CEMUS Research Forum – CEFO

Who We Are
The Center for Environment and Development Studies Research Forum (CEFO) is a transdisciplinary research forum open to researchers and Ph.D. students at Uppsala University, SLU, and other universities in Sweden. CEFO activities focus on environment, development, and sustainability studies. We collaborate with other universities and departments to enrich research education through our transdisciplinary Sustainability Seminars, Ph.D. courses, workshops, lectures, and field trips. CEFO was initiated by Ph.D. students, staff, and students at CEMUS in 2002 as a research school between Uppsala University and Swedish Agricultural University (SLU).

CEFO is mainly driven by Ph.D. students from across Uppsala University, along with senior faculty support. Our affiliated members and other participants are from diverse departments and disciplines, bringing multiple perspectives to the discussions. We encourage conversations framed by problem, not by discipline.

What We Do
Twice per month we host a research seminar series featuring talks and workshops from CEFO members and invited speakers. We run skills workshops and organize field trips. We also initiate and run student-driven Ph.D. courses in collaboration with faculty and offer opportunities for getting feedback for your research from a wider audience. We welcome new members from all departments who hope to broaden their horizons. Seminars, workshops, and events are open to any interested Ph.D. students, researchers, master’s students, and the interested public.

Sounds Interesting?
Below you find a schedule of our activities which you are more than welcome to join. We would be happy to send you invites to our activities, by adding you to our sending list. If you are interested in that, please send an e-mail to our coordinator – kosma.lechowicz@geo.uu.se.

To become a formally affiliated Ph.D. student see the affiliation agreement and contact the coordinator (Kosma). If you are a master student or researcher we would be happy to include you in our group as a non-affiliated member. The more the merrier!

CEFO seminar series fall 2024:

The interdisciplinary seminar takes place Tuesdays 13:15-15:00 twice per month during term time in the Baltic Library, at the Department of Earth Sciences, Villavägen 16 and online on Zoom. The last seminar each term includes planning discussions where PhD-students and researchers suggest future activities. The seminar is hosted by affiliated CEFO Members and supported by CEMUS.

CEFO seminar series spring 2024:

CEFO seminar series fall 2023: Futures and Pasts, Here and Elsewhere

Spatio-temporal dimensions in research on (un)sustainabilities

Human-induced processes such as runaway climate change, technology dissemination and financial markets all tend to operate far away from equilibria, spinning away from societies’ attempts to govern them. Meanwhile, centralized planning systems and global patterns of production and consumption clash with place-based rationalities and realities. Global economic temporalities upturn ecological cycles and aggravate environmental injustices. With such a dramatic backdrop of conflicting and collapsing temporal and spatial scales, how can we know, theorize and empirically investigate our times and places? What temporal and spatial assumptions underpin our current research inquiries? How could we further sensitize our temporal imagination, our attention to place, and reflect upon the futures and pasts that our research practices are part of co-producing?

CEFO seminar series spring 2023: Research practice and societal change
Building on this fall’s seminar theme of “universities, democracy and the ecological crisis” this spring’s seminar series continues in a somewhat similar vein. We invite all of those presenting their research to also briefly reflect on the ways in which they relate their research to society, e.g. as a product of society, as made with society, or produced for society. How might your research impact society? What are the assumptions you have been working from when it comes to the relationship between research practice and societal change? And how has this shaped your methodological and theoretical choices over time?

Supported by
CEMUS Centre for Environment and Development Studies, an interdisciplinary center for education, outreach, and research at Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).