Katarina Wadstein MacLeodProfessor

My main field of research is 19th century, mid 20th century, and contemporary art. I’m engaged with gender, feminist, and ecocritical theory and a broader range of critical and cultural theory. A recurring theme in my research is the politics of representation. I have dealt with representations of femininity and domesticity; bodies and gender; cultural heritage and value; narration of centre and periphery. In my book from 2018, Bakom gardinerna: hemmet i svensk konst under 1900-talet, I discuss artistic interpretations of the home in Swedish art at two historical moments: the turn of the 20th century and the 1960s and 70s. In my most recent book, From Flux to Fest: International Art in Lunds konsthall 1965-67, I deal with overlooked but cutting-edge exhibitions involving French artistis and curators that took place at Lunds konsthall in Sweden during the 1960s.

In a recently completed project Exhibiting in a European Periphery: International Art in Sweden During the Cold War funded by The Swedish Research Council, working together with colleagues Professor Marta Edling and PhD candidate Pella Myrstener, we questioned the inherited understanding of the western bias in what constitutes international in modern art exhibitions in Sweden. As of Autumn 2023 I am currently working on Illustrating Neutral Nature, funded by The Baltic Sea Foundation, investigating cultural values and ideologies in seemingly neutral and scientific depictions of arctic nature in early to mid 19th century scientific expeditions.