New honorary doctors at the Faculty of Social Sciences

Henry Jenkins is Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. He has made great contributions in several different scholarly fields, such as cultural studies, political science, sociology, and media and communication studies. One of his most important contributions is showing the political importance of popular culture. In his early work in the 1990s he focused on popular TV series, while his later research has looked at participatory cultures and youths use of online media. Jenkins’ work is distinguished by his recurring reminders that people are not victims or slaves under technology, but use technology for activistic purposes. His combination of optimism and critical realism has inspired several generations of researchers. He has also reached many non-academic groups, supporting their work for a better and more participatory world.

I. William Zartman is Jacob Blaustein Professor Emeritus at the John Hopkins University, Washington DC, where he continues to teach conflict resolution to Master’s students. Several of his books are counted among the classics in peace research, and are used as course literature at many universities around the world, including The 50% Solution (1976) and International Mediation in Theory and Practice (1985). Zartman is one of the pioneers when it comes to studying mediation and negotiations, and several of the terms he has coined – especially ‘hurting stalemate’ and ‘ripe moment’ – have gained widespread use. His books are often reactions to ongoing discussions, such as the risk of genocide, the possibility of negotiating with terrorists, or the value of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. Zartman’s expertise primarily concerns the Middle East and Africa, and his contributions are characterised by an impressive combination of breadth and depth, theory and empirics. He leads the international research group PIN (Processes of International Negotiations) and has for the past 20 years been a recurring lecturer, tutor, opponent and project participant at Uppsala University.

The Conferment Ceremony will be held in the University Main Building on 26 January 2018.