Sustainable development the focus of new graduate school at Campus Gotland
21 January 2021
Doctoral students from around the world will be working at the new graduate school at Campus Gotland with sustainable development as part of five unique multidisciplinary projects
On 18 January, Uppsala University’s new multidisciplinary graduate school opened at Campus Gotland. Its focus is on sustainable development. This involves research on key societal challenges within changing energy systems, sustainable consumption, digital development and climate changes based on different scientific contexts.
The starting point for the graduate school is multidisciplinary approach to important societal challenges within sustainable development. Around 20 supervisors from eight departments are participating in the graduate school: Earth Sciences; Anthropology and Ethnology; Civil and Industrial Engineering; Archaeology and Ancient History; Informatics and Media; Business Studies; Law; and Art History.
Supports the profile area sustainability
The graduate school at Campus Gotland is an important hub in the University’s ambition to achieve a sustainable society. Here, the graduate school will be firmly anchored in ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations within research and education. The goal is for the graduate school to conduct research at the highest international level based on questions relevant for local needs. Regional relevance will be combined with international excellence.
“This multidisciplinary graduate school is the biggest and single most important initiative that the University is currently working with to develop research at Campus Gotland. Through the graduate school, we are supporting research on the University’s profile area of sustainability,” says Olle Jansson, adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on behalf of Uppsala University Campus Gotland.
Significant international interest
There has been considerable interest in the graduate school, even internationally. When the doctoral positions were advertised this summer, there were close to 3000 applicants for the 12 positions. These have now been filled with students from the United States, India, Bangladesh and different countries in Europe, including Sweden.
Business Studies and director of the new graduate
school.
“There are certainly several reasons for the enormous interest,” explains Jenny Helin, senior lecturer at the Department of Business Studies and director of the new graduate school. “In part, many people want to make a difference by studying and researching sustainability and they are attracted to the multidisciplinary approach. But it also has to do with Sweden having a good reputation in sustainability. Internationally, Sweden is at the forefront, and this makes it interesting to apply for doctoral positions here. Uppsala University is also a strong brand, that’s also important.”
Five unique multidisciplinary projects
Twelve doctoral students will be working together with their supervisors, international partners, guest researchers and local stakeholders within five unique multidisciplinary projects.
The five projects are:
- Sustainable destination development. (Three doctoral students)
- Gotland’s sustainable energy system transition: resources, demand and planning. (Three doctoral students)
- Fisheries and coastal development in a small island context – the past, present and future. (Two doctoral students)
- Getting the balance right - Applying legislation when seeking a balance between energy transition and the conservation of cultural values. (Two doctoral students)
- Digital innovation for sustainable consumption. (Two doctoral students)
Starting out online
Lovely new facilities with a view over Visby harbour have been prepared for the graduate school’s doctoral students to ensure a creative and stimulating environment. The original idea was that all 12 doctoral students would be on site from the start, but the pandemic has forced a change so that everything will begin online.
“It is not just different disciplines coming together within the graduate school, but also different doctoral education traditions and different administrative processes from the supervisor group’s home departments. So, there will be challenges, particularly now when we have to begin completely online. But I am convinced that we will make it work with the eager and enthusiastic doctoral students now beginning at the graduate school. Hopefully, we will soon be able to meet here on Campus Gotland in our newly renovated facilities that are waiting for us and build a strong doctoral environment together,” says Jenny Helin.
News
-
Mapping people of the past by means of their bones
09 maj 2022
What is the best way to find out about a human being or animal that has been dead for perhaps several centuries? “Study the bones” is what Sabine Sten, professor of osteoarchaeology, would say. They can reveal an individual's age, body length, DNA...
-
Transforming space and society in Kiruna
24 mars 2022
State and corporate ideas about nature, people and the future played a decisive role in the development of Kiruna as a mining town over a century ago. Since 2004, when 6,000 Kiruna residents were informed that they would have to move because of gr...
-
New light cast on female pelvises in University collections
04 mars 2022
Many of the University’s museums currently hold preserved specimens of embryos, fetuses, newborns, and women’s pelvises. During the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, these formed part of embryological and obstetric collections at...
-
350 years old remains in a Stone Age site in Portugal
25 februari 2022
An African man who lived just 350 years ago was buried in a prehistoric shell midden in Amoreira in Portugal. This was very surprising because Amoreira and other midden sites in the Muge region are well known by archaeologists for the cemeteries o...
-
ERC Starting Grant for historian of ideas
31 januari 2022
The Starting Grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) in its 2021 call have been announced. The awardees include an Uppsala researcher: Ylva Söderfeldt, Senior Lecturer at the University’s Department of History of Science and Ideas.
-
Saying and doing are two different things
18 januari 2022
COLUMN. While more and more people say Yes and Amen when you ask them about the importance of living in a more environmentally conscious and sustainable way, few actually change their behaviour, writes Katarina Graffman, PhD in cultural anthropology.
-
Telling the story of Sweden’s Jews
11 november 2021
"There are many ways of being Swedish, and being Jewish is one of them." These words set the seal on Carl Henrik Carlsson’s history of the Jews in Sweden (Judarnas historia i Sverige). Carlsson is a researcher at Uppsala University, and his book h...
-
Campus Gotland students unearth Iron Age warrior
10 september 2021
Uppsala University archaeology students’ summer excavations on the island of Gotland turned up an exciting surprise: they found a warrior, with sword and spurs, in an Iron Age grave in Buttle Änge. Now the skeleton and grave goods will be analysed...
-
How Linnaean learning spread far and wide
07 juni 2021
An inspiring middle-school teacher sparked Linda Andersson Burnett’s interest in history. Now a researcher in the history of science and ideas at Uppsala University, she is currently studying Carl Linnaeus and his influence, which extends far beyo...
-
Elly Griffiths is giving this year’s Adam Helms Lecture
03 juni 2021
Each year, Uppsala University and the Swedish Publishers’ Association arrange a lecture in memory of the publisher Adam Helms. This year’s lecture will be given by the internationally renown British crime novelist Elly Griffiths on 16 September 20...
-
New thesis: Finery for fashionable ladies
11 maj 2021
When the first descriptions of knitting and crochet were published in Swedish, in the mid-19th century, such handiwork was described as the finest of all feminine handicrafts, for the benefit and pleasure alike of the trend-conscious, diligent mid...
-
Linnaeus’ complicated relationship with racism
07 maj 2021
Since June 2020, Carl Linnaeus has been a subject of debate in Sweden and around the world. What sparked it off were the actions of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Statues of slave owners have been lambasted or destroyed. In Sweden, the dis...
-
Conspiracy theories characterise views in and about Europe
03 maj 2021
Conspiratorial narratives of internal disintegration and external threats affect views in the European Union and Europe to an increasing extent. Our trust in society is put to the test in crises such as COVID-19 when various groups are singled out...
-
Nordic conspiracy theories through the ages
01 mars 2021
Conspiracy theories are becoming more common in the world, and the Nordic countries are no exception. Are some conspiracy theories unique to the Nordic countries? What typical narratives are disseminated? And when did this really start? A new book...
-
The plague year of 1710 was also a difficult year
24 februari 2021
As historians, it is our job to take a step back and give perspective to our current situation. For anyone looking back, it isn’t hard to find other difficult years. In Sweden’s past, 1710 was undoubtedly one such year, writes Jonas Lindström, res...
-
Sustainable development the focus of new graduate school at Campus Gotland
21 januari 2021
On 18 January, Uppsala University’s new multidisciplinary graduate school opened at Campus Gotland. Its focus is on sustainable development. This involves research on key societal challenges within changing energy systems, sustainable consumption,...
-
Archives crucial for Freemasons’ identity
22 december 2020
The Order of Freemasons’ meticulous archives are fundamental to their identity. The unique structure of the masonic archives reinforces the secrecy and mystique of the self-image that has been fashioned by the Order — and characterises it in the e...
-
Grants for research on the impact of AI on people and society
15 december 2020
In a major 10-year national research programme, two Wallenberg Foundations are supporting research on the impact of the ongoing technology shift, involving digitalisation and artificial intelligence, on our society and our behaviour. Two of the gr...
-
Linnaeus and Rudbeck medallists chosen
10 december 2020
This year the Rudbeck Medal is awarded to Professors Olle Eriksson, Inger Sundström Poromaa and Maria Ågren, while the Linnaeus Medal is awarded to Professor Kerstin Lindblad Toh and Chairman Dai-Won Yoon at Hallym University in South Korea.
-
Turkic cultural heritage in Uppsala
07 december 2020
Uppsala University has a rich collection of manuscripts, printed material, art objects and maps related to the Ottoman Empire and other Turkic cultures. How did they come to Uppsala? This story is told in a new book “Turcologica Upsaliensia. An Il...