Organisational changes and new director

By ulrika [dot] liard_wedin [at] innovation [dot] lu [dot] se (Ulrika Liard Wedin) - published 25 January 2022

Photo of Ted Svensson and Andreas Johansson — Ted Svensson is, since January 2022, taking over the position as director of SASNET. Former director Andreas Johansson will continue to be affiliated with SASNET, mainly through a research project on the theme religion and politics in Sri Lanka.

In 2000, the Swedish development agency (SIDA) selected Lund University to host a new network that was focused on South Asia. The Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) has – largely thanks to the ambitious work carried out by the former directors Staffan Lindberg and Anna Lindberg as well as the former deputy director Lars Eklund – established itself as an important and well-known node for research on South Asia, in Sweden as well as globally.

Since 2015, SASNET has increasingly centred its activities on research that is carried out at Lund University. Andreas Johansson, an historian of religion, was recruited to oversee this process and in 2016, when Anna Lindberg and Lars Eklund left SASNET, Johansson assumed the position as the new director. One of his main goals, which was achieved in January 2018, was to secure permanent funding for SASNET from Lund University.

During his time as director, Johansson has sought to enable and promote high-quality research about South Asia at Lund University. As part of this objective, several research projects attending to the region have been associated with and supported by SASNET. Reflecting on his time as SASNET director, Johansson says that ‘I am extremely proud of the work of that has been done over the last couple of years. I want to thank my co-workers and the former directors Staffan Lindberg and Anna Lindberg for their support. With the new management SASNET will have a bright future’.

During the autumn 2021, Johansson accepted a tenured position at Karlstad University. He will, however, continue to be affiliated with SASNET, mainly through a four-year research project on the theme religion and politics in Sri Lanka.

Ted Svensson is, since January 2022, the new director of SASNET. Svensson is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Lund University and he has published extensively on state making and nation building in South Asia. In his role as a researcher, he is presently foremost committed to finalising a book about British indirect rule of South Asia’s princely states and to a research project addressing the environmental degradation of the Ganges.

Svensson is excited about having taken up the position as SASNET director and he is looking forward to, during the coming years, build on and add to the important work done by his predecessors. He is, in addition, immensely grateful that Therese Boje Mortensen has agreed to act as SASNET Coordinator.

For more information about Svensson's teaching, research and other commitments, see https://www.svet.lu.se/en/ted-svensson.