Team
This is the PregDem Team.
Elin Naurin
Elin Naurin is a professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow since 2017. Elin is the project leader of the Gothenburg Research Program on Pregnancy and Politics (PregDem). She has a wide research interest in theories and practices of representative democracy and focuses specifically on the role that pregnancy, childbirth and early parenthood play in the development of individual's' political opinions, behavior and knowledge about politics.
Elias Markstedt
Elias Markstedt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, and deputy project leader of PregDem. His work centers on gender and politics, political behavior, and survey methodology, with a particular focus on how major life events such as pregnancy and parenthood shape political attentiveness, knowledge and attitudes. He also studies gender gaps in the media visibility of politicians. He received his PhD in 2024 with the dissertation "Pregnancy and politics: On the gender gap in political knowledge, attitudes, and participation".
Moa Frödin Gruneau
Moa Frödin Gruneau is an Associate Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. She joined PregDem and the Department of Political Science in July 2024. Her dissertation examined assortative mating and political equality. Her broader research focuses on how gender and family shape political behavior and political equality, and she has led projects on historical political representation and gender. She also works on family ties in economic voting. Moa brings particular expertise in research design and administrative register data to the project.
Lucy Zheng
Lucy Zheng is a research consulant with the Gothenburg Research Program on Pregnancy and Politics (PregDem). She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Davis, with a dissertation project on personality development in adolescents. She has authored papers examining the influence of educators, family and friends, technology, and the self on socioemotional development, academic achievement, and general and health behaviors. In PregDem, she studies emotional, lifestyle, and political changes that occur throughout pregnancy and childbirth, and how time and identity play a role in these changes.
Dietlind Stolle
Dietlind Stolle is James McGill Professor in Political Science at McGill University and former Director of the Inter-University Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship. She conducts research and has published on voluntary associations, trust, social capital, ethnic diversity, immigrant integration, political participation, neuro-politics, democratic backsliding, and gender and politics. Her book “Political Consumerism—Global Responsibility in Action” (2013) by Cambridge University Press (with Michele Micheletti) won the Comparative Politics Prize of the Canadian Political Science Association. In 2021/22 she was a Fernand Braudel Fellow at EUI. Her current projects include research on the role of pregnancy for political (de)mobilization, political polarization, support for democrtic transgression, political and social consequences of COVID, adaptation of Syrian refugees and the political consequences of gender identity.
Helen Elden
Helen Elden is a Professor in Reproductive and Perinatal Health at the University of Gothenburg and research group leader for the Sexual, Reproductive, and Perinatal Health Research Group at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy. She conducts research on pregnancy, childbirth and the neonatal period, with a focus on contributing to excellent care for newborns and families. Her research has generated new knowledge about pregnancy-related pelvic pain and the induction of labour. She also teaches in the midwifery and master's programmes in reproductive and perinatal health. In PregDem, she contributes expertise in reproductive and perinatal health.
Verena Sengpiel
Verena Sengpiel is a professor and senior consultant in obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the University of Gothenburg. Her research focuses on epidemiological and clinical studies in obstetrics, with a particular emphasis on pregnancy, childbirth and pregnancy outcomes. She has extensive experience from longitudinal studies of pregnant women, register-based studies and clinical trials. Verena also initiated and led the COPE study, which examines the effects of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their babies.
Karolina Lindén
Karolina Lindén is a registered nurse, registered midwife and an assistant professor in reproductive and perinatal health at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Her main research focus is centred around experiences of pregnancy and birth in women and people with added medical risk, such as diabetes mellitus and preeclampsia. Further, Karolina studies factors associated with optimal care and is the primary investigator for the national COPE Staff study investigating working conditions for health care workers and organisational aspects of Swedish pregnancy, birth and neonatal care.
Petrus Olander
Petrus Olander is a researcher affiliated with the Gothenburg Research Program on Pregnancy and Politics (PregDem). He obtained his PhD in Political Science in 2018 from the University of Gothenburg. His research interests include satisfaction with care, pregnancy, trust and how transitions to parenthood affect views on politics and the state. He has worked on American political development, trust, economic diversification and institutional quality.
Lisa Berglin
Lisa Berglin is a PhD student at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Gothenburg and a resident doctor in obstetrics and gynecology at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. In her PhD thesis, she studies effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its consequences on pregnancy and maternity care.
Tanushree Goyal
Tanushree Goyal is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Princeton University, where she is based in the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs. She studies gender, political representation and political economy, mainly in India and other parts of the Global South. Her work combines fieldwork with surveys, administrative data, causal inference and AI-driven analysis. Her book Representation from Below: The Grassroots Origins of Women's Political Power in India is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press (2026).
