Biography

I am a Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology, LSE. I work as a Professor in Sociology at Uppsala University and leader of the Research Group Emotion, Justice, Interaction (EmoJI).

My main theoretical lens is the sociology of emotions, and I chose empirical projects that articulate the roles emotions play when they are either put frontstage, such as in the theatre, or remain hidden, such as in the legal professions. Most recently, I have been engaged in the field of law & emotion, exploring emotions in court from several perspectives and how objectivity is constructed in judicial decision-making from an international, comparative perspective. My last book Professional Emotions in Court: A Sociological Perspective,with Åsa Wettergren in 2019 (Routledge) delves into the ways legal professionals employ emotions in their work, and I have a forthcoming book on Rational Anger with Nina Törnqvist (Routledge). I have published in journals such as Journal of Law & Society, Emotion Review, and Symbolic Interaction. My current and forthcoming research projects include 1) An international perspective on the emotive-cognitive process of judicial decision-making; 2) Police and crime victim interactions – the emotional dynamic in preliminary investigations of intimate partner violence, and; 3) Emotions and rituals in practitioner-client interaction in a culturally and economically heterogenous society.

During my visit at the LSE, I will start writing a book on the role of emotions in legal decision-making based on ethnographic research with prosecutors and judges in Italy, Sweden, and the US. The book traces similarities and differences in how truth, morality and interpretation play out in the process of evaluating evidence and settling on decisions in criminal cases depending on legal system and emotional regime.

Before becoming an academic, I studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York, and I worked as a director’s assistant at several theatres in Sweden and my interest in the stage both as a researcher, a teacher and as a theatre goer remains.

Forthcoming book

Rational Anger – A comparative study of Swedish, Italian, Scottish and American courts, by Stina Bergman Blix and Nina Törnqvist, Routledge, 2025.