Bäckstrand, Karin

Karin Bäckstrand is a Professor in Environmental Social Science at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University. This new position is intended to strengthen environmental social science research and teaching at the faculty of social science as well as across faculties at Stockholm university through new collaborative research projects and new International Master Program in Environmental Social Science (IMPRESS) starting fall 2016). She co-directs the research group Environmental Policy, Politics and Learning (EPPLE), nominated as leading research area by the Faculty of Social Science.

Her primary research revolves around global environmental politics, the role of science in environmental decision-making, the politics of climate change and the democratic legitimacy of global governance. Bäckstrand received her doctorate in Political Science at Lund University in 2001. Between 2002 and 2004 she held a postdoctoral position as a Wallenberg Fellow for Environment and Sustainability at the Laboratory for Energy and Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During 2013, she was visiting scholar at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and was a senior member at St. Anthony’s’ College.