Erica Li Lundqvist

"Hatred and intolerance are fought with education"

- Hatred and intolerance arise from ignorance and I believe in education to fight it. One challenge is that it is so easy to spread anti-Semitism, Afrophobia, anti-Gypsyism, Islamophobia, and homophobia online. It is easier to be prejudiced when you don’t have to be directly responsible for it. It spreads quickly, takes root, and is difficult to respond to immediately. It’s part of the globalized world. So it’s important to find tools to help properly evaluate an information source and expose everything from bullying to hate expressions and hate crimes.

- The course "The Age of Hate" (“Hatets tidevarv”) teaches about culturally, religiously, socially, and politically reproduced aversions to Africans, Jews, Roma, and Muslims. And it shows how to adopt a critical approach to it. These are old ideas that are deeply rooted and we emphasize how they have developed through globalization. Those who take the course often want to know how to point out these types of expressions when they arise and how they, as fellow human beings, can counteract it.

- It is rewarding to give students a broader perspective. They say that the course makes them think differently and broadens their views. I feel that in the small micro perspective, I help shape the people of the future and how they should think about these things.

- I'm cautiously optimistic. The world today is so incredibly polarized, but there are good people working for an equal and just world, even if there’s a long way to go. We have to hope that they’ll be able to fight on and resist the hatred and prejudices that exist.