University
of Gothenburg
The University of Gothenburg (UGOT) is among the largest universies in Northern Europe (approx. 37,000 students and 6,000 employees). With its eight faculties, UGOT is also the most wide-ranging and versatile university in Sweden. UGOT is an active international university engaged in collaborative projects and partnerships all over the world. UGOT brings to the project its combined expertise in and critical approaches to urban and dance heritage, documentary practices, and the liaison between the social sciences and the humanities, artistic and activist practices and environments, and the archive sector.
The UGOT Department of Cultural Sciences (KUV) provides a platform for the exploration and application of the many opportunities and perspectives that emerge with critical cultural analysis. KUV consists of 9 different disciplines and has approximately 900 students each term. Centering on cross-border research and collaboration KUV works across the faculty with a wide range of projects, collaborators and external partners. Current research and development is covering fields such as critical analysis of urban culture, participatory approaches to archiving, gendering practices, and making critical cultural analysis accessible through public engagement. KUV offers elective courses as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in critical cultural studies.
The UGOT Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, in partnership with the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS) at the University College London, takes on challenges pertaining to a new, expanding field of critical heritage research and teaching cross cutting humanistic and social science disciplines. CCHS uses extensive international connections and networks, particularly those for archival science, digital humanities, and the arts, to critically take on myriads of heritages as global challenges, to promote critical heritage studies research and innovation.
The UGOT Valand Academy is a centre for the development of independent artists/ authors/ filmmakers/photographers especially interested in the cross-cutting agency of artists and in artist-led cultures. In recent years, the Valand Academy Film (VAF) has developed a collaborative platform engaging the camera as a participatory and democratic tools for empowering children, elderly people or downplayed communities such as independent dance groups.
RESEARCH TEAM
Catharina Thörn, Ph.D in Sociology
Catharina Thörn holds a Ph.D in Sociology and works as Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the Department of Cultural Sciences at Gothenburg University, Sweden. Catharina Thörn has done research on homelessness, urban governance, public space and gentrification.
Relevant publications
Thörn, C. and Despotovic, K. (2017). The urban frontier: gentrification as ideology and class politics in the remaking of marginal urban space. In: Albet, A. and Benach, N. (eds.). Gentrification as a Global Strategy Neil Smith and Beyond. London: Routledge.
Thörn, C. and Thörn, H. (2017). Swedish cities now belong to the most segregated in Europe. Sociologisk Forskning, 54, 4, 293-296.
Franzén, M., Hertting, N. and Thörn, C. (2016). Stad till salu: Entreprenörsurbanismen och det offentliga rummets värde. Göteborg: Bokförlaget Daidalos AB.
Astrid von Rosen, Ph.D in Art History and Visual Studies
Astrid von Rosen is Associate Professor in Art History and Visual Studies in the Department of Cultural Sciences, University of Gothenburg (UGOT) and presently the vice chair of the Nordic Forum for Dance Research (NOFOD). Her research interests include critical humanities approaches to cultural heritage, centering on dance archives to uncover unseen labour and hidden histories. She is on the Leadership committee of the joint UGOT / University College London (UCL) Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS) and she has been a visiting researcher at UCL (2015) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (2017). She is currently at work on the participatory and digitally engaged community project ‘Dance archives and digital participation’.
Relevant publications
von Rosen, A. (2017). Dream no Small Dreams!’ Impossible archival imaginaries in dance community archiving in a digital age. In: Morris, G. and Larraine, N. (eds.). Rethinking Dance History (148-159). London: Routledge.
von Rosen, A. (2017). Activating dance records: Conceptualizing research into the Swedish, Nordic and global archives pertaining to the Russian dancer Anna Robenne, Nordic Theatre Studies, 29, 1, 117-137.
von Rosen, A., Meskimmon, M. and Sand, M. (2018). Transversal Dances across Time and Space: Feminist Strategies for a Critical Heritage Studies. In: Grahn, W. and Wilson, R. (eds.). Gender and Heritage: Performance, Place and Politics: Key Issues in Cultural Heritage. London: Routledge.
Linda Sternö is Senior Lecturer at the Valand Academy Film at the University of Gothenburg (UGOT). She holds a BA exam in film directing from UGOT and a MA exam in visual culture and education at University College of arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm and is an award-winning film director and producer with films shown on international festivals and cinema. Her long-term research centres on conceptualising film pedagogy in a digital era. As an associate sub-cluster leader with the joint UGOT / UCL Centre for Critical Heritage Studies she has contributed multi-camera documentation methods to the research platform ‘Dance as Critical Heritage: Archives, Access, Action’. She is currently at work with a community based participatory project where the camera is an active participant and have presented and published widely on these topics.
Relevant publications
Sternö, L. (2014). Återvinning / soptippen, Dance as Critical Heritage: Archives, Access, Action. In: Meskimmon, M., von Rosen, A. and Sand, M. (eds), Critical Heritage Studies (118-119). Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, 118-119.
Sternö, L., Björk, K. and Mistry, J. (2017). Film as research tool – how can we address socio-political and cultural exclusion? Presentation at the Parce Conference, Academy Valand.
Sternö, L. and Sjögren, M. (2017). Circus and photo school at an asylum accommodation. Workshop, the Academy Valand, Gothenburg.
Finn Chung
Finn Chung is Master Student in Culture Studies in Gothenburg University, Sweden. Chung comes from a multi-disciplinary background (contemporary arts and literature) and currently resides in Sweden. Her research mainly focuses on belonging narratives concerning immigrants, diaspora and second generation of immigrants in Sweden. Chung would be the contact person of the research team.
Team’s role in the research project
– Co-writing the framework;
– Collaborating and sharing reflections with the Atlas members during meetings and activities;
– Producing research and findings about the Swedish case study;
– Participating in the shared activities with the other Atlas partners and providing feedbacks;
– Contributing to the development of web platform with materials from the field;
– Participation in seminars and activities;
– Lending a perspective on performative art;
– Documenting and researching in collaboration with the Backa Theatre and Twisted Feet Dance Company.