Fredrik Bertilsson

My name is Fredrik Bertilsson, and I am a researcher at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment. My work broadly concerns the politics of knowledge and the interplay between science advice and political governance, with a particular focus on Swedish defence and public preparedness from the second half of the twentieth century to the present. Currently, I study preparedness against extreme weather (Formas, 2022–2026) and, with Camilla Eriksson at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Sweden’s food security (Swedish Research Council, 2022–2025). My previous research has explored the development, use and impact of the human sciences, focusing on the role of the humanities, in Swedish defence research (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2019–2021), as well as the intersections between military knowledge and civil society (Ridderstads stiftelse, 2021–2022). My interests include how humans, animals, plants, and ecosystems are tuned into objects of government as well as the application of sports science within the military science advice. I completed my PhD in History of Ideas at Södertörn University in 2017 where I analysed how policy and systematic assessments of Swedish universities emerged as a means of shaping ideal social conditions during the transition from early modern to modern academic culture. I have a master’s degree in Social Anthropology (Stockholm University) and a magister degree in Evaluation and Policy Studies (Mälardalen University).During 2025, I am also employed as a researcher at the Department of Criminology at Stockholm University.