About President Astrid Söderbergh Widding

The President is the University’s senior officer and has operational responsibility for all of the University’s activities. Professor Astrid Söderbergh Widding was installed as President on 1 February 2013.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding has a background in Cinema Studies at Stockholm University, where she obtained her PhD in 1992 with a dissertation on off-screen space in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. She was appointed Professor in Cinema Studies in 2000 and has held positions as Head of Department, Deputy Dean and Deputy President. In 2009 she initiated the Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, for which she was Editor-in-Chief from 2009 to 2012.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. She is Chair of the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions, member of the EUA Council and Board Member at the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Previous external appointments include roles as Chair of the Principals Council of the Wallenberg foundation, at the Board of the Fulbright Commission and the Board of the Swedish Film Institute. She has also been Chair of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation and film critic and media columnist in national daily Svenska Dagbladet.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding, president of Stockholm University. Photo: Sören Andersson

Personal
Born 27 May 1963. Lives in Stockholm.
Married, three children.

Present position
Rector/President of Stockholm University from 1 February 2013

Degree
Ph D in Cinema Studies, Stockholm University, 1992

Selected Honours

•   Award from the King of Sweden for meritorious efforts for Swedish universities 2018
•   Commander of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon 2018
•   Knight of the French Legion of Honour 2015
•   Fellow of the Academia Europaea 2020
•   Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences 2014
•   Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities 2008

Commissions

•   Chair of the Nobel Foundation, 2023–
•   Chair of the Stena Foundation Committee, 2022–
•   Chair of the Bibsam Consortium, 2016–
•   Vice Chair of the Magna Charta Observatory General Council, 2021–
•   Board member, European University Association, 2023–
•   Board member, Aarhus University, 2018–

Academic Positions

•   Professor of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University since 1 May 2000.
•   Docent (Reader) in Cinema and TV Studies, Turku University 1998.
•   Docent (Reader) in Cinema Studies, Stockholm University 1998.
•   Associate Professor, Stockholm University, 1992-2000 (leave of absence 1996-2000).
•   Research Fellow, Stockholm University, 1996-2000.

Previous Commissions

Supervised 17 Ph. D. theses 2001-2015, by Annika Wik, Marina Dahlquist, Jon Dunås, Susanna Paasonen, Anu Koivunen, Malin Wahlberg, Seppo Luoma-Keturi, Karl Hansson, Eirik Frisvold Hanssen, Therése Andersson, Henrik Gustafsson, Vreni Hockenjos, Malena Janson, Jan Christer Bengtsson, Hynek Pallas, Jakob Nilsson and Kristoffer Noheden.

Opponent for 10 doctoral dissertations, at the universities in Copenhagen, Gothenburg Lund, Oslo, Stockholm and Trondheim, 1998-2019

Member of 30 evaluation committees at the universities of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Stockholm, Turku and Uppsala, 1998-2012

Expert evaluator for 20 professorships and 16 positions as associate professor/senior lecturer in the Nordic countries and in the UK, 1998-2012

Chair of the Principals Council of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, 2017-2019

Member of the Swedish Government’s Research Expert Group, 2015-16, 2019-20

Member of the Board of Stockholm Environment Institute, 2013-2020

Member of the evaluation panel for competitive funding to strengthen universities’ research profiles, Academy of Finland, 2017-2019

Member of the evaluation panel for Aarhus University, The Danish Accreditation Institution, 2016-2018

Member of the Supervisory Committee of the National Library of Sweden, 2013-2019

Member of the Board of Letterstedtska Föreningen, 2013-2019

Member of The King Gustaf VI Adolf’s fund for Swedish Culture, 2012-2019

Deputy President for Humanities and Social Sciences, Stockholm University, 1 January 2012-31 January 2013

Chair of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation 2006-2011, Board Member representing SU 2012-2013

Member of the SHP evaluation committees, Norwegian Research Council, 2010-2012

Member of various committees, Swedish Research Council, 2002-2005, 2009-2010, 2011-2012

Member of the Board of Vetenskap och Allmänhet (Public and Science) 2014-2016

Member of the Board of the Swedish Fulbright Commission, 2008-2012

Member of the Board of the Swedish Film Institute 2005-2010

Founding Member of NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) 2006, Co-chair of the Steering Committee 2011-2013

Member of the Steering Committee for the research network WFHI (Women and Film History International), 2008-2013

Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University 2006-2011

Head of the Department of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University 2001-2005

Member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies since 2000

Visiting Scholar at Turku University 1995, 1996, 2000; at Université de Paris VII-VIII and III, 1989-90, 2001

Cultural critic of cinema and media in Svenska Dagbladet, 1996-2012

Member of the Editorial Board of Signum, 1992-2012

About 300 public lectures 1992-2018

Research: selected external funding

Focusing Kopparmärra: A Study of Practical Terms in Filmmaking, with Göran du Rées and Kalle Boman, (Gothenburg University) 2010-2012 (Swedish Research Council).

Centre for Fashion Studies, Responsible for the establishment in 2006 and for the application for new funding in 2010 (The Erling-Persson Family Foundation).

The Ingmar Bergman Digital Archives, Initiated the project, led with National Librarian Gunnar Sahlin 2008-2010 (Government funding).

Writing the History of Swedish Experimental Film, with John Sundholm (Karlstad University) and Lars Gustaf Andersson (Lund University) 2008-2010 (Swedish Research Council)

Journal of Aesthetics and Culture (Open Access Humanities Journal), Initiator and Editor in Chief 2009-2012 (Swedish Research Council)

Europe in Cinema, Cinema in Europe, ESF network led by Luisa Passerini, University of Turin, 2004-2006 (European Science Foundation)

Silent Cinema in Transition, 1994-1996 (Swedish Research Council)

List of publications

Books

Föreställningar om filmbilden, Umeå: Atrium förlag, 2017 (127 s)

A History of Swedish Experimental Film Culture – From Early Animation to Video Art, m Lars Gustaf Andersson och John Sundholm, Stockholm: KB, London: John Libbey, 2010 (250 s.)

Våldsamt populärt, 1990-talets mest sedda filmer och videogram, Våldsskildringsrådets skriftserie nr 25, 2000 (163 s)

Montage – om film, Stockholm: Bonnier Essä 2002 (m Carl Johan Malmberg och Anna Sofia Rossholm, 92 s)

Stumfilm i brytningstid. Stil och berättande i Georg af Klerckers filmer, Stockholm: Aura förlag, 1998 (268 s)

Nordic National Cinemas, m Tytti Soila och Gunnar Iversen, London & New York: Routledge, 1998 (262 s)

Blick och blindhet, Stockholm: Bonnier Alba, 1997 (106 s)

Gränsbilder. Det dolda rummet hos Tarkovskij, (akad. avh.) Stockholms Universitet 1992 (151 s)

Anthologies

Not So Silent: Women in Cinema Before Sound, m Sofia Bull, Stockholm Studies in Film History 1, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis 2010

Konst som rörlig bild – från Diagonalsymfonin till Whiteout, Stockholm: Langenskiöld förlag 2006 (224 s)

Moving Images: From Edison to the Webcam, m John Fullerton, London etc: John Libbey, 2000 (201 s)

Cinema Studies Into Visual Theory?, D-Vision Yearbook, vol 1, Turku:

School of Arts, Literature and Music, 1998 (m Anu Koivunen, 215 s)

Flyktigheten fångad. Att skriva filmens historia, Stockholm: Aura förlag, 1995 (200 s)

Sätt att se. Texter om estetik och film, Stockholm: Thomas Fischer & Co, 1994 (230 s)

Peer reviewed articles

"How to Train a Director - Film Schools in the Nordic Countries", A Companion to Nordic Cinema, Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist eds, Wiley Blackwell, 2016, 105-124

”Same Old Pictures”, Making a Difference, Rethinking Humanism and the Humanities, Niklas Forsberg och Susanne Jansson red, Stockholm: Thales 2011, 279–292

”Repetition, Recollection, Recreation”, Codex and Code, Aesthetics, Language and Politics in an Age of Digital Media, Stockholm: Nordic Association for Comparative Literature (Norlit), 2009

”Livsåskådning”, Film och andra rörliga bilder – en introduktion, Anu Koivunen red., Stockholm: Raster 2008, 175-186

”A Full Integration With Film History: A Tribute to Ingmar Bergman”, Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol 29:1, 2008, 36-40

”A Display Case for Everyday Wonders”, Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol 28:2, 2007, 149-153

”Deus Absconditus. Between visible and invisible in the films of Tarkovsky”, Through The Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Gunnlaugur A Jónsson and Thorkell Á Óttarsson red, Cambridge: CSP 2006, 152-167

”Ambiguous Modernities. Images of Women in Hasselblad Films”, North-West Passage, Carocci editore/Universita degli Studi di Torino, 3:2006, 59-65

Contact

E-mail: registrator@su.se

Last updated: May 11, 2023

Source: Communications Office