Cultural Heritage Studies

Cultural Heritage Studies is a growing interdisciplinary research field studying how the past is used, valued, and institutionalized in contemporary society. Heritage is also a profile area for research at Stockholm University.

Uses of the past in terms of heritage work to motivate, conceptualize, and legitimize constructions of culture and identity on a local as well as national and international level. The ways in which we understand and make use of the past as heritage are fundamental for how we make sense of our own identity and our relations to others. The research questions addressed in Heritage Studies are therefore of great importance and immediate relevance for issues of social and political cohesion, and also conflict in contemporary society.

Heritage research explores how heritage is made useful as a political, social and economic resource, both in contemporary society and in historical settings. It asks who has the power to define and use the past as heritage, and with what effects. It studies major international organizations such as UNESCO, as well as heritage-making on local level in Sweden and in other parts of the world.