Press releases

How should we relate to the traditional historiography on ancient Sicily? The prevailing view has been that the indigenous population had neither territory, power nor economic resources. But with the aid of interdisciplinary methods, a new thesis shows that trade was a big part of the economy for the inhabitants of the settlement of Monte […]

How will countries in Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea region, and the Caucasus region handle the opening of their borders and economies? And what lies ahead to go back to a pre-pandemic societal routine? Since vaccination has started across all over the world, it is vital to reflect upon the road map different countries have chosen to open up societies and economies.

Thanks to a unique collaboration between Linnaeus University, the Natur & Kultur Foundation, the Swedish Association of Educational Writers, and the Swedish Writers’ Union it is now clear that the first Swedish professorship in non-fiction will become reality. Non-fiction – fact-based literature like, for instance, reports, history, biographies, debate books, popular science, travelogues, and study […]

Novels, films, and games that describe wastelands and worlds in ruin tend to feature places of rest – peaceful oases and havens in stark contrast to the surrounding wasteland. What is the function of these places in post-apocalyptic fiction? Karlstad University’s Andreas Nyström investigates further in his doctoral thesis, Places of Rest in Worlds of Ruins: Havens in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction.

To become more socially relevant, more and more congregations are trying to expand their role and open church facilities to more people. But contradictory rules and different interpretations of cultural heritage preservation are slowing this development, according to a new study from the University of Gothenburg. Secularization, loss of members and deteriorating finances: the Church […]

With the pandemic still ongoing around the world and in many cases having entered both a second and third wave of infections and deaths—vaccination is urgently needed. Since the first vaccines against COVID-19 were approved, governments around the world are now pushing forward with the vaccination efforts – all with different strategies and methods. How are countries in Eastern Europe, around the Baltic Sea region and in the Caucasus region managing vaccination efforts in their countries and what are the key factors of success and failure? How different are the strategies?

Stefan Amirell at the Linnaeus University Centre Concurrences has been given 16.4 million SEK from the Swedish Research Council to create a unique research environment that focuses on colonial expansion and intercultural diplomacy in South East Asia 1750-1920. Stefan Amirell is associate professor in History at the Department of Cultural Sciences. He has received 16.4 […]

Have you ever  noticed that many hero stories follow virtually the same pattern? A new thesis examines how the theory of the hero’s journey, or Monomyth, which was first identified over 70 years ago, stands up in today’s popular culture. In his compilation thesis in English Literary Studies, which consists of five scholarly articles, Houman […]

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from Chalmers and University of Gothenburg has developed a framework to study how language evolves as an effective tool for describing mental concepts. In a new paper, they show that artificial agents can learn how to communicate in an artificial language similar to human language. The results have been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

In established democracies with long experience of democracy, the risk of democratic breakdown, in the face of a crisis like the current corona-crisis, is low. The outlook is very different for new democracies, especially those with weak civil society and weak political parties, according to research from the University of Gothenburg. The interwar period, 1918–1939, […]