Urban-Andreas Johansson was awarded his doctorate in June 2025 with the thesis "Professional Narrative Identities of Regional LGBTQ Certifiers: Accountability and Resistance in Change Work". In his thesis, he examined how regionally employed LGBTQ experts shape and negotiate their professional identities, as well as the professional dilemmas that arise when working to change heteronormative norms and values within regional organisations.

His research focuses on professional issues, with a particular interest in professional identity formation and organisational change, as well as how knowledge, norms and values are negotiated within organisations. In his research, he draws on various narrative and interactionist theoretical perspectives, with a focus on people’s stories and storytelling.

His current research builds in part on his doctoral thesis and examines how healthcare staff and healthcare organisations understand and negotiate change processes relating to heteronormative norms and values. In addition, he is working on a new research project examining how teachers understand their role and responsibility for pupils’ health and wellbeing in the classroom, against the backdrop of changes and shifts in schools’ work on pupils’ health and pupil wellbeing.

Urban-Andreas is a member of the GATE research group at the University of Gävle, the scientific director of the NAFS research seminar External link. at Uppsala University, and a member of CLIP External link. at Uppsala University.