Johanna Wallin, Non-Executive Director

When meeting people I often get the question ‘are you one of those third culture kids?’, I guess because I’ve moved around a lot, and spent my high school years in India. I never know how to respond to that. Do I count as a TCK? A migrant? An expat? The labels attached to living in-between and beyond are rarely clear. The question for those of us that don’t automatically get assigned one label often is: where do I belong? And where am I allowed to belong?

Following the pandemic I made the move back to Sweden to start my PhD. My project asks the question: when, how and where are nations and nationhood part of people’s everyday experiences and interactions?

Looking at how family members from different generations understand, experience and navigate different places, the project discusses the role that place-belonging and nationhood play in the production and reproduction of nations.

Alongside my research I work with nonprofits and social impact projects to support them with their impact strategies and learning. This follows my 8+ years working in the international development field, focusing on theory of change development, complex qualitative and evaluative methods, and social and behaviour change. A red-thread in all that I do is to ask the questions: ‘So what?’ and ‘then what?’. When Michelle asked me to join her in BTL to do just that, I jumped on it. 

I’ve now been with BTL since early 2022. My role is to ask the hard questions, whilst also being a partner to bounce ideas off. Centering empathy as part of a change narrative is not only novel, but essential, and I’m excited to join Michelle and the team in exploring the various ways this can be put into practice.