Current Research Projects
"The Universities are the Enemy" – but of What? The Academic Ideals on the American New Right and Their Challenge to Liberal Democracy
Global democratic backsliding is increasingly marked by aggressive attacks on higher education. Rather than dismissing this as populist anti-intellectualism, the project argues that the American "New Right" thus levels a sophisticated, elitist challenge to liberal democracy. The research examines the alliance between Common Good Conservatism (CGC) and Tech-Futurism (TF). Despite differing views on tradition versus disruption, these currents have converged in their hostility toward "legacy" academia. Through ideological and conceptual analysis, the project investigates shared commitments and strategies uniting the New Right’s "court intellectuals." The main hypothesis is that CGC and TF aim to replace the university’s democratic ideal—educating equal citizens—with a joint view of the university as a hierarchical mechanism for elite selection. Analysis of texts by representatives such as Patrick Deneen and Peter Thiel demonstrates how this alliance challenges academic freedom and democratic equality.
Project Members: Gina Gustavsson (PI), Department of Government, and Jasmina Nedevska, Department of Philosophy.
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Universities as Democratic Spaces: Institutional Responses to Campus Protest in Sweden
How do Swedish higher education institutions respond when students protest on campus, and why do these responses vary so widely? This project examines how Swedish universities have handled and responded to campus protests since 2010. While some types of protests have been met with dialogue and tolerance, others have resulted in police intervention, permit restrictions, and disciplinary measures. The project analyses which factors—such as the nature of the protest, its level of disruption, and the institution’s governance structure—shape how universities choose to act. By combining protest data, public documents, and media analysis, the project contributes new knowledge about when universities function as democratic spaces and when they instead restrict students’ opportunities for political participation.
Project Members: Katrin Uba (PI), Department of Government, and Jenny Jansson, Department of Government.
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Universities at Peace: Academic Freedom and Civil Society Engagement during Peace Processes
Civil society is a core democratic institution and a central source of legitimacy in peace processes, yet we have limited knowledge on the role universities play in shaping that engagement. In this project, we ask: What is the relationship between academic freedom and civil society engagement during peace processes? We argue that where academic freedom is protected, universities serve as arenas for dialogue, training grounds for civic actors, and hubs of mobilization. Conversely, where academic freedom is constrained, these contributions may be curtailed or criminalized. Through a global mapping of armed conflicts since 1989 and selected case studies, we map the relationship between academic freedom and civil society engagement, aiming to identify pathways through which universities and civil society jointly foster democratic participation and accountability during war-to-peace transitions.
Project Members: Desirée Nilsson (PI), Department of Peace and Conflict Research, and Sebastian van Baalen, Department of Peace and Conflict Research.
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Knowledge Politics on the Wrong Path? Time horizons and institutional integrity in Swedish research policy, 1982-2028
This project explores temporal regimes in late-modern research policy based on an empirical study of Swedish research bills between 1982 and 2028. The project feeds into contemporary debates about the increasing politicization of knowledge and, more specifically, the conflict between short-term, instrumental and overly strategic modes of governance and long-term conditions for research integrity and institutional autonomy. The project will answer three fundamental questions: 1) Has Swedish research policy developed in a more short-term and instrumental direction in the last decades? 2) How did the temporal incentivization of research change in policies during the current period? 3) What considerations and priorities between long-term, medium-term and short-term conditions and expected impacts of research take place within the framework of Swedish research bills? Theoretically, the project contributes to cross-disciplinary work on temporal governance (chronopolitics) in the late-modern era and particularly argues for a need to address the problem of the structural erosion and hollowing out of institutional time in advanced democratic societies.
Project Members: Anders Ekström (PI), Department of History of Science and Ideas, and Klara Müller, Department of History of Science and Ideas.
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Commodification and marketisation in higher education finance and their consequences for democratic legitimacy
Our project investigates the relationship between higher education and democracy in the understudied context of higher education financing. We focus on student funding policy (SFP) and institutional funding policy (IFP). SFP shapes how study costs are distributed among the state, families and students (e.g., repayable student loans). IFP determines the distribution of funding across higher education institutions. Both SFP and IFP differ across countries and time, reflecting varying levels of SFP generosity and coverage, or different funding allocation rules with respect to IFP. It is often claimed that international policy trends tend towards commodification in SFP, (e.g., replacing non-repayable with repayable student loans), and marketisation in IFP (focusing on competition for external funding to distribute resources). We argue that commodification and marketisation have negative consequences for democratic legitimacy. For example, policies are difficult to reverse, constraining subsequent governments. Policies can also promote higher education as a private good allocated on merit basis, which reinforces justification of income inequalities.
Project Members: Daniel Fredriksson (PI), Department of Sociology, Roujman Shahbazian, Department of Sociology, and Krzysztof Czarnecki, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University and Department of Sociology, Uppsala University.
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Universities Between Resistance and Adaptation: The Transformation of Academic Freedom in Georgia under Democratic Backsliding
This project examines how academic freedom is reshaped in practice when universities operate under conditions of democratic backsliding. Focusing on Georgia, a country long committed to democratic reform but experiencing growing authoritarian tendencies since 2023, the study analyzes how legally framed and politically justified interventions in higher education alter the everyday exercise of academic freedom. Using Ilia State University as a qualitative case study, the project investigates how university leadership and faculty interpret, enact, and defend academic freedom and institutional autonomy as political pressure intensifies. Drawing on interviews, document analysis, and public statements, the research explores how state actors frame reforms, how universities navigate emerging constraints and dilemmas, and how their responses contribute to transforming academic freedom in research, teaching, governance, and public engagement. By illuminating these dynamic processes, the project advances understanding of how knowledge-producing institutions are affected by democratic erosion and how they may develop strategies for resilience.
Main Applicant: Sofie Bedford, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES).
Project Period: 2026–2027.
Defenders of Democracy: The Police, Democracy and Higher Education
The police play a crucial role in democratic societies by upholding law and order, and by addressing crime and insecurity. As a state institution, the police are unique because they hold the exclusive legitimate monopoly over the use of force within the domestic sphere. Police training across the globe is currently being professionalized through partnerships with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In Sweden, the police training has since the early 2000s partly been integrated into the academic system, and the police program is currently offered at five universities. This project will study how police training addresses issues of democracy and the role of the police in society. What are the students taught about the values underpinning democracy, its central definitional features, and main threats to democracy? And does the prioritization in terms of scope and content vary between the different police programs in Sweden? Through analysis of course content and interviews, this project will advance an understanding of how democracy and its threats are conceptualized within Swedish police education as well as the role of HEIs in the academization of a profession central for a functioning democratic state.
Project Members: Kristine Höglund (PI), Department of Peace and Conflict Research and Emma Elfversson, Department of Government.
Project Period: 2025–2027
Seminariet som demokratisk arena i högre utbildning: I spänningsfältet mellan ideal och verklighet
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project Members: Johan Wickström (PI), Department of Education, and Ulrike Schnaas, Division for Quality Enhancement.
Project Period: 2025–2027
Higher Education on the Democracy – Autocracy Continuum – What roles do bureaucrats in higher education play for democratisation and safeguarding democracy?
This pilot study examines how higher education bureaucrats influence democratic processes under different political regimes. While higher education is often seen as a driver of democratisation, the role of its bureaucrats remains understudied. Using Sweden and Ethiopia as contrasting cases, the research explores how bureaucrats shape policy implementation, institutional norms, and governance in higher education. Through key informant interviews and document analysis, it investigates their interactions with policymakers, responses to political pressures, and potential roles in democratic safeguarding or autocratization. By moving beyond binary classifications of governance, the study bridges Global North-South divides in public administration research and offers a more nuanced understanding of bureaucratic roles on the democracy-autocracy continuum. The findings will refine theoretical frameworks on bureaucratic influence in higher education and contribute to interdisciplinary debates on governance, democratisation, and state capacity. The study is policy relevant, revealing how bureaucratic actions influence both the strengthening and erosion of democracy across different political contexts.
Project Members: Camille Louise Pellerin (PI) and Karin Leijon, Department of Government.
Project Period: 2025–2027
Academic actors as guardians of democracy?
The ongoing trend of autocratization in many established democracies involves a growing tendency to limit and circumvent the autonomy of academic actors. Universities and scholars are currently facing a classic dilemma: to be an active part of civil society and intervene in public debates on the one hand, and to retain their credibility and status as non-partisan actors on the other. In autocratising environments, this dilemma intensifies as governments challenge the value of democracy and attack those who defend democratic norms as being biased. The aim of this project is to examine whether and why universities have a special role to play in defending democracy and how scholars should navigate possible tensions with their educational and scientific vocation. It looks at the normative link between higher education and democracy, as well as at specific ways in which universities and scholars can and should defend democracy and their own autonomy when performing in the public arena.
Project Members: Anthoula Malkopoulou (PI), Sofia Näsström and Siri Sylvan, Department of Government.
Project Period: 2025–2026
Higher Education and Citizens’ Commitment to Democratic Norms
Information will be available soon
Project Members: Hanne Fjelde (PI) and Annekatrin Deglow, Department of Peace and Conflict Research.
Project Period: 2025–2027
City-universitetet och den högre utbildningens marknadisering
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project Period: 2025–2027
Democratic Trailblazers or Rebellious Thugs? Understanding Organized Student Violence at Universities in Sub-Saharan Africa
University students are often seen as champions of democratisation. Yet in many African countries, student activism frequently turns violent. Between 2000 and 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced over 880 incidents of organised violence at universities, ranging from clashes with security forces to inter-student fighting. This research project investigates why student organisations at some universities engage in collective violence while others do not. I theorize that violence is most likely where (a) political elites compete for influence on campus, (b) students have suffered past abuses, and (c) economic shocks intensify grievances. Drawing on original data from the Universities at Risk project—the first cross-national dataset on student violence—this study uses statistical analysis to identify key drivers of violent activism across African state universities. By explaining when and why student movements take up arms, the project offers new insights for promoting peaceful student engagement and aligns with DaHE’s theme of universities and global democratisation.
Project Period: 2025–2027
För att rätt lära känna sig själv: Demokrati och kvinnors inkludering i historieskrivning
information will be available soon.
Project Period: 2025–2027
Does higher education make people better democratic citizens?
In this project, we propose to study how a particular democratic skill - the willingness and ability to consider others' interests in political life – develops during higher education. Democracy's promise to be a form of government that shows equal concern for the interests of all citizens and respects all citizens as equal political actors is undermined by patterns of unequal participation. This can be compensated for by those who participate, if they consider interests other than their own. The purpose of this pilot-project is to test whether higher education contributes to or undermines the development of this democratic skill. We will conduct survey studies among students in a selection of educational programs at Uppsala University. The purpose of the survey is to capture differences in democratic skills as consequences of undergoing higher education.
Project Members: Johan Wejryd (PI), Oskar Hultin Bäckersten and Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, Institute for Housing and Urban Research
Project Period: 2024–2026
Academic Transition in a War-torn Democracy: Understanding the Limited Lack of Implementation of Higher Education Reforms in Ukraine and Developing Mitigating Strategies
Academic transition is of crucial importance in new democracies, since academia fosters new generations of politicians, officials and public who in various roles become responsible for politics. Ukraine made a democratic transition in the 1990s, but are still struggling with its transition in academia, which is the focus of this study. Of particular interest are reforms that strive to ensure the autonomy from politics and church of higher education institutions, assure the quality of universities through independent assessment and bodies, and who enforce participation in the international republic of scholars of researchers and teachers. We investigate policy processes behind academic reforms carried out in the now war-torn Ukraine since 1999 that entertained such ambitions, to identify the reasons for both resistance and support when they have been, and still are, implemented. As in democratic transitions, there are predominant power struggles that embed academic transitions, but also resistance that originates from lack of resources or lack of understanding. Legacies of academic governance from the old, Soviet, regime also play a decisive role.
Project Members: Li Bennich-Björkman (PI), Dmytro Yefremov, Department of Government and Yuliya Krylova-Grek, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES)
Project Period: 2024–2026
Akademiska – och andra – friheter: den akademiska friheten i ljuset av diskussionerna om ”cancelkultur” och ”aktivism”
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project Members: Otto Fischer (PI), Mirey Gorgis, Department of Literature and Rhetoric and Johan Sehlberg, Culture and Education, Södertörn University
Project Period: 2024–2026
