| BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
During the 90’s, I conducted field research and did development work as an SIDA expert in East Africa. After returning to Sweden I received my PhD in Human and Economic Geography at Göteborg University in 1999 with a thesis entitled; Livelihood Strategies and Land Degradation - Perceptions among Small-Scale Farmers in Ng'iresi Village, Tanzania. My networks and research interest in Africa, and particularly South Africa, has continued and expanded over the years. Already in year 2000, I started a collaboration with the Geography Department at Rhodes University. I am since 2009 appointed as Visiting professor to Rhodes University. In more recent years I have also initiated a close educational and research collaboration with the Department for Political Studies at University of Western Cape (UWC), and I am since 2017 appointed as Extraordinary Associate Professor to University of Western Cape.
Apart from my collaboration with South African universities, I have also been attached part-time as researcher and co-ordinator at the Department for Management and Engineering at Linköping University during the period 2007-2015. However, I have, since my employment started in 2001, always kept my base and main educational and research activities at University West. In 2009 I was appointed Associate Professor, and in 2018 I became professor in human and Economic Geography at University West.
I have a profound engagement and research interest focusing on the African continent, as well as in Sweden. I started in the 90’s focusing on rural sustainable development in Africa, which later also became a field of interest in a Swedish context. My research interests have over the years come to include also other areas such as; Sustainable Development, Creative Industries, Migration and Integration, Internationalisation of Higher Education, and Work Integrated Learning. In many of these research areas I have explored the concept of time-spatial approaches, largely developing the concept of Time-Geography initially founded by Torsten Hägerstrand.
EDUCATION/SUPERVISION
I have more than 20 years of national and international teaching experience at undergraduate as well as post-graduate level, giving lectures and courses in; Sweden, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, Ireland, Australia, USA, Norway, Denmark, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Fields of teaching includes primarily the subjects of Human & Economic Geography, Political Science, and Social Science with topics such as; Regional Geography (Africa), Demography & Migration, Global Production & Trade, International Political Economy, Rural Development, Local Economic Development (LED), Tourism Geography, Development in Theory & Practice, Political Ecology, Theory & Methodology, Time Geography, European Politics, and Work Integrated Learning (WIL)
I have over the years also gained extensive experience as Supervisor to Honours/Master/PhD projects at Institutions in Sweden (University West, Linköping University, Göteborg University), and South Africa (Rhodes University, University of the Western Cape - UWC). I have also been examiner committee member for PhD Degrees at various universities. |