Cecilia Strand

Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Informatics and Media

E-mail:
Cecilia.Strand@im.uu.se
Visiting address:
Ekonomikum (plan 3)
Kyrkogårdsgatan 10
Postal address:
Box 513
751 20 UPPSALA

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Keywords

  • digital activism
  • health communication
  • communication for social change
  • lgbtqi
  • gender based violence
  • intimate partner violence

Biography

Cecilia Strand, Ph.D., Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University, Sweden. Between 2003 and 2010, I worked with health communication related development cooperation in Lesotho, Namibia and Uganda, parallel to completing my dissertation Perilous Silences and Counterproductive Narratives Pertaining to HIV/AIDS in the Ugandan, Lesotho and Namibian Press.

My interest in development cooperation and international health remained after my dissertation and between 2012-2013 I was involved in a UNDP-hosted research project -the Global Commission on HIV and the Law- focusing on the law as a tool to improve marginalized populations’ access to HIV/AIDS services around the world.

I have since my dissertation continued to pursue research on sexual minority rights in Africa, with special attention rights struggled in Eastern Africa. Although I have a broad interest in Sub-Saharan Africa, I have primarily focused on the LGBTQ+ community in Uganda and their struggle for equal rights as enshrined in the Ugandan constitution. Between 202I- 2024 I was involved in a project studying social media platforms as spaces for activism as well as a spaces for self-controlled visibility and the implications of becoming more visible in a context where discrimination and persecution are both sanctioned and actively endorsed by the Government. The project -Navigating visibility in contexts of state-sanctioned homophobia: development actors and LGBTQ+ rights defenders in Uganda and Russia -was funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Parallel to human rights advocacy in repressive contexts, I examine gender-based violence both more broadly as a global phenomenon and, in particular, intimate partner violence. As of 2021, I am part of a research group that works in close collaboration with a group of Swedish women's shelters, developing and evaluating a group-based intervention aiming to support intimate partner violence survivors' positive post-traumatic growth. The project is funded by FORTE and runs until mid-2026.

My research focus on intimate partner violence, have also come to include what is often referred to as legal abuse. That is, a perpetrators'' (ab)use of legal provisions in a particular legal context, to exert coercive control, harass and intimidate a current or former intimate partner.

Research

Im currently or have been involved in the following research projects and networks.

Ongoing

AI-Image-based sexual abuse in Europe. Coordinator. RJ initiation grant: 2026-02-14-26-12-31.

When the relationship has ended, but the control remains (När relationen tagit slut men kontrollen inte upphör – kvinnliga brottsoffers utsatthet och samhällets stöd). BROM: 1 January 2026- 31 December 2028. https://www.brottsoffermyndigheten.se/utveckling-och-analys/hitta-forskning/nar-relationen-tagit-slut-men-kontrollen-inte-upphor-kvinnliga-brottsoffers-utsatthet-och-samhallets-stod/

Strengthening intimate partners violence survivors’ resilience (Kraft att gå vidare: En intervention för att stärka kvinnor utsatta för våld i nära relationer). FORTE: Project grant. 2023-01-01- 2026-08-01

Experiences and Expectations of Work among Ugandan LGBT+ Activists: Imaginaries of Decent Work Futures in a Global, Mobile & Connected World. RJ initiation grant: https://mau.se/en/research/projects/experiences-and-expectations-of-work-among-ugandan-lgbt-activists-imaginaries-of-decent-work-futures-in-a-global-mobile--connected-world/ 1 November 2025 - 1 January 2027

Trans-disciplinary approaches to intimate partner violence (Tvärvetenskapens broar - ett nätverk om mäns våld mot kvinnor & våld i nära relationer). project leader. CIRCUS: 2024-01-01- 2025-12-31

For more information on the network: https://www.uu.se/institution/informatik-och-media/forskning/forskningsprojekt/tvarvetenskapligt-natverk-om-mans-vald-mot-kvinnor-och-vald-i-nara-relationer

https://www.uu.se/medarbetare/nyheter/2026/2026-02-10-symposium-som-kursmoment---ny-vag-for-att-integrera-forskning-praktik-och-debatt-i-undervisningen

Previous projects - past five years

Legal violence in Sweden. CIRCUS research project development. 2024-08-01-2025-06-01.

Navigating visibility in contexts of state-sanctioned homophobia: development actors and LGBTQ rights defenders in Uganda and Russia, Swedish Research Council/VR: dnr 2020-04003. 2021-2024

Empowering Queer Youth through Media & Culture. Swedish Institute, Creative Force: Project Creative Force 2022-2023.

Cecilia Strand

Publications

Recent publications

All publications

Articles in journal

Chapters in book

Comprehensive doctoral thesis

Conference papers

Manuscripts (preprints)

Reports