Rebecca Bengtsson Lundin

My academic background is in Journalism, Political Science and Communication for Development. I completed my PhD in Journalism at Stockholm University in November 2021. Prior to my PhD studies I worked as a media adviser, communicator and journalist - always close to civil society.

I'm currently teaching undergrads in Media and Communication Studies and Journalism Studies.

Teaching
In the autum of 2022 I'm teaching on the following courses:

• Medier i tid och rum (delkurs MKV 1)
• Medier, kultur och samhälle I (delkurs MKV 1)
• Medier, kultur och samhälle II (delkurs MKV 1)
• Metodologi (delkurs MKV 2)
• Metodspecialisering (delkurs MKV 3)
• Kandidatkurs i MKV (delkurs MKV 3)
• Att vara journalist (delkurs inom journalistprogrammet)
• Journalistiska metoder (delkurs inom journalistprogrammet)

Education
PhD in Journalism, Stockholm University
MA in Communication for Development, Malmö University
BSc in Political Science: Security Studies, the Swedish Defence University
BA in Journalism, Lund University

My research explores photojournalistic practices by investigating how spaces of (forced) migration, as well as the people and objects moving in and across them, appeared in Swedish newspapers in 2015. Employing Arendt’s notion of appearance in terms of both photojournalists in spaces of (forced) migration and others who are moving in and across these spaces, the results indicate that photojournalism, as a space of appearance, potentially stretches beyond the moment of photography. The findings further show that photojournalism practices do not only visualise events of (forced) migration, but they facilitate the appearance of, and encounters with, people in flight. The event of photojournalism offers a space which recognises fleeing as an action. By appearing in photographs, people in flight regain part of the spontaneity that they have been deprived of as stateless individuals, giving them an opportunity to reappear before others as subjects of rights. The thesis concludes that photographs should not merely be construed as representations, but rather as presentations anew, with people’s appearance in photographs being testimony to their ability to self-present.