Xin Mao apologises. Tears have welled up in her eyes. After a heated debate, the SULF Congress has just declared its disapproval of the union’s silence on the war in Gaza and approved a proposal to issue an official statement in support of the academics and students affected and in favour of a ceasefire.
“I think it’s great when people fight for the lives of others and choose to say ‘No, we can’t just leave them.’ That those affected can at least feel that we understand them, that they are people too. We can at least say ‘Peace!’”
Xin Mao
Doctoral candidate in ethics at Uppsala University
Xin Mao is a doctoral candidate in ethics, researching human rights and duty. The evening before, at the Congress dinner, which was followed by a 1980s-themed party, she met her assistant supervisor Per Sundman, a professor of ethics at Uppsala University. “It felt great that we are not only researching about morality, but we are also fighting for democracy here at the Congress.”
On the first day of the Congress, all motions are discussed in small committee groups. The SULF Doctoral Candidate Association, SDF, and doctoral candidates who are active on various local SULF association boards are behind many of the proposals.
Xin Mao sits on the committee on ‘Stronger members for bolder research’. The majority of the committee agrees that the union should work to ensure that researchers can guarantee the confidentiality of research subjects, that doctoral courses should be free of charge and that SULF should work with the work environment issues that arise from conflicts over authorship.
The SULF Association Board has recommended rejecting several of the motions in the committee, often because the proposals are too specific or deemed to be outside SULF’s remit. But the doctoral candidates stand their ground, and gradually learn how to change the wording to include all members or to give the union a more open assignment.
“It felt reassuring to look at you when I read out the proposal,” says SDF Chair Mohamed Al-Sabri to his colleague Alma Dautovic when there is a break for SDF to work on an amendment.
Dautovic explains further. “It’s always difficult when you don’t know what the process is like. As doctoral candidates, we are new. On the subject of inequality, you end up towards the bottom when you are always new.”
In two cases, the committee decides not to completely reject motions that the union’s Association Board believes are outside SULF’s role. Delegates argue that the problems newly recruited foreign employees have finding accommodation and receiving their salary on time impact their ability to work to such an extent that the union should act on these issues.
“We are from different universities, but I am a little surprised that we have the same problems with the same solutions,” says Xin Mao. “I thought there would be more debate, but it’s more give and take.”
When the time comes for Congress to decide in plenary on the committee’s proposals, she and doctoral candidate Azul Romo Flores from Södertörn University present the committee’s recommendations for decision. They are adopted by the Congress without discussion.
Xin Mao is also the source of a motion which generates more discussion in the plenary. In the motion, SULF Uppsala proposes various measures to create greater scope for combining work in higher education with family life. Most of the motion was rejected. “Some of the proposals were too specific, but I think it’s good that we highlighted the problem,” she says.
At the end of the Congress, says that it was the discussions on all the motions that she found the most stimulating. “That’s when we talk about what we can do for our members, and as people. I feel a bit tired now, but very inspired.”
Xin Mao would like to continue working for the union at Uppsala University, at least until 2026, when she will complete her doctorate – and then faces an uncertain future.
