Organisation and Governance

On this page you find more information about:

• Departmental board
• Health and safety representative
• Working group for gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity
• Research council
• Operational plan
• General rules

Departmental board

The departmental board is the department’s highest decision-making body. The budget, activities plan, appointment of examiners, course syllabi and required reading lists are some of the matters decided upon by the board. In addition, the board takes decisions on guidelines, action plans and policies.

Members for the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022:

Chair

bjorn [dot] badersten [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Björn Badersten)
Head of Department

Teaching staff

Full members:

• julie [dot] hassing_nielsen [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Julie Hassing-Nielsen)
• stina [dot] melander [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Stina Melander)
• jakob [dot] skovgaard [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Jakob Skovgaard)
• anders [dot] uhlin [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Anders Uhlin)

Substitute members:

• hanna [dot] back [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Hanna Bäck)
• martin [dot] hall [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Martin Hall)
• asa [dot] knaggard [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Åsa Knaggård)
• johannes [dot] stripple [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Johannes Stripple)

Other staff

Full members:

kristina [dot] grondahl_nilsson [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Kristina Gröndahl Nilsson)

Substitute members:

mats [dot] janer [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Mats Janér)

Doctoral students

Full members:

joel [dot] abdelmoez [at] cme [dot] lu [dot] se (Joel Abdelmoez)

Substitute members:

marie_stissing [dot] jensen [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (Marie Stissing Jensen)

Students’ unions

Full members:

instrep [dot] svet [at] samvetet [dot] lu [dot] se (Tova Eriksson)

Health and safety representative

Our health and safety representative for 2021-2023 are Annika Bergman Rosamond and Agustín Goenaga. They represent the employees.

Working group for gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity

This is an advisory and preparatory body. It consists of representatives of teaching staff, technical/administrative staff, research students and other students. 

Our work on gender equality

Research committee

The research committee is an advisory and preparatory body, whose main duty is to support the department’s researchers in their work on applying for external research grants.

Members

During 2021-2024

• Catarina Kinnvall (chair)
• Jens Bartelsson
• Annika Björkdahl
• Anders Uhlin
• Agustin Goenaga
• Fariborz Zelli
• Isabell Bramsen
• Marie Stissing Jensen (doctoral student representative)

Learn more on our research committee’s work

Operational plan 2021

The present operational plan accounts for the prioritisations that govern activities at the Department of Political Science and the measures planned during the 2021 budget year regarding first and second cycle education, third cycle education, research, work environment, gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity, and administration and joint activities.

First and second cycle education

The need for teaching staff entails further new recruitment of permanently employed staff and the advertisement of vacant substitute positions. Two senior lecturers will take up their positions in 2021 within the framework of the advertised vacancy for “At least one senior lecturer in political science specialising in European studies”; in addition, three associate senior lecturers will take up their posts specialising in public administration and one associate senior lecturer will start in a position specialising in intelligence analysis. Additional teaching positions are being prepared and are expected to be filled during the financial year, including positions as associate senior lecturer with a general orientation. In addition, a vacancy announcement is planned for a position as professor in political science specialising in comparative politics, as well as a proposal to the faculty to review candidates for professorship after an internal procedure. In parallel, substitutes are being appointed for a fixed term, including staff specialising in comparative politics, international politics and intelligence analysis.

During the financial year, the review of the first, second, and third year of the Bachelor’s programme in political science will continue, on the basis of the evaluation conducted in 2019 and its associated action plan. The proposals drawn up by the various working groups that addressed the development of levels and courses will be implemented during the year. The phasing in of the new learning platform Canvas is being consolidated, and the development of various kinds of online teaching as a consequence of the pandemic continues, based in part on what emerged from the course evaluations during 2020 and the special focus group of students with which the department worked during the autumn semester. Special funds have been set aside for a trial of student employees in teaching the level 1 course in political science, as a way of providing support to teaching staff for the use of digital formats and hybrid formats, as well as for the purchase of new technology.

Work continues on further developing the students’ mentoring activities. The major event for the department’s alumni, which was planned for spring 2020 but had to be postponed due to the pandemic, is now expected to take place in autumn 2021. During the year, the department’s work and professional development will intensify with regard to learning support and student health, in particular regarding stress and mental illness. In addition, a special initiative is planned regarding labour market advice for students in the light of the effects of the pandemic.
 
Special funding has also been set aside in the 2021 budget for quality enhancement regarding the subjects of peace and conflict studies and intelligence analysis.

The department will continue to support the educational development of teaching staff through courses in teaching and learning in higher education, participation in various kinds of development projects and/or qualifying for the faculty’s teaching academy. New educational seminars at the department are to disseminate experiences among colleagues, regarding online teaching and various digital tools, among other things. An area that remains a priority is the issue of how gender equality and equal opportunities are to be promoted in teaching.

The education provided is to have a strong international dimension with good opportunities for mobility for both students and teaching staff. Existing agreements on student exchange are continuously reviewed.

Research studies

During 2021, the conditions exist to recruit at least three doctoral students with direct government funding. In addition, there are plans to admit at least two doctoral students on project funding. The timing of the recruitment process is coordinated with the other major political science departments in the country and, to a certain extent, with the other departments at the Faculty of Social Sciences in terms of information and marketing.

The special investment in quality enhancement in research studies, introduced in 2019, continues. Among other things, the investment entails that a working group was appointed to produce, together with the director of studies, the department’s self-evaluation within the framework of the then ongoing evaluation of research studies in the subject of political science, and to think more strategically, in national and international comparison, about the form and content of research studies. The development plan produced during 2020 as part of this work will continue to be implemented during 2021, including through new and revised courses.

A new director of research studies will take up the position during the spring, as the current director of studies will be leaving the department for a new job. One prioritised area for 2021 is the continued follow-up and documentation of how the Covid-19 pandemic affects the work of the doctoral students.

In recent years, a workshop on the theme of academic writing, led by an external expert, has been regularly organised. Unfortunately, the workshop had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but the goal is to be able to offer doctoral students an equivalent activity during 2021. Special funds have once again been set aside to support activities jointly organised by the department’s doctoral students.
 
The research seminar with invited guests from Sweden and abroad continues to play an important role in research studies, as do the department’s various internal working seminars and research away-days.

Research

The Faculty of Social Sciences has limited direct government funding for research compared to several other faculties. Therefore, the department’s ability to obtain external research funding is of the utmost importance to enable most teaching staff members to conduct research. Supporting the department’s teaching staff in their work to obtain external funding is a priority.

In this respect, the department’s research council continues its systematic work to support and further develop the department’s research, including by assisting in the process of writing competitive research applications. The formalised consultation process with the departmental management introduced in 2018 is reinforced by assigning the role of assistant head of department to the convener of the research council as of 2021. Special development funding at the disposal of the research council has been set aside in the budget. The funding is to be used to organise research away-days but also for other activities focused on the department’s research and themes relating to it, such as workshops on publication strategies.

On the basis of experiences from the quality evaluation of research at Lund University – RQ20 – a new research strategy for the department was developed in 2020 for the period from 2021 to 2025. The goals and measures identified in the strategy will guide the work to further strengthen the department’s research in 2021 and beyond.

As previously, funds are set aside for permanently employed teaching staff with no research grant, to enable their participation in conferences/workshops and purchase of literature. If researchers have not been successful in obtaining funding for such overheads from external funding bodies, the opportunity is provided to apply for funding internally. The previous investment regarding language editing of doctoral theses, books and journal articles continues. The compensation received from the faculty for the public defence of a doctoral thesis is often insufficient for this purpose, for example, and compensation for language editing of journal articles is usually only received after the work has been published. Thus the investment provides greater opportunities for language editing of doctoral theses and monographs, and equivalent review of articles can be done before their submission to journals. In addition, funding has been set aside to enable open access publication and to support special strategic publication initiatives.

Work environment, gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity

The department will continue with active and systematic management of the work environment and issues regarding gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity. A new work environment policy is to be adopted during the year, as well as a new plan for gender mainstreaming and equal opportunities. Work environment aspects related to working from home will be an important focus area during the year, along with continued investment in the promotion of gender equality and equal opportunities in teaching. In connection with the transition to a new platform and a new interface for the department’s
 
website, all material on the web pages will be adapted for accessibility and new accessibility-adapted templates for official documents will be produced and implemented in the organisation. A special investment in professional development regarding mental illness in students is being implemented, as well as follow-up of the effects of the pandemic on the organisation, both in general and with regard to gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity. In addition, further efforts are being made to increase transparency in the allocation of teaching duties and, in a broad sense, to safeguard the department’s status as an inclusive work environment.

Administration, external engagement and joint activity

A new management structure at the department will be introduced during the financial year as a result of the review of the management function conducted by the board during 2020. Alongside the head of department and the deputy head of department, who are appointed through election, three assistant heads of department will be appointed by the dean after a proposal from the head of department for the term of office 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023: assistant head of department, research studies (also deputy head of department); assistant head of department, first and second cycle studies; and assistant head of department, research coordination. Together with the director of studies for first and second cycle education and the director of research studies, these functions will make up the department’s management.

Two new health and safety representatives, one regular and one substitute, have been elected and have begun their term of office to run from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023. The health and safety representatives will work as a team from now on and have greater resources at their disposal.

The function of external engagement coordinator was introduced as part of the work to highlight, support and develop the many activities of an external engagement nature in which department staff are involved.

The proposal to introduce mentoring activities for junior researchers and teaching staff is under further investigation in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences.

A new staff planning system (Retendo) will be introduced, bringing new working procedures for some administrative staff.

The migration of the departmental website started in late 2020 will be consolidated, as well as the work to adapt the web pages for accessibility.

An away-day for the department’s administrators will be held during the year and one for all department staff will take place as usual at the end of August, on condition that it is compatible with the recommendations of the Swedish Public Health Agency and Lund University.

General rules

At Lund University, there are general rules and decisions within several different areas. 

Read more about general rules on the Lund University's Staff Pages