Malmö Meets at Malmö University

Sometimes it is difficult to uphold children’s rights: this may concern children who find themselves alone in hospital, or children’s right to information and freedom of expression in the digital world. Should human rights be part of all university courses? Is it only humans who have rights – or do nature and other living beings have them too?

In a polarised world, universities have an important role to play in championing knowledge of, about and for human rights. This is achieved through research and education in dialogue with society. The Collegium for Human Rights at Malmö University brings together researchers from across the university, and their first book is now being presented.

Speakers

Rebecka Lettevall, Professor of History of Ideas and Chair of the Collegium for Human Rights, Malmö University, will open the event by explaining why the Collegium for Human Rights is needed now. This will be followed by a discussion about the book among some of the participating researchers.

Commentator

Sara Bondesson, Lund University of Technology

Campus total defence

The discussion is organised by Malmö University’s network focusing on the field of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights within the Campus total defence.

Campus total defence at Malmö university

Campus total defence

Two democracy fighters from civil society tell their story of resisting authoritarianism and defending democracy under threat.

Once a beacon of reform and democratic development in the region, Georgia is now sliding toward a Russian-style autocracy. Two young leaders of Georgian civil society explore how the nation became one of Europe’s fastest-declining democracies.

George Melashvili and Shako Chkheidze are the founders of the Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI), a leading Georgian hybrid civil society organisation. Established in 2015 and built from the ground up by its founders, EGI has developed an extensive portfolio of successful campaigns and educational programs. However, following the enactment of several repressive, Russian-style laws targeting civil society and Democracy, the organisation’s influential work has made it a primary target of the current regime.

Europe Georgia Institute

We will hear how the ruling party leveraged the war in Ukraine to attack civil society, and how the struggle to defend democracy became a daily reality for Georgians after 2024.

The speakers will share their first-hand experiences on the front lines of this democratic struggle.

Collaboration with the university and Malmö

George and Shako began their collaboration with Malmö through the Swedish Institute Academy for Young Professional in Malmö University. This connection deepened through the EGI partnership with Malmö University and the Swedish Institute. These relationships have fueled several significant initiatives in Georgia, including the translation and promotion of the Swedish educational floor game "Electionville," as well as the integration of social auditing into the high school civic education curriculum.

This session is organized by Malmö University's network for the field of knowledge Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights within Campus Total Defense.

Commentator

Derek Hutcheson, Professor, Malmö University

Campus total defence

The discussion is organised by Malmö University’s network focusing on the field of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights within the Campus total defence.

Campus total defence at Malmö university

Campus total defence

Democratic erosion often begins with targeting of university subjects disliked by authorities,  e.g. diversity, equity, integration, or democracy. The talk discusses examples from around the globe.

Speakers

Bo Petersson is since 2010 Professor of Political Science and IMER at the Department of Global Political Studies (GPS). He is the director of the research platform RUCARR - Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus Regional Research at the Faculty of Culture and Society (during the period 2016-2024 together with Professor Karina Vamling). Among ongoing external assignments, Petersson is a member of the board of the Swedish Network for European Research in Political Science (SNES).

Thiem Hai Bui is a researcher at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University. Prior to this position, he was a researcher at the Stockholm Center for Global Asia, Stockholm University. His previous positions include senior lecturer in political economy at Vietnam National University-Hanoi, senior lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, senior research fellow at the Institute for Legislative Studies under the Vietnamese National Assembly.

Campus total defence

This session is organised by Malmö University's network for the field of knowledge Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights within Campus Total Defense.

Campus total defence at Malmö university

Campus total defence

A mixed reality walk exploring our public spaces. Come and try out the first version of a new site-specific work by Marika Hedemyr. An immersive walk between Malmö Live and Malmö University Niagara.

Duration: approx. 12 minutes. To experience the work:

1. Meet Marika Hedemyr at the entrance to Malmö Live.
2. Bring your mobile phone and headphones.
3. You walk at your own pace.

The work is a prototype, i.e. an initial version being tested, and you are welcome to share your thoughts and feedback with Marika Hedemyr afterwards. The project is part of Hedemyr’s two-year research project Sensing Sustainable Futures, which investigates how Mixed Reality Performances can contribute artistic, aesthetic and sensory experiences that activate our critical imagination.

The project is linked to the research environment Centre for Co-Created Futures, at the Department of Art, Culture and Communication at Malmö University.

Participants

Marika Hedemyr is an award-winning Swedish artist/choreographer and artistic postdoctoral researcher, based in Malmö. She holds a PhD in interaction design with a focus on compositional methods for MR experiences in public environments and has developed an innovative artistic format called Mixed Reality Walks.

Marika Hedemyr's website

Marika Hedemyr's Linkedin

Marika Hedemyr's Instagram

About Marikas Hedemyr's research project

Contact Marika Hedemyr

Drop by, give it a go, or pick up a set of creative discussion materials on hope and grief in uncertain times. A collaboration between the Academy of Change, ABF, SMHI and Malmö University.

The discussion materials “Hope and Grief in Uncertain Times” aim to facilitate open and exploratory conversations in the age of climate change. The materials are aimed at small groups (4–7 people) who wish to explore climate-related anxiety, hope, grief, relationships, meaning and agency together. The programme consists of three guided sessions featuring discussions, exercises, texts and audio tracks, and can be used by, for example, associations, workplaces, parents on parental leave, study circles or groups of friends. The aim is to lower the threshold for conversations about climate-related emotions and to strengthen community and engagement at a time that demands both transition and adaptation.

The material has been developed in collaboration between the Academy of Change and the research group Design Beyond Progress at Malmö University, with funding from the National Knowledge Centre for Climate Adaptation at SMHI.

Participants

The Academy of Change, ABF, SMHI and Malmö University

'More about Hope and Grief in Uncertain Times' (in Swedish) 
Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures

A Room for Hope is a participatory workshop where people share dreams for the future through words, sound, and conversation, creating a live collective soundscape that lets many hopes exist together.

A Room for Hope is a half-day workshop about community, shared imagination, and hope, built around conversation and live, communal sound-making.

Participants are invited to bring a dream, wish, or future they care about – something that is personal, local, or collective. It might be practical, ambitious, unresolved, or still vague. We will work with these possibilities not as private goals, but as things that shape how people relate to the future and to each other.

Expressing dreams in words or sounds

Through guided prompts and small-group conversations, participants will put these dreams into words, short phrases, or simple sounds. These participatory fragments will be recorded and gradually mixed into a live soundscape that builds in the room over the course of the session.

As we go along together, the space will fill with different future directions at once… overlapping, sitting side-by-side, perhaps pulling in different ways. The point isn’t for us to agree or arrive at one vision, but to experience how many hopes can exist together.

We will end with a shared listening moment and a brief reflection/conversation on what it means to treat thinking about the future as something we do together in everyday life, not just in policy documents or expert spaces.

Limited number of participants.

Speakers

Erin E. Cory, Senior Lecturer, Department of Art and Communication (K3), Malmö University

Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures

The workshop combines two creative methods to explore how cultural institutions such as archives, museums and libraries play a vital role in upholding democracy.

The workshop targets professionals engaged in cultural institutions like archives, libraries and museums, and supports their understanding of how the institions fulfill the role of democracy in their everyday work.

Participants will work individually to write a love letter, articulating why democracy is worth the effort and discuss the monstrous aspect of the democratic work with the help of “Flower monster” and paper dolls for democracy, developed within the CEMES collaboration together with researchers from Lund and Copenhagen University.

The workshop opens for critical and emotional reflections around the role of cultural institutions (and their challenges) in upholding democracy in society.

Participants

Pille Pruulmann Vengerfeldt, Professor of Media and Communication, Department of Art and Communication (K3), Malmö University

Sign up here – places are limited (invajo.com)

Panel discussion and participatory mapping activity on urban justice in Malmö with junior researchers from the Institute for Urban Research. The event will conclude with a networking session.

Led by moderator Jennie Gustafsson, we will discuss how urban justice and democracy are linked, what this means from the perspective of young people in Malmö, and what initiatives exist to promote justice in our city and others. A panel of four early-career researchers from the Institute for Urban Research (IUR) will present four different perspectives on urban justice. The panel draws on the IUR’s four research areas concerning urban justice: housing and welfare (Henrika Kangas), green and just cities (Ulrik Kohl), global urbanism (Claudia Fonseca) and urban humanities (Adam Lundberg).

The panel will be followed by a participatory mapping activity led by Myrto Dagkouli and Mathilda Rosengren: Mapping the Margins – a seminar on the history, applications and challenges of counter-mapping. We will examine mapping as a tool for political and social claims through various examples. Depending on the participants’ interests, we will explore together the power but also the limitations of counter-mapping as a radical practice. We will also facilitate a short online discussion with the Gaza Soundmapping Project, focusing on the erasure of counter-mapping and the preservation of sound memory.

Institute for urban research (Linkedin)
Institute for Urban Research på Malmö universitet (Facebook) 

Many people want to involve citizens in climate policy decisions, but this does not always lead to greater fairness. Researcher Anders Melin has been working on these issues and will give a short talk.

There is currently growing interest in involving citizens in climate policy decisions in various ways. A key reason is that this is expected to lead to fairer decisions by giving citizens greater opportunities to influence them. However, research shows that citizen involvement can also have the opposite effect, for example by giving already well-off groups greater influence. The lecture discusses the conditions under which citizen involvement in climate policy can lead to fairer decisions.

Speaker

Researcher Anders Melin has worked on these issues both in practice and in theory and will share his experiences. He is active within the Institute for Human Rights at Malmö university.

What does academic freedom really mean, why is it under pressure—and what happens to society if it is lost? We discuss this with Mia Rönnmar, Vice-Chancellor of Malmö University.

At a time when democracy is under attack on multiple fronts, free research and the independent university are more important than ever. Academic freedom is not just a matter for researchers—it is a matter for society as a whole. When politicians or other those in power attempt to control research, it is not only knowledge that is threatened, but democracy as well.

Mia Rönnmar is a professor of civil law and has previously served as dean and professor at the Faculty of Law at Lund University, as well as a visiting researcher and lecturer at institutions including the London School of Economics, the European University Institute, and Sydney Law School. Her research and teaching focus on labor law and industrial relations from a Swedish, comparative, and European perspective.

Mia Rönnmar has extensive experience in international research collaboration and has, among other things, served as president of ILERA, the International Labour and Employment Relations Association, and carried out expert assignments for the European Commission and the ILO.

More about Mia Rönnmar

Mathematical skills shape democratic participation. A lecture and discussion on critical mathematical literacy in relation to societal crises, disinformation and individual decision-making.

In a world where data, statistics and algorithms influence everything from electoral processes to climate policy, mathematical literacy is a key democratic skill. The lecture highlights how the ability to interpret, evaluate and critically examine quantitative information is not merely a matter for schools – but a prerequisite for citizens to be able to participate actively in society, resist disinformation and make informed decisions.

The lecture draws on research showing how mathematics and mathematical literacy are closely intertwined with social justice, critical citizenship, social cohesion and sustainability.
Critical mathematical literacy is crucial for individuals when it comes to understanding and acting in relation to phenomena such as pandemics, climate change and other societal crises – and to being able to participate in a democratic context in an informed manner.

Speakers

Petra S Källberg and Ulrika Ryan, researchers at the Literacy and Inclusive Teaching (LIT) Research Centre at Malmö University.

The Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Teaching

Are you keen to find out more about human rights, or would you like to ask a researcher some questions? Come and have a coffee with researchers from Malmö University.

Without human rights, democracy risks losing its legitimacy, and without democracy, human rights risk being violated with impunity. But these are not simple questions! Malmö University conducts extensive research and offers courses on these issues, and a couple of years ago the Collegium for Human Rights was established. Take the opportunity to ask questions or discuss topics that interest you. We’ll be there and are keen to hear what you’d like to discuss and learn about. And of course, we’ll be providing the refreshments.

Participants

The Chair of the Board, Professor Rebecka Lettevall, with colleagues from Collegium for Human Rights.

Researchers from the Citizen Health Centre for Health Equity, residents, local health promoters, Malmö City Council and Save the Children will present research findings and discuss the future of our suburbs.

Over the past ten years, democratic co-creation with Malmö’s population – with a particular focus on Lindängen – has helped to strengthen local democracy, promote health equity and create a more inclusive local community. These approaches have also gained international recognition. What are the findings of the research, and how can democratised co-creation research also strengthen human rights globally?

Presentation of how the research processes:

• have contributed to policy decisions
• have strengthened local integration
• have been shaped in collaboration with residents and the city’s services

We also highlight how the experiences from Malmö and Jämlik hälsa are being applied in international contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The focus is on how participatory research can:

• strengthen human rights
• reduce global health inequalities
• contribute to local ownership of knowledge

Participants

Margareta Rämgård, Associate Professor and Director of the Citizen Health Research Centre, along with members of the local community from Lindängen acting as research participants.

Jörgen Andersson, social worker for Malmö City Council and health promoter with Save the Children.

Research: Equal health

Citizen Health - Promoting citizen health through collaborative practices

Citizen health research centre (Linkedin)

Panel on how deepfakes affect elections with Malmö University researchers and students sharing tools for detection, digital literacy, and democratic resilience.

This event introduces the Deepfake Democracy Group, an interdisciplinary team of computer sciences, international relations, global political studies, media studies, communications, interaction designers and criminologist at Malmö University that studies how AI-generated synthetic media may inform European and Nordic democracies. Participants will hear inputs on the rapid growth of political deepfakes, why humans detect them only slightly better than chance, and how such content can damage reputations, voting intentions, and trust in news.

The session combines short talks from the research tracks, a moderated panel, and hands-on examples where visitors compare real and synthetic video and discuss how design, policy, and education can strengthen democratic resilience. Students from the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) “Deepfake Democracy Group” present case studies from Sweden and recent European elections and demonstrate EU policies and prototype detection.

The aim is to give attendees a clearer understanding of deepfake threats and an accessible toolkit of questions, practices, and resources they can use in everyday democratic life in Malmö and across the Öresund region.

Participants

• Elizabeth Ashley Fox-Jensen, Senior Lecturer at Malmö University, Department of Culture and Society, Art and Communication K3
• Michael Strange, Senior Lecturer at Malmö University, Department of Culture and Society, Global Political Studies
• Bojana Romic, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Culture and Society, Media Studies

Student researchers

• Master’s Programme in Computer Science: Magaji Obaike, Andre Plancha and Ewomazino Ihuomachi Bella Etoroma
• Master’s Programme in Communication: Sue-Ellen Mwangala Njekwa Ryberg
• Master’s Programme in Criminology: Eva Sandot
• Bachelor’s Programme in International Relations: Mina Reynoso, Jacob Grundsell, Lilly Marie Broemels and Lorella Maresca.

Deepfake Democracy Project

Democracy is under pressure worldwide and authoritarian forces are on the rise. In this panel discussion, representatives from academia, journalism and the arts will come together to discuss why these institutions in particular play a special role in upholding democracy.

Democracy is in global decline. Today, over 70 per cent of the world’s population lives in autocracies – the highest proportion since the 1970s. Even in Sweden, we see democracy on the wane. This is reflected, among other things, in restrictions on, and threats to, the institutions often referred to as the voice of democracy: academia, journalism and the arts. Threats against artists, journalists and researchers are greater than those against individuals; they are threats to freedom of thought and freedom of expression.

This panel discussion focuses on the forces that uphold democracy, and what happens when they are threatened.

Participants

Mia Rönnmar, Vice-Chancellor, Malmö University

Jonas Kanje, Editor-in-Chief, Sydsvenskan

Elisabeth Millqvist, Director, Moderna Museet Malmö

Moderator

Anders Mildner, Altitude

Bring along a book or audiobook you’ve been dying to read, settle down amongst other book lovers and spend an hour reading purely for pleasure. We invite you to an afternoon filled with tranquillity, literature and camaraderie. Open to all, no booking required – just turn up and let the silence speak!

What is a Reading Party? It’s exactly what it sounds like – a party where everyone reads. No reading aloud, no pressure to perform – just you, your book and other book lovers in the same room. Not sure what to read? We have suggestions and there are books available to borrow. From 15.00, we’ll be serving tea, coffee and snacks. The Reading Party runs from 15.30 o 16.30 pm. Come as you are, stay as long as you like.

Mau Reading Party is part of the Mau Reads concept at Malmö University Library. These are book clubs for students designed to inspire more reading, organised in collaboration with the university’s cultural partnership.

Participants

Staff from Malmö University Library

More about Mau Reads

In an age where visual media spreads faster than ever, media literacy is not just a matter for schools, but a matter of democracy. How can media production foster critical thinking and engagement?

In an age where social issues are increasingly conveyed through moving images, it is not enough to be able to read and write text. Young people encounter the world through news clips, documentaries, YouTube and social media. The need for media literacy is great, and to participate in a democracy we need more than just to consume content. We need to understand how images are created, framed and used to persuade. When pupils themselves work on film production in social studies, they move from being passive recipients to active producers of meaning. In this process, they develop not only subject knowledge, but also a deeper understanding of how visual media shape our view of society and our ability to influence it.

Speakers

Dennis Augustsson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication, Department of Art, Culture and Communication (K3) and the Literacy and Inclusive Teaching (LIT) Research Centre, Malmö University.

The Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Teaching

How can libraries, schools and universities work together to strengthen all pupils’ reading skills as a foundation for democratic participation? This is the overarching question for this lecture.

A lecture on collaborative efforts to promote reading between libraries and schools in two municipalities, as well as a presentation of a research school (FEELIT) aimed at strengthening teacher training. Collaboration to promote reading is discussed and highlighted initially, based on a research project being carried out in collaboration between Malmö University and Karlstad University. The project highlights how librarians and school leaders describe collaboration to promote reading in socially disadvantaged areas to support all pupils’ reading development and access to libraries. This is followed by a presentation of the FEELIT research school: Foundations for equitable and engaging reading and writing instruction in the early years of schooling. It is funded by the Swedish Research Council and constitutes a collaboration between four higher education institutions aimed at strengthening teacher training. The lecture concludes with a joint discussion.

Speakers

Robert Walldén, visiting professor at Linnaeus University and a member of the Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Education at Malmö University.

The Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Teaching

Welcome to after work with DJ Erin Corey. The bar is open, and light refreshments will be available for purchase.

16.30-17.30 Live podcast: The World Cup – an enemy of democracy?

18.00-19.00 FUTURES Thoughts with Geoffrey Mulgan, Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-creating Futures (ICF).

A lecture and discussion on hope and hopeful futures by researchers Tina Askanius and Elisabet M. Nilsson from the Centre for Co-Created Futures at Malmö University.

In an era marked by climate change, war and the decline of democracy, hope has become a central concept, both in public debate and within research. But what do we actually mean when we talk about hope? Are hope and optimism the same thing? Why do we seem to turn to hope in times of crisis? And what happens – individually and socially – when hope is lost?

In this lecture, Tina Askanius, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, and Elisabet M. Nilsson, Associate Professor of Interaction Design at the Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures at Malmö University, provide an introduction to current fields of research and key theories on hope. How has the concept of hope emerged within different areas of the research literature – from philosophy and psychology to education and futures studies? What can we learn from these different perspectives as we seek to understand and navigate life in an era of multiple crises? And how can we understand and work with hope not merely as a feeling but in practice when engaging with students, colleagues and citizens?

The session also includes moments where the audience is invited to reflect on their own relationship with hope – or perhaps hopelessness – followed by a joint discussion on how we can practise ‘active hope’ in everyday life.

Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures

Learning Swedish is crucial for migrants’ participation in society. This lecture describes the challenges of language learning for adult SFI participants who have not previously attended school.

For most people, learning a new language is a time-consuming and demanding task. Anders Agebjörn researches how second-language acquisition is influenced by linguistic, cognitive and social factors. In the ongoing project presented here, he uses quantitative methods to investigate the significance of adult migrants’ prior education and experiences of written language use for their development of both spoken and written Swedish. The findings contribute to an understanding of the specific challenges faced by adult migrants with limited schooling in acquiring the language they need to participate fully in Swedish society.

Speakers

Anders Agebjörn, senior lecturer in Swedish as a second language and a member of the Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Education (LIT) at Malmö University.

The Research Centre for Literacy and Inclusive Teaching

Live recording of Malmö University’s podcast Wiki 4-ever

The World Cup – the enemy of democracy? Is FIFA corrupt? Should more people have boycotted the World Cup? Why are there so few critical voices coming from the world of sport? How does global politics influence sporting events today? This highly topical subject is discussed in the midst of the World Cup with the following guests on the panel.

Panel guests

Caroline Jönsson: Legendary football goalkeeper with 80 international caps and a World Cup silver medal to her name. Now a sports psychologist specialising in the mental health of elite athletes and active in the Players’ Association (an interest group for professional footballers). She is also an honorary doctor at Malmö University.

Jesper Högström: Football-savvy author and journalist. He has written numerous pieces and articles on football, including for Offside magazine and Dagens Nyheter, and is the author of the books *The World Cup Book* and *Blågult: The History of the Swedish Men’s National Football Team*.

Kutte Jönsson: Philosopher and sports researcher at Malmö University whose research focuses on sports ethics. Among other works, he has written the book *The Match That Never Took Place*, which discusses sports issues linked to fair play, doping, nationalism and politics.

Presenter

Magnus Erlandsson, Malmö University

Wiki 4-ever (in Swedish)

A conversation on art, radical imagination and hope, this talk with Geoffrey Mulgan is part of the FUTURES Thoughts talk series at Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-creating Futures (ICF).

Geoffrey Mulgan is professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London, UK and keynote address at Malmö Möts. The talk will be curated by Marika Hedemyr and focus on his work pertaining to art, radical imagination and hope as capacities for reimagining democracy.

In this talk, Mulgan will address the role of the arts in social imagination and shaping the future. How much is their role to warn, to testify, to spot emergent patterns or to make the present feel unnatural?  And how well placed are they now to do more detailed design, future visions and pathways? He'll look at the role of radical imagination, utopias and distopias, and why more prescriptive literature, film or art sometimes feels banal. He will argue that the idea of the arts as trailblazers or legislators is sometimes misunderstood. They contribute best at a tangent rather than head on, encouraging hope by showing the plasticity of the world, and contributing to explorations of possible futures and pathways more than precise blueprints.

Participants

Geoffrey Mulgan, Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London, UK

Marika Hedemyr, artist, choreographer and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Art and Communication (K3), Malmö University

Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures

About Geoffrey Mulgan

All winners will receive a water bottle or gym bag from Malmö University. In Research Jeopardy, contestants are first given the answer and must then come up with the correct question. The questions and answers are based on research carried out at Malmö University.

You can also mingle and chat with student ambassadors, who are all studying different courses and know what it’s like to be a student in Malmö.

Date and time

Monday 15 June, 13.00–18.00
Tuesday 16 June, 09.00–18.00
Wednesday 17 June, 09.00–18.00