’s degree in Middle East Studies and then a PhD. People thought

that I almost committed professional suicide by devoting myself to such uninteresting fields. Today of course the reactions are the opposite. Now my colleagues think that my choices were strategically thought through.”

A CO M M O N misconception in the West generally is that the Middle East and North Africa is a uniform region.

“But that is not at all the case. On the contrary, the differences are huge, both in terms of politics, culture, food and drink.

For example, Syria not only has a totalitarian regime, a further complication is that it is a minority group, the Alawites, who rule over the majority. Egypt is currently governed by the military, while Tunisia seems to be move towards a democracy. In order to explore these countries, we must take into account both how the relationship between the rulers and the ruled looks, plus understand what resources and natural resources the various states have. Certainly the uprising of the Arab Spring spread, for example including to Bahrain, but otherwise not so much has occurred in the rich countries of the Persian Gulf.”

T H E R E ST O F the world’s relationship to the various countries is also important to take into account, stresses Ellen Lust.

“United States and NATO got involved in the Libya’s civil war of 2011, but is finding it much more difficult to accomplish anything in Syria, where Russia and China also have interests. But if Syria is not to become a new Lebanon, where the civil war lasted 15 years, an international agreement is required. Iran and the United States support opposing sides, and other countries are involved, so an international intervention is hardly the solution.”

The path to democracy is in general complicated, notes Ellen Lust. For example, it is

not entirely obvious that periodic elections are a sign that a country has a functioning democracy.

“The Arab Spring of 2011 shook the beliefs of what is possible. Earlier, despair prevailed, but today more and more believe that reform is actually possible. However there is also a fear of what the changes might lead to. In Jordan, for example, the pressure for reform was much larger two years ago than it is today, when all the refugees got everyone to protect what they have, rather than trying to strive for something better.”

T H E W E ST E R N world must support the development of democracy everywhere, whether it is in Egypt, Tunisia or Syria. But one has to also understand what is possible in different countries.

“When my research team posed the question: Do you think that democracy is better than other political systems? 80-90 percent replied ‘yes,’ regardless of the country in the Middle East and North Africa. But then, when we asked people to choose the traits they considered most characteristic of a democracy, the answers were something quite different. In Egypt, for example, 70 percent of respondents said that democracy is equal to economic progress, in which all have their basic needs met and that the gap between rich and poor is reduced.

And because Egypt is a country with huge inequality, this is a pretty logical answer.”

In Libya, however, less than 7 percent thought that economic justice had anything to do with democracy.

“What we got there instead was the answer that a Westerner expects, that it is about choosing the government in free elections. The conclusion is that anyone who wants to support the development of democracy in Egypt must also support economic progress, otherwise they simply will not have the people with them.”

OV E R A LL , SAYS E LLE N Lust, it’s important to discuss democracy without preconditions, without taking anything for granted.

“Is it possible to reconcile political Islam

15

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

ELLEN LUST Professor at Yale University, where she conducts research on political governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. She is planning to move to Gothenburg in January.

Professor Lust has conducted fieldwork in in such places as Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine area, Syria and Tunisia. Right now she is involved primarily in two research programmes: Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) and the Transitional Governance Project (TGP).

Ellen Lust is married to Stephen Ndegwa and the couple have three children, ages 21, 18 and 13 years old.

University of Gothenburg Ellen Lust hopes to especially be able to deepen her working relationship with: the Quality of Government Institute (QoG), and the Varieties of Democracy Research Program (V-dem) whose director, Professor Staffan I. Lindberg, she has already been working with.

“V-dem is cross-national and cross-regional and even if the purpose is to learn more about democracy, this means of course that the Institute also obtains increased knowledge and a better understanding of the authoritarian system. I hope to find more synergies between my research program and the V-dem, but am also interested in QoG’s research on the good society. But of course I also want to be able to work with University of Gothenburg researchers who study the Middle East more specifically.

Primarily, I’m interested in the local political level, such as how both governmental and non-governmental institutions affect health care and education. In Gothenburg I will be able to work with people who have much broader knowledge than I do, and this will be very exciting.”

with democracy? The answer is that we do not know. There is a fear of Islamism that makes many secular states prefer authoritarianism and authoritarian rule over democratically elected Islamist politicians. When in Algeria for instance the Islamic Salvation Front won the elections in 1990, it led to a military coup that was accepted by the West because they were afraid that otherwise the same developments that occurred in Iran would occur. And the democratically elected Muhammad Mursi was deposed quite quickly as president of Egypt. But we

forget sometimes that there are also Muslim countries beyond the Middle East, such as democratic Indonesia.”

PRO FE S S O R LU ST believes that Twitter played a role in 2011 when it came to spreading information about what was going on but was hardly a transformative factor.

When asked what attracted Ellen Lust to come here, she replies that it was the vibrant academic environment at the Department of Political Science.

There are two institutions at the

A N A D D ITI O N A L reason that Ellen Lust is looking forward to moving to Gothenburg is purely practical.

“Since I usually travel to the Middle East about once a month, I suffer from constant jetlag. I’m pretty tired of being tired all the time, and therefore look forward to living in Europe. Right now my husband and I are looking for a nice place to live, but when we’ve got that settled, I am going to start taking lessons to learn Swedish. I really want to understand what people around me are saying, and I believe that language helps to understand cultures. What expressions one has here, or perhaps doesn’t have, says a lot about the country where the language is spoken. But Swedish pronunciation seems difficult to me. Just what is the difference between å, ä and ö? Yea, we’ll see how it goes.

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN & ALLAN ERIKSSON PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

16

Interview

Anna Peixoto defended her thesis De mest lämpade - en studie i doktorandens habituering på det vetenskapliga fältet on June 14.

Conflicting demands on doctoral students Mixed messages, hidden structures and complex interdependencies, these are some of the results and conclusions Anna Peixoto arrives at in her dissertation “The Most Suitable.” The topic is the 1998 reform of graduate research education and what it led to, in reality.

You have interviewed 15 doctoral students – at the Faculty of Humanities, The Faculty of Science, and The Faculty of Education – about how they perceive their graduate studies.

What did you find out and what conclusions have you drawn?

“One is that the particular disciplines that I looked at have had divergent strategies and approaches to the graduate research education reform and its changes.

Simply put, it’s about how difficult, or easy, a time a time they have had with adapting

to it. This in turn depends upon that the research preconditions itself differ from one to another, but also that the core values that each particular discipline is based upon. And different parts of the research competence are highlighted as being central to the graduate programme. Within the humanities, it is, according to those I interviewed, the ability to pose scientific questions which is regarded as the most central.

The doctoral student is seen more or less as the genius who will be born via intellectual conversation. The dissertation, even if not a lifetime work, is in any case a large body of work. The fact that it is the individual themselves who develops and poses the research question means that there is considerable a freedom of movement here, but also that the research is expected to take time.”

“The doctoral students in the natural sciences are instead connected to a project

where there already is an established question. The expectation of independence is not as great, instead one works together and writes a dissertation as a compilation of research articles.”

“The teaching science I studied lies somewhere in-between the humanities and the natural sciences. The doctoral student may be part of a larger project, but will also have the opportunity to ask their own questions, even if the expected independence is not as great as for those in the humanities.

Another difference with the humanities is that a dissertation by multiple publications, in English, is nowadays are valued to a greater extent. Previously, most were monographs written in Swedish.”

Are they more differences between the faculties?

“The greatest difference is perhaps the

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2014

approach itself to the studies, which is also linked with the preconditions for the research. While the academic in the humanities and social sciences is involved with his life’s work, the natural scientist sees his education as either a driver’s license in order to continue on to a career in business or as a qualifying piece of work to become a wizard within the university. Within pedagogy and teacher training, where a large part of the educational programme consists of courses, the viva voce is more about obtaining a degree and diploma.”

“For the student in the humanities, graduate studies means to educate oneself into an independent, critically thinking researcher. On the other hand, for the natural scientist one doesn’t achieve independence until after they’ve begun their postdoctoral research. In both cases, it takes maybe seven years to become a researcher, but then one finds themself at hugely different positions in the system after such a long time.”

“But obviously there are large variations within the natural sciences, as well as in the

academic supervisors. Similar dependencies were also stated by those I interviewed in the educational sciences. The way I see it, there is therefore a risk that the academic recognition in and of itself is what becomes the important thing, not being educated into an independent thinking academic scientist.”

But aren’t there are rules – both in terms of that the doctoral student is expected to learn critical thinking, and in relation to how one can make change of academic supervisor. Does anyone pay attention to this?

“Sure, perhaps one does, but what they forget is that the power relationship between academic supervisor and doctoral student is so uneven. If a graduate student ‘jumps off,’ i.e. quits, one rarely asks what has gone wrong or if the individual was excluded in some systematic manner.

The defection is instead explained as an individual shortcoming, or that ‘it was probably better for her to be working at Astra Zeneca.’ A few years ago when I was

»Multiple studies have focused on those who enter the graduate programme, but to my knowledge there has been no study done of what it takes to come out on the other end.«

other areas studied. Not all natural science falls within this description; certainly there are also areas which in many ways resembles the humanities.”

You also describe the complex relationship vis-à-vis the academic supervisor.

“Yea, that’s really somewhat a special relationship. For instance, no graduate student I interviewed had changed his or her academic supervisor, at least not officially; this is something simply not done.

If the working relationship isn’t working out, what can sometimes happen instead is that another senior researcher enters into the picture and provides some support, discreetly, alongside. The results of this system means that it allows even those academic supervisors who are not so great to continue in their role; it is as a matter of pride, or a matter of dignity. A lot of this can be explained by the code of loyalty which exists between colleagues.”

“In the natural sciences, the relationship has an extra complexity: the doctoral student is dependent upon the academic supervisor, who oftentimes is also the project leader. Bu then the academic supervisor is in turn dependent upon the doctoral student’s research, as it is in this way that the academic supervisor gains credit and recognition in the academic world. And without showing solid achievements, one doesn’t obtain the research grants that allows the project to continue further. These interdependencies means that it is quite difficult for the graduate student to change

involved in instruction concerning academic supervisor training, I used to ask how many here have had an initial conversation with his/her graduate student about the expectations they have of each other. Of the forty or so academic supervisors, usually there was perhaps a couple who actually had such a dialogue.”

“The dependence upon the academic supervisor may persist even after one obtains their doctorate. The research world is sometimes quite small, someone who got into a disagreement with their professor may have problems even if they later become a postdoctoral researcher on the other side of the planet.”

Along with Anna-Karin Wyndhamn, you have previously examined gender equality at the faculties. Among other things, you came to the conclusion that the old image of the academic researcher as a man’s world still lives on.

“Yes, that’s correct. The ideal picture is a researcher who puts work before anything and everything else: you should be at work like 60 hours a week, even if it means a lot of time is spent simply drinking coffee or reading newspapers. This approach becomes especially problematic primarily for female doctoral students who have children, but also for men who want to have a balanced life and contribute at home.

For graduate students and other research scientists in the natural sciences who are involved as part of a project, it is especially difficult to take parental leave, others are waiting on them to do their part of the job.

For those in the humanities, it is easier, but it is also a reason for why we often see their doctoral studies being extended over such a long period of time.”

“To learn what is ‘good science’ is a bit like learning good artistic taste. It takes a long time for one become a part of their research field and for those who have studied the undergraduate programme at another university, it is actually even more difficult. one can occasionally hear talk about the risk of inbreeding and that academic researchers should be moving around more, but very little is being done to really make this possible. The situation is sometimes compared with the United States, but in the US there is an established system for how one’s family should be able to accompany the visiting academic or researcher, for which there is no equivalent in Sweden.”

“Multiple studies have focused on those who enter the graduate programme, but to my knowledge there has been no study done of what it takes to come out on the other end. But my suspicion is that social class might have even more significance than gender, and that it is difficult for those who come from a working-class background to feel like they are fully a part of the group and continue their scientific achievements within the university.”

The reform in 1998 meant that the graduate program was tightened up – among other things, the expectation is that it should be completed in four years. Wasn’t this a good idea?

“The reform was actually based on the method of research within the natural sciences, which became the ‘good example’ and which other disciplines would follow.

That means that primarily those in the humanities, but even doctoral students in other fields, feel that they are fed with mixed messages. On the one hand, the educational programme takes four years, on the other hand, it is tacitly understood that research which is carried out in such a short period of time inevitably will be lacking.”

“This has led in practice to a situation where we still have a variety of different graduate programmes, it’s just that nobody explicitly talks about it. Perhaps we should accept that graduate education can take different forms depending upon the particular discipline? Part of doctoral students’ anxiety would disappear if the requirements that actually applies were clarified, instead of letting them navigate between the official rhetoric and the reality that later meets them at the institution.”

“And what would really happen if the ideal was the humanities monograph rather than the natural sciences compilation of research articles dissertation? For many people, the time when they are pursuing their doctoral studies is the only time in their life when they can actually dig deep down in an interesting question. Perhaps then they should have more opportunities to actually do that.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG