The CREST Seminar Series
In this weekly seminar series, participants engage in a conversation on new scholarly literature at the intersection of political philosophy and cultural and social theory, and present papers arising from their own ongoing research. It is open to anyone interested in grappling with the social facets of the ecological, technological, and/or geopolitical changes and challenges of our time, and in exploring ways to theorise the unpredictable yet continuous emergence of social worlds and relations.
A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest.
Michel Foucault, 1981
Mondays, 13.15 – 15.00, Karlstad University
October 5, Minerva and Zoom
Experiences of (Non-)support from a Life Story Perspective of Girls and Young Women in Criminal Gangs: A Critical Welfare Studies Approach. Paper by Maria Moberg Stephenson
October 12, Minerva and Zoom
Free Together: An Existentialist Guide to Intercultural Living. Fred Dervin, Routledge, 2026. Literature seminar with Fred Dervin
October 19, Humlan and Zoom
Workers in Elderly Care Speaking about the Lack of Opportunity to Voice their Experiences: Epistemic Injustice and Resistance. Presentation by Caroline Östman
October 26, Minerva and Zoom
Interaction, Emotions and Memories: Experiences of Theatre in Nursing Homes. Paper by Satu Heikkinen
November 2, Minerva and Zoom
Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0: Glissant on Religion, A Conversation between An Yountae and Benjamin P. Davis
The Coloniality of the Secular: Race, Religion, and the Poetics of World-Making, An Yountae, Duke UP, 2024.
Critical Secularism Studies in These Times, Charles McCrary, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2025. Literature Seminar
November 9, Minerva and Zoom
A Long Journey Home: Losing and Remaking Home following Conflict and Displacement, Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia, Berghahn Books, 2025. Literature Seminar with Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia
November 16, Humlan and Zoom
Violent Homes and the Uneven Geographies of Care Infrastructures. Paper by Lisa Hillerbrand Martín
November 23, Minerva and Zoom
Visualising Music Advertising in Nairobi’s Eastlands: Some Initial Reflections on Ephemeral Materials as Research Data. Paper by Nicklas Hållén and Mbugua Wa Mungai
November 30, Minerva and Zoom
Preparing Student Teachers to Teach Interculturally: Practicum Possibilities and Challenges. Paper by Valerie Margrain and Nina Thelander
December 7, Minerva and Zoom
Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful. Mirca Madianou, Polity, 2024. Literature Seminar
December 14, Humlan and Zoom
On the Inconvenience of Other People, Lauren Berlant, Duke UP, 2022. Literature Seminar
Previous Seminars
September 28, 2026, Minerva and Zoom
When Conflict Produces Solar Waste: Salvage Economies and the Gendered Lives, Afterlives, and Deaths of Solar Technologies in Yemen. Paper by Ekatherina Zhukova
September 21, 2026, Humlan and Zoom
Between Home and Non-home: Approaching Home through the Lens of Ambivalence. Presentation by Anna Pecurina
September 14, 2026, Minerva and Zoom
The Childhood and Adolescence of Girls and Young Women in Criminal Gangs in Sweden. Presentation by Maria Moberg Stephenson
September 7, 2026, 12C501 and Zoom
Rethinking Racism Again: Theorizing the Racial Structure ‘For Real, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2026.
Rethinking Racism Again? Assessing Conceptual Deadlocks and Innovations in Race Theory, Ali Meghji, Critical Sociology, 2026.
Literature Seminar
August 31, 2026, Minerva and Zoom
Difference and Togetherness: Everyday Race and Conviviality among Youth in Colorblind Sweden. Paper by Shahab Mirbabaei
June 8, 2026, 3A340 and Zoom
Relational worldmaking: Connectivity and Collaboration in Current Cultural Practices. Presentation by Doris Posch
June 1, 2026, Minerva and Zoom
Technologies of (In)security: Masculinity and the Complexity of Neoliberalism, Steve Garlick, Feminist Theory, 2023
The Nature of Markets: On the Affinity between Masculinity and (Neo)liberalism, Steve Garlick, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2020. Literature Seminar
May 18, 2026, Humlan and Zoom
Bodies Out of Place: Girls’ and Young Women’s Orientations in Racially Diverse Neighbourhoods and Urban Spaces in Sweden. Paper by Maria Moberg Stephenson
May 11, 2026, 3A340 and Zoom
Deconstruction and the Sociological Relationship Concept: Mutuality Reconsidered. Paper by Andreas Henriksson
April 20, 2026, Humlan and Zoom
Multiple Energy Transitions in Conflict Geographies: Parallel Institutions and Gendered Care Labour in Households of Yemen. Paper by Ekatherina Zhukova
April 13, 2026, Minerva and Zoom
Pierre Bourdieu’s Political Economy of Being, Ghassan Hage, Duke UP, 2025. Literature Seminar