Stockholm university

Culture and Media

On this page we collect articles about Culture and Media.

Konst och kultur

News

The latest special issue of Nordicom Review was guest-edited by Andreas Widholm.Photo: © Adobe Stock
Department of Media Studies

New special issue explores the challenges of "digital disintegration" in democratic societies

The rapid and profound transformations associated with contemporary media systems have severe consequences for democracy and public debates. Social media play an increasingly central role for political participation, especially among young citizens, and digital platforms have significantly changed how political parties operate strategically to mobilise voters and influence public opinion.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Nordic-Baltic Korean Studies Days 2024

The Nordic Korean Studies Days (NKSD) were founded by the universities of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Turku. Due to its huge success this international teaching collaboration was expanded to include teachers and students from universities in the Baltics.

Language and Language Learning - Theme page Society, Democracy and Welfare - Theme page History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Alice Pick Duhan
Department of Romance Studies and Classics

Alice Duhan, Romklass, awarded Swedish Research Council grant

Alice Duhan, currently postdoctoral research fellow at Romklass, has been awarded research funding from the Swedish Research Council in the annual call for humanities and social sciences. Her three-year project, "Translingual Writing post-1945 and the Multilingual Spaces of French Fiction", examines literary texts written by second language authors in French and asks how this literature can contribute to a re-reading of recent French literary history from the vantage point of multilingualism.

Culture and Media - Theme page Language and Language Learning - Theme page
Department of Romance Studies and Classics

Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa visits Sweden with Camões I.P. support

Program with Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa, both in The Gothenburg Book Fair (the 29th of September) and in Stockholm (1st of October), as part of the cultural activities plan of the Embassy of Portugal/leitorado Camões I.P. in Sweden (at Stockholm University) with the support of Camões I.P.

Culture and Media - Theme page Language and Language Learning - Theme page
Institute for Turkish Studies

SUITS and UI host 2nd Annual SWEMENA conference

On 24-25 August 2023, the Swedish Middle East and North Africa Network (SWEMENA) was hosted at Stockholm University

Children and Young People - Theme page Climate and Environment - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page Economy and Society - Theme page Gender and Equality - Theme page International Relations and Migration - Theme page Law, Crime and Justice - Theme page Society, Democracy and Welfare - Theme page
Witi Ihimaera Photo: Andi Crown © Penguin Books
Department of Media Studies

International conference in Sweden shines spotlight on New Zealand and the Pacific Region

On Monday The Film House in Stockholm opened its doors to host the conference "Between Nations/Across Seas: The Transnational and Transcultural Pacific." This conference shines a spotlight on New Zealand and the Pacific region. David Taylor, New Zealand's new ambassador to Sweden, delivered the inaugural address in Stockholm on Monday afternoon.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Martin Karlsson on the day of his public defense at Stockholm University. Photo: Svante Emanuelli
Department of Media Studies

Dr. Martin Karlsson successfully defended his PhD thesis today

Dr. Martin Karlsson successfully defended his PhD thesis "Governing the news - A study of problems and solutions in Swedish public service broadcasting news and policy between 1954 and 2015" at Stockholm University today February 10, 2023. The examination committee announced its unanimous verdict in the afternoon, saying that he had passed. Senior Lecturer Simon Dawes, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, was his External reviewer.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Marine ecologist Henrik Svedäng: "The eel seems to be falling victim to a culture war"

Sweden opposes the European Commission's proposal for further restrictions on fishing for the endangered eel, arguing that Swedish eel fishing is a cultural heritage. "The endangered eel is being reduced to a prop in a sentimental tableau about a soon-to-be-defunct eel fishery," says fish researcher Henrik Svedäng at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.

Climate and Environment - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page Plants, Animals and Nature - Theme page Oceans and Lakes - Theme page
Annie Ernaux with visitors

Nobel Prize laureate Annie Ernaux visited Stockholm University

Literature laureate Annie Ernaux visited Stockholm University on Friday to meet students and researchers. She candidly answered questions from the visitors who, among other things, wondered if she thinks we can escape our heritage and asked for her view of society's harsh treatment of the elderly. The conversation can be viewed digitally in French and Swedish in this article.

Culture and Media - Theme page Language and Language Learning - Theme page
Department of Romance Studies and Classics

The puzzle of literary margins

A series of keynote speakers from Spanish and Latin American Studies will discuss in this series of online lectures key questions regarding the most contemporary authors, genres and works. First lecture: 10th Nov. at 4pm. Full information in Spanish and free registration below

Culture and Media - Theme page
Girl using a smartphone

Why do privileged families not follow experts’ advice on screen time anymore?

In a new study from Stockholm University and several US universities, the researchers found that children in the US aged 9-13 from different social classes spent roughly the same number of hours in front of a screen, on average. However, there were class differences in how the children spent their screen time and in parenting rules related to digital technology use.

Children and Young People - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page Society, Democracy and Welfare - Theme page School, Education and Learning - Theme page
Jelena Jovičić
Department of Sociology

How is ”refugeeness” constructed in Swedish newspapers – and are counter-images possible?

In Swedish newspapers, people fleeing are often depicted as victims or as a security threat to the Swedish nation state, a new PhD thesis in sociology shows. As a reaction to this visual framing limited to stereotypes, the author Jelena Jovičić participated in a project where people with experiences of flight created their own counter-images. Here is what she found out.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

New issue of the book series “Studies in Curating Art”

The book series “Studies in Curating Art” has been published annually since 2014. “Studies in Curating Art” focuses on curatorial research and on the connections between curatorial theory and practice, within the frame of the international Master’s program in Curating Art at Stockholm University.

Culture and Media - Theme page

Mona Hatoum at Accelerator: So Much I Want to Say

In the spring of 2022, Mona Hatoum’s work will be presented concurrently in two Stockholm institutions: Accelerator at Stockholm University and Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art in Frihamnen. Since the early 1990s, Mona Hatoum has been regarded as one of the most significant artists of our time. Working in the areas of installation, sculpture, performance, photography and video, she has consistently explored issues of the familiar and strange, home and exile, memory and loss. 

Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe

Carin Franzén, literature professor at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics has organized the panel "Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe" within the Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) 2021. The panel was organized within the research project "Another Humanism: Gendering Early Modern Libertinism and the Boundaries of Subjectivity".

Gender and Equality - Theme page History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

Two new books about Mozart's Don Giovanni

The Original Portrayal of Mozart's Don Giovanni, written by theatre and performance studies scholar Magnus Tessing Schneider is now available in open access. Also published his year is the work of essays Don Giovanni’s Reasons: Thoughts on a masterpiece, written by Felicity Baker, Reader Emeritus in French, University College London and edited by Tessing Schneider.

History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

Professor Meike Wagner encourages more scholars to apply for ERC Advanced Grant

Theatre and Performance Studies professor Meike Wagner at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics received the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for her research project “Performing Citizenship. Social and Political Agency in Non-Professional Theatre Practice in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland (1780-1850)”. Now she wants more researchers from the humanities to apply for ERC Advanced Grants, awarded by the European Research Council.

History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

New biography on the archaeologist Olov Janse, and the world politics of the 20th century

The biography "The Archaeologist In-Between: Olov Janse 1892-1985" (2021) is authored by Anna Källén from the Department of Culture and Aesthetics and Johan Hegardt from Södertörn University, both researchers in critical heritage studies. They describe how Olov Janse's works and networks connected museums and political institutions over the world, without him becoming known to history.

History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

A new international anthology on Silence and Silencing in Children's Literature

The anthology Silence and Silencing in Children's Literature is written in cooperation between Stockholm University, the Swedish Institute for Children's Books, Malmö University and Åbo Akademi University, with nineteen contributions by researchers from all over the world, about the central role of silence and silencing in the history of children's literature.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

New article about the Swedish Million Programme high-rise suburb in the 1970s children’s literature

Lydia Wistisen, PhD in Literature, has contributed with the article "Concrete Possibilities: The High-Rise Suburb in Swedish Children’s and Young Adult Literature", in the new book Literatures of Urban Possibility. In the article Wistisen examines the representations of the suburban environment in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.

Climate and Environment - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Axel Englund

The corporeality of music in the modern novel

Axel Englund’s research inhabits the border zone between literature and music. He now has a new project in which he is studying the relationship between music, corporeality and sexuality among modernist writers, including Proust, Mann and Musil. The aim is to provide a new understanding of music’s central role in the modern novel.

Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

Seeking proof for Viking identity in DNA

In a new study Anna Källén, Associate Professor and researcher in Heritage Studies at the Department of Culture and Aestetics and Daniel Strand, Uppsala University, have conducted interviews with fourteen persons who have taken DNA tests, and asked them about the desire to “be a Viking”. Did they see themselves as related to Vikings, to have a Viking heritage, or to be Vikings themselves? And which characteristics did they connect with their Viking identity?

History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

"Entangled memories of violence", new article by Victoria Fareld

In a new article in the journal Memory Studies (16/2 2021), Victoria Fareld, associate professor in History of Ideas, Stockholm University, analyzes how the Austrian writer Jean Améry formulates his memories of the Holocaust in the contemporaneous situation of decolonisation.

History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage - Theme page Worldviews, Ethics and Philosophy - Theme page Culture and Media - Theme page
Department of Culture and Aesthetics

A theatre first aid kit from five MA students in Performance Studies

The performance theatre project "SOS! Theatre, Save Our Souls", supervised by professor Meike Wagner, Department of Culture and Aestethics and lead by Master's students at the department, resides at Turteatern. Because of the current situation, the theatre could not be performed in January. But the project group throws out a lifeline: the booklet "SOS! Theatre First Aid Kit".

Culture and Media - Theme page
Klättrare installerar det nya konstverket i ljusgården. Foto: © Hilda Hellström/Bildupphovsrätt (202

Novel installation takes art to new heights

In the university library atrium, climbers have recently installed a new artwork. Inspired by Heraclitus’s idea of “panta rhei”(“everything flows”), as well as by the nature and research at Stockholm University, Hilda Hellström has created the work ”The way an algae transforms into a rock”.

Culture and Media - Theme page
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Videos

Barn och unga - Temasida Kultur och medier - Temasida Skola, utbildning och lärande - Temasida
Kultur och medier - Temasida
Culture and Media - Theme page

Research projects

Emotional transmission on Facebook

My PhD project involves investigation of emotional aspects of social media posts, and interaction and potential spread of these emotions to followers.

Vector illustration of the facebook icon in grunge style. Photo: Siloto © Mostphotos
Families Everyday Mobility in Socially Deprived Neighbourhoods

Transport and mobility are intrinsic parts of people’s everyday life, but inhabitants in socially vulnerable areas make fewer trips per person and per week compared to the national average, make fewer leisure related trips including trips to relatives and friends, and carry out fewer trips by car.

Trafikbild och människor som köar till en buss.
Framing the 1970-1990s Image Industry

The dissertation 'Framing the 1970-1990s Image Industry; the New York Downtown Scene and the Fabrication of Style through Music Videos and MTV' places the New York underground music and art scene at the focal point to explore the material culture on the Lower East Side and the cultural scene it embodied and nurtured.

Research
Immigration and the Normalization of Racism

"Immigration and the Normalization of Racism: Discursive Shifts in Swedish Politics and Media 2010-22" is led by Prof. Michal Krzyzanowski, Uppsala University and the team includes Associate Professor Mattias Ekman, Stockholm University. Main language: English. Research subject: MCS Funding body: The Swedish Research Council, grant: 2019–03354.

Research
Ingmar Bergman and cinematic tourism

With the Ingmar Bergman tourism on the island Fårö as case in point, this project examines the memory of arthouse or auteur cinema as an experience of a place in a contemporary context of cinematic tourism.

Research
Interactive Racism in Swedish Online Media, Press and Politics

"Interactive Racism in Swedish Online Media, Press and Politics" is led by Associate Professor Mattias Ekman, Stockholm University. Project member: Professor Michal Krzyzanowski, Uppsala University. Main language: English. Research subject: MCS Subdiscipline: - Funding body: The Swedish Research Council, grant: 2016-05464

Research
Luxury, Fashion and the Early Modern Idea of Credit

Luxury, Fashion and the Early Modern Idea of Credit addresses how social and cultural ideas about credit and trust, in the context of fashion and trade, were affected by the growth and development of the bankruptcy institution.

Research
Modern Media and the Oil Industry

This project analyzes how films, in their respective social and cultural contexts, have enacted a form of micropolitics that worked towards the goal of naturalizing the consumption of oil.

Topping-out ceremony for powerline in Hamburg 1895. Photo: © Courtesy of Vattenfall in Hamburg
Navigating audiovisual legitimacy

The PhD research project 'Navigating audiovisual legitimacy: Films and television commissioned by Norwegian and Swedish mining companies and their useful networks 1945-75' is led by Ole Johnny Fossås, PhD candidate, Department of Media Studies. Supervisors: professor Marina Dahlquist and professor Bo Florin, Department of Media Studies.

Research
Performing Citizenship

Performing Citizenship: Social and Political Agency in Non-Professional Theatre Practice in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland (1780-1850).

Research
Queer and trans feminisms in contemporary performance

The project addresses the question of how queer and transfeminist theories contribute to our understanding of feminist and intersectional performance studies today and investigates new generations of performance artists to expand the boundaries of intersectional queer and transfeminist performance studies in a global perspective.

The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in Contemporary Performance
Rudolf Arnheim’s Media Aesthetics

This project offers a critical consideration of the thought of prominent psychologist, theorist, and critic Rudolf Arnheim in relation to the fields of cinema and media studies today.

Research
Staging Violence, Singing Hope

Doctoral thesis, monograph: "Staging Violence, Singing Hope: Trauma, Memory, and Affect in Three Musical and Dance Performances by North Korean Migrants in South Korea".

Sweden’s Female-Forward Creative Industries

Much of the success of Sweden’s creative industries comes from investments and progressive maternity/paternity leave. This research projects finds another, seldom studied, element of success: The emphasis on creativity, comics, fanzines, and games that is a part of the Swedish culture.

Cover of Hailey Austin's fanzine
Swedish Runestones for everyone

The projects aim is to make Swedish runestones accessible to the public by creating an application that shows which runestones are near the user. The user will receive reliable and up-to-date information on each stone's location, condition, reading, interpretation and dating.

Research
The Author’s Hand: A Literary History of Handwriting

We are living in an age when accelerating technological development seems to render handwriting and penmanship superfluous or obsolete. Handwriting, however, has had a deep historical impact that the advent of digital media allows us to analyze anew.

The Genesis and industrialization of Ready-to-wear in Sweden

The project 'The Genesis and industrialization of Ready-to-wear in Sweden' is led by Klas Nyberg and is outlined in collaboration with the research project 'Stadens ansikten' headed by Associate Prof. Rebecka Lennartsson, Stockholm City Museum. Subject: Fashion Studies. Sub-subject: industrial fashion, textile and ready-to-wear, migration.

Beskuren omslagsbild av Sallys hemlighet. Foto/grafik: Okänd
The Histories of the New American Cinema Expositions in Europe

The main purpose of the project 'The Histories of the New American Cinema Expositions in Europe, 1964 and 1967-1968: The Emergence and Diversity of European Experimental Film Cultures' is to write the histories of the New American Cinema (NAC) Expositions in Europe during the years 1964 and 1967-68.

Research
The standardized body: Swedish clothing industry, ca. 1930–1970

The research project "The standardized body: Swedish clothing industry, ca. 1930–1970" is led by Assistant Professor Marie Ulväng, Stockholm University. The project's main language: Swedish Research subject: Fashion Studies Subdiscipline: "Svensk konfektionsindustri".

Research
They called me 'hot-blooded'

Saki Kobayashi's dissertation 'They called me 'hot-blooded': Exploring Viveca Lindfors' transnational stardom and Swedish film star culture in the 1940's', analyses Viveca Lindfors' career in the 1940's to answer several questions about film stars role and meaning in society from sociopolitical and industrial perspective.

Research
With style and quality: The Swedish coat factory, 1930–1970

The research project "With style and quality: The Swedish coat factory, 1930–1970" is led by Assistant Professor Marie Ulväng, Stockholm University. The project's main language: Swedish Research subject: Fashion Studies Subdiscipline: "Svensk konfektionsindustri"

Research
“I want to be a lesbian icon"

This dissertation «"I want to be a lesbian icon": Constructing and (re-)negotiating queer female stardom in the age of visibility» explores the phenomenon of the lesbian icon and her contradictory position - simultaneously relying on and denying queer female visibility - in the contemporary mainstream media landscape.

Research
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Research groups

Cultural memory studies

What is the cultural significance of memory? How and why do we remember the past, not only as individuals but across generations, as social and cultural communities? And how do these memory practices relate to politically and emotionally charged questions of national or ethnic identity, historical traumas, and experiences of dislocation, loss and forgetting?

Ruins of houses destroyed by bombardment
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Forum Modernism

Forum Modernism at Stockholm University is an association for researchers whose work in some way concerns modernism, both through studies of its various mainstream and marginalized expressions, and through critical examinations of the concept as such.

Paul Cézanne, Les Grandes Baigneuses
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TRISS (Translation in Societies) research group

The TRISS research group investigates translation as a fundamental social relation in our globalized and interconnected world, exploring the multifaceted role of translated texts, translation processes and agents in society, drawing on theories and methods from translation sociology, translation history, world literature studies, and network theory.

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Transcultural Literary Studies

Transcultural Literary Studies is a vibrant field that brings together several researchers in the Department of Romance Studies and Classics. Our research group focuses on a broad range of issues related to the translation, circulation and reception of literature, and also examines literary multilingualism in all its forms.

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