Johanna Ohlsson

Head of Department of Human Rights and Democracy, PhD, Senior Lecturer

E-Mail johanna.ohlsson@ehs.se

Johanna Ohlsson, PhD in Ethics (2019) is serving as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at the Department of Human Rights and Democracy at University College Stockholm (UCS), and a Researcher at Uppsala University (UU). Her research is currently centring on three projects 1) the role of human rights in democratisation processes in authoritarian states, 2) justice theory and its applicability to sustainable development in the Arctic, and 3) the right to reasoned decisions in Swedish public administration. Her research interests more broadly concern human rights, justice, sustainability, justification theory, peacebuilding ethics, and the role of human rights in public administration and student organisations.

2020-2022, she did a postdoc within the EU-funded project JUSTNORTH: Toward Just, Ethical and Sustainable Arctic Economies, Environments and Societies, primarily doing research on social and global justice. Prior to that (2019-2020) she directed the governmental program on human rights education in the Swedish public sector at Uppsala University. She holds a PhD (2019) in Ethics from the Faculty of Theology, in collaboration with the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) at Uppsala University. In addition, she holds a MA degree in Human Rights (2012) and a BA degree in Peace and Conflict studies (2009). In her PhD project, Dr Ohlsson explored questions of how and under which circumstances external states are justifying their engagements in peacebuilding activities in other states. Her thesis addresses and explores justification theory and is related to critical research on norms related to liberal peacebuilding and the responsibility to protect. The empirical focus of her dissertation is on the BRICS countries and the dissertation offer analyses of the foreign policy of Russia and South Africa.

Prior to her PhD studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI) in Windhoek, Namibia, and prior to that, as a research assistant on various projects (the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), amongst others) at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, at Uppsala University.

Johanna Ohlsson has been teaching at BA, MA and postgraduate levels, both at UCS, Uppsala University, and at the Karolinska Institute. She has been teaching and directing several courses at the multidisciplinary BA and MA programs in Human Rights and Democracy at UCS as well as the MA program in Human Rights at UU. She also has experience teaching the postgraduate course Introduction to Research, the MA program Religion in Peace and Conflict, and the Network of Humanitarian Action (NOHA) MA program and Euroculture MA program, both Erasmus+ programs, all at the Faculty of Theology, UU. Dr Ohlsson is also supervising degree projects, and happy to supervise PhD students.

Dr Ohlsson is serving as quaestor on the current praesidium (2022-2014) for Societas Ethica, the European research association for scholars in philosophical, theological and applied ethics.

Books

Edited Books

Articles

Book Chapters

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, 2023. Applying a Transnational Theory of Justice to the Arctic. In: Corine Wood-Donnelly & Johanna Ohlsson (eds.), Arctic Justice: Environment, Society and Governance. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 8-20.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, Przybylinski, Stephen, et al., 2023. Conclusion. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 257-286.

  • Przybylinski, Stephen, Ohlsson, Johanna, 2023. Indigenous Approaches to Justice. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 107-123.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, Skillington, Tracey, 2023. Intergenerational Justice. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 223-239.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, Przybylinski, Stephen, 2023. Introduction. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 1-14.

  • Mitchell, Don, Ohlsson, Johanna, 2023. Radical Justice: Anarchism, Utopian Socialism, Marxism and Critical Theory. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 75-90.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, Mitchell, Don, 2023. Radical Justice Through Injustice: Postcolonial Approaches. In: Johanna Ohlsson & Stephen Przybylinski (eds.), Theorising Justice: A Primer for Social Scientists. Bristol: Bristol University Press. S. 91-106.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, 2023. The conditions for reconciliation: forms, timing and normative potential. In: Book of Abstracts: ETHICS OF RECONCILIATION – EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES: Societas Ethica’s 59th Annual Conference 2023 Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). S. 51-52.

  • Ohlsson, Johanna, 2020. Agenda 2030 och mänskliga rättigheter - en ohelig allians?. In: Patrik Bremdal & Johanna Ohlsson (eds.), Mänskliga rättigheter i teori och praktik: Från idé till förvaltning. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB. S. 97-120.

  • Bremdal, Patrik, Ohlsson, Johanna, 2020. Avslutning: Att gå från idé till förvaltning. In: Patrik Bremdal & Johanna Ohlsson (eds.), Mänskliga rättigheter i teori och praktik: Från idé till förvaltning. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB. S. 267-271.

  • Bremdal, Patrik, Ohlsson, Johanna, 2020. Mänskliga rättigheter i teori, tillämpning och praktik. In: Patrik Bremdal & Johanna Ohlsson (eds.), Mänskliga rättigheter i teori och praktik: Från idé till förvaltning. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB. S. 15-21.

Conference Contributions

Other