Marta Lindström joins project on Political Violence in Democracies for her PhD

We’re thrilled to welcome Marta Lindström, who has joined us as a PhD student in the Political Violence in Democracies research project, led by Hanne Fjelde. We asked Marta to tell us more about her project:

❓ Marta, it’s good to have you back at the DPCR. What will be the focus of your project?

– I will be researching how political violence feeds into societal processes that perpetuate or restrain democratic erosion in advanced democracies, particularly through a social psychological lens. I am especially interested in bridging perspectives from the literature on gender and armed conflict with ideas from research on how threat perceptions influence political attitudes.

❓ What drew you to the project and your specific topic?

– The Political Violence in Democracies project is closely aligned with my research interests, and as someone who deeply values collaborative work, I am excited about the opportunity to learn from outstanding researchers while benefitting from DPCR’s supportive work environment. I have always been drawn to academic research and writing in general, and conflict research in particular, but something that especially intrigues me about this project is how it aims to explain political outcomes and broader global societal shifts, and its emphasis on feedback loop effects between interlinking phenomena.

❓ Since completing your master’s at the DPCR, you have worked at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the United Nations Development Programme. What will you bring with you from these roles?

At IDMC (2017–2020 and 2023–2025) and UNDP Mozambique (2020–2023), I have been working extensively with internal displacement and development data. At IDMC, I got a lot of experience delivering presentations and training as part of a global capacity-strengthening programme spanning countries in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, experience I hope to draw on in my teaching. From both roles, I also bring practical insights into the complexities of data collection in crisis-affected contexts. These experiences have given me a critical understanding of data sources and data-collection methods, which I look forward to applying as a researcher.