Anna Gradin Franzén

Anna Gradin Franzén is an Associate Professor in Child and Youth Studies at Stockholm University's Department of Child and Adolescent Studies. Her work focuses on young people's identity formation, negotiations of normality/morality, and interactions in institutional settings. She employs discursive and ethnographic methods to study masculinity, violence, humor, and social exclusion. Current research includes the role of humor in multilingual educational environments and evaluations of violence prevention programs like MVP.

Education:

• PhD in Psychology (Linköping University, 2014)

Research Interests: Combines video ethnography with discourse analysis to examine staff-youth interactions in detention centers, schools, and youth homes. Explores how humor functions as a tool for power negotiation and resistance, particularly in multilingual/multicultural contexts. Studies life narratives of incarcerated youth to understand pathways into/out of criminal behavior.

Key Projects:

• Humor på allvar: Analyzing humor's role in educational settings
• Evaluation of Mentors in Violence Prevention 2.0 program
• Child custody testimonies analysis

Teaching: Leads courses in teacher education focusing on youth development, violence prevention, and narrative analysis. Teaches discourse analysis methodology at the graduate level.