Development of neuroweapons is going on right now...
GUJournal GREGOR NOLL PAGE 10
INDEPENDENT JOURNAL FOR THE STAFF AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG #3 SUMMER 2019
NEWS
Outlining our Vision Theme sustainability PROFILE
When machines go to war REPORT
Leila Papoli-Yazdi was banned from conducting research
PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE
ANNIE RINGVALL MOBERG AT CERN
VICE-CHANCELLOR Vision, climate and GOLD EN SENASTE VECKAN hIn the past week,
the vision seminars aimed at employees have commenced. I am pleased that several of you have taken the opportunity to participate in the discussions that will lead us to the next vision. It is true that those responsible for the vision have made use of discussions, views and contributions. I understand that there have been lively discussions about what core values are, what a vision is, whether a vision really has an effect or impact on our day-to-day operations, but also a desire to more clearly profile our university within the area of sustainability, for example. I look forward with great interest to a progress report. In May, we received a request to sign a new climate framework for Sweden’s universities and colleges – an initiative from Chalmers and the Royal Institute
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
of Technology. My off-the-cuff assessment is that it has been well thought-out and has clear links to our intentions at the University of Gothenburg concerning our environmental management system. The framework highlights important areas for climate adaptation, proposals for measures and examples of follow-up measurements. Some clear areas that have been highlighted are of course business trips, commuting, food and catering, energy use, waste, investments and purchasing/procurement. But the framework is indeed merely a framework and the actual work lies in putting our own house in order, formulating sensible goals and securing support. Therefore, I have tasked the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV) to make a recommendation regarding signing the framework or not, as well as suggesting measures for our university. IN SUMMER, the start of the University of Gothenburg’s new leadership programme for deans and pro deans (GULD) was also launched. Over the course of the coming year, a total of five modules with different topics will be offered. The first module was about the conditions for directing academic endeavours and managing the complexity that is part of that mandate. The expectations and demands on our leaders within academia are high. The aim of the management programme is to strengthen
the prerequisites and opportunities for not only managing their mandate but also for contributing to job satisfaction. It was invaluable for me to be involved at the first meeting together with the University of Gothenburg’s Chair of the Board, Cecilia Schelin Seidegård. I am hoping that it will serve as an inspiring network, and a resource where we can make use of one another’s expertise and look at the entire university’s mission and goal. Perhaps even obtain a leading position? NOW THE SUMMER holidays are swiftly approaching, but first myself and the Pro-Vice Chancellor will be going to Almedalen, where the University of Gothenburg is presenting a solid seminar programme. Despite the feeling that 2019 is an “intermediate year” with slightly fewer activities, we have both booked a number of interesting meetings and seminars. As usual, many of our researchers are already booked up. Please follow the seminars – you will find more information at: gu.se/almedalen. Finally, I would like to wish you a wonderful, relaxing and much needed summer vacation! Enjoy the summer!
EVA WIBERG
MASTHEAD IN LUND, over the course of a few
chilly days in spring, around twenty editors from the country’s universities met for a conference on editorship in a new era. Seven years had passed since the Network for Cooperating Editors had last met. Now, the network was rekindled in the Botanical Garden at Lund University. What has happened during that time? Plenty of things of course, such as the closure of several papers, mainly at smaller universities, the news is more about content marketing, and modern
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editors measure reach and distribution on social media. It is striking how much we have in common, but also that there are some differences. The GU Journal is currently the only university magazine with editorial independence. The story of how LUM lost their editorship is unparalleled. They wrote about a unique rescue operation for a doctoral student that was being held captive by ISIS in Syria, news that spread across the world like wildfire. From a journalistic perspective, it is of course an incredibly gripping
story where a professor from Lund University worked tirelessly to bring their doctorate student home. The publication of the story came as a surprise to management, which subsequently decided to move the editorship from LUM to the communication’s manager. FOR VARIOUS REASONS, the matter
of responsible editorship is sensitive at Swedish universities, while in neighbouring Norway, the independence of such magazines is taken for granted.
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New professors are welcomed.
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
CONTENTS NEWS 04–09
04. Green light for new International Council. 05. Core values at heart of new vision. 06. New pedagogy with ALC room. 08. Investment in Global South.
PROFILE 10–15
10. Who is accountable when robots wage war?
FOCUS 14–21
14. The GU Journal visits CERN, the world’s largest particle accelerator. 17. Annie is investigating astatine. 18. Students of physics are giving their vieuw.
PEOPLE 22–31
22. Ambiguous metaphors. 24. SAR researcher takes one day at a time. 26. The heritage of tyrannies. 28. New university professors celebrated.
MOMENT 32
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NEWS
An international task-force THE VICE CHANCELLOR will chair
the internationalization council, which will comprise the deputy vice chancellor, deans or pro deans and student representatives. Ever since she took office in July 2017, she has wanted to create a council for matters concerning internationalization. – It has taken time to find the right configuration. We need to develop university-wide strategies when it comes to international collaboration, networks and investments. Plenty of good initiatives are already happening, but what is needed is increased coordination, and the council can support me in strategic decisions concerning internationalization, Eva Wiberg says.
HANS ABELIUS, head of the International centre, explains the rationale behind the council in the documentation. He believes that for some considerable time there has been no specific forum where more overarching matters concerning internationalization can be aired. – In line with the University of Gothenburg’s decentralized organisation, with eight independent faculties, it has been difficult to find consensus and there is a need for more coordination in this area. We can utilize the strength of being a unified institution, he says. The idea is that the council
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should handle internationalization from the perspective of education, research and collaboration. – Everything is connected. It is about seeing internationalization from an integrated perspective. In some situations it is smart to do things together. The council will discuss strategic issues and not get involved with minor matters. However, the council has no formal power, and is merely advisory. Hans Abelius believes this is an advantage. – Those who sit on the council have a mandate to speak for their faculty and the council can come up with input and proposals for the vice chancellor, the Education and Research Boards and the Department Management Council. It is important that the council is adapted to the formal executive process.
we must not forget our local region. – Most of our internationalization relates to Europe. How can we increase collaboration? How should we handle the Brexit issue? In 2021, we will get a new Erasmus Programme and a new research programme with a European focus. What will that mean for us? One question raised by the vice chancellor is how sustainability will be taken into account in our work on internationalization. – Will increased internationalization necessarily mean more air travel? And do we need to travel to every conference when good virtual capabilities currently exist? There is also internationalization at home. We must try to work with the issues in a smarter way. When we market the University of Gothenburg as a sustainable university with high ambitions, we must be able to demonstrate specific measures and that we have a policy that permeates the entire organisation.
EXAMPLES OF matters that may be
The new internationalization council includes the following members: Vice Chancellor; Pro Vice Chancellor; Ann Wennerberg, Sahlgrenska Academy; Sylva Frisk, the Faculty of Social Sciences; Per Cramér from the School of Business, Economics and Law; Åke Ingerman, the Faculty of Education; Göran Larsson, the Faculty of Arts; Sanne Kofod Olsen, the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts; Miroslav Staron, the IT Faculty as well as GUS. The plan is that the council will convene three times per semester.
Photo: JOHN MOLANDER.
Coordination and strategies are high on the agenda, but also questions about how internationalization can be made more sustainable. Now everything is in place for a new forum for international matters.
Hans Abelius is head of International Centre.
discussed in the council include major joint ventures, such as collaborative projects in Japan, South Africa and Chile, where the University of Gothenburg already collaborates with other Swedish higher education institutions. Another matter concerns which regions the University of Gothenburg should primarily focus on. But Hans Abelius points out that
ALLAN ERIKSSON
Facts
A sustainable vision What are the university’s core values and what is our role in society? This is the starting point for the work on the new vision that will build on sustainability and global goals. ALTHOUGH THE CURRENT vision will continue until the end of December 2020, work is now beginning in earnest to develop a new one. But instead of involving about 1,000 people, as was the case last time, management decided to invite people to four open vision seminars, which were held in SUMMER, to discuss and comment on the issue. The Vice Chancellor, Eva Wiberg, has given Fredrika Lagergren, who is responsible for third-stream activities, the task of pursuing the work. – The idea is that the new vision should be based on the current one. I think that the current vision has worked well and it has also received considerable praise, but the world has changed since 2012–2013. When the previous vision was drafted, universities were not threatened in the way they are today, with resistance to facts and fake news. Another challenge is increasing globalization and digitalization, Fredrika Lagergren says.
phones have revolutionized our world. Globalization has also increased and climate awareness is clearly much greater. The discussion today is quite different from 2012, when there was a lot of talk about finding a balance
– OUR CORE VALUES should be rooted in the entire university and be part of our fundamental ethos. It involves the university’s independence and openness, as well as global social issues. They are values that are worth preserving and fighting for. They are, in some sense, both eternal and universal, local and global. What can we do, that no one else can do? A university education is more than just getting a degree, we need people who are academically educated who can handle this changing world. According to Fredrika Lagergren, there are values that are central to the university, such as free knowledge creation, the ability to think critically and knowledge based on scientific evidence. EVA WIBERG emphasizes the
importance of turning the vision into strategies and it not just being reduced to words on a page. – The new vision will build on the one we already have, but at the same time it will guide us even more clearly when it comes to our core values and in which direction we are headed, including in terms of sustainabi-
lity and global goals, she says. Based on this work, comprehensive and long-term strategies must be developed at the faculty and departmental levels. Clearly, the vision will not be divided into separate tracks for education, research and health and safety. – That is not how we are organized. Collaboration is part of the comprehensive environment, in the same way as having a good work environment, Fredrika Lagergren says. The plan is for the university board to decide on the new vision next summer. The new vision will come into force from January 1, 2021. But for how long, is an open question, thus far. – Regardless, we need to work on planning and follow-up. It would be reasonable to review our strategies every four years, as was proposed in the Governance and Resource Investigation. But it would certainly be interesting to have a vision that continued until 2030, which would coincide with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ALLAN ERIKSSON
Facts A seminar will also be held in English in the autumn. Find out more at: https://medarbetarportalen.gu.se/organisation/Visionsarbete/ You can also read the interview with Eva Wiberg in GU Journal no. 4–2018.
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
– THINK ABOUT how smart
between public management and academic freedom. The work on the new vision will be governed by three questions: What is our purpose? In what direction are we heading? How do we go about it? The first step is to formulate the university’s basic core values.
Deputy Vice Chancellor Fredrika Lagergren believes that there is considerable consensus about the need to develop a new vision. – We need to be better at informing people about the university’s role in society.
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NEWS
Inspired by ALC-pedagogy There are round tables in the room surrounded by large display screens, and the teacher stands in the middle. Entering the room for the first time can be a nerve-racking experience, both for the teacher and the student. Now there is a network at the University of Gothenburg that intends to remedy this. ON THIS SUNNY FRIDAY afternoon in May, when the GU Journal comes to visit, the network is holding its last meeting for the semester at Campus Linné, Studietorget. It is also here, in what was previously a library, that the largest ALC room is located – with room for 102 students seated around 14 round tables – three of which are located one floor down for students with special needs. The ceiling is impressively high. At each table, there is a microphone, a whiteboard and a large display screen. Above the screen is a lamp that acts like a sound shower. The teacher stands in the middle of the room and controls the technology through an intuitive control panel. – No food or drink is allowed in here, says Christel Backman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology. THAT’S NOT SO strange. The floor is covered by a sound-absorbing grey carpet, which hides all the cables. Interest in lecturing in an ALC room is increasing steadily, says Svante Karlson, IT support technician at the PIL unit. – This room is almost fully booked this autumn. Although there are only a dozen rooms today, there will surely be more, and there are plans for that in the new buildings to be constructed at Humanisten, the School of Business, Economics and
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Law and the Faculty of Science. But it does not have to be as high-tech as it is here, but the most important thing is the furniture and that each table has a whiteboard. But lecturing in an ALC room does not suit everyone and most people may need a little encouragement in the beginning, Svante Karlsson says. – AN ALC ROOM is both invigorating and disconcerting. You have to be allowed to try and fail, that’s how you develop. It’s about trying it out and sharing your experience. We have formed this network to support one another and provide inspiration, as well as to give one another advice on literature and conferences. Christel Backman agrees with that sentiment. From the very first moment she felt blessed. – As a lecturer you are used to lecturing, but here I cannot talk for more than 10–15 minutes, and then I have to activate the students. It has made me a better lecturer. – In my courses, the students often work on applying theories to different cases. As a lecturer, I can see where they get stuck or where misunderstandings arise. This means that I can adapt the lecturing to the students in a way that is more difficult to achieve in an ordinary lecture hall. It’s also noticeable to
Facts The first ALC room, which is located at Pedagogen, was completed in January 2016. There are currently 10 ALC rooms in a variety of sizes and with different equipment. So far, the network for active learning and the ALC has about 80 members. Around the University of Gothenburg, there are currently 10 lecture theatres that are designed according to the ALC (Active Learning Classroom) concept. Anyone who wants to join the network can register for the network’s mailing list by emailing Olof. Siverbo@gu.se.Olof. Siverbo@gu.se. The first university to adopt the concept in Sweden was Umeå University, but the idea originally comes from Australia and the United States, where they have invested heavily in ALC and active learning, with rooms that promote activity and engagement.
the students, who think it’s great to be here. The network for active learning and the ALC concept were initiated in April 2017. One of the initiators is Veronica Alfredsson, lecturer and librarian at the Biomedical Library. She was also the project manager for the first ALC room at the University Library. – It all started with a conference in Minnesota in 2014. It was an aha moment for me. Since then, I’ve only lectured in ALC rooms and I can’t imagine going back. But it’s a major change. After all, we have all gone to school and sat in an ordinary lecture hall, so breaking that habit is the biggest challenge. In order for it to work, you need to use a different educational approach. IN 2017, VERONICA Alfredsson did
a study on lecturers’ and students’ experiences of the so-called ALC teaching method. Unsurprisingly, it showed that everyone found it to be positive. But the fact was that the room had a relaxing effect on the students, while at the same time requiring a greater level of engagement compared to a normal lecture hall. – As soon as the students enter, they know that something is expected of them and that is a challenge. You can’t just sit back and listen. Not all students like to work in groups and discuss and reflect, but they have to do so in order for the work to progress. The students get better at communicating and problem solving. In the study, the lecturers stated that the increased activity not only applied to the students, but also to themselves.
– As a lecturer you are used to basing your lectures around certain content, but here you have to focus on what skills and insights the students should take with them from the lecture. It involves taking a step back. I have to be more actively involved as an educator and I think lecturing has become more enjoyable and fun, as many people have testified to. THE NETWORK MEETS a couple of
At the last networking meeting in the spring, the p articipants got a quick course in filming with a mobile phone. Veronica Alfredsson thinks that blended learning and the f lipped classroom are particularly well suited for an ALC room.
times per semester in each ALC room. – It’s fun. People are interested and engaged. My hope is that it will be a forum that raises educational and didactic issues within the University of Gothenburg. Everyone who is interested in active learning is welcome. But are there any downsides? – The classic mistake is if the lecturer has not designed tasks that are suited to this type of room. Moreover, if the students are poorly
Sara Uhnoo, Christel Backman and Svante Eriksson new possibilities with the ALC room.
prepared for the lecture, it will not work as well. We make sure to explain carefully why the students sit around tables and what we expect from them. Another risk is that students sit beside people they know too well, then they can get too comfortable. BUT DESPITE the fact that Veronica Alfredsson sees great advantages with ALC-based education, she believes that the best approach involves a combination of things. – Sometimes a normal lecture works well, sometimes labs and other group exercises work well. But it is clear that the need for ALC rooms will increase, and that will require more people learning how to use them, so that we can all improve. Text and photo: ALLAN ERIKSSON SUMMER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
Streets in Addis Ababa.
Global south network 8 GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2019
NEWS Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
The University of Gothenburg in collaboration with Chalmers is investing in a joint platform centred on the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South. A draft decision has already been drawn up, and the intention is to have the new organisation in place by the end of the year.
THE GLOBAL SOUTH, i.e. developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, is part of several joint projects at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers, says Anders Ekbom, Acting Director at GMV, where the new platform will be located. – However, anyone looking online for how the University of Gothenburg or Chalmers are involved in these regions will not find much information about it. The reason is that the partnerships are distributed across different departments and centres, or that there are individual researchers working together. This is a problem for external stakeholders who come looking for a suitable partner, but also for us; an environmental scientist who is running a project in Rwanda for example, could be able to develop new fields of research by collaborating with, say, a physician in the same area, but they would have to be aware of the existence of that physician. And collaboration is vital; the researchers are experts on the actual issues, but the solution frequently requires knowledge from several fields. RESEARCH AND EDUCATION at the two universities have traditionally had a strong bias towards the Global North, Anders Ekbom points out. – And that’s perhaps is not so unusual. But imagine if we had been more actively involved 30 years ago in China, India or Brazil, for example, think of what we would have accomplished by now? Many researchers have presented their views of what a partnership on the Global South should involve. – Besides finding out who works in which region and in which field, there is also a desire to raise awareness about these projects among public agencies, government departments and financiers in Stockholm. Many people would also like to involve Region Västra Götaland and the smaller, local higher education institutions, all of which of course have international connections in these major regions. The students are also committed and would like to have more courses. Last year, Chalmers conducted
an inventory of the current research on sustainability in the Global South, Anders Ekbom tells us. – They produced excellent information, including which researchers are studying energy issues in Africa or transportation in Asia. Another example that we will be looking at is SLU’s (the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) involvement in the Global South, which we might learn from. Several countries in the Global South are dictatorships or involved in protracted conflicts. How do you partner with them? – THE SCHOOL OF GLOBAL Studies
has several projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo about how violent conflict impacts women, and I myself have worked in Ethiopia. But obviously, you have to be aware of the difficulties, and that the regime may use your research for their own ends. The new joint platform will be inaugurated on January 1, 2020. The date has been chosen to coincide with the phasing-out of Mistra Urban Future, which will cease operations, Anders Ekbom explains. – This will enable us to make good use of both people and research funds from the Gothenburg platform. But we will not have time to survey all the partnerships and stakeholders in six months, that is something that will take time.
EVA LUNDGREN
Facts The University of Gothenburg and Chalmers have decided to create a joint platform for partnerships centred on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South. The platform will form part of GMV, the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development. The decision will be formalised by the two universities on SUMMER 24–26. The new organisation is scheduled to be up and running on January 1, 2020. The idea is to make use of the Gothenburg part of Mistra Urban Futures, which will cease operations at the end of the year.
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PROFILE
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Machines at war It was in the winter of 2012, when Gregor Noll had been admitted to Lund University Hospital, that a miracle occurred. In the bed next to him was an elderly patient who suffered from Parkinson’s disease. One day he was taken to the operating theatre to have two electrodes implanted in his brain, which were connected to a pulse generator in his chest. – When he came back, I could hardly believe my eyes: suddenly he could walk again like a young man. It was the first time I realized the potential of neurotechnology – but I soon also became aware of the dangers. GREGOR NOLL had undergone three successful opera-
tions on his brain in a short period of time and therefore had a very positive view of medical progress. The dramatic change in the condition of the Parkinson’s patient made him even more hopeful, even though the fact that the improvement couldn’t really be explained by the doctors set him thinking. By lunch time he had become even more doubtful. – It turned out that my neighbour with Parkinson’s nearly lost the ability to speak. Eventually, he learned to shut down the device every time he wanted to speak, as the signals that were slowing down the shaking were also inhibiting his speech. After returning home, Gregor Noll came across an article in The Guardian about AI, neurotechnology and warfare. – However, it was not about implanting technology in the brains of soldiers, but about experiments using head caps equipped with different kinds of electrodes. By combining the human ability to perceive threats in a complex situation with a computer’s speed when it comes to calculations, an almost perfect war machine could be constructed. The technology is called BMI – brain-machine interfaces.
ONE EXAMPLE WAS a tank equipped with cameras on all sides that continuously takes pictures of the area the soldiers are patrolling, Gregor Noll explains.
– We have all probably experienced how humans react instantly to threats, for example, seeing a snake in the forest; you do not stand there and think, but immediately take a few steps back. The soldier wearing the head cap unconsciously does the same thing, without thinking, when images from the cameras flash in front of his eyes. If a soldier is confronted with a threatening image that does not actually depict a combatant carrying a weapon, but rather an old woman with a brush, the soldier does not really have time to think about it. Two international laws regulate how war may be conducted: the principle of distinction, i.e., that the combatants must attack military targets and not civilian ones, and the principle of proportionality, which means that the suffering caused by the combatants must be reasonable in relation to military gains. – But when humans and machines are integrated into a single unit, it is difficult to know who is responsible, Gregor Noll points out. How culpable is the soldier wearing the head cap if civilians are killed? How culpable is his commanding officer, the computer manufacturer and the programmer? The technology brings great philosophical issues to the fore once again, such as the relationship between man and machine and the relationship between body and soul. Does an entire human being consist of a single unit or is the soldier’s consciousness one thing while his/her hand pressing the button is associated with the machine? War is governed not only by laws but also by a particular kind of logic: it is important to be the first and the best when it comes to new weapons, so as not to be put at a disadvantage in relation to the enemy, Gregor Noll points out. – Development of neuroweapons is going on right now, and should therefore involve everyone who is in any way interested in warfare and human rights. However, when I was looking for literature on the subject I was surprised by the fact that there is a lot of information about neurotechnology, but practically nothing about how it can be used by the military. The reason for the lack of material could quite simply be that it is very difficult to find out about anything that SUMMER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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PROFILE
concerns the military. But Gregor Noll argues that technological development on the other hand is quite open. – ONCE THE MILITARY have decided to develop a particular weapon system, secrecy is paramount. But before that, you could read about the development of weapons technology in regular scientific journals and even in the New York Times, for example. This technology is also discussed by researchers at conferences who do not seem at all concerned about what the consequences of a military application might be. Five years ago, Gregor Noll started a research project on neurowarfare together with two colleagues from somewhat unexpected disciplines: Max Liljefors, who is an art historian, and Daniel Steuer, who is a biologist and philosopher. The project is completely unfunded and is being carried out alongside other research and lecturing.
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– The fact that we have such disparate backgrounds is an advantage because it makes us discuss issues and find associations in unexpected ways. For example, the Parkinson’s patient, who learned to walk but lost the ability to speak, reminded us of the old legend of the Golem. The legend is about how the Jewish community in 17th century Prague created a monster to protect them from persecution, which of course they lost control of, leading to a great deal of misery. But an important aspect of the Golem is that he does not have the ability to speak. The legend provides an eloquent example of what happens when we rely too heavily on our own impressive inventions and lose the human dimension, which is based on reason and dialogue. In November, we will release a book where we explore those kinds of ideas: War and Algorithm. Limits of Understanding, Law and Vision.
Gregor Noll Current role: Newly inaugurated professor in International Law In the autumn he will publish the book War and Algorithm together with Max Liljefors and Daniel Steuer. Limits of Understanding, Law and Vision Lives: In a house in the forest in Knäred outside Laholm. Family: Wife and 11-yearold daughter.
Photo: PRIVATE
IN RECENT YEARS, modern warfare has taken up an in-
creasing amount of Gregor Noll’s time. But his original area of research is migration and migration control. That interest is linked to his mother’s experience as a refugee after the war when she fled from the Soviet-occupied part of Germany to the Western zone. – But in Germany, on the whole, they have a special relationship with war, and to matters relating to accountability, for example, in relation to who did what during the Nazi era. As an 18-year-old idealist, I got an exemption from military service, and went to Norway to work with alternative agriculture. There I met my future wife and after some career detours, including working in a sawmill in Halland, I finally ended up as a law student in Lund. Now my wife, our daughter and I live in Knäred outside Laholm, where my wife owns a small bit of forest. Modern technology has saved Gregor Noll’s life on a
Has most recently read: Herbert Kapferer: 1919. Fiktion (2019) Has most recently watched: Weit. Ein Weg um die Welt (2017) Favourite food: Lamb stew (of course from Swedish lambs, someone has to keep the forest in check!) Other interests: To hear what wise people have to say
number of occasions since he had brain surgery. – A couple of years ago I had a medical and then left for a conference. After I arrived at the conference my doctor called and said that I had to return to the hospital the very next day. Naturally, I thought I didn’t have time, I had a lot to do at the conference, but finally I did what my doctor had asked. At the hospital I met a surgeon who told me that there was a problem with my aorta and I had to undergo surgery immediately, otherwise there was a risk it might rupture. So once again, I have been helped by incredible technology in the form of an artificial aorta, without which I would not be alive today. In our secular society, however, there is a tendency to project almost divine abilities onto new AI technology, Gregor Noll says. – We seem to believe that we do not have a choice, and that its development cannot be controlled. But it is actually us humans who have the responsibility to make decisions, even though we do not really understand all the consequences of our actions. We can choose to refrain from creating an unstoppable Golem that does not possess the ability to reason. Instead, we can ensure that the phenomenal technology we develop is used in a responsible manner, such as to save lives and for the good of all mankind. Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG SUMMER 2019 GUJOURNAL
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GU Journal visiting
Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, is where the most fundamental phenomena in the universe are studied, where antimatter is created and where the Higgs particle was discovered. It is also where the Department of Physics conducts a field trip every year.
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Fredrik Wenander holds a lecture for Dag Hanstorp and Rouwaida Yassin.
Annie Ringvall Moberg is a PhD student at Isolde.
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FOCUS prepared and work effectively while you are there. In November last year, we succeeded with the measurement we had been struggling with for so many years, so it was a major breakthrough. In this project, thirty researchers from several universities participate. Five of the researchers are from the University of Gothenburg. Their work is devoted to an element called astatine. It is estimated that there are only about 70 milligrams of the element in the part of the earth’s crust that can be mined, and the reason it is so rare is that it has a half-life of just one second. Obviously, this makes it difficult to study. – THAT IS WHY we create new elements at ISOLDE
CERN IS JUST OUTSIDE Geneva and is like a small community, full of laboratories, a noisy canteen, coffee machines, ATMs and a souvenir shop for the many visitors from all over the world. Research is carried out here within the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics, biology and nuclear medicine. Each year, the Department of Physics invites students who are in their third year of the physics programme or who are undertaking teacher training specializing in physics on a trip to CERN. Three upper-secondary school teachers are also invited. This year’s visit took place on 15–18 May and the hosts were Professor Dag Hanstorp and PhD student Annie Ringvall Moberg. They both work on a project at ISOLDE, a facility for the production of radioactive isotopes. – At ISOLDE, elements that do not occur naturally, but which can have interesting properties, are produced, says Dag Hanstorp. You can apply for research time, and you can also order which beam you want to investigate, and then you have three days to carry out your tests. In the five years my group’s project has been underway, we have been allocated research time on three occasions, so it is really important to be well
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where it is possible to investigate them. We bombard uranium with extremely high-energy protons, which results in nuclear reactions where all existing elements are formed, one after another, including astatine. The resulting astatine isotope that we obtain has a half-life of about seven hours. What we succeeded in doing in November was to measure the isotope’s electron affinity, which provides fundamental information about its chemical and physical properties, which were previously unknown. The fact that Dag Hanstorp’s research team was successful in their experiments was a relief for several reasons. For example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) closed just a week later for maintenance, for the replacement of magnets and other updates, which will go on for approximately two years.
THAT STUDENTS GET to visit CERN, look at the various
facilities and meet the researchers, Dag Hanstorp believes is important, not least to motivate them to pursue post-graduate studies. – We were also accompanied by three physics teachers from the University of Gothenburg’s catchment area. It is about inspiring people and increasing the knowledge of everything that is interesting in the vast field of physics, and teachers of course play a crucial role in this.
– I was at CERN for the first time on a field trip in the spring of 2015, and then as a summer student for eight weeks. One year later, when I was able to start my PhD project here, it was a dream come true. Annie Ringvall Moberg, who works at ISOLDE – a kind of isotope factory for material that cannot be studied in nature, tells us. IT INVOLVES HEAVY, radioactive material that quickly decays in nature and therefore cannot be studied, says Annie Ringvall Moberg. – Primarily, we are interested in astatine, the world’s rarest element, which has a half-life of one second. The isotope we produce here has a half-life of 7 hours. Annie Ringvall Moberg is studying experimental physics. It involves a lot of practical work but also a lot of theory. – I REALLY APPRECIATE this mix and that I get to work with people from very different backgrounds. I have also been involved in building a test and development lab for ISOLDE. This means that I have learned about the hardware and what you can do with it, which naturally I found very beneficial. Although Annie Ringvall Moberg’s study of astatine is pure basic research, there is also a very practical
application. This involves a particular type of cancer therapy, targeted alpha therapy, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital is one of the world leaders. – The trials involve injecting astatine that is linked to an antibody, which then seeks out and attacks the cancer cells. The astatine then decays by sending out so-called alpha particles that have a range the distance of a single cell. You could compare it to a target-seeking missile, which destroys the cancer cells, but does not harm the surrounding healthy tissue. The fundamental knowledge we have now obtained about the properties of astatine will hopefully be used to make the treatment method more efficient. ANNIE RINGVALL MOBERG together with Dag Hanstorp were the hosts of the field trip to CERN. She held lectures, showed people around the area and told them about her work. – I think it is very useful to explain your research to others. When I was an undergraduate myself, I thought it was exciting to meet doctoral students, who you can talk to in a more relaxed way. But it is also interesting for me personally, to meet dedicated students. They ask a lot of questions, sometimes about things I haven’t thought about myself, which of course means that I have to reconsider my approach.
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What was the high point of your visit to CERN? I think perhaps it was the CMS, the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the detectors at the LHC accelerator. Wearing hairnets and hard hats, guided by postdoc Leonora Vesterbacka, the visitors from the University of Gothenburg took the elevator 100 metres underground to look at one of the particle detectors that are hunting for more information about the elusive Higgs particle and theories beyond the Standard Model. THE VISIT TO CERN involves a packed programme of
lectures and tours every day. – It was really tough, but I’m glad they packed in as much as possible. In addition to the CMS, we visited Atlas, the world’s largest detector, in terms of volume, ever constructed for a particle accelerator. I think the whole field trip was very well planned, not least meeting Annie, who told us what it is like working here as a doctoral student. I’m also fascinated by the fact that all the collaborations seem to work very well, explains
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physics student Adnan Jordamovic. He thinks he will continue his studies to Master’s level eventually. Another student, Anton Krouthén, was also satisfied with the trip. – I WOULD NEVER have been able to obtain this in-
depth knowledge if I had visited CERN as an ordinary tourist. The programme also connected well with what we have studied. I appreciate the trip being so intense; they have given me so much more than I expected. Rouwaida Yassin, subject coordinator in physics at Hässleholm’s technical school, points out that there is not much information about nuclear and atomic physics in the upper-secondary school curricula. – I have organized various field trips myself and therefore have great appreciation for all the work that has gone into this field trip. What fascinates me most is realising everything human beings are capable of. Imagine being here, where so many researchers spend years working on and committing to major or minor experiments. There are no words to describe that feeling, it can only be experienced right here at CERN.
Dag Hanstorp discussing with Anton KrouthĂŠn and Adnan Jordamovic.
Facts Fundamental physics is perhaps what most people associate with CERN. The matter we know of, that is everything from human cells to galaxies, make up only about 5 percent of the universe; the rest consists of dark matter (23 percent) and dark energy (72 percent). The model that describes the smallest particles in the universe and three of the fundamental forces, is called the standard model. The model includes however, not the force of gravity. Scientists hope that, with continued experiments at the LHC, they will be able to confirm theories beyond the standard model, theories which include the gravitational force as well as new findings of particles. In addition, researchers also hope the LHC experiments will provide direct clues to what dark matter and dark energy actually is. Much of the world’s progress within particle physics is made at CERN. For example, in June 2012 researchers announced that they had found the Higgs boson that describes why some particles have mass. At CERN, researchers have also succeeded in producing antimatter.
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Dag Hanstorp has been able to use Isolde at CERN three times during five years.
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Facts CERN CERN is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, located near Geneva. The facility was founded in 1954 by 12 countries, including Sweden. Today, the laboratory has 23 member countries. CERN has 2,500 employees and 6,500 guest researchers from 500 universities all over the world. CERN is perhaps best known for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator. It consists of a 27-kilometre circular tunnel where particles travelling in opposite directions collide with one another. The main magnets in the tunnel operate at a temperature of –271.3 degrees Celsius, which is colder than out in the universe and as close as you can get to absolute zero, –273.15 degrees Celsius. It was also at CERN that Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web, where the first website was created on December 20, 1990.
GU Journal has made a film about CERN
Watch the film:
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A tough nut to crack
Very often, metaphors are so easy to grasp that we rarely think about it. But how do you create software that is able to detect when a collection of words are being used metaphorically, as well as determine whether the imagery is apt? Yuri Bizzoni is the first researcher to get a PhD in computer linguistics at CLASP, the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability, and his thesis is about this very subject. WHY SHOULD YOU really concern yourself with me-
taphors? Because we use them frequently in everyday speech, for example, sometimes without even thinking about it, Yuri Bizzoni explains. – Linguists have been interested in metaphor for a very long time, for various reasons. It is not only about understanding how they work, but also about stylistics or about determining the authorship of a certain text, or perhaps issues related to translating them. Not to mention the fact that metaphors are fascinating in and of themselves.
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– You might wonder why people prefer to say that “She was a wailing banshee” instead of “She was screaming terribly”. A metaphor risks being misunderstood in a way that a more factual description rarely does. And yet we use metaphor all the time, such as when we wish to provide a more descriptive or emotional portrayal of an event. Innovative metaphors, such as in poetry, can be subtle and difficult to translate, while routine imagery often feels trite, and void of content. In any case, metaphor is an aspect of language that goes beyond the need to convey information, which makes it interesting, but also difficult to study. In his thesis, Yuri Bizzoni describes six different experiments, firstly to teach computers to identify metaphors, and then to ascertain how well they work. – As a computer linguist, you are used to working with large amounts of text, but when it comes to metaphor, unfortunately databases offer pretty meagre pickings. For that reason, to investigate how successful metaphors are constructed, I created my own data set comprising 250 sets, each of which contained one metaphor as well as four suggested paraphrases. Around twenty respondents were asked to rate
Computers may become our new poets. But I’m not hoping that will happen, creativity is not something that we want machines to take away from us, after all.
– Computers may become our new poets. But I’m not hoping that will happen, creativity is not something that we want machines to take away from us, after all. When the GU Journal met Yuri Bizzoni he is temporarily in Sweden to participate in the 13th International Conference on Computational Semantics, which was held on May 23–27. He is currently on a post-doctoral appointment at Universität des Saarlandes in western Germany. His research is connected to what he studied for his Master’s degree, when he studied French and Italian translations of the Odyssey. – WHAT I WILL BE doing now is diachronic language research, meaning how languages evolve over time. I will be studying scientific articles from 1660–1996 from the Royal Society in London. This means that I will be tracking the emergence of a scientific language which, in order to avoid misunderstandings, must be quick and effective, as well as containing as little irrelevant white noise as possible. Do you have a favourite metaphor? – I like Homer’s “wine-dark sea”, which is curious and suggestive at the same time. The sea is not wine-dark of course, and yet, the metaphor conveys a compelling sense of doom. Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
how well the various paraphrases worked. A successful example of a paraphrase of “The crowd was a roaring river” would be “The crowd was large and noisy”, while “He is smiling in a charming manner” was not perceived to be an acceptable interpretation of “He is grinning like a monkey”. YURI BIZZONI ALSO investigated whether a broader
context makes metaphor easier or more difficult to understand. What happens if you add two sentences to the original sentence above, such as: “Look at him. He is grinning like a monkey. He really feels self-confident.” – The result was quite surprising. The fact that a poorly constructed metaphor is easier to understand in a broader context, may not be all that strange. But more surprising was the fact that metaphors that were previously rated highly, were perceived as being less obvious when the context was broadened. It seems as if more information creates some type of uncertainty, white noise in the communication. If computers improve their ability to identify metaphor, they may eventually also learn to create new figurative expressions.
Facts On February 21, Yuri Bizzoni defended his thesis Detection and Aptness: A study in metaphor detection and aptness assessment through n eural networks and distributional semantic spaces. It is the first doctoral thesis of data linguistics at CLASP, the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability, which is linked to the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science at GU. Director is Shalom Lappin, Professor of Computer Linguistics, and 2015–2015, the Center is funded by the Swedish Research Council.
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Researcher without tomorrow – For an oppressed researcher there is no tomorrow. All you have is the here and now, and it is important to make as much of it as possible. This is what the researcher Leila Papoli-Yazdi believes, who is one of the University of Gothenburg’s new Scholars at Risk. THAT LEILA PAPOLI YAZDI devoted herself to archaeo-
logy is partly due to the fact that her father was a geographer at the Sorbonne in Paris when she was growing up. But above all, her field of research, contemporary archaeology, is constantly topical, especially when she investigates places where conflicts or disasters have taken place. She often works with her husband, Omran Garazhian, who is also an archaeologist. – Over the past hundred years, four generations of Iranians have been forced to fight for their freedom against the Russians, the British, the Americans, the oil industry and various domestic leaders. Iranian history is not as simple as our rulers would have us believe, but full of complications and strange fates. Among other things, Leila Papoli Yazdi is doing on Jahangir Khan, a rebellious journalist who was executed in 1908 during the constitutional movement in Iran, which was followed by a Russian invasion.
ANOTHER NOTICEABLE person in Iran’s history is Khazal Khan, who in the early 20th century was Sheikh of the Khuzestan province. In 2008, Leila Papoli Yazdi was in Kuwait to investigate the now demolished buildings he had had built there. – Khazal Khan became wealthy through his collaboration with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, now called BP, and it is told that in 1924 he instigated a revolt against Iran’s leader Reza Shah. It failed and in 1936 he was murdered. Among some Arabs, he is seen as a hero whereas in Iran he is considered to be a British spy. There is probably some truth in it; during my excavation of his house in Kuwait, I couldn’t help but notice that it was situated close to what was at the time the British embassy.
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Leila Papoli Yazdi and her colleagues have also researched the Neshat Garden outside the town of Firoozeh in north-eastern Iran and investigated the well-known artist Kamal al Molk’s house in the same area. – In the Neshat Garden, we found, among other things, weapons and ammunition, which made us suspect that the place was not just an idyll, but also played a hitherto unknown role in political resistance. In 2003, Leila Papoli Yazdi was in Bam, a few months after the devastating earthquake when about 40,000 people died and the 2000-year-old city centre was destroyed. New and old burial sites were investigated in the city. IN IRAN, WHERE ALL history is considered to be politi-
cal, research on the last one hundred years is obviously particularly sensitive. Although in 2010, Leila Papoli Yazdi was completely unprepared when she and her husband were forced to leave their jobs as lecturers and researchers at Bu Ali Sina University in Hamadan. – Suddenly we were told that we were being transferred to the College of Neyshabur, a small town in north-eastern Iran. We were given no explanation as to why we had to move. Shortly after this, I was suspended from lecturing and denied the opportunity to conduct research, again without been told why. Not being allowed to work was a hard blow for me. Therefore, she gladly accepted when Professor Susan Pollock of Freie Universität Berlin offered her a three-year guest professorship in 2012, supported by the Humboldt Stiftung. Over the years, she has researched such things as the female body in political propaganda, from the Sasanian Empire in Persia in 200 AD to the present day. – Everyone always asks me about the oppression of women and the black veils they are forced to wear, but the tyranny in Iran is about so much more. The country’s many minorities are oppressed, including the Azeri, the Kurds, the Turmens, the Baluchis and the Arabs, while the economy has deteriorated to the point where there is a risk of famine.
Leila Papoli
Yazdi
Cu rr en t ro le : Archaeolog Scholars-at-R ist and isk research er at the Depa rtment for Historical Studies. Fa m ily : Husb and Omran Ga razhian and their 14-year-old so n. O ri gi na lly fr om : Iran. In te re st s: W riting stories and novels; one novel ha s been publis he d in Iran. Also loves m etal music.
In 2015, Leila Papoli Yazdi returned to Iran, but she was still not allowed to work. – A friend told me about SAR, Scholars at Risk, and of course I became interested. The reason I wanted to come to the University of Gothenburg is because so much interesting archaeological research is conducted here. I have been here since March and have held several lectures for the students. And in the Museum of World Culture’s collections, I have found new interesting objects to research, including a dentist from Gothenburg, Bertrand Hybennet, who went to Iran to collect weapons and antiquities. IN THE SUMMER, her husband and 14-year-old son will be coming to Gothenburg. But what will happen when her year as a SAR researcher is over, Leila Papoli Yazdi does not dare think about it. – As an oppressed researcher you don’t sit and think about holiday plans or think about what you’re going to do next year, because you don’t know. Instead, you try to take advantage of every single day in the best way you can. For my part, that involves researching and writing as much as I can, now that I have the opportunity. Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
Facts SAR Since 2013 the University of Gothenburg has been a member of the international network SAR, Scholars at Risk, which among other things provides protection for researchers who cannot be active in their home countries. The SAR network consists of over 500 universities in the world in 40 countries. In autumn 2015, GU was the first university in Sweden to receive a SAR researcher. On March 9, 2016, a Swedish section of SAR was launched, coordinated by the University of Gothenburg.
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Ruined universities, the forgotten heritage of tyrannies “To think and to be fully alive are the same”. TO LOSE YOUR JOB by a brutal political system does not mean only to lose your way of making money, but also to lose all forms of dialogue and networks you once participated in. You become isolated. For a professor, losing your job means to be sentenced to a gradual death –for me, it was like that. I was admired as one of the youngest female Iranian professors in the field of archaeology. Suddenly, everything changed. I lost my job when I was only thirty-three. I learned about it under ridiculous circumstances. On a sunny winter day in 2010, I found myself chasing a little green-blue lizard that had found a safe place in our new sofa. I had just caught it, my five-year-old son was screaming with joy that he would like to touch the lizard, and my husband opened the door. He announced bitterly that we both were being sent to a college away from our university. “It’s a college in that remote city where I lived as a little boy – what are you doing with that lizard?” he asked. He showed me the letter they had sent – I gazed at him. “It is freezing cold and I recommend that we keep the poor lizard. Do you know what they eat or should I google it?” I blurted out. During the following months, I admit that I could not understand what was happening to us. The sudden result of the letter was that many of our former colleagues stopped communicating with us, and several students confirmed rumors against us were being shared in
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social media and university classes by ex-colleagues. We were sent to another city. Somewhere remote. Somewhere that we had not chosen. Was it a sort of exile? I never found out the whole truth, but only scattered evidence. Finally, in May 2011, I was suspended from teaching and never got my job back. Being a female, avant-garde, anti-nationalist archaeologist had made me vulnerable to the system. I found out later that some of my former colleagues had compounded this vulnerability by doing everything they could to oppress me. During several inquiries, I heard their names but I never found out the basis of the actual accusations. In 2013 and a few months after the change of government, I learned that one of my professors had sent a letter to the intelligence service. “This woman has dangerous thoughts. She should not teach young archaeologists”. AT FIRST GLANCE, these accusations
seemed ridiculous, but days after, I thought deeply on how a professor could do something like this to his former student. I searched for historical traces in other contexts of such misbehavior of professors. Once I read an article by Bettina Arnold (1990) on how Nazi archaeologists could cause the avant-garde anti-fascist archaeologists to be punished by forcing them to leave Germany or become isolated for years. But the very question for me was the same as Karl Jaspers asks in The question
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of German guilt: “whose guilt this situation was and why tyrants have to oppress the universities?” DURING THE LASt couple decades, I
Finally, in May 2011, I was suspended from teaching and never got my job back. LEILA PAPOLI-YAZON
have witnessed the decline of Iran’s universities – not only as a professor, but already as a student and even earlier as the daughter of a university professor. Including alternative voices in universities makes them dangerous to totalitarians. They reduce intellectuals to people who only memorize texts and repeat them. Among them, in a context like Iran, the condition of archaeologists and historians is getting critically worse. Much like fascist archaeology in Germany, Iranian archaeologists are being led to produce a national Aryan-myth-based history, or to ignore the facts of historical periods and only do prehistorical archaeology. In their book, Archaeology under dictatorship (2004), Michael Galatay, Charles Watkinson, et.al., claimed that in a tyrannical context, archaeology might lose its academic role and turn into a political tool, with the purpose of oppressing diversity and multiculturalism to promote conformity. In such an atmosphere, resisting conformity may make you jobless, whether it is Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, or Modern Iran. These states silence “other” voices and consider the voices of propaganda and anti-propaganda the only voices of society. As Isiah Berlin wrote in his book The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture
under Communism, during his trip to Soviet Russia, he did not hear anything about Anna Akhmatova, which made him wonder if she might have passed away years ago. By chance, he found out that the poet was alive. This is not an exception. Within a totalitarian system, you can lose your voice, be punished, or obliged to conform. For a university professor, losing their job also means to lose any medium through which they speak to the world. It is the centric agenda to which Jaspers also emphasized in his admired book “The idea of the University” (1959). He notes that the university is not only a building where people gather to learn things, but a place to communicate, debate, and have dialogues.
victimized because the tyranny system deliberately avoids arresting professors. After all, arresting them would make them famous; instead, one of the best ways to oppress a university professor is to ignore them and their ideas. Since the Ministry of Science does not announce that a professor has been fired, the process of punishment can be ignored or forgotten.
ed in the streets day and night, but were defeated. Years later, in 2009, the dormitory was again attacked by the militia, just a few days after the post-election conflicts. People from my generation who worked in universities had to choose between two harsh ways: to accept Mahmood Ahmadinezhad’s coop and continue as before; or to oppose and be punished.
OBSERVING THE life of my professor father and his friends in the universities as a child, and while dreaming of achieving professor status for myself in my twenties, I never anticipated such bitter days. My friends and I were from the second post-revolution generation, and I never thought that one day, I would have the same struggles as my father’s generation. This historical repetition of oppresMORE THAN JUST a mere incident relating to individual lives, transfor- sion seems to be our destiny. I chose the second way and its consequenming universities by firing profesces, which were not so clear in the sors and arresting students reprefirst months, but gradually came out sents a goal of tyranny to reduce one of the only alternative modern of the clouds. We lost not only our jobs, but our social status, earning institutions to political structure. Particularly in Iran, both professors capabilities, our projects, and our and students were active during the security. During the following years, I lear1979-revolution. To elucidate the ned to adjust to a new life. I lost the concept of tyranny, intellectuals possibility of dialogue but found the from left opposition groups wrote potential of writing. Not everybody thousands of books. Many of these in my situation had the same luck – books were never published, but were instead copied illegally by the many were sentenced to jail or lost hope. Some found jobs outside academonstrators and sold as “white demia. Every time I traveled outside cover books” without the author’s of Iran, I realized how anxious and name. Perhaps as a result of this depressed I had become – I had lost strong agency, soon after the revomy self-confidence. lution the universities were closed It seems there is a trend: the and several professors were cleansed, fired, jailed, and even executed more the media shows the anti-gender policies of extremists in the by religious extremists. Middle East, the more they make documentaries on the punishment of BY THE END of 20th century, bodies and of oppressed minorities, universities in Iran got fresh air the more they ignore the university by empowering reformists. At the time, I was a student of archaeology professors and the academic sphere. There is little reliable information on at Tehran University. Seemingly, the incidents that occurred within we were experiencing change. The students started to publish newspa- these last couple of years in the pers, student movements could rise universities of Turkey, and it seems that the conditions of professors and again, and discussions, lectures, students in the universities of Iran and meetings were held in the unihave been forgotten. versities. But suddenly, the Tehran Perhaps it is difficult to underUniversity dormitory was attacked by extremists’ militia. Students stay- stand how ex-professors have been
HANNAH ARENDT quotes, “under
References: Arnold, Bettina (1990) The past as propaganda: totalitarian archaeology in Nazi Germany. Antiquity 64: 464-478 Berlin Isaiah (2004) The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism. Edited by Henry Hardy and Strobe Talbott . Brookings Institution Press. Galaty, Michael L., Watkinson, Charles (Eds.) (2004) Archaeology under Dictatorship. Springer. Jaspers, Karl (2001) The Question of German Guilt. Translated by E.B.Ashton. Fordham University Press. Jaspers, Karl (1959) The Idea of the University. Beacon Press.
conditions of tyranny it is easier to act than to think”. It also seems easier to ignore those who are thinking rather than those who are acting, and history generally narrates only the story of people who acted, not the people who were sentenced to isolation because of thinking, writing, or creating. Such discrimination may cause misunderstandings. The tyranny regimes have a tendency to show the nation as without intellect, to present the people as unresponsive individuals who only consume “western” or “eastern” thoughts and produce nothing. Ignoring university professors who lost their jobs or were forced to leave their academic careers also helps tyrannies to propagate conformity of the people. But actually, we are the ones who suffered, we are the people who have been interrogated for hours, accused to be dangerous, and lost the opportunity to enjoy an ordinary academic lifestyle. We are still alive and attempting to create, and this, I believe, makes the responsibility of the few institutions such as Scholar at Risk much heavier. Because we, the endangered scholars, are not only an uncommon and endangered species—we are the writers, actors, and creators of ignored parts of history. If not examined, what happened to us can be repeated anywhere in the world. Though neglected, professors and intellectuals keep bitter incidents in their hearts for younger generations to remember. We are the witnesses of ongoing tragedy – tyranny! LEILA PAPOLI-YAZDI
RESEARCHER, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG
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Welcome all new professors
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– Conserving academic core values and safeguarding a critical and reflective approach, these are some of a professor’s main tasks, Vice Chancellor Eva Wiberg explained in her welcome speech during the professorial inauguration on May 10. New for this year was that a short film presentation of each professor was shown on a large display screen.
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IN ADDITION TO CONDUCTING education and research
Eva Angenete about the desire to answer new research questions.
driven by curiosity, a professor is also expected to defend fundamental democratic rights, both in Sweden and in other countries, Eva Wiberg pointed out in her speech. – But I would also like to remind you of the importance of friends and family, and being aware of your work-life balance. Because it is definitely not your scientific articles that will come to visit you when you get old. Eva Angenete, Professor of Surgery, spoke for all the professors when she talked about her path into academia. – What I think unites all us professors here on the podium is the unquenchable desire to continuously answer new research questions. And conveying this desire to students is one of our most important tasks; every student is an opportunity and if they work hard, they can surpass all of us in their future professions. IT TAKES 65,000 HOURS of work to become a professor.
This corresponds to two and half return trips to Mars. NORA MYRNE WIDFORS
Nora Myrne Widfors, Chairperson of the University of Gothenburg’s Student Unions, had received help from her friend and professor of mathematics to calculate this figure. – This corresponds to two and half return trips to Mars. I think all of us here are grateful for the fact that you chose to spend all this time on research and lecturing, so that you have become rich in knowledge, instead of from football, for example. A total of 43 professors were inaugurated. Excellent teachers and educational laureates were also honoured. Students from the Academy of Music and Drama participated, as well as the Gothenburg Brass Quintet and Stella Academica.
Kajsa Yang Hansen, professor of Education. Henrik Klareskog and Ingrid Berg, operastudents from the Academy for music and drama.
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Crossing gender bounderies
Photos: ALLAN ERIKSSON
Stina Ericsson
Andrea Castro
Kajsa G Eriksson
Professor of the Sociology of Language, wearing a dress suit:
Professor of Spanish, about seeing herself on the big screen:
Professor in Visual Arts, in a flaming orange dress:
– A woman wearing a dress suit is no longer so astonishing, whereas it still requires courage for a man to wear an evening dress. But gender is not important when it comes to working as a professor, so I’d prefer if there was gender-neutral attire for this type of event. Perhaps this is something one of the students from the Academy of Design and Crafts could develop. There was nothing in the dress code about footwear, so I chose sneakers with pink glitter.
– There is nothing special with my dress, but it is nice. – Nerve-racking but fun, but above all, it was exciting to see what all the other professors are working on. Imagine being included in the same company as these talented and committed people! – My father has come all the way from Argentina to take part in the inauguration ceremony, which is a very important occasion for me.
– I call it my Phoenix dress and I bought it for the doctoral conferment ceremony in 2016 when Karen Barad, who I admire immensely, was made an honorary doctor. In the autumn, I’m actually going to Phoenix, Arizona, on a STINT scholarship, I’ll see if I bring the dress with me then.
Larisa Beilina
Professor of Applied Mathematics, in a black lace dress:
– My sister helped me order the dress for this special occasion, she knows much more about fashion than I do. It’s by Ida Sjöstedt, a Swedish designer. – In Russia, new professors are not celebrated in any particular way, so I had to explain to some colleagues in Moscow what kind of party I was going to. For me, this day is a symbolic milestone and it’s something I will remember for the rest of my life.
Isabella Björkman- Burtscher Professor of Neuroradiology, in a black dress with a pink apron:
– Since I come from Austria originally, I have a dirndl, which is an evening dress for festive occasions. It’s not from any particular region, but is associated with the whole of Austria. If you tie the apron with the bow on the right-hand side it means that you are married, whereas a bow on the left-hand side means that you are not married. The dress also has a petticoat with lace.
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THE MOMENT WHERE: The International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics conference at the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre WHO: Gabriella Sandstig WHEN: May 23, 2019
NEXT ISSUE
Will be ou t SEPTEMB in ER! Happy Summer!
Short description: Carin Mannheimer’s prize for junior researchers is given to all types of research on aging and the elderly. Last year’s award went to Gabriella Sandstig, the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, for the project How stereotypes of the elderly as particularly vulnerable affect their beliefs and abilities to deal with crises. The Prize was handed out by Anna Mannheimer. The picture also shows Ingmar Skoog, Photo: Johan Wingborg director of AgeCap, Centre for Ageing and Health.
