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News

• 2026-06-09

  Ghosts, poetry and the struggle for justice in new research (cloned for translation)

  What can ghosts tell us about justice, history and the future? This is what Judith Tesfaye Kiros, PhD in English, has explored in her thesis Ghosts of the Black Atlantic: Hauntology and the Temporality of Justice in Black British Poetry.

  Judith Tesfaye Kiros has analysed the work of four black British poets in relation to haunting as both a theme and an ethical concept. Drawing on the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology – the idea that what is no longer present, or not yet present, nevertheless shapes the present – as well as the relationship between time and ethics, she examines how the ghost functions both as a motif and as a conceptual figure in poetry.

  ”One could say that hauntology is about how what is present is always permeated by what is absent,” says Judith Tesfaye Kiros.

• 2026-06-09

  Karlstad University part of Electrified Flexible Industry

  Three units at Karlstad University – Electrical Engineering, DAMI and Computer Science – are part of the large-scale project Electrified Flexible Industry. The aim of the project is to develop solutions for a more flexible, resilient, digital and resource-efficient energy system.

  Karlstad University’s role in the project is to develop AI-based solutions to enable companies to anticipate energy demand, prices and flexibility opportunities. This, in turn, will help companies reduce costs while contributing to a more sustainable energy system.

  “We will combine AI with energy data to enable smarter decision-making around energy utilization,” says Andreas Theocharis, Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and project leader for Karlstad University’s contribution to Electrified Flexible Industry.

• 2026-06-05

  Entrances have revised opening hours during the summer

  From Monday 8 June to Saturday 29 August, the university operates summer opening hours. The entrances will generally be locked. Staff and students can enter using a card and code. Kau City will be closed for the summer from Monday 8 June.

  The main entrances in building 1E will follow the opening hours of the University Library (see link below) and will be open 08:00–16:00 until Midsummer, 09:00–12:00 for the following two weeks, and then completely closed during weeks 28–31.

  Opening hours for the other entrances will be reduced from 8 June and will be fully closed from 22 June.

  Staff have access to the premises 24 hours a day using an access card and code. Students can enter using a card and code between 06:00 and 24:00.

• 2026-06-04

  The Interplay Between Tourism and Place

  The book “Tourism and Place Design: Designing Places to Live, Operate and Visit” offers new perspectives on tourism and helps advance the field – both theoretically and in practice.
  – The book shows new ways of understanding how tourism and places are shaped through their interaction with each other, says Mekonnen Tesfahuney, Professor in Human Geography at Karlstad University and one of the book’s editors.

  The book is of great significance for the Tourism and Place Design programme, as it is based on current research conducted at Karlstad University and functions as a kind of “in-house” textbook tailored to the programme.

  – Students will work with the content throughout their studies – which connects teaching closely to the research frontier, explains Mekonnen Tesfahuney.

  The work on the book has also strengthened collaboration between researchers and teachers at Karlstad University and contributed to a stronger sense of community around the subject.

• 2026-06-04

  New funding for cybersecurity graduate school

  Karlstad University has been awarded continued funding to further develop and expand the Swedish Graduate School for Cybersecurity (SIGS-CyberSec).

  The initiative is one of three industrial graduate schools receiving support from the Knowledge Foundation (KK Foundation). 

  – The new funding will enable the graduate school to recruit seven additional industrial doctoral students. The aim is to strengthen both research capacity and skills provision in cybersecurity for Swedish companies, a field where the demand for highly qualified expertise is growing rapidly, says Simone Fischer-Hübner, professor at Computer Science and Project Manager for SIGS-CyberSec.

• 2026-06-04

  AI, Disinformation and Crisis Preparedness in Focus at Customer Innovation Day 2026

  How does AI affect the way we work, how does disinformation spread – and how do we build resilient organizations? These were some of the questions at the center of Customer Innovation Day 2026 in Karlstad.

  Customer Innovation Day 2026 brought together researchers and professionals around the theme of tomorrow’s services. During the afternoon, a clear picture emerged: organizations of the future must combine technological curiosity with critical thinking and the ability to navigate an increasingly uncertain world.