Kerstin Hesselgren and Olof Palme visiting professorships to the Swedish Defence University

Victoria Basham and Roland Bleiker will be the holders of the Kerstin Hesselgren and Olof Palme visiting professorships, respectively, in 2026. They will be based at the Swedish Defence University during their tenure in Sweden.

Victoria Basham, the holder of the 2026 Kerstin Hesselgren visiting professorship, is Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

War preparedness and its implications for society

She is active within the interdisciplinary field of critical military studies, where she has played a crucial role in establishing and fostering the research area. She has been active within the field for over 20 years, researching how war and military preparedness shape people's everyday lives and how daily life, in turn, can affect wars and other geopolitical outcomes. She is also interested in how gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and social class shape the prioritization, use and perpetration of military force.

“We are delighted to soon welcome Victoria Basham to the Swedish Defence University. Her contribution to researching militaries, both in her own work and as the founding editor of the journal Critical Military Studies, has significantly shaped the field and our understanding of war”, says Annick Wibben, Anna Lindh Professor for Gender, Peace and Security and Deputy Head of the Department of War Studies at the Swedish Defence University.

Victoria Basham is Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University.

Researching NATO’s enlargement

During her time at the Swedish Defence University, Victoria Basham will research how NATO's enlargement, including Sweden’s membership, affects war preparedness and what it implies for societies.

“In addition to sharing her knowledge with students and staff at the Swedish Defence University, she will also help establish critical war studies research in Sweden more broadly”, says Annick Wibben.

How images and emotions shape conflicts

Roland Bleiker, the holder of the 2026 Olof Palme visiting professorship, is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland in Australia. He is also Coordinator for the interdisciplinary research program Visual Politics Research Program.

Roland Bleiker is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland.

His research focuses on how narratives, emotions, and images influence security policy and crisis management. During his stay in Sweden, he aims to strengthen the research field of images and emotions in Sweden.

"We are thrilled to invite Roland Bleiker to the Department of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University. His research is groundbreaking, and many of us have long been inspired by it, says Linus Hagström", Professor of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University.

"The purpose of his stay is to strengthen existing Swedish research environments that work in Roland’s spirit and to build closer collaborations with him and his international network", he continues.

More about the visiting professorships

The purpose of the Swedish Research Council's grant for visiting professors is to give higher education institutions the opportunity to develop a subject area by recruiting an internationally prominent professor during a limited period (6–12 months).

The Olof Palme visiting professorship is awarded to internationally prominent researcher focused on topics important to the pursuit of peace in a broad context withing the areas of social sciences, humanities, theology and science of law.

The Kerstin Hesselgren visiting professorship should be awarded to a foreign prominent internationally recognized female researcher in the area of social sciences, humanities, theology or science of law.