Hanne Fjelde appointed Wallenberg Scholar

Professor Hanne Fjelde has been appointed a Wallenberg Scholar. The programme, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, seeks to provide some of Sweden’s best senior researchers the opportunity to pursue curiosity-driven, long-term research through a generous five-year grant.

– We congratulate Professor Fjelde on this tremendous accomplishment! This is a huge honor for the whole department and a recognition of the quality of the research done by Fjelde and her team, says Head of Department, Professor Ashok Swain.

Fjelde’s research focuses on the role of political violence - both as a cause and consequence- in processes of democratic erosion. Whereas much of the research on democracy and political violence focuses on unconsolidated democracies, a central feature of the new research project is to extend this research agenda to include the advanced democracies in the West, many of which have seen a real and growing threat of political violence over the past decade.

Whereas processes of democratic decline have been the subject of much scholarly attention, the role of violence as a distinct cause and consequence in this process is not well understood. Fjelde’s project will explore two interrelated questions: under what conditions do citizens support political violence? and how does violence, in turn, perpetuate or restrain processes of democratic erosion?

Central to the project is understanding the interplay between citizens’ democratic discontent and elite rhetoric in shaping both perceptions of the permissibility of violence, as well as the effects of violence on shifts in public opinion and democratic developments.

Read more about Wallenberg Scholars Programme here.