Research networks supported by CIRCUS

Existential health and Young people

Over the last decades, health and well-being has been on decline among young people in Sweden. At the same time, researchers have taken an interest in the concept of existential health to understand and promote the situation for young people. The network gathers researchers from Psychology, Religious Studies, Law, Palliative Care, Social Medicine, Literature, Gender Studies, Informatics and Media, and Sociology of Education to take a concerted approach to the research on youth health. In addition, a group of young people will be connected to the network as active participants in the research process.

Support from CIRCUS 2025-2026.

Network leader: Katarina Westerlund, Department of Theology, katarina.westerlund@teol.uu.se

Interdisciplinary bridges – a research network on men’s violence against women and violence in close relationships

Men's violence against women and intimate partner violence are complex and multifaceted public health and social problems, which need to be addressed using a multidisciplinary approach. Uppsala University has a number of active and vibrant research environments at the social sciences, humanities and medical faculties, which conduct research on men's violence against women and violence in close relationships. The network aims to provide a much-needed space for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaborative analysis of the respective fields’ concepts, theories, and methods to measure and understand violence. The network also cooperates with relevant social actors who are tasked with prevention and/or mitigation efforts. Guided by a great respect for practitioners’ wealth of expertise, the network will seek to conduct systematic interdisciplinary analysis together - and in dialogue - with practitioners.

Support from CIRCUS 2024-2025.

Network leaders: Cecilia Strand, Department of Informatics and Media, Cecilia.Strand@im.uu.se and Susanne Mattsson, National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women (NCK), susanne.mattsson@nck.uu.se

Interdisciplinary research using Stan and Bayesian inference

Many research projects in the social and natural sciences use Bayesian modelling to make sense of real-world data. Stan is a language for programming that helps researchers make those types of models. The network Interdisciplinary research using Stan and Bayesian inference gathers researchers from Statistics, Information Technology and Pharmaceutical Biosciences to build a platform where researchers using Stan can meet to discuss problems and possibilities and share knowledge.

Support from CIRCUS 2025-2026.

Network leader: Måns Magnusson, Department of Statistics, mans.magnusson@statistik.uu.se and Sara Hamis, Department of Information Technology, sara.hamis@it.uu.se

Webpage: https://interbayes.github.io/

Preschool and Children: Experiences, Practices, and Development (PACED)

The Swedish preschool system impacts children and parents as well as society as a whole in a number of aspects. PACED gathers researchers from the Uppsala Child and Baby Lab at the Department of Psychology and the Preschool Centre, along with researchers from Education, Housing and Urban Research (IBF), Economics, Human Geography and Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU) to map and gather existing research on preschool education at Uppsala University. By involving the Uppsala municipality and teacher training programs as stakeholders, the network will consolidate and develop synergies between practitioners and researchers to enhance collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Support from CIRCUS 2025-2026.

Network leader: Håkan Forsberg, Department of Education, hakan.forsberg@edu.uu.se

The network is part of the research group Housing, Education and Segregation (BUS), more information here.

SWEFAS – the research network for studies of fascism, right-wing radicalism, extremism and populism

SWEFAS gathers scholars in history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, informatics and media, Russian studies, Jewish studies, theology and sociology in order to coordinate the existing expertise on fascism, far-right parties and groups (radical and extreme) and right-wing populism. Another aim is to further promote the collaboration with Nordic and international networks in the field such as NORFAS and COMFAS. The network offers an arena for scholarly exchange between researchers from different disciplines with different theoretical and methodological underpinnings who study different periods and countries. It is the network’s ambition to generate new multidisciplinary and comparative research projects and thereby develop Swedish and international research in the field.

Support from CIRCUS 2024-2025.

Network leader: Heléne Lööw, Department of History, helene.loow@hist.uu.se

Transforming Games: Behaviour, Identity, Culture, and Community (TAG)

The research network TAG gathers researchers from Game Design, Gender Studies, and Psychology to examine the relationship between games, gender, sexuality, mental health, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in communities surrounding games, play behaviour, and game artifacts themselves. Of particular interest is the way games can be designed and played to maximise their potential for beneficial transformative impacts such as personal and social change. Members of the network are collaborating to create a platform for interdisciplinary communication based on their research and they organise events such as lectures, panels, and seminars. They also organise practice-based game design workshops in the form of game jams.

Support from CIRCUS 2024-2025.

Network leader: Sarah Lynne Bowman, Department of Game Design, sarah.bowman@speldesign.uu.se

UPSIDE - Uppsala Studies in Social lnteraction and Discourse

Conversations are fundamental to human relationships. Through social interaction, all of society’s activities are managed, knowledge and experiences are passed on, identities are formed and different social structures and cultures are reproduced. The research network UPSIDE is grounded in the scientific field of Conversation Analysis and gathers researchers from Scandinavian Languages, Education, and Social Work at Uppsala University. Their aim is to develop and strengthen existing research through a deepened cross-disciplinary collaboration and develop a hub for national as well as international research on Conversation Analysis.

Support from CIRCUS 2025-2026.

Network leader: Helen Melander Bowden, Department of Education, Didactics & Sociology of Education, helen.melander@edu.uu.se