Veronica works as a researcher at the Department of Thematic Studies: Environmental Change and the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research (CSPR) at Linköping University (LiU), and is affiliated with The Seed Box. An interest in development issues sparked from growing up in Tanzania and Nicaragua, and critical analysis of the relationship between foreign aid, science and development has been central in her research. The focus of her PhD thesis (at the Department of Thematic Studies: Technology and Social Change) was on the history of Swedish Research Aid: Aiding science: Swedish research aid policy 1973-2008. Using discourse theory and central concepts from science and technology studies, the thesis explored how a pioneer research aid actor portrayed the relationship between science and development and how this changed over time.
Her current work is focused on developing projects on the topics of climate related foreign aid as well as the relationship between climate change and migration. Building on her previous studies on Swedish research aid, one study focuses on the history of Swedish aid related to climate and environment. Another project in the making analyzes discourses concerning the relationship between climate change and migration. The policy and practice of aid and migration are not seldom sites of controversy due to past and present global inequalities, something that demands critical interrogation. Who defines the problems and the solutions? What imaginaries dominate and which ones are marginalized?
Veronica also works at the International Affairs and Collaborations Division at LiU, where she focuses on developing the university’s collaborations with universities in Africa.
LiU webpage: https://liu.se/en/employee/verbr90