NEWS The Faculty of Social Sciences at Umeå University appoints two new honorary doctors: a journalist and author with extensive experience of investigative work in northern Sweden, and an internationally recognized professor from South Africa focusing on global educational transition and the development of green skills.
Journalist and author Arne Müller is awarded an honorary doctorate for his prominent role as an investigative journalist with a focus on industrial transformation, mining, energy and climate policy and regional development.
Arne Müller, honorary doctor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, 2026.
ImageErland SegerstedtFor over thirty years, he has through independent and investigative journalism provided in-depth perspectives on how resource extraction affects the economy, society and the environment, with a particular focus on northern Sweden. His work is characterized by extensive document studies, economic analysis, interview-based empirical data and systematic review of political decision-making processes. Through his writing, he has become an important voice in debates on industrial growth, state support and regional development.
With a background in economics from Umeå University, Arne Müller has on several occasions been invited as a lecturer and also collaborated with researchers at the Department of Geography and the Centre for Regional Science. The honorary doctorate is a recognition of his exceptional contribution to critical knowledge development and public education on social issues of great importance for our time.
The Faculty of Social Sciences also appoints Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka as an honorary doctor for her groundbreaking research on transformative learning, for her global leadership in sustainability education and for her long-term and
Heila Lotz-Sisitka, honorary doctor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, 2026.
ImageJackie Groverewarding collaboration with Umeå University. Heila Lotz-Sisitka is an internationally recognized professor and Distinguished Professor at Rhodes University in South Africa. Since 2016, she has held a national research professorship focusing on how education systems around the world can respond to global change, including through learning for green skills. In 2000, she was awarded Africa's first professorship in environmental education and has since established herself as one of the world's leading voices in education for sustainable development.
Lotz-Sisitka has collaborated with Umeå University for over fifteen years, first within the national doctoral program GRESD (Graduate School in Education and Sustainable Development) and later within the STINT-funded collaboration SASUF (The South Africa-Sweden University Forum). Her contribution to the research environment at the Department of Applied Educational Sciences and other departments, as well as to the graduate school of educational sciences at Umeå School of Education, has been of great importance to both doctoral students and researchers at the faculty.