Anne-Sofie Nyström

Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Education

Telephone:
+46 18 471 76 26
E-mail:
Anne-sofie.nystrom@edu.uu.se
Visiting address:
Von Kraemers allé 1 A
752 37 Uppsala
Postal address:
Box 2136
750 02 Uppsala

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Short presentation

PhD in Sociology (2012), am Associate Professor (Docent) in Child and Youth Studies (2025), and Senior Lecturer at Uppsala University.

My research and teaching focus on the lives, life conditions, identity processes, and wellbeing of children, young people, and young adults, with particular attention to peer cultures and the societal and institutional conditions that shape their everyday lives.

Keywords

  • Children and young people's experiences
  • social inequalities
  • identity processes
  • education
  • science
  • well-being
  • death and bereavement

Biography

My teaching and research is situated at the intersection of sociology, childhood and youth studies, and education. I am particularly interested in how children, young people, and young adults negotiate identities, belonging, and agency within educational and social contexts.

My research clusters around three interconnected themes:

Identity, belonging, and educational trajectories

This strand of research explores how children, young people, and young adults construct identities and negotiate belonging across educational and social contexts. It includes studies of achievement, underachievement, prestigious educational programmes, and the ways in which gendered, classed, and age-related expectations shape educational experiences, aspirations, and life trajectories.

Wellbeing, meaning-making, and existential questions

A second theme focuses on children's and young people's wellbeing and experiences of navigating uncertainty, vulnerability, and major life questions. This includes research on how young people create meaning in relation to life transitions, loss, grief, death, and future possibilities. It also encompasses studies of how engagement with science, nature, and knowledge can contribute to wellbeing, self-understanding, and meaningful connections to the world.

Participation, inclusion, and children's perspectives

My research also examines how children and young people's perspectives are recognised, included, or marginalised within educational, welfare, and social institutions. This work explores participation, representation, and inclusion, with particular attention to how institutional practices and adult–child relations shape opportunities for agency, belonging, and knowledge production. A central concern is how children's own experiences and perspectives can contribute to more inclusive and responsive educational and social environments.

Research

Resonating with sciences: The transformative and democratizing potential of public engagement in science (PI Anna Danielsson. Financed by The Swedish Research Council 2026-2029)

ELSA – Education and loss: supporting affected children in school (PI Rakel Eklund. Financed by Cancerfonden)

Existential health and Young people. Interdisciplinary network lead by Katarina Westerlund. Financed by CIRCUS 2025-2026.

The unlikely scientists: Exploring what has enabled students from under-represented groups to continue to higher education science studies. Financed by the Swedish Research Council (2019-2021, Dnr: 2018-4985).

Staging the successful student in higher education: A comparative study of men, masculinities, and self-worth protecting strategies in competitive contexts. Projektet finansieras av Vetenskapsrådet (2015-2018, Dnr: 2014-2476).

To be seen and to learn, without being seen to learn. A study of under-achievement and identity-negotiation among privileged young men in upper-secondary school. Ph.D. Thesis (2005-2012).

Anne-Sofie Nyström

Publications

Selection of publications

Recent publications

All publications

Articles in journal

Chapters in book

Conference papers

Monograph doctoral thesis