GUJ6-2014English

NO 6 | NOVEMBER 2014

Antiquity affects us still Gunhild Vidén is interested in the body, both as a researcher and as a choir director JOINT COLLABORATION

WHEN ROBOTS TAKE OVER

MEET PAUL RUSSELL

GU not among the best

Researchers about the new brave world

Moral philosophy concerns us all

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Vice Chancellor

The University of Gothenburg becomes even stronger

back shows that in recent years we have had a strong focus on research. This has been a conscious choice, which has paid off. The research evaluation – Research Evaluation for Development RED 10, made it clear that the University of Gothenburg has world leading research in several fields, but also a strong potential for further development. We have recently managed to successfully recruit a number of top international academic researchers, particularly in the context of the Swedish Research Council’s special initiative. And despite the fierce competition, many of our researchers have been awarded substantial research grants. This week, the University of Gothenburg received a major investment in the life sciences from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, which means that with new recruiting we will build up a new centre for molecular medicine. Overall, this entails an investment of upwards of SEK 700 million over a ten year period. Additionally, Astra Zeneca and Region Västra Götaland are also participating as major contributors.

A R E T RO S PEC TI V E LO O K

for research resources and academic researchers will continue to increase. We need to develop a professional recruitment process. The postings for positions, beginning from the doctoral level, must be open and visible nationally and internationally. Employment conditions and career paths should be clear, and gender equality an integral part of the process.

Equally important is that those who are recruited from outside are given good T H E CO M P E TITI O N

November E D I TO R - I N C H I E F A N D P U B L I S H E R

Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E D I TO R A N D V I C E P U B L I S H E R

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

S I N C E I W ROT E my previous box, Sweden has a new government and an initial budget has been presented. What that will mean in the long term for the country’s institutions of higher education is too early to say just yet, but the direction of higher education policy emerged in Prime Minister Stephen Löfven’s Declaration by the Government. An increase of available places in an educational programme, a review of the basic allocation for research, an increased focus on good employment conditions and gender equality in academia, are some developments that were emphasised. Already in this budget, an expansion of the number of study slots is presented, with about 5,000 for 2015.

In conjunction with this year’s recent annual conferment of doctoral degrees, I reflected on how higher education policy is developed and also surveyed that outlook for the future. What do I see in front of me in terms of the operations and activities of our own University?

A MAGAZINE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF GOTHENBURG

P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D R E P R O D U C T I O N

Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G R A P H I C F O R M A N D L AYO U T

Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se

T R A N S L AT I O N

Charles Philps, Semantix ADDRESS

GU Journal, University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg E-MAIL

preconditions in order to be able to establish themselves, primarily academically but also in terms of life outside of work.

Another important task in the process of creating a stronger and more competitive university is to develop and increase the professional recognition of the value of teaching skills, and its contribution to academic qualifications. For our professors, it must be given that participation in the teaching part of the educational programme is expected, just as in most other countries. In this way we can ensure the Higher Education Act’s text that higher education shall be “based on scientific or artistic foundation and proven experience.” This provides students with the scientific and critical approaches that are expected to accompany an academic degree.

I N O R D E R TO be able to develop the educational programme for the future’s needs for skills and expertise, this also requires increased collaboration between various community stakeholders. Collaboration and joint projects is often described as one of the university’s core activities and is mentioned separately. On the part of the national government, it has been revealed that they want to see specific reporting requirements for the allocation of funds in terms of joint collaboration. Personally, I regard joint collaboration, and the same as with internationalisation, quality, gender equality, and sustainability efforts, as part of the educational programme and research which must be integrated in all activities and at all levels. It is in this, that the foundation of our success lies.

PAM FREDMAN

gu-journalen@gu.se INTERNET

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Gunhild Vidén, professor of latin Photo: Johan Wingborg

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Contents

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

3

FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR

2 Recruiting is something we need to get better at.

NEWS

4 They spent one term in the USA – but what has happened since?

6 GU co-publishes most with Nordic universities.

12

7 Good governance on the schedule.

8 Transparency is essential to suistainable growth.

Antiquity as a mirror for our times

INTERVIEW WITH RESEARCHERS

To study Latin texts is like opening a Chinese box, says Gunhild Vidén.

10 Will manpower be needed in the future when robots take over?

PROFILE 12 Gunhild Vidén holds the baton.

FEATURE

16 Identity is not entirely a given, observes Monica Lindh de Montaya 18 We need to re-evaluate our moral truths, argues Paul Russell.

20 Highlights from this year’s big festive occasion.

16 Social anthropologist on the move Monica Lindh de Montaya comes from the US and Venezuela, but feels most at home in Gothenburg.

20 This Year’s Conferment of Doctoral Degrees Dean Olle Larkö gives out the pedagogical prize to Kerstin Nilsson.

18

Moral philosophy concerns us all The environment is the major ethical challenge of our time, says Paul Russell.

The Editors: An independent journal is a question of credibility W E A R E PLE A S E D in that the Vice Chancellor has made the decision regarding a new editorial policy. But what is the difference compared with the old one? Nothing of substance, but the new policy is updated and clearer. However the most important thing is that it adopts the Swedish Union of Journalists’ new guidelines for internal media and that the crucial difference between communication and journalism is emphasised.

The journal’s mission is more than just providing information, or forwar-

ding on a one-way message, such as with advertising or marketing. The journal should, based on journalistic principles, examine, inform and keep the debate alive. As the Swedish Union of Journalists write, an organisation must be able to withstand scrutiny, both of its own activities and of its external environment. “If journalism did not have an independent role, it would lose both its democratic function as well as its credibility. Within the role is the responsibility to regard the readers as their principal.” This

means that the journal is guaranteed a free and independent position within the organisation and ensured access to information from management and other employees.

A F T E R M A N Y Y E A R S of waiting, it is now clear that a new editorial committee will be appointed. The faculties have been asked to submit nominations. The former editorial committee was an enormous help for us and we look forward to working with the new members.

With that in mind, we would also like to remind you that the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act also applies for the University of Gothenburg. It means, among other things, protection of sources, i.e. a right, even for public officials to provide information on virtually any topic to the media. It also means an investigation ban (ban on tracing), i.e. a prohibition on the inquiry of who provided a specific message.

4

News

Invaluable experiences – but how can they be taken advantage of?

Quite an experience that made a strong personal impression and provided invaluable insight into a different way of teaching!

This is the feedback from the STINT Fellows GU Journal talked to, who spent a half-year at a foreign university.

But what happened afterwards? Were their experiences and lessons learned taken advantage of at the university and put to good use? The answer is: Well …

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

»And the teaching consists largely of dialogues.«

M A R ITA FLI S BÄC K , associate professor of sociology, was at Smith College, a liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, for the autumn semester of 2011. Marita came home full of enthusiasm.

“The teachers teach within their specialist fields, they are, in other words, not assigned a course that they are not experts in. And the teaching consists largely of dialogues. It means that the teacher is running a theme together with students, raising issues and asking questions, giving the students space to talk about their experiences, but all the while constantly keeps the focus on the thread. For example, with a lecture on the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, students were able to contribute with what they themselves had read, make suggestions on what sources of inspiration they thought he had, and so on.”

the ability to turn an ostensible problem into something positive. For example, when I explained that I felt a bit unsure of English terminology, my American colleagues suggested that I should take advantage of use this in order to ask students for help. And it turned out to be a stroke of genius: the students competed to find good explanations and concepts for what I wanted to say.”

Together with the historian of ideas Cecilia Rosengren, who was

“O N E A L S O H A D

also on a STINT Fellowship, Marita Flisbäck held a presentation about their experiences at a teaching seminar at the GU Faculty of Arts. The idea was that she would also hold a seminar at her own institution, but that didn’t happen.

“STINT wants that the recipients write a report about their stay, and for me it was a way to document my academic term in the US. The following year, my institution was also visited by Rick Fantasia, a professor at the college. And I think that I have grown personally and it taught me to work with a more dialogical approach in my own teaching.”

B U T A N Y W E LL thought out strategy at the Department to take into account the experience cannot be seen, explains Marita Flisbäck.

“It should have been possible to arrange a couple of seminars where I would have more time to talk about exercises and structure, and how one thinks about education in the US, where it is less important precisely what your degree is in, than it is here. It may be hard to emulate the American system, but we certainly could have a discussion about how we might think differently.”

News

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

»I was overwhelmed by how gene­ rous and caring everyone was.«

Moore, who came to visit the Sahlgrenska Academy during the immediately following term.

“At first, she was here for two weeks, then she came back here again on a three month visit.

She became part of our research group and it’s partly thanks to her contribution that five articles were published in the years that followed, and several additional articles are in the works. An article was published in a prestigious journal for qualitative studies, and Crystal’s contribution was certainly of significance with her help to adapt the text to American journals. She also participated in teaching and then invited two of our students to her college.”

Annika Jakobsson has also presented her experiences at seminars, both at departmental and faculty level.

“In 2010, we started a Master’s

A N N I K A JA KO B S S O N , assistant professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, was at Skidmore College, a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York, for the autumn term of 2008.

“I was overwhelmed by how generous and caring everyone was. I was assigned the task of organising the teaching for Obsession and Addiction, the elective course I would give, as well as assigning grades from A to F. Most classes had 15 students, but mine was twice as large. I also have to mention that the students were exceptionally attentive; if there was something I didn’t know well enough, all at once ten students put their hand up to offer help.”

Annika Jakobsson received a great deal of support from her superior at Skidmore, Crystal

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

C LE M E N S C AVA LLI N , assistant professor of religious studies, was at Haverford College, a classic liberal arts college, last autumn.

“It was great to be able to immerse oneself in a subject together with the dedicated and talented students I met twice a week for an entire semester. I make an attempt to bring that experience into teaching here at home with a lot of academic writing and seminars where we discuss the papers. But it works better at higher levels, with smaller groups.”

W H E N H E R E T U R N E D to Sweden, he spoke about his experience for the whole department and spoke during an information day on STINT.

degree programme in English in Public Health Science with Health Economics, and while in the US I grew so confident in teaching in English that it meant that it was stimulating and fun to be responsible for the teaching and to be the Director of Postgraduate Studies for the new programme.” deal we could learn from the teaching methods in the United States, in the view of Annika Jakobsson, even if not everything would be easily transferable to the situation in Sweden.

“The teaching consists largely of discussions, which works because the students are trained at an early stage in life to be communicative. It wouldn’t really work here. But experience and having contacts in other countries is invaluable.”

T H E R E I S A G R E AT

»We are at a standstill here in Gothenburg …«

“The exchange program in the US gave me an insight and a different perspective on how things work. Personal experience makes you have so much to tell.

I also try to inspire and enthuse others to take advantage of the opportunity to get away.”

B U T H A LF A year was a little too brief a time to really get a true insight into the American approach, he thinks.

“It was rewarding and instructive, but also challenging in that so much was so very different.

I not only take the experience with me as a teacher but also in my work as Associate Director for Internationalisation and Collaboration.”

For Cavallin, the major challenge for the liberal arts, and also

for other educational programmes, is to take advantage of the IT revolution as MOOC courses.

For an elite private college, it is easier to compete with small student groups and good teaching quality but how will a large university such as GU stand out?

“We are at a standstill here in Gothenburg, it is far too slow.

Actually, all repeating lectures with more than 20 students should be filmed and posted so that we can free up time for new teaching. But for this to become reality, someone has to make that a decision and inject resources.

We cannot expect individual teachers to begin to fiddle with a video camera.”

EVA LUNDGREN & ALLAN ERIKSSON

Karolina Catoni at the International Centre

” The experience should be put into practice” At the University of Gothenburg, it is primarily the departments that have the responsibility for how the experiences are utilised. At the central level, so far not much has been done, except an open seminar with one of the fellows. But by spring, more activities will be planned, says Karolina Catoni of the International Centre.

“But we are in need of a larger discussion that is not just about the participants’ personal experiences, but rather also how they can be linked to educational development and professional recognition. It is a positive situation that the issue is placed on the agenda now that the foreign teaching outside of Sweden is one of the criteria to receive the ‘excellent teacher’ title.”

She emphasises that staff mobility is an important part of the university’s strategic internationalisation, which is highlighted in both Vision 2020 and the internationalisation policy.

What does STINT think about in the process of selecting fellows? Hans Pohl, program manager at STINT, says that during the application process they make sure that one or more representatives from the university are included and explain how they plan to take advantage of having a teacher abroad for a semester.

“If the educational institution’s applicant has weak plans for how the acquired knowledge will provide a ripple in the water, in other words to make sure that upon return home others will be able to take advantage of the knowledge gained, the candidate is not granted a scholarship. Applicants must also have a good platform and anchoring at the educational institution in order to be selected.”

“In addition, throughout the entire time, from the time they are selected, we encourage the grantees to reflect upon how the experience will translated into useful benefits at home.”

Therefore STINT arranges three seminars: one before, one during, and one after, the period abroad. “We have already started working on alumni programme where everyone who participated in the programme - so far it is nearly 150 people - can exchange experiences other and help each other to push for change.

This activity is still in its infancy, but has the potential to have a very significant impact.”

5

6

News

Joint collaborations pay off GU holds its own quite well in terms of international co-publication, but nevertheless ends up a bit under their closest competitors.

This has been shown in a new study.

Five Nordic universities find themselves at the top, but the joint ­collaboration with Harvard University is what pays off best.

H A N S P O H L , who is the Program Director of the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), has surveyed research collaborations at the ten largest universities in Sweden during the period 2009–2013, in collaboration with the Dutch research firm Elsevier.

“We want to check whether the money that we spend on the internationalisation of higher education and research makes any difference, and for us, it is a way to follow up and develop new methods of measuring in order to illustrate the benefits,” comments Hans Pohl.

The study shows the extent to which research articles that have co-authors from foreign universities are cited to a greater degree.

The citation method which is used provides a picture of how significant the collaboration is in the socalled “collaborative quadrants,” where the placement of the balls on the graphical representation reflects the degree of citation effect and its volume of the number of co- publications.

One of the most important results is that international co-publication favours Swedish universities. Another is that the greater the geographical distance

within the collaboration, the greater the impact of the citation.

“That the international joint research collaboration has a positive effect on citations was perhaps expected, but that it was such a consistent picture surprised me. Of course the further the distance the collaborations is, the more it pays off. In order to have an international collaboration with top-ranked universities, you must be really good. Talented academic researchers collaborate with talented academic researchers.”

But even collaborations at a closer distance has a positive impact on citations.

I N G U ’ S TO P T E N LI ST of collaborative partners, the University of Copenhagen finds itself in first place with the most jointly-authored articles (484). Then follows Oslo, Helsinki, Bergen and Aarhus.

In fifth place, we find Harvard University, followed closely by University College London and an additional three in the UK. But what gives the highest score, meaning what most benefits both one’s own university and the foreign university, is the joint collaboration with Harvard University.

– “The joint collaboration has clear benefits for both parties. What

the University of Gothenburg

surprised me was that Harvard has so greatly benefited from collaboration with Swedish universities. It means that we from Sweden have Hans Pohl something to offer.”

But the University of Gothenburg’s share of international co-publication is 49.7 percent compared to the average of 52 per cent, that is, a bit under Stockholm, Lund and Uppsala. What is this due to?

“There are very big differences between different disciplines.

While physics and astronomy characterised by joint-authorship

»Talented academic researchers collaborate with talented academic researchers.« to a large degree, this is not equally the case with research in the humanities and social sciences. On the other hand, GU is well-placed within medical research.”

One would think that the joint cooperation with Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Borås would provide a high degree of citation points, but that is not the case.

“The mutual benefit is not on that plane,” observes Hans Pohl.

“But there may be synergies that we one is not take into account to a sufficiently high degree or that the joint collaboration within multidisciplinary disciplines does not result in such a high citation effect.

The study shows that Stockholm University has a wide distribution out in the world, with Stanford University in first place, but universities from Italy and France are also on the list.

D E S PIT E IT S S M A LL size, Sweden consolidates its position as one of the leading the research nations in the world. Since 1996, the share of international collaborations with at least one researcher from Sweden and one from abroad has increased from 35 percent to almost 60 percent in 2013.

“It is not so surprising that Sweden has more co-publishing, it is related to the fact that we are very international, both in terms of academic research and within industry. Moreover, it is only natural that smaller countries have more international collaborations.”

But sometimes, the partners are closer than what one might think.

The University of Copenhagen ends up in the top-ten-list among 8 of the 10 Swedish universities. The results came as a surprise, says Hans Pohl. “ TO S O M E E X T E N T , this may be

due to geographic proximity, but this alone cannot explain why the University of Copenhagen is so dominant. It is a large and talented university, and there is of course absolutely nothing wrong with collaborating with them, but what I know is that it is not the research programme that favours the cooperation within the Nordic region so much that that can explain this situation.”

Hans Pohl warns not to make too much of the study as the method of citation favours natural sciences and medical research more, as it is more international in nature. Another disadvantage is that a relatively minor cooperation can lead to a high impact with citations.

“This does not provide us the whole truth. But it is an attempt to create a more advanced analysis of the value with co-publishing.”

ALLAN ERIKSSON

News

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

All higher education should include an anti-corruption perspective. That is the meaning and contents of a new declaration presented at a meeting in Poznan, arranged by one of the world’s leading university networks.

The originators who took the initiative to establish this are Bo Rothstein and Lennart Levi.

T H E CO M P O ST E L A Group of Universities (CGU) is an intrauniversity international network of 68 universities. During its annual General Assembly held 27–28 September in the Polish city of Poznan, it unanimously adopted the Wholeof-University Promotion of Social Capital, Health and Development.

“Honest, non-corrupt public officials with social responsibility is the basic foundation for a functioning society. This has been shown in numerous studies, not least by the Quality of

Government (QoG) Institute – University of Gothenburg,” explains Professor Bo Rothstein, professor of political science. “Because public officials are educated at the university, it is crucial that universities take responsibility for ensuring that the students learn to be able to engage in critical thinking and that the learn the essential importance of a non-discriminatory and non-corrupt behaviour.”

The concept for the Declara­tion originally came from Lennart Levi, Professor Emeritus at the Karolinska Institute and founder of the Stress Research Institute. With the support of the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Welfare, he, along with Bo Rothstein, hired Marcus Tannenberg (who had previously been a QoG master’s

degree student) for the work to compile the declaration.

That the CGU adopted the Declaration quickly led to it also being accepted by two additional international associations: the World Academy of Art and Science and the World University Consortium.

“That these three networks approved the Declaration means that education in noncorrupt behaviour will be given the status as one of the most important goals of all constituent universities. And if only one percent of what is written in the Declaration is actually implemented, this means a unique chance to establish non-corrupt governments around the world,” explains Bo Rothstein.

The Poznan Declaration will also be linked to the QoG Institute’s ongoing project to get its research out to the Swedish schools.

The QoG Institute celebrates its ten year anniversary this year.

EVA LUNDGREN

GU supports vulnerable academic researchers The international network Scholars at Risk (SAR) is working to support researchers who have been, in some manner, victims of threats or have been subjected to persecution.

Now the University of Gothenburg has become the national coordinator of the Swedish institutions of higher education who are participating in the network.

S I X SW E D I S H U N I V E R S ITI E S have joined SAR so far: in addition to the University of Gothenburg, the universities of Uppsala, Stockholm and Lund, as well as the university colleges Dalarna University and Malmö University, have joined.

Chalmers is presently considering membership.

“That GU becomes the coordinator means that we take overall responsibility for the activities that the universities plan to have together,” explains Pro Vice Chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz. This may involve, for example, workshops, seminars, or inviting a persecuted researcher to a lecture series which the various universities in Sweden arranges.

But the more precise meaning of the University of Gothenburg’s commitment is to be discussed on 4 December. On that occasion,

there will be a workshop in Vasaparken with participants from SAR’s headquarters in New York, where a scholar from Pakistan, who has received protection from the University of Oslo, will also give a lecture. In addition, a meeting between the representatives from SAR and the leadership of the University of Gothenburg is also arranged, in which the deans and department heads will also participate.

“I hope that the University of Gothenburg will eventually receive vulnerable researchers as the University of Oslo does.”

There are two requirements to join the network: the university must recognise each scholar’s right to freely conduct research, and an official representative must be appointed to communicate with SAR. At the University of Gothenburg, Johan Ahlgren at the International Centre is that representative.

“But to what extent and in what way one wants to get involved, each institution determines for itself,” explains Helena Lindholm Schulz.

The SAR network currently has over 340 participating educational institutions in 36 countries.

EVA LUNDGREN

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Good governance on the schedule

7

For a sustainable planet “The whole planet must be regarded as one vast system where we humans are only a part,” explains Deliang Chen, Professor of Physical Meteorology and August Röhss Professor of Physical Geography in the Department of Earth Sciences. Among other achievements, he has led the development of Future Earth, a global investment in research in sustainable development. Professor Chen has recently been awarded one of the University of Gothenburg’s finest distinctions, Pro Arte et Scientia.

R E S E A RC H O N S U STA I N A B I LIT Y has long been primarily problem-oriented. The concept behind the idea of Future Earth, which is an amalgamation of the world’s four largest research programmes in the field of the environmental, is instead to focus on solutions. And this requires more than just natural science. Other areas of science, as well as other stakeholders in addition to researchers, must also be actively involved.

“How will we ever be able to produce food for 9 billion people without depleting the ecosystems? How will we produce enough energy without affecting the environment for too much? These are large and complex issues, something for which it is not sufficient to be a professor of physical meteorology to solve. On the contrary; knowledge from many diverse fields, especially the social sciences, is required. But collaboration with other involved parties is also vital, such as politicians and the business community, both at the global and regional levels,” explains Deliang Chen.

Deliang Chen came up with the idea for Future Earth when he was Director of ICSU in 2009-2012. The International Council for Science is one of the world’s leading science organisations. The launch took place at the UN Rio + 20 Conference in June 2012.

FU T U R E E A R T H I S O RG A N I S E D around three broad and integrated research themes: a Dynamic Planet, Global Development, and Transformations towards a Sustainable Society. Some thirty global research project are included, bringing together over 3,000 scientists worldwide.

“Recently, the decision was announced that Future Earth’s headquarters will be located in Sweden, and that the Swedish government will be heavily investing in the activities. It makes me extremely proud that Sweden is so strong in the environmental field.”

Deliang Chen is also one of two Swedish lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report on the state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change, which is also mentioned in the reasons for the awarding of the distinction.

EVA LUNDGREN

8

Report

Transparency is key for sustainable growth Gas and minerals, blessing or a curse? That is the crucial question for countries in Africa rich in natural resources.

Transparency is paramount in order to avoid devastating scenarios, according to Professor Ola Olsson, who was a keynote speaker at the Environment for Development Policy Day (EfD) in Tanzania in October. of transparency, governments should publish all revenues, and business enterprises should publish all payments they make to governments for natural resources.

This is so the citizens can judge whether revenues are used for sustainable development,” commented Ola Olsson, Professor of

“ I N T H E I N T E R E ST S

Development Economics at the School of Business, Economics and Law, on the EfD Policy Day 2014 which was arranged by the Tanzanian EfD center, the Environment for Development, an initiative run by the University of Gothenburg and funded by the Swedish International Development Agency and the World Bank.

Tanzania has gas resources, Kenya and Uganda have oil, South Africa has diamonds.

Many African countries are currently experiencing a dramatic increase in revenues due to the exploitation of their natural resources. How this natural wealth can build sustainable growth and independence in the

9

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

Luwowo Coltan mine near Rubaya, North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Luwowo is one of several validated mining site that respect CIRGL-RDC norms and guaranties conflict free minerals. © MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti.

are not purely economic.

Along with the exploitation of natural resources, there are inherent environmental hazards and health hazards for the people working hands on with the extraction. It is also a wellknown fact that the wealth from natural resource extraction easily leads to corruption, rent seeking (Editors note. to spend wealth on political lobbying to increase one’s share of existing wealth without creating wealth), secret trade deals, political competition to control the huge flows of revenues, and also internal strife even to the extent of civil wars.

International prices, foreign investments and trade deals are all factors affecting the political development of countries depending upon natural resources. long run and benefit the people, and not only the elite, is a central theme in the research agenda of Ola Olsson. strong growth and increasing levels of income make natural resource rich countries in Africa totally dependent on international prices, what will happen to their economic independence when prices fall? Just as important are current foreign investments. China is becoming more influential politically in African countries.

This could potentially, in the long run, have implications for how independent these countries remain,” Ola Olsson said, and emphasized that these questions

“IF THE CURRENT

“C H I N A I S I N need of minerals and oil, and invests heavily in African countries, actually buying up land and mines. So do European countries. But China never asks questions about human rights and makes a point of not interfering with other countries’ internal affairs. China does not encourage transparent trade deals. I think this can be potentially dangerous. To avoid future scenarios like the one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, African governments should learn from successful natural resource countries, like Norway, and increase the transparency of revenues. People must know what is going on and be free to critically assess things.

Ola Olsson is professor of development economics.

»African governments­ should learn from success­ ful­natural resource countries, like Norway…«

Increased transparency and democracy are key for sustainable growth, and the foundation for people to create new innovations,” said Ola Olsson.

H E E M PH A S I Z E D the importance of international initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

This builds upon the idea that government and politicians should force themselves to be open about revenues by officially publishing all revenues they receive from natural resources, whereas business enterprises

should be required to make public notification of all the payments they make to governments for natural resources.

As a consultant for the World Bank, Ola Olsson studied the effects of Zambia’s dependence on copper exports. He has also studied how diamonds affect conflict intensity and civil wars in Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. So called conflict minerals like coltan (a vital material for mobile telephones), cassiterite, wolfram and gold are generally believed to drive the civil war in the Democratic Congo, in which more than five million people have died since 1997. Since 2010, new legislation in the US affects all companies that want to trade shares on a stock exchange in the United States.

“Any export from conflict areas in Congo and all neighbouring countries must be documented, meaning that all firms have to document where they have received their minerals. This has had a significant impact on the global electronic industry.”

KARIN BACKTEMAN

10

Interview with researchers

Waiting for the intelligent robots TEXT EVA LUNDGREN | PHOTO JOHAN WINGBORG

What happens when the most intelligent creatures on the earth no longer are us?

This is an issue that should be taken very seriously, insists Olle Häggström, professor of mathematical statistics, and Claes Strannegård, researcher in applied information technology.

It’s about AI, it’s about singularity, and a bit about Darwin too.

A I – A R TI FI C I A L I N T E LLI G E N C E – or quite simply “robots,” can now do things that only a decade ago were considered to be impossible. Not only are they best in the world in chess, they can drive a car, answer the telephone, and have even begun to assist in health care.

“That machines are taking over tasks previously performed by humans is of course nothing new,” emphasises Olle Häggström.

“But previously they have primarily replaced hard or monotonous work. Today’s AGI is also starting to make inroads into the intellectual field.”

So far, AI can only perform well-defined technical tasks in special environments, explains Claes Strannegård.

“But in Japan, and also in Örebro, research is underway concerning how robots could help the elderly in care. It may sound impersonal and boring, but is still better than that old people do not get any help at all. Also education could be streamlined: MOOC courses, where thousands of students educate themselves on the net, is a step in that direction. We like to think that it’s important to have personal contact, but who knows, maybe it isn’t.”

T H E O P TI M I ST S regard the new technology as the path to a future paradise where everyone can blithely engage in cultural events, outdoor activities and loving relationships, while the robots do the work.

But there are also those who have a

“In the poor parts of the world, perhaps the economy and living conditions would get better and more people would be able to get their needs satisfied. In the rich world, AGI should be able to function as a decision support that will help us work together more effectively and find sustainable solutions to the problems that we have failed at for centuries.”

In order for AGI to become a reality requires, among other things, that man resolves two classical problems, explains Claes Strannegård.

more pessimistic outlook concerning the developments.

“The day more and more jobs are lost, of course we will be able to devote ourselves to other activities, but will that make us happier?” wonders Olle Häggström. “When we ponder the meaning of life, just that lack of something to aspire for seems to be a big problem. To make life as easy as possible is a mistake, for the same reason that it is wrong to make a video game as simple as it possibly could be. But even if we assume that we are actually on the way to paradise, the path there can be quite difficult. How do we allocate the fruits of the machines’ work; will perhaps some people end up being displaced? Should we revive the old idea of the citizen wage, a guaranteed income where everyone has a minimum wage no matter what they do, and if so, how would the society then function?”

T H E D E V E LO PM E N T of society is largely governed by market mechanisms that we only partially have control over, points out Claes Strannegård.

“If the market demands certain goods and services, and the machines can offer them in a cheap and effective way, it is these products that we will buy. Those who cannot compete, will fall by the wayside.

Ten years ago there was talk of a ‘society of two-thirds.’ The risk is that we are now heading for a tenth society.”

But there are some things we might nevertheless desire that humans do.

“AI is already superior by far when it comes to chess, but on the other hand, it’s not particularly fun to watch as the computer plays,” as Häggström points out.

“The psychological nerve requires humans and maybe it will be so in other areas. If AI learns to write really good poetry, might we nevertheless still prefer human poets?”

Increased robotisation can also have positive effects, emphasises Claes Strannegård.

»And even if

we humans think we are rational, perhaps we aren’t always actually so.« CLAES STRANNEGÅRD

“ T H I S I S PA R T LY A B O U T what is known as the “framework problem.” That means we have to have a good model of the world in order to be able to make good decisions, for example to determine exactly which facts among thousands of facts are relevant to a particular situation. Partly it’s about the symbol grounding problem, i.e. the simple fact that the symbols themselves are empty but must be paired with the factual situation in the world. So far, AI has not been able to deal with this; it requires a leap in the development, something that we have not yet seen.”

“The grounding problem incidentally also applies even to people,” interjects Olle Häggström. “How can something going on inside our heads represent something that happens outside? However we humans seem to be able to it.”

B U T T H O S E W H O believe that the great danger with increased robotisation is unemployment and an economy in flux, are perhaps on the wrong track. It may be that the major problem is spelled “singularity”.

“This is a term used in mathematics when something goes to infinity,” explains Olle Häggström. “Regarding AI, the term is used for the very rapid developments that we can imagine occurring on the day we create a robot that has a higher intelligence

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Robots don’t hate us but they don’t love us either, say Olle Häggström and Claes Strannegård.

failures, and the technology’s high degree of complexity.”

We have however lived with nuclear weapons for 70 years now, and since the Second World War, it’s indeed a fact that nobody’s pressed “the button”.

than us. The highly intelligent robot will be better at building robots, for instance, than we are. And the hyper-intelligent robots, which the highly intelligent robots build, will in turn be even better robot designers, who make even better mega-intelligent robots, and so on and so on. The day we lose control, it can be really dangerous.”

One can of course always pull the plug, it is sometimes claimed.

“But that’s a simplistic argument,” remarks Olle. “It is sufficient that the super intelligent robots obtain access to the Internet so that they can create thousands of copies of themselves that gain access to banks or nuclear weapons systems. I’m not saying that the AI will be against humanity, but nor is there any reason to believe that they will automatically like us. As the author Eliezer Yudkowsky points out: ‘The machines do not hate you but they don’t love you either. You, however, consists of atoms that machines can have better use for.’”

T H U S IT I S I M P O R TA N T to build up the base values in the robot, such as to never harm a human being. So even if a robot is created in order to do something innocuous, like making paper clips, it is essential to program into the software certain constraints, such that the production of paper clips does not lead to killings or theft. Otherwise the risk is that we suddenly have a factory that transforms our entire galaxy at a high clip.

“The problem is that it seems to be very difficult to formulate reasonably adequate ethical rules that then can be programmed by man into the AGI agents,” explains Claes Strannegård. “And even if we humans think we are rational, perhaps we aren’t always actually so. Companies operate under the principle of making money for shareholders, the military industry constantly needs new goals; the risk of something going really wrong increases the greater discrepancy is between our society’s shortcomings and

Read more: Super­ intelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

by Nick Bostrom.

AC TAU LLY, T H AT particular argument doesn’t hold entirely true, points out Olle Häggström. “Just think what could have happened on 26 September in 1983. The Soviet’s early warning system asserted that it detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Meanwhile flight officer Stanislav Petrov made the determination that the signal was probably incorrect, and refrained from reporting it further upwards. He thus averted a nuclear war, and there are a few of us who believe that the 26th of September should be celebrated as International Thank Petrov Day. We do not know how many times a nuclear war was narrowly averted, perhaps so far we’ve just been lucky. And what separates AI from other technological systems is that in the future they might have their own intelligence and their own motivations. And then how do we maintain control?”

The more robots we get, the harder it becomes to know how they interact with each other, in the robot ecosystem.

“Darwin’s theory that the sufficiently well-adjusted survive does need not be limited to biological systems but could also apply, for example, to a population of AI agents,” points out Claes Strannegård.

you see the near future?

“The future is a product of human decisions,” emphasises Olle Häggström.

“I am no pessimist but I am troubled; the developments can take off both in good and in very disagreeable and uncomfortable directions.”

“We are, beyond doubt, presently in a dangerous stage in human history right S O H OW D O

now, considering the environmental destruction, weapons of mass destruction and political instability,” says Claes Strannegård. “But I think after all that AI provides us some hope, and would like to think that it will be used in a good way to solve the problems of mankind.”

When you are sitting here and discuss things, both of you give the impression of being thoughtful men. But either could of course possibly be a robot...

“If I could look into Claes’ head and, instead of a gooey gelatinous blob, find a bunch of integrated circuits, I guess my view of him would be affected,” explains Olle Häggström. “But really, one could ask why such a realisation would disturb us more than the realisation that our consciousness is the product of a gelatinous mass in the head?”

FACTS AI stands for artificial intelligence. In recent years another term is also being used: AGI, artificial general intelligence.

Claes Strannegård has been rewarded with the Kurzweil Prize for Best AGI Paper, along with his colleagues Abdul Rahim Nizamani and Ulf Persson. Their contribution System for Learning and Reasoning in Symbolic Domains got the award for being an outstanding contribution to the AGI field. The award was presented during the Seventh International AGI conference in Quebec City in early August.

Claes Strannegård and Olle Häggström have also made an application within the venture UGOT Challenges: Center for Sustainable Machine Intelligence. Co-applicants are Barbara Czarniawska (School of Business, Economics and Law), Johan Wessberg (Sahlgrenska Academy), Christian Munthe and Joakim Sandberg (Faculty of Arts).

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Profile

SINGING OUT IN LATIN Right when Pope John Paul’s white jeep turns into Peter’s Square in Rome, the small church choir from Gothenburg begins singing I Himmelen. A cheer rises among the crowds and the Sistine Chapel Director of Music exclaims: Più musica folcloristica! : Among the choir members, who of course also had folk songs on the programme, was Gunhild Vidén, who now bursts into Uti vår hage before tens of thousands ­ of listeners from around the world.

TEXT EVA LUNDGREN | PHOTO JOHAN WINGBORG T WA S 3 0 Y E A R S AG O that Gunhild Vidén, Professor of Latin, sang at Peter’s Square. The choir also got the opportunity to greet the Pope.

“That was something big, but still gave me some mixed feelings. There were faithful Catholics there who had travelled from halfway around the world in order to get a glimpse of the Pope, and he greets us!”

Right now, however, Gunhild Vidén is taking a breather for a different kind of performance. It is she who, in preparation of the conferment of doctoral degrees ceremony, is practicing Latin with the promoters, the professor who, with great solemnity, ceremoniously hand out diplomas and rings, and place a hat or laurel wreath on the new PhDs heads.

Latin and formal academic ceremonies is a matter together.

“What is so exciting about Latin texts is that at times they are like opening a Chinese box: the main clause can contain a maze of subordinate clauses, a sentence can be developed over half a page. In order to understand which words fit together with which, you have to be good at morphology, otherwise the text is incomprehensible. But those who have the perseverance to push through the ancient texts are rewarded with getting to know a world that is both like and unlike our own,” explains Gunhild Vidén.

An example is a comedy she has recently

read, written by Terentius Afer about 150 BC where two brothers discuss parenting. One of them has been strict with his son which is why he behaves so exemplary, according to his father. The other man, who had bestowed loving kindness, instead has a son who a bit of a reveller sometimes. But in the end, it turns out that it might be better to have a son who dares to stand up for his mistakes, than one that hides his stupidities, for fear of punishment.

“The way of reasoning feels very modern.

Meanwhile, antiquity can seem, in other contexts, extremely strange: slaves were a natural matter of course, and a human life was not worth much.”

E V E N T H O U G H L ATI N lost significance both within the church and in the sciences, the language still has a rather special status and is constantly attracting new students, observes Gunhild Vidén.

“Anyone who has an interest in the older western history, including Swedish history, must be able to read Latin. And just the fact that Latin is seen as a separate language, and not just a precursor to the modern Romance languages, is a testament to its importance.”

Not only Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh are in available in Latin, but so too is Ivar Arosenius’ Kattresan (Journey on a Cat) and several comic books.

“New words in technology for example,

often have Greek or Latin roots, and approximately 60 percent of the vocabulary of English has Latin origins. That the language is popular is also seen in the number of phone calls the department receives from people who want some help with a Latin quote for a tattoo or for a wedding ring.”

A L S O, L ATI N I S STI LL the primary language of the Catholic Church. That was something the journalists quickly found out, who in February 2013 attended a press conference with Pope Benedict XVI. No one understood what the Pope had said, other than one reporter who immediately rushed off to her editors.

“This woman was the only one among the journalists who understood Latin and thus became the first with the global news that the Pope had decided to resign, something that had not happened in 700 years.”

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»It can however be exciting to fight at a disadvantage; you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!« In fact, Gunhild Vidén grew up with a mother who was a teacher of modern languages, and a father who was a history teacher.

But she still believes that the enthusiastic teachers she encountered, both in the gymnasium school and in university, meant at least to make her devote herself to the study of Latin and classical Greek.

“Alongside my educational studies, I worked as a secretary in the department, and after I graduated I went to teacher training and then became a postdoctoral fellow.

However, in a minor field, it is difficult to find a position. So I worked at a secondary school for a few years. But in 1996, someone

gave me the tip to apply for the post of professor of classical philology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.”

It is an institution that was formed by the merger of the Norwegian University of Technology and the University of Trondheim.

No one was really happy with the result and to teach Latin at a university that prided itself primarily on its civil engineering education was a challenge. “ IT C A N H OW E V E R B E exciting to fight at a disadvantage; you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain! Also, the interdisciplinary cooperation was great. I started wor-

king with the Katedralskolan in Trondheim, which has roots going back a thousand years, and in that way piqued interest in Latin among gymnasium school students. The university is otherwise generally pretty bad at keeping in contact gymnasium schools; we think that the students know too little, but unfortunately we really don’t do much about it.”

G U N H I LD V I D É N WO R K E D in Trondheim for ten years. And she says that the atmosphere is more generous there, Norwegians tend to tell it like it is, which is hot always the case in Sweden.

“I could get an encouraging pat on the back when things went well; this rarely happens here. But one is also more clear about their dissatisfaction, which makes it easier to understand what is wrong than what one generally experiences in Sweden, and that is

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Profile

GUNHILD VIDÉN PROFESSION: Professor of Latin, Deputy Head of Department for Research and Doctoral Studies in the Department of Languages and Literatures.

CURRENTLY: Responsible for the elements in Latin during the conferment of doctoral degrees ceremony, 24 October, and for the Latin text on the diplomas.

OTHER ACTIVITIES: Vice Chairman of the Swedish Classics Association, Vice Chairman of the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg, sits on the board of directors of the Fédération internationale des associations d’Etudes Classiques. Is the author of the book, Women in Roman Literature: attitudes of authors under the Early Empire (1993), among other publications.

AGE: 62 years old.

FAMILY: Särbon Anders Wiklund, professor at the Academy of Music and Drama.

SOMETHING THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW: Gunhild Vidén likes kayaking at her summer residence on the northern part of Orust.

INTERESTS: Choir and choral conducting, her summer home, travel and languages.

MOST RECENT BOOK READ: Hin gode och OD, a remembrance of Eric Ericson’s years as conductor of the Orphei Drängar.

MOST RECENT CINEMA VISIT: La grande bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino.

TASTE IN MUSIC: Classical, especially baroque music; choir music.

STRENGTHS: Laughs easily.

WEAKNESS: Can be overly meddlesome.

beating around the bush.”

When Gunhild Vidén came back to the University of Gothenburg in 2006, she ended up back in the thick of things. Ingmar Nilsson, Professor of the History of Ideas, ran in the election for dean, with Gunhild as vice dean, and won by a narrow margin.

Nevertheless, in the end it was Sally Boyd who was appointed dean.

“The Vice Chancellor wanted a woman and I had no objections to that. But it would have been fairer vis-à-vis the Nominating Committee if one had been more straightforward with what their intentions were.”

A few years later, in 2009, it was time for the reorganisation of the Faculty of Arts. Gunhild Vidén became the Head of Department of the new Department of Languages and Literatures formed by five former institutions as well as the classical part of the Department of Religion, Theology and Classical Languages.

“There was a lot to take hold of, among other things, some old institutions had major financial problems. Many were outraged and a part of being in a managerial position includes being the one that people get angry at. You have to listen to criticism, as sometimes it may be justified, but then careful not to take it personally. So the task was laborious but also stimulating. To walk in the hallways and alternately hear English, German, Spanish and Arabic means a great wealth. And I think that many today are feeling better about the situation than before the merger of the institutions, both on a professional level and on a personal level, because it is now easier to find colleagues to discuss with.”

How do you say that in Latin?

From the bottom of my heart: Ab imo pectore Forever yours: Semper Tuus/tua The family above all: Familia ante omnia

»In a choir, quite naturally everyone contributes with their different kinds of voices.«

B U T E V E N T H E new institution was hit by problems. A couple of years ago came the proposal to phase out the teaching in several languages, including the classic languages.

“What upset the employees most was probably the feeling of having an employer who did not understand what we are actually working on. The language one is engaged with is often a part of one’s own identity,” emphasises Gunhild Vidén.

After many protests, the result in the end was that Italian and Dutch were eliminated, as well as Slavic languages except Russian and Old Church Slavonic. But the classical languages, plus Arabic and Chinese, are still there.

“We recently hired two new teachers in Chinese, which has a great demand. Also several new positions in English are in the works, Arabic is expanding, and Greek has more students than ever. The new internatio-

nal language program seems to be going very well, and two programmes at an advanced level are planned, in world literature and in intercultural communication. The classical languages and Russian will be evaluated in 2016, and then we will see what happens.”

Currently, Gunhild Vidén is working halftime as Deputy Head of Department for Research and Doctoral Studies, and in addition is an academic mentor for PhD students as well as taking on some teaching. And on top of that, she even finds the time for a little research. What her interests are focused on currently include how people’s body image changed when Christianity began to spread in Europe in the first centuries of our era.

“For young Christian upper-class women, it could for example be difficult to find a suitable man, he would need not only to belong to the right class, but also had to be baptised. One way to escape this problem was to marry the girl to God, i.e. to allow her to enter a convent. Then the dowry also went to the convent which was one reason why the church eventually became very rich.

Life in a convent might seem boring but was nevertheless an alternative to marriage, an alternative that gave girls the possibility to devote themselves to intellectual work.

A M A R R I E D WO M A N should wear a veil, especially in the church, but the question was also if young girls should veil themselves.

“The philosopher Tertullian lived in the second century A.D., and remarked how admirably veiled Arab women were. So those who believe that the veil is an Islamic invention are wrong; it existed long before, both in the Arab and the Christian world.”

The body interests Gunhild Vidén also in a different context. She has been singing in choirs since her student days, attended conducting classes at the Sveriges Körförbund (Swedish Choral Society), and for five years was the leader of the chamber choir Vox Magna. Breathing techniques and what one can do with their voice fascinates her.

“In a choir, quite naturally everyone contributes with their different kinds of voices. That these can develop together into a sound that is much greater than the parts never ceases to amaze me. With my choirs, I have travelled to a lot of different places all over the world, in addition to Rome also, for instance, to Iceland. We have sung Hälsa dem där hemma [Greet Them at Home] for teary-eyed Swedish-Americans in the United States and changed clothes in a Hungarian priest’s kitchen. I the cathedral in Siracusa, on 13 December we sang their Lucia song in four part harmony and got applause in the middle of the mass. But one of the biggest events was on 17 May 2005. On the National Day of Norway, me, a Swede, led the choir of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim when it sang the most Norwegian of the Norwegian, Våren (The Last Spring) by Edvard Grieg.”s

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GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

s s of ces

le sén, usic sity

Global Week is arranged annually at the University of Gothenburg.

The purpose is to highlight the University’s ongoing research and education within global issues. The theme for 2014 is global health and 34 different and open seminars make this year’s programme.

Almost all faculties have contributed to the programme. We hope that all staff at the University can take time to participate in some of the lectures during the week.

.

th oes h

PROGRAMME

November 17–21 2014

s?

es

MONDAY NOVEMBER 17TH 13.00-15.30 Global Week: Annual Lecture on Global Collaboration The opportunity of uncertainty: new directions in global health.

The key-note speaker for Global Week is Richard Horton, Editorin-Chief at the Lancet. After his speech a panel discussion will take place debating global health from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Richard Horton will be moderating this discussion. Researchers and students from the University of Gothenburg will be part of the panel as well as invited national and international guests.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 18TH 18.00-19.30

d

,

Some of the highlights during the week:

Theme: Global Health Check out the programme and mark your calendars. Welcome to an exciting week!

The Ebola virus epidemic Some have declared the Ebola outbreak to be the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times. Take the chance to learn more about the virus, its spread and the situation in the WestAfrican countries suffering hardest from the outbreak. In this panel discussion you will learn more about the virus, its spread and the roles and responsibilities of the international community and help organizations.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 19TH 16.00-17.30 The historical mortality decline We will present an overview of the development, discuss the possible causes of the historical developments and changes of life course effects and provide the example of the decline in dysentery mortality in Sweden.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20TH 14.00-15.00 Resilience of health services under conflilcts: UNRWA’s experience in Gaza and Syria

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21TH 11.15-12.00 Heat stress across European cities Exposure to heat may cause severe illnesses and deaths during intense heat events. People living in urban areas are particularly vulnerable due to the urban climate conditions.

Read more at www.globalweek.gu.se #globalweekgu @GlobalWeek Welcome to Global Week!

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Feature

With the whole world as a workplace Grew up in the United States with Swedish parents, is married to a Venezuelan, and actively conducts research in Bosnia. Since 2011, social anthropologist Monica Lindh de Montoya has been living and working in Gothenburg.

“I never thought about that thing with identity until just recently.”

O R T H E PA ST three years, Monica Lindh de Montoya has been a senior lecturer at the Department of Global Studies, where she teaches the undergraduate introductory course in social anthropology and a practical course in methodology for students in how to write an academic paper/thesis.

And it is in her contact with the students that she has begun to reflect on the concept of identity.

“They are, at this age, thinking more and more about such things. It is not surprising that it becomes part of our discussions.”

“But I do not want it to be important. However it is clear that where one comes from informs a lot of in terms of who one is. When I’m in the US I feel at home, and when my husband comes to a Spanishspeaking country, he appreciates it a great deal that everybody speaks Spanish.”

I N T H E T E AC H I N G , the concept of “a third identity” has been discussed. It occurs in multicultural environments and it is all about not seeing oneself as particularly one or the other, but rather more as both.

“National identity changes over the years if one moves to another country. If you are a refugee or are forced to leave for financial reasons, you be amenable to creating a belonging in your new country.”

Monica Lindh de Montoya argues that the question of identity is too easily associated with national origin, however it is about much more than that.

Gender, age, class. Identity can also be locally bound, as in a neighbourhood in Gothenburg for instance, or that one has grown up in a particular region. It can be about family and clan, or even professional identity.

And of course, so too with the language – the very form of expression of identity itself.

We get together on a sunny September day in her office at Campus Linnaeus, close to Linnéplatsen.

The room that she just moved into is located in the former maternity hospital. And where many Gothenburgers first saw the light of day.

“Several of my colleagues were actually born in this building.”

Monica invites me to sit down in a blue armchair.

The room is bright, comfortable and cosy, with manicured green plants and a large colourful rug on the floor.

M O N I C A LI N D H D E M O N TOYA grew up in the United States, north of New York City, in a community called Schenectady. Her mother and father emigrated to the US from Sweden in the late 1940s.

“When I was two years old, we moved back to Sweden. My parents were keen that I would be Swedish. We lived in Vällingby in Stockholm; I have very few memories from there.”

After two years in Sweden, her father accepted an offer to work for General Electric in Massachusetts and the family took the boat across the Atlantic. The plan was that they would stay for two years but to this day, her parents still live in the United States.

Monica Lindh, as she was then called, attended university in the US and came to Uppsala as an exchange student for over a year in order to study comparative literature. Back in the United States, she obtained a master’s degree in the field of “creative writing.”

“The reality was that there were difficult times there with the economy back then and it was hard to get a job. So I returned to Uppsala to study American literature.

B U T S H E FO U N D she wasn’t particularly interested in the subject and instead began to study social anthropology. And that was it. Then she met her husband who was already living in Sweden, and they settled in Stockholm.

But she has also done quite a bit of traveling around the world.

This has been about Bosnia in recent years.

Monica Lindh de Montoya runs a research project

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

came from. This is a prerequisite in order to receive compensation for reconstruction.

“I can understand the desire to fight the ethnic cleansing that was going on and therefore there is a desire to get people to go back to wherever they came from. But for many, it is quite simply a fact of life that there are no jobs there. How will they possibly support themselves?”

Over the years, Monica Lindh de Montoya has resided in Bosnia for several extended periods of times. She has studied the language, but finds that the grammar is a bit complicated. Therefore, she works with an interpreter. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by a university student.

Next summer, she expects to return to Bosnia to write her report or a book. The reason that she chose Bosnia was because in the early 2000s

on financial resources and family strategies in the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“During the war in the Balkans, both home and industries became destroyed. 50 percent of the homes were either completely destroyed or badly damaged.”

It was in 1992 that the war in former Yugoslavia reached Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over one million people became refugees. Even today, more than 20 years later, the wounds of war remain deep.

When industries were destroyed jobs also disappeared. And many lost their personal savings when the banking system collapsed.

Last year Monica Lindh de Montoya began a project where she interviewed people in Bosnia discussing on things have developed, particularly if they have managed to restore their homes and if they have received any help from the community.

Then last spring, she returned to Bosnia where she also interviewed around 30 people at the governmental agencies, organisations, banks and the similar institutions.

To find people willing to be interviewed did not prove to be so easy. For those who have not managed to rebuild their destroyed homes, it may be sensitive to talk about. Monica Lindh de Montoya was greeted by locked gates.

The path to gaining access to the interviewees went through a former colleague and interpreter in Bosnia. With her assistance, Monica Lindh de Montoya interviewed people in public places in two of the worst war-affected areas in Sarajevo.

“It worked out very well; there were often long conversations. Many people said they paid for the reconstruction themselves. I thought that was odd considering all the money that flowed into Bosnia for just that particular purpose.”

But she found that the reason people do not receive any compensation is because they did not move back to the particular town or village they

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she was there as a consultant for USAID, and she thought it was a fascinating country and wanted to return.

“I thought that I just simply had to find an interesting research project that takes me back there.”

Previously, Monica Lindh de Montoya worked in Venezuela. She earned her PhD in 1996 with a doctoral dissertation on a village in an agricultural area there. Her husband, who is also a social anthropologist, ran a project relating to the building of dam in a neighbouring village.

B U T T H E P O LITI C A L S IT UATI O N in Venezuela has changed dramatically.

“Today, it is more complicated to work there.

There are so many security issues, and so much more violence now than when we lived there.”

Though she misses the landscape and the people of Venezuela, it is too risky to return today.

“The country is heavily indebted and the political situation is extremely polarised. There is no dialogue between the parties. Many highly educated people are leaving the country. In my husband’s family, many have already left the country.”

Where is home for you?

“I simply don’t know ... Not in the US anymore; I have not lived there for such a long time. And it is difficult today to say Venezuela. Perhaps Sweden, by process of elimination. Or Bosnia ...”

Now she’s actively engaged in trying to learn more and more about Gothenburg.

“It’s exciting with a new city. Actually, I think Gothenburg is a friendlier place than Stockholm.

People seem to have more time to talk. It’s probably happier and more pleasant here.”

TEXT: ANNIKA HANSSON PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

MONICA LINDH DE MONTOYA PL ACE OF BIRTH: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA. AGE: 61 years old.

RESIDES IN: Gothenburg.

FAMILY: Husband Miguel, social anthropologist.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: Education in comparative literature and social anthropology.

Worked as a social anthropologist in a number of countries, including Venezuela, Bosnia and Sweden.

PhD from Stockholm University in 1996. Has had consulting assignments from i.a. the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

CURRENTLY: Assistant Professor at the Department of Global Studies (since 2011).

INTERESTS: Fiction. Reads detective stories to relax. “When I’m tired, I want something lighter.” Garden. “I don’t have a garden, but like plants.”

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Feature

Modern science challenges our view on what it means to be a human being, points out top-researcher Paul Russell.

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GUJOURNAL 6 | 2014

Moral philosophy in the interest of all Musical, good at maths, or the best in the school at hockey? That people have different talents is hardly a controversial fact.

But are we also different when it comes to moral responsibility? If this is so, what would the consequences be for the society at large?

Those are some of the questions Paul Russell is interested in. He is one of the top researchers the University of Gothenburg has recently recruited.

T I S I N T H E M I D D LE of October and Paul Russell, professor at the University of British Columbia, is on a three days visit to Gothenburg. He is already infused with enthusiasm; with the help of SEK 80 million from the Swedish Research Council, and an additional SEK 36 million from the University of Gothenburg, he was recruited to help develop the MRRI, the Moral Responsibility Research Initiative.

“It’s such a generous grant! I’ll be able to bring in graduates, PhDs, post docs and interesting visiting professors. And the group I’ll be joining is already significant.

All this gives a very unusual possibility to create something really important.”

Despite the pouring rain Paul Russell has only good things to say about Gothenburg.

“I’ve been in Stockholm and Malmö before and find the atmosphere and openness here wonderful. Sweden is one of the most humane societies in the world, and moving to Gothenburg will be perfect for me and my wife. We’ll keep a flat in Vancouver though; our two children, 24 and 22 years old, need a base there. And the rain doesn’t bother me - after all, I’m originally Scottish.”

PAU L R U S S E LL I S also an expert on the history of philosophy, and one of the questions that interests him most has been discussed since the dawn of Western philosophy in ancient Greece: “Actually there are three classic major philosophical questions: Does God exist?

Do we have an immortal soul? Is there a free will? Quite a lot of people can live with answering ‘no’ to the first two questions,

even though some, like Dostoyevsky for instance, found a life without believing in God to be meaningless. But the third question is special: can we really dispose of the idea of a free will?”

T H E Q U E STI O N I S old but the answer may be new. Because modern science might make us reconsider what it means to be a responsible human agent.

One example, from the beginning of the 1980s, is the world-renowned experiments by the neurologist Benjamin Libet. He asked a number of subjects to flex a finger, just when they wanted, and during the time being observed measured the activity in their brains. The astonishing result was that their brains registered the movement a few milliseconds before the subjects decided to move their finger.

»Can we really dispose of the idea of a free will?« PAUL RUSSELL

“How can we understand this? Should we let criminals defend themselves with “it wasn’t me, it was my brain”? What does it mean to make a decision and are decisions always conscious? And how can we discuss this with the general public without misleading simplifications?”

M O R A L Q U E STI O N S are difficult on an individual level. They get even more complicated when larger groups, such as entire nations, are involved, explains Paul Russell.

“The environmental issue is today’s biggest ethical challenge. For the sake of our children. we have to change the way we live. So it’s a puzzle that we don’t do more.

I myself both drive a car and buy things I don’t really need. We have to recognize that we are responsible, both individually and collectively.”

Modern science, with almost daily new genetic discoveries, also changes our view on how much of our behavior is a result of DNA.

“Luck plays an important role in all lives.

Mozart for instance was born with an enormous talent for music, in a perfect musical environment. We all acknowledge that we are not responsible for our talents when it comes to music, artistic creativity or within sports. But when it comes to ethics we think differently. Even though some people may be more prone to crime than others because of their genetic make-up, we still think they should be held accountable for what they do. So on the one hand, we are responsible for our actions, on the other hand, we are subject to luck.”

TO B E A PH I LO S O PH E R may seem like a rather unworldly occupation. But Paul Russell hopes that the work that he and his colleagues at the MRRI pursue will have some practical implications in our society and in ordinary people’s lives.

“I don’t think we can make dramatic changes overnight in the way people think, but we can encourage reflection, both among professionals, for instance within the law profession, and among the general public. I really think we can do something significant, and that Gothenburg is the perfect place to do it. After all, Canada got the hockey playing Sedin brothers from Sweden, so in return Sweden now gets me, which is clearly not a fair deal for Sweden but I will still do my best to contribute what I can …”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

PAUL RUSSELL Paul Russell, professor at the University of ­British Columbia, is recruited to the University of Gothen­burg to develop the Moral Responsibility Research Initiative research environment. His research primarily concerns free will and moral responsibility. He is also a world-leading expert on David Hume and will contribute to Swedish ­research within history of philosophy.

The Swedish Research Council contributes­ with SEK 80 million, and the University of Gothen­burg with SEK 36 million;the grants cover a period of ten years.

Peter Nordqvist was appointed honorary doctor at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Students from the Academy of Music and Drama performed.

Conferment of Doctoral Degrees 2014!

Outside, a chilly Gothenburg; inside, a magnificent gala. There was festive mood when 850 people celebrated the university’s most important ceremony.

H E A N N UA L conferment of doctoral degrees took place with the usual pomp and circumstance. The festive occasion is, as Vice Chancellor Pam Fredman put it, an opportunity for the University to show appreciation for the outstanding work.

The ceremony commenced with an academic procession, where the Vice Chancellor marched together with all the participants and marshals, who bore the banners and flags, to Marsch by Bernhard Crusell.

Alexandrine Svenmyr, from Student Union Göta, one of the 40 marshals who helped out during the ceremony, said the procession went well, despite some difficulties with the banner.

“It’s old and fragile, and should not be touched without gloves, so I had to fend off all the movements in the best way I could.”

T H E T R A D ITI O N A L handing out of awards and honours, diplomas, rings, hats and laurel wreaths, followed their rituals. Several of the promoters and deans chose to speak Latin when they handed out the honours. In the programme script, Sture Allen wrote how Latin was the language of scholars due to that the universities grew out of the cathedral schools where Latin was spoken. Via that the language is used today during the ceremony,

the present is combined with the past.

The University’s joint awards and prizes, such as the Pro Arte et Scientia, Gunnar Svedberg’s prize, the joint collaboration prize and pedagogical prizes, were handed out. Moa Karlsson, a liberal arts student with an in-depth interest in environmental matters, received Gunnar Svedberg’s prize for the initiative, Fossil Free University of Gothenburg.

A N N A M A R I A KOZ I O M T Z I S , in a black jumpsuit, and Nina Norblad, in a white dress, who ingeniously presented each faculty in a commendable manner, provided accompanying contrasts to the eye. The HDK School of Design and Crafts student Sara Andreasson’s pictures in pastel colours appeared on large monitors with elements borrowed from each faculty’s sphere, which was placed in a rounded shape in order to harmonise with the earth and the global challenges theme.

Mathilda Johansson, chairperson of GU’s student unions, gave the thank you speech Wear your new title proudly! to the graduating PhDs. The audience had the experience of watching a young woman, dressed in traditional folk costume, who walked onto the stage with a red suitcase to begin her journey out into the world. A song and dance ensemble dressed in black formed a backdrop to the intense rhythmic music, movements and voices. The Gothenburg Academic Choir concluded with singing. This was followed by a mingle, banquet with speeches and entertainment, and later dancing to Tongångarne.

TEXT: HELENA SVENSSON PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Claes Göran Alvstam was honoured the prize Pro studio et scientia.

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