Professor Helen Peterson
IAS Residential Fellow
Örebro University
Helen Peterson is Professor of Sociology in the Department of School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden. She received her PhD in Sociology in 2005 from Uppsala University, Sweden, and became an Associate Professor/Reader (in Swedish: Docent) in Sociology in 2012, also at Uppsala University. Peterson has researched the Swedish higher education sector and the European science and innovation sector through a gendered lens for 20 years.
Using qualitative methods and theories and concepts from feminist studies, organisational theory and leadership research she has explored academic management and leadership, women’s careers in male-dominated fields, gender mainstreaming, policy implementation, transformational change, micropolitics and funding structures. Drawing on multiple Swedish and European research projects, her work has been published in both national and international peer-review journals. She was the first to publish on the academic glass-cliff. She has received multiple national and international research grants, among them three projects funded by the European Commission. Currently (between 2025-2027), Peterson is the PI of a network grant from the Swedish Research Council: REACHING. Reframing Educational and Academic Leadership to Respond to Challenges in neoliberal Higher Education – Intersectional and Gender perspectives, which includes researchers from 14 countries. She has served as expert on national and international boards and committees addressing gender equality in higher education and evaluating science and is frequently invited to give speeches on these topics.
During their IAS Fellowship, Professor Peterson will be collaborating with Dr Sarah Barnard from the Loughborough Business School.