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Organisation and Governance

Here you can find information about the members of the departmental board, research council and body for gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity, as well as out health and safety representative. You can also find information about the rules that apply to all of Lund University.

On this page you find more information about:

Departmental Board

The departmental board is the department’s highest decision-making body. The budget, activities plan, appointment of examiners, course syllabi and required reading lists are some of the matters decided upon by the board. In addition, the board takes decisions on guidelines, action plans and policies.

Members for the period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025:

Chair

Kristina Jönsson
Head of Department

Secretary of the Board

Helen Fogelin

Teaching Staff

Full Members:

  • julie [dot] hassing_nielsen [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Julie Hassing-Nielsen)
  • stina [dot] melander [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Stina Melander)
  • jakob [dot] skovgaard [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Jakob Skovgaard)
  • anders [dot] uhlin [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Anders Uhlin)

Substitute Members:

  • hanna [dot] back [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Hanna Bäck)
  • martin [dot] hall [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Martin Hall)
  • asa [dot] knaggard [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Åsa Knaggård)
  • johannes [dot] stripple [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Johannes Stripple)

Other Staff

Full Member:

kristina [dot] grondahl_nilsson [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Kristina Gröndahl Nilsson)

Substitute Member:

mats [dot] janer [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Mats Janér)

Doctoral Students

Full Member:

paulina [dot] vaughn [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Paulina Vaughn)

Substitute Member:

evan [dot] drake [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Evan Drake)

Students’ Union

Full Members:

instrep [dot] svet [at] samvetet [dot] lu [dot] se (Axel Brink)

Health and Safety Representative

Our health and safety representative for 2024-2026 are Åsa Knaggård and Kristina Gröndahl Nilsson. They represent the employees.

Working Group for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity

This is an advisory and preparatory body. It consists of representatives of teaching staff, technical/administrative staff, research students and other students. 

Our work on gender equality

Research Committee

The research committee is an advisory and preparatory body, whose main duty is to support the department’s researchers in their work on applying for external research grants.

Members

During 2024-2027

  • Robert Klemmensen (chair)
  • Annika Björkdahl
  • Markus Holdo
  • Sara Kalm
  • Catarina Kinnvall
  • Ian Manners
  • Jonathan Polk
  • TBD (doctoral student representative)

Learn more on our research committee’s work

Operational Plan 2023

The present operational plan accounts for the prioritizations that govern activities at the Department of Political Science and the measures planned during the 2023 budget year regarding first and second cycle education, third cycle education, research, work environment, gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity, and administration and joint activities.

First and Second Cycle Education

Increased costs in basic education, combined with the fact that the state appropriation for education is being eroded at an accelerating rate, will lead to some savings measures. Remuneration levels for thesis supervision will be reduced at all levels in 2023. In addition, compensation for examination of master's theses is reduced. In parallel, it opens up the possibility of writing a bachelor's thesis in pairs, something that has previously only been possible at the advanced level. In addition, seminar activities will be streamlined somewhat at undergraduate level, while efforts to reach a minimum number of students on alternative courses at advanced and bachelor's level will be increased, with the consequence that alternative courses may be cancelled to a greater extent than before.

At the same time, the department has a continued need for teaching power, which leads to new recruitment of staff. A position as associate senior lecturer, advertised in collaboration with CMES (Centre for Middle Eastern Studies), is under preparation and is expected to be filled during the first half of 2023. In parallel, temporary employees with fixed-term employment with different subject specializations are employed.

During the operating year, the review of advanced and bachelor's level education in political science will continue on the basis of the evaluation carried out in 2019 and the accompanying long-term action plan. In addition, development work is initiated to highlight different subject profiles more clearly in the department's education, where the opportunity for progression between different levels of education and how this is communicated to the students are central elements, as well as work to make environmental and sustainability aspects visible in the education. In parallel, efforts to safeguard subject breadth in the course offerings have been strengthened. Furthermore, work continues to develop the students' mentoring activities. During the year, the department's work and competence development in terms of pedagogical support and student health, especially with regard to stress and mental illness, also continues. In addition, special measures are planned with regard to career counselling for students.

The department shall continue to support the teachers' pedagogical development by taking courses in teaching and learning in higher education, participating in various types of development projects and/or gaining qualifications within the framework of the faculty's pedagogical merit system. New pedagogical seminars at the department will spread experiences between colleagues. A continued priority area is the question of how gender equality and non-discrimination are to be promoted in education.

The education should have a strong international dimension with good opportunities for teacher and student mobility. Existing student exchange agreements are continuously revised.

Research Studies

In 2023, there are conditions to recruit two doctoral students with open positions on faculty funds and three doctoral students linked to research projects. The recruitment process is coordinated in time with other major political science departments in the country and to some extent, in terms of information and marketing, with other departments at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The strained financial situation, which to some extent is also reflected in the research and postgraduate education sector, means that the department should consider a temporary reduction in the number of doctoral students recruited for the 2024 financial year.

Quality work in doctoral education continues. The development plan drawn up in 2020 based on the faculty's evaluation of doctoral education in political science will continue to be implemented in 2023, including follow-up of new and revised courses. A priority area for the year is issues concerning doctoral students' stress and health.  The issue of ethical review regarding empirical investigations related to thesis work is becoming increasingly topical.

In recent years, a workshop on the theme of academic writing, led by external expertise, has been organized at regular intervals. The goal is to be able to offer the doctoral students corresponding activity in 2023. In addition, special funds have once again been allocated to support jointly organized activities by the department's doctoral students.

The research seminar with invited guests from Sweden as well as other countries continues to play an important role in doctoral education, as do the department's various internal workshops and research retreats.

Research

The Faculty of Social Sciences has limited faculty funding for research in comparison with several other faculties.  In order to enable research for the majority of teachers, the department's ability to obtain external research funding is therefore of utmost importance. Supporting the department's teachers in the work of obtaining external funding is a priority. This will be even more important in the future, in light of general cost increases and continued erosion of government funding for research.  In this regard, the department's research council continues the systematic work of supporting and further developing the department's research, among other things by assisting in the process of writing competitive research applications. Special development funds, which the Research Council has at its disposal, have been set aside in the budget, although to a lesser extent than before. The funds will primarily be used to arrange research retreats, but also for other activities focusing on the department's research and related themes.

In light of the economic situation, work is underway to review the conditions for different categories of staff engaged in research. Similar work begins at faculty level. Issues that may arise here concern the principle for deducting external research funding (the so-called staircase), the proportion of faculty-funded research and competence development in employment and which tasks can be said to fall within the scope of faculty-funded research and competence development time and time for administration. In addition, strategic discussions will be initiated regarding the scope and focus of the department's co-financing of external research grants.

Based on the experience from the quality evaluation of research at Lund University – RQ20 – a new research strategy was developed in 2020 for the department for the years 2021–2025. The goals and measures identified in the strategy, and which were also reflected in the evaluation of Swedish political science made by the Swedish Research Council in 2021, will guide the work to further strengthen the department's research in 2023 and beyond.

As before, funds are allocated for permanently employed teachers without research grants to enable participation in conferences/workshops and the purchase of literature, albeit to a lesser extent than in 2022. If researchers have not been successful in obtaining funds for such expenses from external financiers, this is given the opportunity to apply for funding internally. The previous efforts to review the language of theses, books and journal articles are also continuing. In addition, funds have been allocated to enable open access publishing and to support specific strategic publishing initiatives.

In 2023, the department's collaboration with SASNET (Swedish South Asian Studies Network) and CFE (Centre for European Research) will continue, where employees at the department have assignments as director and deputy director, respectively. In addition, collaboration with CMES (Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies) is further deepened, with several joint engagements. A number of fixed-term positions as postdocs, funded by external grants, will be filled during the year, as well as positions as researcher and project assistant. The work to promote the possibility of being promoted to professor continues.

Work Environment, Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity

The department will continue to pursue active and systematic work environment management and work on issues of gender equality, equal treatment and diversity. A new annual action plan for occupational safety and health will be adopted at the beginning of the year, as well as a new plan for gender mainstreaming and equal treatment. The work to promote gender equality and equal treatment in teaching continues, as does the work to make the department's websites accessible. In addition, competence development work regarding students' mental illness continues. In addition, training measures are planned regarding actions in the event of threats of violence in teaching. In addition, further efforts are being made to increase transparency in the distribution of teaching commitments and, in a broad sense, to safeguard the institution as a continued inclusive work environment.

Administration, External Engagement and Joint Activity

The new management structure at the department that was introduced in 2021 will remain in place in 2023. In addition to the head of department and deputy head of department, who have been appointed by election, three deputy heads of department work: deputy head of department, postgraduate education (also deputy head of department); Deputy Head of Department, education at undergraduate and advanced level; resp. deputy head of department, coordination research. Together with the Director of Studies for Undergraduate and Master's Education and the Director of Doctoral Studies, these functions will continue to constitute the department's management.

During the year, a new head of department and deputy head of department, whose mandate expires on 2023-12-31, will be appointed by election. Already at the beginning of the year, the department's nomination committee is tasked with starting the work of finding suitable candidates. In connection with the election of a new head of department and deputy head of department, the department's current management structure is evaluated as a basis for decisions on the organisation of the department management during the coming term of office.

The mentoring activities for younger researchers and teachers at the department that was established in 2021 continue.

The work to make the department's websites accessible will continue in 2023.

Special funds have been set aside to facilitate the recruitment/relocation of newly recruited staff.

A boarding for the department's administrators is planned to take place during the spring and a boarding for the entire department's staff will take place as usual at the end of August.

General Rules

At Lund University, there are general rules and decisions within several different areas. 

Read more about general rules on the Lund University's Staff Pages