Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences (2023)

Charlotte Engman disputerar den 5 maj 2023 i etnologi vid Umeå Universitet med en avhandling vid namn Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences. Opponent är Anna Rastas.

Tid: Fredag 5 maj, 2023 kl. 10:00 – 12:00
Plats: UB.A 240, Lindellhallen 4, Samhällsvetarhuset, Umeå

Avhandlingens abstrakt:

‘Decolonisation’ is a frequently used expression in museum contexts, and a growing museal practice. In ethnographic museums, such attempts are usually performed in the shape of projects that seek to establish new relationships with source– or diasporan communities. However, little research has been produced about how these practices relate to the political demands and expectations set on state museums, and how they are shaped in a Swedish context. By following the project Ongoing Africa at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, the thesis aims to explore how different museal logics condition activities, are reproduced, and relate to each other. The empirical data consists of interviews with museum staff and collaborators engaged in the project, observations of project activities, and written data such as policy documents and government publications.

The findings show that tension and ambivalence characterise museal decoloniality. Along with ideals of social inclusion, co-creation and decolonial agendas, the museal economy is being eroded and activities market-adjusted, at the same time as the museum is also expected to be educative and authoritarian. While museum professionals struggle with creating relevance for the museum and the collections, the latter has been discursively fragmented through contemporary investments in heritage justice and repatriation discourse. To external stake holders, the ethnographic collection symbolises ongoing forms of colonial violence and heritage items that contribute to diasporan identity formation. Furthermore, the public museum is today a place where contemporary anti-racist ideology manifest itself through silences performed in relation to racialisation, and knowledge is at the museum a contingent and relational practice.

Avhandlingen kan läsas i diva-portal.

Two doctoral students in Ethnology within the ERC project Conspirations: Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories

Two doctoral students in Ethnology within the ERC project Conspirations: Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories at Lund University, The Faculties of Humanities and Theology.

In recent years, conspiracy theories have become an important issue not only to the people who propagate them, but also to those who fear their consequences and design initiatives to push back against the ‘post-truth’ era. The objective of CONSPIRATIONS is to analyse this growing tension over conspiracy theories in Europe. The project proposes an innovative approach which moves beyond an exclusive focus on ‘truthers’ to examine the perspective of ‘truth defenders’ as well. This approach goes beyond the question of who is wrong and what to do about it. Instead, it offers a deeper understanding of the conflicts themselves, which are clearly of urgent importance for contemporary Europe. The premise of this project is that the answer lies not in addressing the content of the conspiracy theories themselves, but rather the kinds of conditions that give rise to them. The secondary goal is to understand how these conflicts are influenced by social contexts, and how they unfold across diverse European settings. The objectives of this project will be achieved through ethnographic case studies in Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and EU institutions.

Read more about the positions here.

Last application date: 21 May 2023

Sensations from RE:22 – the 35th Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Congress in Reykjavík 13-16 June 2022

Sensations from RE:22 – the 35th Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Congress in Reykjavík 13-16 June 2022. A four-minute film to capture the spirit of the conference for those who missed it and to refresh the memory of those who took part. Turn on the sound and feel free to share!

450 ethnologists and folklorist from 38 countries (2/3 from Norden) gave and listened to 335 papers in 82 panels, and discussed research ranging from sustainabilities in everyday life to mommy influencers, and from children‘s experience of uncertainty due to global climate catastrophe to queer mermaids in the North Atlantic, stopping along the way to discuss ptarmigans in Sami folklore, what happens to love locks removed from bridges, the coolness of the remote, and Wu-han-dshakes and other rituals of greeting in pandemic times.

They also planted 4000 trees, visited the president, partied in the pool, and sang karaoke at lunch.

Film by Áslaug Einarsdóttir.

Watch the film on facebook here.

Släpp av boken ”I kalla krigets spår. Hot, våld och beskydd som kulturarv” på Armémuseum i Stockholm

Torsdag 4 maj 2023 17.30 – 19.00

Riddargatan 13, Stockholm

Det förflutna används ständigt för att ge mening åt nuet. ”I kalla krigets spår” skildrar framväxten av ett nytt svenskt militärt kulturarv. Här visas hur minnen och lämningar från en tid fylld av rädsla och säkerhetspolitiska spänningar får nya innebörder när bunkrar och nedlagda militäranläggningar omvandlas till museer, lyxbostäder och spännande besöksmål.

Boken är ett resultat av ett tvärvetenskapligt forskningsprojekt. Författarna är forskare i etnologi, genusvetenskap, internationella relationer och konstvetenskap vid Stockholms universitet.

I samband med boksläppet kommer författarna Mattias Frihammar, Fredrik Krohn Andersson, Maria Wendt och Cecilia Åse att presentera boken. Det kommer att finnas förfriskningar och tilltugg och möjlighet att köpa boken på plats.

OBS! Anmälan i förväg till mattias.frihammar(@)etnologi.su.se.

Länk till Facebook-evenemanget

NCK söker en projektledare

Nordiskt centrum för kulturarvspedagogik (NCK) är ett forsknings- och utvecklingscentrum inom kulturarvssektorn, lokaliserat till Östersund. Vi söker nu en vikarierande projektledare. Tjänsten är på heltid under ett år. Start enligt överenskommelse. Sista ansökningsdag 7 maj 2023.

Läs mer här.

Metodutvecklare till funktionsrättsprojekt, Rättighetscentrum Västerbotten

Rättighetscentrum Västerbotten söker nu en metodutvecklare till ett treårigt funktionsrättsprojekt.

Projektet genomförs i samarbete med Funktionsrätt Västerbotten och Västerbottens museum. Projektet kommer att fokusera på opinionsbildning som verktyg för att förebygga diskriminering som har sin grund i funktionsnedsättning och funktionshinder i Västerbottens län. Projektet ska kartlägga, samla in berättelser och kunskap om livsvillkor bland personer som lever med normbrytande funktionalitet i Västerbottens län. En av projektets slutprodukter är en utställning på Västerbottens museum.

Ansök senast 30 april 2023.

Läs mer här.