معرفی
Asta Cekaite is Professor of Child Studies at Linköping University, Sweden, and current Pro-Dean for Research and Doctoral Education in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (2024-2026). Located in the interdisciplinary Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies, her scholarly work integrates detailed video-based conversation analysis and long-term ethnography to investigate how children’s social interaction, multilingual language socialisation, emotion, morality and embodied touch unfold in families, preschools and schools.
Education & Career:
- 2006 – PhD, Tema Barn, Linköping University
- 2013 – appointed Professor, Tema Barn, Linköping University
- 2016-2017 – Head of Division, Tema Barn
- 2014-2016 – Deputy Head of Division, Tema Barn
- 2018-2023 – Member, Faculty Board, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- 2024-2026 – Pro-Dean for Research & Doctoral Education, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Research Interests: Cekaite’s research centres on the micro-dynamics of children’s everyday life. She explores how bilingualism is interactionally accomplished among peers and with adults, how laughter, crying and touch function in moral socialisation, and how embodied routines such as assisted eating or play entry organise participation and learning. Comparative projects in Swedish, US and Japanese settings illuminate cultural variations in these processes.
Recent Publication Trends (2022-2025): Her newest articles cluster around three themes: (1) interpersonal touch as an instructional and caring resource in preschool and medical settings; (2) emotion socialisation—especially fear and distress—in adult–child encounters such as dental visits; and (3) multilingual peer play and teacher-led guided play as sites for bilingual development and inclusion of immigrant children. Methodologically, all studies rely on fine-grained video analyses and often adopt longitudinal perspectives.
Supervision & Seminars: Cekaite currently supervises doctoral researcher Effrosyni Terzoglou and post-doc Olga Anatoli. She co-convenes the cross-disciplinary Samtals- och interaktionsseminariet (Conversation & Interaction Seminar) and the Child Interaction Group Seminar, both active forums for data sessions and ongoing analytical work.
Editorial & Leadership Roles: She is Vice Chair of her Faculty Board and Co-Editor of the international journal Research on Children and Social Interaction, underscoring her influential position in shaping child-interaction research infrastructures.
