Rebecka Göransdotter is a second-year PhD candidate studying at the graduate school of applied history of education, via the Uppsala University. Her Master’s Degree is in Humanities, with a focus on Rhetoric. Her main supervisor is associate professor Johanna Ringarp, and her two assistant supervisors are associate professor Anne Berg and PhD Germund Larsson. She began her studies in August, 2020.
Interviewer: What was the topic of your thesis when you began?
Initially, the focus of my thesis was on girls’ secondary education at municipal (public) schools in Stockholm, Sweden in the mid-20th century. These schools were private schools for girls which were taken over by the state and re-shaped as municipal schools. The women who typically ran these private secondary schools were from the upper classes and included the first generation of women to obtain their PhD in Sweden. This spurred me to change my focus toward the administrators of the private schools which became the municipal schools I began with.
Interviewer: So, your topic has changed! What is your current topic?
Now, my thesis focusses on the first wave of PhD-educated women in Sweden, their views on science, and how their views were practiced in Secondary Schools for girls in Stockholm in the early 20th century. I plan to include a section about the municipal schools within my thesis, however: the policies of the municipal schools were impacted by negotiations between the government and the women running these schools.
Interviewer: How is studying within the International Graduate School? Are you able to connect with colleagues?
Collaboration within academia is something I find highly important. I am working together with other PhD candidates to write an anthology together, the New History of Education 2: Yearbook of History of Education in Sweden. The flexibility in coursework has also been a positive factor: I was unable to take a particular course due to scheduling conflicts and was able to make up for it with a different course.
Interviewer: What are you doing next to your coursework and thesis?
As a PhD candidate at Uppsala University, I teach from 16-20% of my contracted time. I mainly teach History of Education and Sociology of Education, both at the Bachelor level. Previously, I have taught Rhetoric and was a supervisor for teacher-student essays. Additionally, I am the Chairperson of the Humanistic & Social Sciences Doctoral Committee, representing PhD students of the Faculty of Education.
Interviewer: What did you study for BA/BSc (and where) and did you engage in something like a traineeship or a job between undergraduate and graduate school?
I have a bachelor’s degree in rhetorical and literary communication at the department in Literature, Uppsala university. I took one and a half year off and worked in a bookshop and at a law firm as an administrator. But I didn’t need more than a few months to understand that I missed my studies at the university. Applying for a master degree not only awakened overlooked dreams on continuing within the academia after my master studies, it also made me dare to take on an interest which I was neglecting during my bachelor studies, history of science.
Interview by Brandon Graham, MA, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
appliedhistoryofeducation.school.blog 