Katarina Lundin

What are your goals for your term of office? Which issues are important, and why? 

If I am elected as Pro Dean of Third-Cycle Studies, my goal is to work with the rest of the faculty leadership to preserve and build upon what works well at the Faculties, while changing what needs to be changed so that we can maintain high quality in both teaching and research. 

An overarching issue is finding the balance between externally funded and faculty-funded doctoral positions, as well as increasing opportunities to bring graduate schools to HT. Here, different doctoral programs have distinct conditions and opportunities, and if we want to maintain a breadth in our doctoral programs, an informed discussion is very important. 

For me, it is also important that internationalization naturally includes intra-Nordic internationalization, that is, various forms of collaboration with the other Scandinavian and Nordic countries. For several research fields at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, intra-Nordic collaborations are closer at hand than collaborations with countries in Europe and the rest of the world. A greater emphasis on intra-Nordic internationalization can align with the university’s overall goal of internationalization while preserving the core of the disciplines. 

What is at the top of the agenda? 

Perhaps not at the very top, but certainly high on the agenda is quality assurance for what we offer our doctoral students. In a time of limited financial resources, it becomes crucial to find new solutions to maintain the quality of our various doctoral programs. We must find more opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, not least when it comes to course offerings. At the same time, we must preserve the traditions and cultures of the various doctoral programs by giving doctoral students the opportunity to delve deeper into their subjects through subject-specific doctoral courses. I look forward to working together with HTDR on this issue, as well as, of course, on several other issues. 

High on the doctoral education agenda is also the question of what happens to doctoral students who, for various reasons, do not complete their education on time, as well as to those who, after a short or long break, wish to resume their studies. At present, both doctoral students and supervisors find themselves in limbo with unclear guidelines on what applies. Even if the answer to this question won’t be appreciated by everyone, it’s a question that needs to be answered. 

What key experiences do you bring to the role of Pro Dean of Third-Cycle Studies? 

I have served as Head of Section 1 at the Center for Language and Literature (SOL) and as Associate Head of Department responsible for graduate studies at the same department. Since 2023, I have been a professor of language didactics. My research focuses on grammar didactics, subject-specific language, and language use in sports contexts, and I primarily teach in the subject teacher education program in Swedish. I am very interested in pedagogical and didactic issues and appreciate the stimulation and challenge that teaching entails. I believe my equal interest in teaching and research provides a solid foundation for working in graduate education. 

For three years, I was a visiting researcher in sports science at Linnaeus University and have supervised doctoral students in Nordic languages at Lund University, sports science at Linnaeus University, and Swedish with a focus on didactics at Malmö University. Being part of several different doctoral education environments is an important experience; both sports science and Swedish with a focus on didactics are, moreover, naturally interdisciplinary environments. 

Since SOL is a large department, I have already been responsible for a great many of the faculty’s doctoral students and supervisors and have worked with SOLDR and the supervisory staff on a significant amount of development work. If I become Pro Dean at the HT Faculties, I look forward to collaborating with more doctoral students and supervisors in research environments that lie further outside my own fields of research.