Do you want to know more about research in the humanities and social sciences at Linköping University? Here are the new professors at the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) presented. You are welcome to attend the next inaugural lecture, and to read about the research in the IKOS publication series.

The Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) was founded on 1 January 2020. We conduct education and research in the humanities, social sciences and aesthetic subjects. The research is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, with the focus on culture, society and language. On this page you find information about the professors who have been installed at IKOS, as well as those to be installed in the near future.

IKOS inaugural lectures

A new professor at IKOS gives an inaugural lecture where they talk about their subject area and research. The lecture is part of installation in the position.

IKOS inaugural lectures are open to everyone and serve as a meeting place where we promote and discuss IKOS research. The lectures are given on campus in Norrköping or at Valla in Linköping. Upcoming installations will be advertised on this page.

IKOS publication series

After installation, the professor produces a written text, the content of which is based on their inaugural lecture, to be part of the IKOS publication series.

Interviews with the professors

I want to inspire future officials and decision-makers

“Temporality is a loaded word, everyone is talking about it today. I was one of the first to research it” Zoran Slavnic is a professor of sociology at REMESO LiU, he conducts research and teaches in areas such as migration, integration and ethnicity.

Culture and Belonging in focus

“Migration studies is not only about movement and border crossing, but can teach us about home, staying put, about the value of community and of place”, says Claudia Tazreiter, professor of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Bodil Axelsson at Motala ström in Norrköping.

Cultural heritage is both everyday and political

What happens to our cultural heritage when it is digitalised? When versions of Viking-era jewelry circulate on Pinterest? When their colour, form and descriptions interact with the algorithms of the big platforms?

Series of publications

IKOS: Inaugural lectures

Read more about the research conducted at IKOS in our publication series of texts written by our professors.

IKOS: Inaugural lectures (we use the Swedish name; IKOS: Installationsföreläsningar) is a series of publications from the Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University. The texts are written by the department’s professors and are based on their inaugural lectures.

The series highlights and makes available some of the interdisciplinary and multifaceted research in the humanities and social sciences conducted at the department.

IKOS guest professors in the names of Moa Martinsson and Tage Danielsson also publish writings in the series after their inaugural lectures. They can be found on the page about the professorships.

Professorships in the humanities and social sciences

The Moa Martinson and Tage Danielsson professorships at Linköping University are intended for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, or those productive in the arts.

Publication list

David Ludvigsson (2024)

En meningsfull lokalhistoria? Forskning för akademi och lokalsamhälle

Gissur Ó Erlingsson (2023)

Spelet om kommunstrukturen

Per-Anders Forstorp (2023)

Vad vi vet (och inte vet) om ignorans

Harald Wiltsche (2022)

Lifeworld and Science

Previous inaugural lectures at IKOS

Preparedness Time and Future Peace: Contemporary Historical Research in a Troubled World

Marie Cronqvist, professor of History

October 2 2024

A meaningful local history? Research for academia and local society

David Ludvigsson, Professor of History

April 23 2024

Participation, categories and norms — Conversation as a foundation in social work

Karin Osvaldsson Cromdal, Professor of social work

April 10 2024

Social work is heavily dependent on social interaction. In her inaugural lecture, Karin demonstrated how participation, categories and norms are the building blocks of mutual understanding but that they can also form the ground for disputes between professionals/social workers and their clients. Moreover, she showed how close examination of conversations in social work can be linked to ‘big’ sociological questions concerning social change and human development.

Existence, Temporality, and Mobility: Trends in Migration Research and Policy over the Last Three Decades

Zoran Slavnic, Professor of Sociologi

February 7 2024

Temporary protection and temporary residence permit in Sweden in the mid-1990s was an exception to the rule, which was a permanent residence permit and a strong focus on integration. Today, a temporary permit is not only a rule, but also the only residence permit that refugees and asylum seekers can get in Sweden.

I this lecture I shed more light on the basic trends in migration research and policy over the past thirty years.

The Cultural Geographers Guide to Sparsely Populated Areas

Josefina Syssner, Professor of Cultural Geography

January 27, 2023

How can a geographer's knowledge be useful for sparsely populated areas? In her installation lecture, Josefina Syssner talked about geographers' knowledge, with a particular focus on her own field of research: peripheral, sparsely populated areas.

The Debate on Local Government Structure

Gissur Ó Erlingsson, Professor of Political Science

April 19, 2022

What different reform alternatives concerning local government organisation are there? What are their advantages and disadvantages? In his inaugural lecture, Gissur Ó Erlingsson addressed these questions.

What we know (and don't know) about ignorance

Per-Anders Forstorp, Professor of Culture and Media

April 6, 2022

How can we understand ignorance? How can perspectives taken from research on culture and communication contribute to an understanding of ignorance? Those questions were approached by Per-Anders Forstorp in his inaugural lecture.

The Future of Migration and Borders

Claudia Tazreiter, professor of ethnic and migration studies

November 24, 2021

What can we learn from situating migration not as exception, or problem, as so often happens, particularly when questions of nation, resources, cultural values and contested histories and memories are at play?

In this lecture migration is explored as complex phenomena with implications and possibilities for new social formations beyond the common understanding of migration as the crossing of the territorial border of a state. New bordering practices are manifest as technologized borders, virtual borders, as well as imagined, or psychological borders. In her inaugural lecture, Claudia Tazreiter explored these new practices and the values that drive them, reflecting on epistemic and methodological challenges and their relation to broader implications for social life and social change.

Museums and the Cultural Heritage of Digitalisation

Bodil Axelsson, professor of cultural heritage

November 10, 2021

Museums have been addressing digitalisation for decades. Collections are converted to digital format, operations are presented on webpages, digital screens are displayed in exhibitions, visitors are addressed through digital media, and questions are asked about how digital cultures should be saved. In her inaugural lecture, Bodil Axelsson discussed how digitalisation of museums can be understood in relation to the central question of critical cultural heritage research: through which processes are selected pasts preserved and communicated to future generations?

Lifeworld and Science

Harald Wiltsche, professor of philosophy

October 27, 2021

As the world reels around the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges posed by climate change, there is an alarming realization that a significant fraction of the general public openly distrusts science and its findings.

The situation is paradoxical: Although it is rather clear that science and technology are humanity’s best bet to master the existential threats we are currently facing, public belief in the authority of science is waning. Instead of discussing the complex socio-economical mechanisms that are behind this worrying development, Harald Wiltsche advanced the thesis that the critical state of scientific culture is in part self-imposed and has to do with the still unresolved tensions between lifeworld and science.

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More about the Department of Culture and Society

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.

Professors installed at IKOS

IKOS inaugural lectures

IKOS publication series

Interviews with the professors