New honorary doctors at humsam

Faculty of Educational Sciences

Through her children's programmes in particular, Eva Funck Beskow has made a major contribution to children's education and quest for knowledge. Her work is characterised by her ability to explain in a clear and lucid manner various phenomena from human physiognomy and psychology to the nature of nature and the structure of society. It is also characterised by her enthusiastic manner and scientifically inspired approach that encourages children to seek new knowledge themselves.

Faculty of Arts

Professor Jon Stobart, of Manchester Metropolitan University, is a leading international scholar of early modern cultural history. Focusing on consumption, particularly in the 18th century, his work covers areas such as material culture, spatiality, social practices, gender history, urban history and global history.

Both his pioneering work in the history of culture and consumption and his strong commitment to international collaborations make him a valuable partner for the Faculty of History and Philosophy at Uppsala University.

Faculty of Law

Johan Bärlund is Professor of Nordic Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, and was also Rector of the Swedish School of Social Sciences at the same university between 2018 and 2022.

His main research areas are consumer protection, contract law, market law, tort law, and personality law from a Nordic perspective and he has in several of his recent articles dealt with Nordic contract law and marketing law.

Johan's main teaching areas are consumer law, contract law, market law and tort law, and previously also matrimonial law. He is an appreciated teacher who has actively worked to emphasise the importance of pedagogy for learning.

He presents his views in the scientific dialogue with both gentleness and sharpness, which has made him a valued evaluator of dissertations throughout the Nordic region.

Faculty of Social Sciences

Anette Mikes is based at Saïd Business School and Hertford College, University of Oxford (formerly HEC Lusanne, Harvard Business School and London School of Economics and Political Science). Her research has greatly contributed to the development of a key area of the accounting and financial management literature, namely risk management. In this area, she is a pioneer with her in-depth case studies from the financial sector. With her focus on man-made disasters, Dr. Mikes’ research has expanded in recent years to include ethics and sustainability. She has also uniquely contributed to building bridges between academia and practice. This is evident, among other things, in her work and contribution in establishing “The Oxford Ministry for the Future”. The aim of this initiative is to create a multidisciplinary network of academics and practitioners who together influence the conversation about climate change and how society should address this problem. Dr. Mikes has received several prizes and awards for her contribution to the cutting edge of research in risk management and governance.

Professor Steven C. Hayes' work has contributed enormously to establishing evidence for the importance of placing mental distress in a specific context that is unique to the individual. Through his theoretical and psychotherapeutic contributions, behavioral science and psychology today have begun to place greater focus on the experiences of individuals, as a way to better understand well-being and performance in the individual and in society, and as a way to design better treatments. In psychology, this is called a process-focused approach, known as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It may sound like common sense or what practitioners already do, but this is not the case. It's tempting to immediately assume that people with specific types of conditions need specific treatments, which are the same for everyone with that condition. But with tools such as smartphone-based apps, sophisticated statistical procedures and AI, there is now the potential to individualize psychological treatment in a scientific, evidence-based way, as never before. Thanks to Professor Hayes' contributions to psychology, along with advances in technology, we can now collect complex, time-intensive data, analyze it in such a way that we can incorporate what people care about most into treatment, and use this information to customize treatment to focus on exactly what needs to change. The goal is to help people become empowered in themselves and within their families and communities, so that we are better equipped to meet the challenges of the human condition.

During his long career as a publisher, Torgny Wadensjö has had a major impact on Swedish social science research. Through his work, he has promoted the dissemination of social science literature as well as actively contributed to creating a platform for scientific discussion and debate. His eye for quality and relevance has meant that important research results have reached a wider audience, which has strengthened the understanding of complex social issues and contributed to a more informed public. By promoting and disseminating research-based books, Torgny Wadensjö has facilitated a wider application of social science insights in both policy and public discourse. His ability to identify and publish works of great societal significance has made him a central figure in communicating research findings to policy makers, journalists and the interested public. Furthermore, Wadensjö has been an advocate for social science research to reach beyond the walls of academia. Through his network and his work, he has enabled researchers in the social sciences to get their work published and disseminated at a time when scientific publishing faces major challenges.

Faculty of Languages

Helen Morales has been Argyropoulos Professor of Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2012. Morales is a classical philologist with unusually broad interests: from ancient fiction and mythology to sexual ethics and literary criticism. She writes about the ancient world and its reception in modern times for both subject experts and the broader public, which puts her in a unique position to convey the diversity of antiquity and the power of tradition. Without ever compromising on subject matter expertise, Morales allows modern voices like Beyoncé to exemplify how the ancient world affects us today. Through books such as Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths (2020), Morales has thus become one of the most important voices in classical studies of the decade.

Thomas Steinfeld is a journalist and one of the main cultural mediators between Germany and Sweden. His new translation of Selma Lagerlöf's Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey through Sweden was published in German in 2014 to critical and popular acclaim. His other publications include a biography of Axel Munthe (2007, published in Swedish in 2009), but he has also shed light on educational issues(Bildningen på barrikaden. Ett manifesto [Education on the ropes. A manifesto], together with Per Svensson, 2017) and explained the IKEA phenomenon to Germans (together with Frederic Steinfeld, 2019). Steinfeld has worked for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung newspapers and was for several years the latter’s head of culture. He also writes for Swedish newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet and appears on Swedish Radio. In his publications, Steinfeld manages to combine the scholarly and the journalistic in a fascinating way.

Faculty of Theology

Professor Grzymała-Moszczyńskas is an internationally recognized researcher in the psychology of religion and has made significant contributions to understanding how religion affects people's lives, especially in the context of migration. Her research has contributed to a better understanding of the complex consequences of migration.

Among her many books and articles are a handbook on psychological support in working with refugees, resilience and religious coping among refugees who have experienced trauma, and return among Polish migrants.

Anders Berndt