Person

Professor, Office Director
- Human Rights Studies
- Department of History
Deputy Head of Department
- Department of History
Contact information
E-mail lena.halldeniusmrs.luse
Phone +46 46 222 96 01
Room LUX:A213
Visiting address
Helgonavägen 3, Lund
Postal address
Box 192, 221 00 Lund
Internal post code 30
I am professor of human rights studies. My academic background is in philosophy (PhD practical philosophy) and law. I teach human rights theory and methods and am responsible for the Phd programme.
My research is in political philosophy and its early modern history, with emphasis on freedom and rights. I am interested in how moral concepts figure in political theory and how political values shape and are shaped by institutions and social change.
One of my research interests is the 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. My book on her political philosophy is available in English (Mary Wollstonecraft and Feminist Republicanism) and in Swedish (Mary Wollstonecraft, feminismen och frihetens förutsättningar).
I also do research on socioeconomic inequality. My latest project in that field concerns how the transition to a cashless economy impacts economically and socially vulnerable groups. The project is funded by Formas, the Swedish research council for sustainable development.
Research
My profile in Lund University research portal
- Lund Human Rights Research Hub (research leader)
- Human rights as law, language and space: Feminist activism in contemporary Egypt
- Minoritetsrättigheter och minoritetsskydd från första världskriget till idag med fokus på Åland
- Human rights in Swedish upper secondary schools
- Histories of Human Rights in the Nordic Countries (research leader)
- Liberty, Law and Leviathan (research leader)
- Mary Wollstonecraft and Feminist Republicanism (research leader)
I am professor of human rights studies, with a PhD and "docent" in practical philosophy. My first degree was in law.
My research is in political philosophy and its early modern history, with emphasis on freedom and rights. I am interested in how moral concepts figure in political theory and how values shape and are shaped by institutions and social change.
My book on the 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft – Mary Wollstonecraft and Feminist Republicanism. Independence, Rights and the Experience of Unfreedom – was published by Pickering & Chatto, London, in 2015. A Swedish translation – Mary Wollstonecraft, feminismen och frihetens förutsättningar – was published by Thales in 2016. More on the book here: http://www.pickeringchatto.com/titles/1822-9781848935365-mary-wollstonecraft-and-feminist-republicanism (Eng) and here: http://www.bokforlagetthales.se/index.php?sida=bocker&id=227 (Swe).
My ongoing research is on human rights and socioeconomic inequality. The project Cash studies how the transition towards a cashless economy affects vulnerable groups.
Follow me on Twitter: @LenaHalldenius
Follow me on Academia.edu: https://lu.academia.edu/LenaHalldenius
Books (5)
- Halldenius, L. (2016). Mary Wollstonecraft, feminismen och frihetens förutsättningar. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). Mary Wollstonecraft and Feminist Republicanism : Independence, Rights and the Experience of Unfreedom. The Enlightenment World, 30. Pickering & Chatto.
- Halldenius, L. (2011). Liberalism. Bokbox förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2003). Liberalism. Bilda Förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2001). Liberty Revisited. A Historical and Systematic Account of an Egalitarian Conception of Liberty and Legitimacy. Bokbox förlag. Dissertation.
Editorships (1)
Articles (19)
- Halldenius, L. (accepted/in press). de Grouchy, Wollstonecraft, and Smith on Sympathy, Inequality, and Rights. Australian Philosophical Review. Taylor & Francis.
- Halldenius, L. (2020). Epistemisk orättvisa – en kritisk diskussion. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi, 24, 4-20. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). Kvinnor och feminism i filosofin : introduktion till temanumret. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi, 19, 1-4. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). Tre frågor om diskriminering. Provocatio : en flervetenskaplig tidskrift för mänskliga rättigheter, 63-77. Avdelningen för mänskliga rättigheter, Lunds universitet.
- Halldenius, L. (2014). Freedom Fit for a Feminist? On the Feminist Potential of Quentin Skinner's Conception of Republican Freedom. Redescriptions. Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History, 17, 86-103. LIT Verlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2014). Mary Wollstonecraft’s Feminist Critique of Property. On Becoming a Thief From Principle. Hypatia, 29, 942-957. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Johansson, V., Garwicz, M., Kanje, M., Halldenius, L. & Schouenborg, J. (2014). Thinking Ahead on Deep Brain Stimulation: An Analysis of the Ethical Implications of a Developing Technology. AJOB Neuroscience, 5, 24-33. Routledge.
- Reuter, M., Halldenius, L. & Coffee, A. (2014). Mary Wollstonecraft: Philosophy and Enlightenment. Hypatia, 29, 906-907. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Halldenius, L. (2012). Hobbes om frihet, lag och artificiella handlingar. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi, 16, 28-39. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2012). Liberty, Law and Leviathan. Of Being Free from Impediments by Artifice. Theoria, 59, 1-20. Thales.
- Arrhenius, G., Brinck, I., Glüer-Pagin, K., Halldenius, L., Maurin, A. S., Tersman, F. & Wikforss, A. (2011). To the editor of Theoria. Theoria, 77. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2011). Kant on Freedom and Obligation Under Law. Constellations, 18, 170-189. Blackwell.
- Halldenius, L. (2010). Building Blocks of a Republican Cosmopolitanism: The Modality of Being Free. European Journal of Political Theory, 9, 12-30. SAGE Publications.
- Halldenius, L. (2007). Liberty and Law. Institutional Circumstances of Freedom. Redescriptions. Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History, 11, 99-114. LIT Verlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2007). Liberty, Law and Social Construction. History of Political Thought, 28, 696-708. Imprint Academic.
- Halldenius, L. (2007). The Primacy of Right. On the Triad of Liberty, Equality and Virtue in Wollstonecraft's Political Thought. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 15, 75-99. Routledge.
- Halldenius, L. (2005). Dissecting Discrimination. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 14, 455-463. Cambridge University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2003). Locke and the Non-arbitrary. European Journal of Political Theory, 2, 261-279. SAGE Publications.
- Halldenius, L. (1998). Non-Domination and Egalitarian Welfare Politics. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 1. Springer.
Book chapters (23)
- Halldenius, L. (accepted/in press). Mary Wollstonecraft. In Detlefsen, K. & Shapiro, L. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy. Routledge.
- Halldenius, L. (accepted/in press). Neo-Roman Liberty in the Philosophy of Human Rights. In Dawson, H. & de Dijn, A. (Eds.) Rethinking Liberty Before Liberalism. Cambridge University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2020). Mänskliga rättigheter som motstånd. In Rahm, H., Dunér, D., Hidal, S. & Jonsson, B. (Eds.) Skrifter, I Pallas Athenas huvud : hundra år av humaniora. Makadam förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2020). Political Theory. In Johnson, N. E. & Keen, P. (Eds.) Mary Wollstonecraft in Context (pp. 182-188). Cambridge University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2019). Feminist Republicanism. In Bergès, S., Hunt Botting, E. & Coffee, A. (Eds.) Routledge Philosophical Minds, The Wollstonecraftian Mind (pp. 404-416). Routledge.
- Arvidsson, M., Halldenius, L. & Sturfelt, L. (2018). Inledning : Mänskliga rättigheter i språk, praktik och samhällets institutioner. In Arvidsson, M., Halldenius, L. & Sturfelt, L. (Eds.) Mänskliga rättigheter i samhället (pp. 7-14). Bokbox förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2018). Filosofiska teorier om mänskliga rättigheter : en kritisk analys. In Halldenius, L., Arvidsson, M. & Sturfelt, L. (Eds.) Mänskliga rättigheter i samhället (pp. 35-54). Bokbox förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2017). Discrimination and Irrelevance. In Lippert-Rasmussen, K. (Ed.) Routledge Handbooks in Applied Ethics, The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Discrimination (pp. 108-118). Routledge.
- Halldenius, L. (2017). Mary Wollstonecraft and Freedom as Independence. In Broad, J. & Detlefsen, K. (Eds.) Women and Liberty, 1600-1800 : Philosophical Essays. Oxford University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2016). On the Use and Abuse of History in Philosophy of Human Rights. In Simonsen, K.-M. & Ross Kjærgård, J. (Eds.) Discursive Framings of Human Rights : Negotiating Agency and Victimhood. Routledge.
- Halldenius, L. (2016). Representation in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Political Philosophy. In Bergès, S. & Coffee, A. (Eds.) The Social and Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft (pp. 166-182). Oxford University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). Action, Politics and Human Rights. In Wiesner, C., Roshchin, E. & Boilard, M.-C. (Eds.) In Debate with Kari Palonen (pp. 75-79). Nomos.
- Halldenius, L. (2013). The Political Conditions for Free Agency. The Case of Mary Wollstonecraft. In Skinner, Q. & van Gelderen, M. (Eds.) Freedom and the Construction of Europe. Volume II Free Persons and Free States (pp. 227-243). Cambridge University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2012). Discrimination. In Friele, M., Kirloskar-Steinbach, M. & Dharampal-Frick, G. (Eds.) Intercultural Discourse - Key and Contested Concepts (pp. 247-255). Verlag Karl Alber.
- Halldenius, L. & Hume, D. (2012). David Humes politiska och ekonomiska essäer: Förord. Tankar om ett fullkomligt samhälle: Filosofiska essäer inom politik och ekonomi, 7-17. h:ström - Text & Kultur.
- Halldenius, L. (2011). Humes politiska filosofi. In Callergård, R. (Eds.) Förnuft, Känsla, Moral: Perspektiv på David Hume. Thales.
- Halldenius, L. (2011). Mångkulturalism och mänskliga rättigheter. In Andersson, D.-E. & Modée, J. (Eds.) Mänskliga rättigheter och religion (pp. 78-93). Liber.
- Halldenius, L. (2009). Liberty and its Circumstances – A Functional Approach. In de Bruin, B. & Zurn, C. (Eds.) New Waves in Political Philosophy (pp. 19-39). Palgrave Macmillan.
- Halldenius, L. (2008). Frihet och filosofi som handling. In Cronqvist, M. (Ed.) Hållbara värden. Årsbok från Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (pp. 63-80). Makadam förlag.
- Halldenius, L. (2008). The Tie that Binds: Cosmopolitan Obligation and the Primacy of Institutions. In Lettevall, R. & Klockar Linder, M. (Eds.) The Idea of Kosmopolis. History, Philosophy and Politics of World Citizenship (pp. 157-172). Södertörn Academic Studies.
- Halldenius, L. (2007). Genetic Discrimination. In Chadwick, R., Häyry, M., Arnason, V. & Arnason, G. (Eds.) The Ethics and Governance of Human Genetic Databases (pp. 170-180). Cambridge University Press.
- Halldenius, L. (2007). Svensk diskrimineringslag i filosofisk belysning. In Persson, J., Maurin, A.-S. & Egonsson, D. (Eds.) Insikt och handling (pp. 76-104), 22. Hans Larsson Samfundet.
- Halldenius, L. (2005). The Immorality of Emotional Response. Liberty and the Slavery Metaphor in Wollstonecraft’s Theory of Property. In Carlson, Å. (Eds.) Philosophical Aspects on Emotions. Thales.
Encyclopaedia entries (1)
Reports (1)
Reviews (1)
Articles in specialist publications and popular press (4)
- Halldenius, L. (2019). Wollstonecraft och revolutionen. Anekdot. Det digitala bildningsmagasinet. Stockholms universitet.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). En proto-feminist. Modern filosofi, 1, 63-65. Vetenskapsmedia i Sverige, Vetenskapsmedia i Sverige AB.
- Halldenius, L. (2015). Mary Wollstonecraft : feministisk republikan. Historiskan : Sveriges första kvinnohistoriska tidning, 50-53. Historiskan, Historiskan.
- Halldenius, L. (2011). Populism och den retoriska striden om folket. Nya Argus, 104. Garantiföreningen för Nya Argus r.f..
Supervision at Lund University (6)
- Hongsaton Zackari, K. (2020). Framing the Subjects : Human Rights and Photography in Contemporary Thai History. mediatryck, Lund University. Dissertation.
- Karlsson, A. (2017). Liberal Intellectuals and Human Rights in the Turkish Public Sphere : Contestation and Pragmatism from the 1990s to the AKP-era. Dissertation.
- Lindkvist, L. (2014). Shrines and Souls: The Reinvention of Religious Liberty and the Genesis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bokbox förlag. Dissertation.
- Bruce, A. (2014). Which Entitlements and for Whom? The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Ideological Antecedents. Anna Bruce anna.bruce@jur.lu.se. Dissertation.
- Johansson, V. (2013). Stimulating the Brain : Ethical Perspectives on Deep Brain Stimulation & Nano Scaled Brain Machine Interfaces. Dissertation.
- Brännström, L. (2009). Förrättsligande. En studie av rättens risker och möjligheter med fokus på patientens ställning. Bokbox förlag. Dissertation.
Teaching
Other tasks and qualifications
Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
Member of the steering group for the graduate school Agenda 2030
Chair of the Swedish Research Council Review Panel for philosophy and law
Supervision of phd-students in human rights studies. Have also supervised phd-projects in practical philosophy, jurisprudence, pedagogy, ethics, and international law.

Professor, Office Director
- Human Rights Studies
- Department of History
Deputy Head of Department
- Department of History
Contact information
E-mail lena.halldeniusmrs.luse
Phone +46 46 222 96 01
Room LUX:A213
Visiting address
Helgonavägen 3, Lund
Postal address
Box 192, 221 00 Lund
Internal post code 30