HDK-Valand recruits two Professors of Design
HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, is strengthening the field of design by recruiting two new professors: Johan Redström and Åsa Ståhl. Both will start their positions during the 2025/2026 academic year and will play a central role in the development of both education and research.
Through the recruitments of Johan Redström and Åsa Ståhl, HDK-Valand is taking an important step in further establishing itself as a strong national and international player in the field of design.
– These are two strategic additions that will contribute to the further development of the research environment, meet the needs of our education, and strengthen both the discipline of design and the wider environment within the Faculty. Åsa and Johan bring knowledge, experience, and networks that will further enrich our environment and expand HDK-Valand’s interest in how art and design contribute to a sustainable society—socially, culturally, and ecologically, says Klara Björk, Head of Department at HDK-Valand.
Experimenting with new design practices
Johan Redström took up his position on October 1 and comes from a post as Professor of Design at Umeå University. He has a broad international background in both research and teaching and has played an important role in building environments and networks for high-level design education.
– For me, design is a field characterized by interaction and dialogue, and therefore something that continuously changes through an ongoing exchange with the surrounding world. In my own work, I have been interested in what happens when design encounters challenges that require us to reconsider the very foundations upon which our design practice rests, says Johan Redström.
– In recent years, I have worked extensively with design, democracy, and sustainability in relation to the digitalization of everyday life, particularly focusing on how technologies such as AI—which actively and partly autonomously make decisions, filter, and produce content—are beginning to take on roles we previously reserved only for humans. In my new role, I bring with me experiences of how, in collaboration with society, we can develop educational and research programs to investigate and experiment with new design practices, he continues.
Long experience in democratic development
Åsa Ståhl will take up her position on January 1, 2026, and is currently active at Linnaeus University as a researcher and educator with a focus on design, relationships, and sustainability. In her work, she uses participatory design, posthumanism, and feminist technoscience, and she has long experience of working with democratic development, holistic sustainability, and change processes directly with the public.
In recent years, she has worked on a participatory budgeting process for resource management, an exhibition on soil-logical design that evolves with its participants, and the development of study circles where citizens and municipal employees envision sustainable futures that can be implemented in their everyday lives.
– As a global collective facing interconnected crises—social, cultural, ecological, and economic—design and designers need to consider how we can respond in responsible ways. I bring with me many years of experience in integrated ways of working—experimentally, collaboratively, and process-oriented—across different fields of knowledge. I look forward to getting to know and anchoring myself in the vibrant environment in and around HDK-Valand, to create opportunities through various collective processes to grow in a smart and integrated way, says Åsa Ståhl.
