Previous PhD student of the month
October 2024: Sanna Mossberg
First up is Sanna Mossberg, a PhD student in family law.
Sanna Mossberg is in the final stages of writing her thesis, and thus at the end of her time as a doctoral student at Juridicum in Uppsala. She has a background as an animal keeper at upper secondary school, and entered law via studies in the history of ideas, political science and finally the law programme. This was followed by guest lectureships at Juridicum and Stockholm University, and employment as a lecturer at the Department of Business Studies. Sanna was asked to do her doctorate by Anna Singer, professor of family law and later Sanna's main supervisor.
-I took the question seriously and thought about it, says Sanna. I asked Anna if she could think of a topic. Anna didn't have a specific topic, but said: ‘You know property law! The intersection between family law and property law is interesting. Can you do something with it?’
The thesis, entitled Familjen och borgenärerna (Family and Creditors), addresses this theme, namely the interaction between family law and property law, especially insolvency law. What values come into play when these areas meet? Sanna explores the legal doctrine, the existing legislation, the approach taken in the preparatory works and the application of the legislation.
Sanna Mossberg Photo: Malin Mossberg
Sanna has also included a gender perspective in her thesis. Does the neutral legislation hit women harder? How is the family and children viewed? Are there other family law values that get overshadowed in the application?
Another thing Sanna is happy about is the opportunity to include some Icelandic material in her study:
-One common argument for changing rules is Nordic legal equality. I've looked at situations where that argument is strong and Iceland is rarely included. There is no material in Swedish based on Icelandic law, but I have received help from Gunnar.
Gunnar Páll Baldvinsson, a doctoral student in tax law, has helped Sanna find and translate material from Iceland.
-It's definitely not a comparative study I'm doing, so it doesn't have to be exhaustive. But I'm happy to have Iceland included, even if in the end it may only be one or two pages in the thesis, and that Gunnar helped me. Any errors and shortcomings are my own...
Gunnar's generous contribution leads us to talk about the doctoral student community at Juridicum. Sanna emphasises how important she thinks it is to be at work, talking about her project, even with doctoral students outside her own subject.
-That's my best tip, to be active in the doctoral student community, even if you are not part of the doctoral student council. Go to seminars, talk to your doctoral colleagues. It's a lonely job, but it's also easy to make contact. Reach out to people, everyone wants to help!
The final work is intense for Sanna. She still struggles with a sense of uncertainty. We talk about how the feeling of insecurity often remains, but changes over time.
-In the beginning it was more: ‘Can I even handle this? Who am I to sit down with these texts? I don't know anything...'. Now I feel I know nothing at a higher level, and I know it will be a book!
We talk about how this is an experience shared by many PhD students and that you have to learn to live with the uncertainty. Everyone has imposter syndrome. You think you're alone in that feeling, but everyone feels the same way.
-The research successes,’ says Sanna, ‘when you've found something that's good - ride that wave. Even if it turns out later that it wasn't so good, you have gained energy from it.
Energy is my next question to Sanna. What does she do to get energy?
-Sometimes I've needed to take a day, a mental health day, and just do things that make me feel good and recharge. Otherwise nothing gets done. Going out in the woods with the dog, going for a walk and clearing my head.
The dog Plato (the smartest in the Mossberg family according to Sanna), has been vital. Both as a walking companion, but he also fulfils a function when he sleeps - then he emits a calm that is relaxing. The interest in animals and animal care remains and gives Sanna a reason to relax, and disconnect from property law and family law for a while.
On the way from the interview to a lecture, we continue talking and Sanna remembers one more thing that she thinks is important to try to keep in mind as a PhD student:
-It's an education! It will not, and does not have to, be the best thing you have ever written. You learn as you go along as a PhD student.
Thank you Sanna, for sharing your thoughts. I wish you all the best with the family and creditors, and the final push for the defence.
Fågelsången, 2024-09-16
Rebecca Söderström
November 2024: Francesco Pipicella
Francesco Pipicella, doctoral candidate in constitutional law, is presented in the November portrait.
Francesco Pipicella is one year into his doctoral studies. With an Italian law degree and a Swiss master thesis in his backpack, he has moved to Uppsala to pursue a degree of doctor of laws. His thesis, with the title The role of multinational corporations in strengthening constitutionalism in fragile contexts, is a joint project with the Department of Law and the Department of Business Studies.
- On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I’m at the Business Department. Those days I go to the gym at Ekonomikum. There is also a sauna! Tuesdays and Thursdays I am at the Law Faculty.
Francesco has always been interested in an academic career. At the University of Geneva, he did a master in human rights law and won a prize for the best master’s paper in 2022. The title was The Corporate Social Responsibility to Strengthen State Institutions in Post-Conflict Environments.
- It combined human rights and business and applied a different perspective on how corporations can contribute and be helpful, not only how corporations are held accountable for the harm they sometimes impose on society.
Francesco Pipicella Foto: Francesco Pipicella
Out of the master’s paper, Francesco formed an application for doctoral positions. It was hard, however, to find suitable positions to apply for.
- It seemed that my project had too much business for positions in human rights law, and too much human rights law for business law positions!
This cross-disciplinary perspective seems to engage Francesco very much, and we talk about how perfect it is for him to be part of the Department of Law as well as the Business Studies Department.
- When Martin (Berglund, former Director of Research) called me and let me know I got the joint research position in Uppsala I was super, super happy. I directly accepted, even though I was completely ignorant about Uppsala and actually had to check on the map where it was.
Last September, he arrived and started as a doctoral candidate in constitutional law. The work ahead is going to be finalized in a compilation thesis. Francesco has already worked on a first article which he aims to submit by the end of the year. He has also taken research courses, done some teaching and presented his research at an internal conference at Ekonomikum. A lot, it seems, in only one year. I ask him if he has not heard of the well-established principle among doctoral candidates of “warming up the chair” the first year.
- Well, I feel that I have had a lot of time thinking about the project, reading and interacting with people. I feel that it is now at the second year that I actually can start to work. I think you need that first year, though, even if you can’t present anything concrete. I am more relaxed now to talk about my topic.
Talking about talking… How has Uppsala and Sweden treated him, I wonder? Swedes are known for some things, and extensive talking to strangers is not one of them.
- Yeah, there is this stereotype in Italy about Swedes, but I have only experienced friendly people. May be sometimes people are a little shy, but once you start to talk everyone is nice and you also adapt to speaking English everywhere.
- I won the lottery. I really like Uppsala, I can see my future here. My dream would be to get a stable job in academia.
Thank you, Francesco, for sharing a coffee and your experiences from your first year in Uppsala. Best of luck for the years ahead!
Fågelsången, 2024-10-17
Rebecca Söderström
December 2024: Matilda Hopfgarten
Matilda Hopfgarten is in the middle of her doctoral studies. She has just completed the two-year examination, which has energised her further work. The dissertation project belongs to the field of administrative law and deals with the assessment of appealability in administrative courts.
The ideas for the project came from Matilda's previous work at the Administrative Court.
-I really enjoyed my previous work at the court, but what I missed in the day-to-day management of cases was the opportunity to take the time to delve deeply into the exciting procedural and general administrative law issues that arose in the cases - to look at the big picture. But I learnt an enormous amount from working in court, and I have taken many of those experiences into my research project. In the future, I hope to be able to engage in research with some kind of interaction between theory and practice, and I am particularly interested in how the Supreme Administrative Court guides the administrative courts through its decisions.
Matilda emphasises that she loves the freedom that comes with being a PhD student. The flexibility suits her well, but of course it requires commitment and discipline. She likes to work long hours by herself.
Matilda Hopfgarten Photo: Lasse Blom
- I can't think of a better job than being able to spend my days doing what I find most interesting.
We're talking about the two-year text and the mid-term seminar, where Matilda presented her text to researchers in public law at Juridicum, among others. Matilda thinks it went well to hand in her text and to present it.
- The mid-seminar was great fun! After sitting and writing for yourself for so long, it is a privilege to discuss the text with others and get comments. I took away many things and a positive feeling.
The two-year review is now complete and Matilda is happy with the situation she is in now, in the middle of her doctoral studies.
- Even though there is still a lot of work to do, it's nice to have reached a stage where I have a better idea of what I want to do with the project, and how my own research relates to previous and other ongoing research.
Regarding tips for doctoral students who are at the beginning of their doctoral studies, Matilda addresses the advice that is usually given to start writing early.
- Of course it is important to get started with writing, but I think it is also important to take time in the beginning to familiarise yourself with what it is like to work in the academic environment - to teach, to participate in seminars and courses, to read and think and let the project grow. And this includes seriously considering questions about what legal research is and how one's own views on such issues should be reflected in the project, which then also falls into place more and more when you start writing. I think it has been particularly valuable to discuss theory and method with doctoral students across subject boundaries. This is one of the reasons why the introductory course for doctoral students is so good, and also the general doctoral seminars that the doctoral students themselves organise.
Now it's back to writing for Matilda.
- Yes, I'm excited about writing the next chapter. Right now I have neither teaching nor courses, so I have to take the opportunity to produce text.
Thank you, Matilda, for the coffee break and good luck with the text production and the second half!
Fågelsången, 2024-11-15
Rebecca Söderström
January 2025: Karwan Osmani
Meet the doctoral candidates at the Law Faculty in a series of interviews. January's PhD student is Karwan Osmani.
Karwan Osmani is a PhD student in jurisprudence since autumn 2022. His project concerns right-based arguments for markets and how such arguments relate to liberal justice doctrines such as property rights. Does it sound theoretical? Of course it does! Karwan doesn't shy away from diving deep into state doctrines, legitimacy issues and political theory. But he also wants to challenge traditional views.
- The scope within the classical liberal tradition for progressive views is much larger than many contemporary interpretations would have us believe.
We are talking about his project and many of the fundamental questions about markets and regulation that it addresses. Doesn't it require political positions, I wonder.
- You can't be completely neutral. It is better to be transparent. I have strong opinions on the issues, but I try to keep my polemical side in check. Opinions are an important driving force, but they have to be refined into something bigger in the theoretical analysis.
Karwan Osmani Photo: Ellika Traneving
Another difficulty may be economic and philosophical theories, which Karwan uses in his research. But a legal scholar cannot reasonably be expected to understand long harangues with formulas?
- You need to have an understanding of the theories, but you don't need to understand everything. It is important to have a distance, to delimit, to remove. In the demarcations, something happens!
Here we come to the importance of what you do not write. Removing things in the text, daring to cut. Then something happens in the presentation. Karwan goes on to talk about how he works with language. Language, and the humanistic side of law, has been his approach to the thesis project, not the technical legal analysis.
- ‘I like the “doing” and the writing. When you focus on the process and the craft, that's when it becomes enjoyable. I would rather read a text that is boring in content but brilliant in language than the other way round.
Karwan writes in English and I wonder if he feels a distance to the language.
- I think I am doing well with English. The non-fiction I use in my research is in English and I read a lot of fiction in English. I am showering in the language!
In the future, Karwan wants to continue in academia to write more books and teach, or he might consider working for a government agency.
- Or I will walk around town with a sign and talk to myself without anyone listening... That's my worst-case scenario, which I often feel is more likely than becoming a scientist who writes things that people want to read.
We have a good laugh at the thought of Karwan on the town, but the feeling is universal for many postgraduates. You oscillate between calm and... less calm. The loneliness of being a doctoral student can also be negative. Karwan emphasises the importance of creating a more constructive and inclusive culture within the academy, especially as doctoral students are often lonely in their specific subject. I ask about contacts in other faculties and we talk about how to build your own network as a PhD student. Karwan is in contact with political scientists who are working on the same type of issues as him, even if the starting points and methods differ.
The next step is to finalise the two-year text and then Karwan's two-year examination. Before the coffee is over, I ask what Karwan does in his spare time.
- I spend time with my lovely girlfriend. And I try to get away to swim a few times a week; it turns out that exercise helps you to let things go.
Thank you, Karwan, for a great chat and an insight into your life as a PhD student. Good luck with Waldron and Nozick and the years ahead!
Fågelsången, 2024-11-11
Rebecca Söderström