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International Fellows connected to Themes during 2025-2026 All three current Themes here at the Pufendorf IAS welcome international fellows during 2025-2026. The fellows work with their respective Themes once a week and also with other projects. You can get in touch with them through our coordinator. Are you curious about previous international guest researchers? Visit the webpage "International f

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/international-exchanges/meet-our-current-international-fellows - 2025-12-15

ASG 2023-2024 The availability of affordable energy is deeply embedded in our way of life and in our everyday practice. A stable and cost-effective energy supply is crucial for modern society in sectors such as building, transport and industry. At the same time, energy use is also a major source of emissions which are detrimental for climate and the environment. These emissions must be reduced in

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/energy-crisis-impacts-households-industries-and-energy-transition - 2025-12-15

ASG 2023-2024 The past century has witnessed technological advancements ranging from heavy machinery to computers to AI and Internet of Things. These developments have brought considerable innovation to humanity, but also pose significant threats to human rights. This ASG focuses on digital innovations by exploring the linkages between digital innovation and emergent digital inequalities in relati

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/human-rights-digital-inequalities-and-social-consequences-ai - 2025-12-15

ASG 2023-2024 The creative arts are an important part of society with a large number of practitioners providing music, art and literature to society at large. A large number of theoretical models and perspectives developed to illuminate the creative process specifically address music and writing, many of which also inform artistic and pedagogical practice. This ASG aims to share, highlight, and fu

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/artistic-and-educational-processes-music-and-literary-creation - 2025-12-15

ASG 2023-2024 Efficient and sustainable land use is at the heart of a debate on the global level where the interests of land owners, citizens and government are increasingly divergent. In Sweden, we are witnessing several land use conflicts related to sensitive topics such as forest management, organic farming and renewable energy. These conflicts are marked by an increasing polarization among act

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/de-polarizing-land-use-conflicts-sweden-multi-level-governance-perspective - 2025-12-15

Theme 2023-2024 Existential threat – a threat to someone or something’s existence – ranges from threat to the self (ordinary dying), to an ideology, and even to a society. Existential threat is a powerful force on individuals and societies, affecting our decisions often below conscious awareness. The primary mechanism is fear. Most recently, as we have reached the limits of what our planet can pro

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/relentless-existential-threat - 2025-12-15

Theme 2023-2024 The development of bio-based materials used in the field of medicine has reached a stage where material design is interconnected with information technology, with artificial intelligence (AI). The new materials have a number of properties that make them very attractive for biomedical application, but the development also involves a number of challenges; both scientific and social.

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/biomaterials - 2025-12-15

Theme 2023-2024 Rising sea levels due to climate change increase the risk of flooding and erosion in coastal areas. Historically, coastal protection measures in Sweden have been limited, but we now need to step up. However, climate adaptation is hampered by limitations in knowledge about the consequences of climate change - and future developments and governance systems are not updated to address

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/coastal-perspectives - 2025-12-15

Theme 2023-2024 All spaces and actions have an acoustic element to them. At the same time, questions of democracy in relation to everyday life — inclusion in, access to, equality of — play out across society. Sound has, in this context, a particularly disobedient quality — it does not obey visual, legal or ownership borders, and will be used as an element that crosses boundaries. Through the use o

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/sound-democracy - 2025-12-15

ASG 2024 People increasingly build identities and express their values through consumer choices. We seem willing to pay more, much more, for a product of a certain design. The last decades brought a design boom into product development. Simultaneously, development goals remind both individuals and organisations of the ecological challenges we face, that a future existentially sustainable life must

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/aesthetics-business-creativity-abc - 2025-12-15

ASG 2024 The term integration is often used when individuals who, in one way or another, are to be part of a community and contribute to societal unity. "European integration" also emphasizes a sort of unity, based on a common understanding of values, political cooperation, free movement, and so on. "European integration" is, therefore, a social construction. However, it significantly influences n

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/un-natural-borders-multi-disciplinary-perspectives-boundaries-european-integration - 2025-12-15

THEME 2024-2025 Climate change and related extreme weather events continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Given our current greenhouse gas emissions trajectory, it is now likely that we will overshoot the 1.5 oC target in the near term meaning that even successful adaptation actions may still not be enough to prevent loss and damage to both human and natural systems. The negative effects

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/ecological-loss-and-damage - 2025-12-15

THEME 2024-2025 This Theme wants to explore innovative digital methods that allow for the high-quality 3D reconstruction, simulation, and immersive study of sensory experience in ancient spaces, in particular spaces of worship. The goal is not only to digitally reconstruct these spaces from the archaeological remains but also to create a methodological tool for future research. How Digital and Exp

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/ancient-synagogues-and-human-sensorium - 2025-12-15

THEME 2024-2025 The past century has witnessed technological advancements ranging from heavy machinery to computers to AI and Internet of Things. These developments have brought innovation to humanity, but also created new threats to human rights. This Theme will challenge technological determinism and the digital imperative and explore how human rights and social justice need to be rethought to a

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/digijustice-rethinking-digital-inequalities-and-human-rights-age-ai - 2025-12-15

THEME 2024-2025 Today’s principles for taxation requires that value creation (income) can be measured and tied to a geographical location and taxed there. Digitalisation and technology-driven globalisation challenge these principles as it becomes harder to both determine and measure value creation and tie that to a specific location. For example, what is the value of using Facebook or Google in Sw

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/digitax - 2025-12-15

THEME 2024-2025 This Theme addresses how recent advances in genetic technology can be misused in international power struggles, thereby violating human rights and compromising human security. Disinformation based on genetic data, defamation campaigns based on synthetic DNA, psychological profiling of political leaders based on their DNA sequences, weaponization of refugees carrying synthetic patho

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/themes-0/greyzone-genomics - 2025-12-15

ASG 2024-2025 This Advanced Study Group centres around the two keywords “Oaths” and “Courts”, and particularly the interaction between them. The independence and impartiality of judges, and the ambition to find the truth through judicial proceedings, have been defined by different types of oaths from Antiquity and onwards. The researchers will analyse the history of oaths and of independence and i

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/oaths-and-courts-forum-future - 2025-12-15

ASG 2024-2025 How the earliest forms of life arose on Earth is one of the great unanswered scientific questions. The fundamental question is in what ways and under what circumstances a collection of inanimate matter can be transformed into something that can be considered alive. One hypothesis is that the transition from lifeless to living matter is not a unique event, but in fact occurs spontaneo

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/neobiogenesis-inevitability-life - 2025-12-15

ASG 2024-2025 A significant number of healthcare facilities are rapidly reaching the end of their lifespan. Consequently, there is a wave of ongoing and planned processes for future hospital construction, locally, nationally and globally. But do these processes really consider all necessary aspects of health and wellbeing? Traditionally, the assessment of healthcare facilities has focused on proce

https://www.pi.lu.se/en/advanced-study-groups-0/next-generation-healthscapes - 2025-12-15

https://www.mcc.lu.se/startsida-mcc - 2025-12-15