Brian Palmer

Kort presentation

Social anthropologist Brian Palmer previously held the Torgny Segerstedt Guest Professorship at the University of Gothenburg and taught at Harvard, where his courses on social engagement attracted up to 600 students per term. He received the Levenson Prize as Harvard’s best teacher as well as Uppsala University's Pedagogical Prize. He and Ola Larsmo wrote the book 101 historiska hjältar. Brian was a host (sommarpratare) on the radio program Sommar i P1. He lectures internationally.

Biografi

Brian Palmer is a social anthropologist and scholar of religion at Uppsala University in Sweden. Previously he held the Torgny Segerstedt Guest Professorship at Gothenburg University, and before that he taught at Harvard. His courses there on civic courage and engagement attracted as many as 600 students per term, and Brian was awarded the Levenson Prize as Harvard’s best teacher. In 2022, he received Uppsala University's Pedagogical Prize.

Brian was a host (sommarpratare) on the radio program Sommar i P1 in 2004. He lectures regularly in Sweden and internationally, with a focus on civic courage and what Susan Sontag called ”the simultaneity of wildly contrasting human fates.”

Brian Palmer and Ola Larsmo wrote the book 101 historiska hjältar (101 historical heroes), published by Historiska Media (Lund) in hardcover, softcover and pocket editions; an audiobook is being prepared.

The book Global Values 101 is based on Brian’s Harvard courses. His doctoral dissertation, also at Harvard, explored Swedish conceptions of solidarity. In 2006, he and Per-Anders Forstorp wrote a book about rhetoric and symbolism in Swedish political campaigns. Brian has also done a study of how time pressures are recasting Swedes’ inner lives.

Brian was the research director of the Raoul Wallenberg Calendar, a collection of 365 accounts of individuals who took great risks for human rights, peace and democracy. The work was published internationally, with more than 100,000 copies printed in three languages; it was also serialized on Radio Sweden on every day of 2013.