One of the most important parts of a research article is the introduction, yet many authors are struggling to write it. Even experienced scholars sometimes seem not really to know what the introduction should do for their paper. In this post, I’ll offer my two cents worth on how to write a persuasive and useful introductory section for an academic journal article.
We’re currently recruiting a total of six PhD students at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg.
This winter, I’ll be teaching Applied Theorizing again, a PhD course that aims to help PhD students develop their creative theorizing skills and advance the theoretical contributions of their dissertation projects.
I’ve recently published the article “The Self-Exempting Activist: Sweden and the International Human Rights Regime” in the Nordic Journal of Human Rights, 38(1), 2020.
Here’s the abstract:
This article seeks to account for Sweden’s evolving commitment to the international human rights (HR) regime since its inception in the late 1940s. Where previous research has explained Nordic HR exceptionalism in terms of values of solidarity and democracy in domestic society, this article instead develops a rationalist framework focusing on how governments assess the sovereignty costs states incur through their international HR commitments – costs which may increase as the international regime accretes authority and domestic groups gain opportunities for mobilising for compliance. Empirically, the article adopts a longitudinal approach to determine how Swedish governments have committed to international human rights norms in three historical episodes: the emergence of the European Convention on Human Rights; the era of international activism from the 1960s, and the domestication of international human rights law since the 1980s.
As of September 1, 2020, I am the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights, together with Professor Gentian Zyberi.
If you have an innovative, exciting paper or an idea for a special issue advancing the field, send it my way! The journal takes a broad and multi-disciplinary approach to human rights, in the Nordic region and beyond. It’s published by Taylor & Francis and it’s ranked at Level 2 in the Norwegian Scientific Index.
I’m much looking forward to contributing to the development of the journal and to build upon the dedicated work of previous editors over the years.