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Susanna Radovic

Senior Lecturer

Department of Philosophy, Linguistics, Theory of Science
Telephone
+46 31-786 20 28
+46 766-18 20 28
Mail
susanna@filosofi.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
J570
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

Avd-/Sektionschef, Inst

Philosophy and Logic unit
Telephone
+46 31-786 20 28
+46 766-18 20 28
Mail
susanna@filosofi.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
J570
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Susanna Radovic

Research

After her doctorate in 2005 when she defended a thesis on introspection, Susanna's research has mainly focused on philosophical issues in connection to the area of forensic psychiatry. She has been involved in various inter-disciplinary collaborations, working together with researchers from psychiatry, psychology, and law. Here she has e.g., focused on the concept of accountability, its definition, how to assess whether someone is accountable and in what way the requisite can and should be used in criminal law. These issues have been addressed from different perspectives in her work, partly by means of conceptual analysis, but also by interview studies with mentally disordered criminal offenders and analyses of forensic psychiatric assessments.

During the years 2010 - 2014 she led a research project financed by the Swedish research council (VR) about delusions. Together with Filip Radovic she studied what delusions are, how they arise and how to treat delusions within a legal framework. The project combined psychiatric empirical data (descriptions of delusional content from forensic psychiatric assessments) with phenomenological and conceptual studies.

During the years 2014 – 2018 she was primarily working in a project financed by VR about expertise, evidence and ethics in decisions about compulsory psychiatric care. The project is trans-disciplinary and form part of the research conducted at the Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM). Co- researchers were Lena Eriksson (PI), Moa Kindström Dahlin, and Sven Pedersen. Scholars from the fields of legal philosophy, theory of science, psychology and jurisprudence came thus together to analyse how legal decisions about involuntary psychiatric treatment are formed and motivated in the Swedish administrative courts, and how the ethical values ​autonomy, life and health and societal protection are balanced when applying the law. Of particular concern is the role of the medical expert in such judicial proceedings and how notions of legal and scientific objectivity are established and maintained in practice.

From 2021 to 2026, Susanna is participating in a research project funded by the Norwegian research council which by fusing philosophy, legal research, and mental health research, seeks to develop the legal understanding of psychosis and how it is related to criminal insanity. With the Norwegian medical model as a legal basis, the project challenges current insanity paradigms. Link to the project: DIMENSIONS

Since 2025 Susanna is PI for a project about rationality in criminal law financed by the Swedish research council. Co-applicant is Tova Bennet, lecturer in criminal law at Lund University.  Gustavo Fernandez Walker, docent and researcher in history of philosophy at FLoV is also a researcher in the project. The project aims to explore how rationality and irrationality are operationalized in forensic psychiatric and criminal law practice. The focus is on rules regarding criminal responsibility and sanctions for offenders with mental disorder or disabilities, where irrationality is often referred to both as a justification for differential treatment and as a practical tool for identifying who should be treated differently.

Interactions with society

Between 2012 and 2024 Susanna was  director of CELAM. Susanna gives on a regular basis lectures covering aspects of ethics in compulsory care to personell working in forensic psychiatric care or with forensic psychiatric evaluations.

Expert consultation

Susanna has performed several commissioned reports, expert consultations and other services for Swedish public agencies. She has been a member of the Västra Götaland County Government ethics council connected to projects within the EU Horizon 2020 program.

Teaching and supervision

Susanna's teaching in philosophy is focused on thesis supervision, examination and seminar moderation.

Administration

Susanna is head of the Philosophy and Logic unit at Flov.