Ylwa Sjölin Wirling
About Ylwa Sjölin Wirling
Background
Docent (2022, University of Gothenburg) and PhD (2019, University of Gothenburg) in theoretical philosophy. Born (1988) and raised in Malmö, BA and MA in theoretical philosophy from Lund University, as well as a BA in comparative literature.
Research
My main research interests concern epistemology, philosophy of science, and metaphilosophy, but my work also touches on issues in metaphysics and value theory.
I am an associate senior lecturer in theoretical philosophy here in Gothenburg and a Pro Futura Scientia XVIII fellow at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study in Uppsala, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond . My research project for Pro Futura, which is what I will mainly be working on during the coming years, concerns what roles epistemic possibility judgements do and should play at various stages in inquiry, and seeks to develop an account of epistemic possibility that can better help us understand the nature, value, and epistemology of such judgements.
Until recently (2020-2023) I was a postdoctoral fellow funded by the Swedish Research council, and as part of this I was a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester, U.K. That research project concerned epistemic value. Prior to that, I was a postdoc at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm (2019-2020), where I worked in a philosophy of science project called “Towards a Methodology of Modal Modelling”, researching scientific modelling practices that scientists and/or philosophers of science take to support possibility claims.
My PhD dissertation was in the epistemology of modality, entitled "Modal Empiricism Made Difficult", and available here.
I have an external academic website here, where you can find more up-to-date information on publications, talks, and work in progress.
Teaching
During spring semester 2025 I teach the undergraduate epistemology module on FT1100 and the epistemology theme course on our new web-based courses on advanced level in theoretical philosophy. I also lead a few seminars in the philosophy of science on the second semester of the Liberal Arts program.
Usually, I'm also available for supervision of student theses, and offer reading courses in epistemology and philosophy of science, at the BA and MA level in theoretical philosophy.