| My research has developed along two research strands. One of them is based in my thesis and concerns the urban built environment, seen as a socio-cultural-material aedifice and put in both contemporary and historical perspectives. This strand has brought a particular interest in the many different ways in which the temporal aspect ‘pastness’ is constructed, perceived, communicated and transferred in urban contexts. The second strand concerns the requirements for an expanded notion of heritage: how can the work of official heritage institutions take up also marginal histories, narratives and experiences, i.e. those that have become silenced through oppression or neglect, or that belong to subaltern subjects? It has the aim to dismantle and question the socio-cultural divisions made up by group identity, ethnicity/race and else, and works towards cultural understanding and social cohesion. This strand comprehends participatory practices and the recognition of heritage work as a means to support people’s engagement. Among other activities I have explored the official heritage institutions’ work with historical places of the Swedish National minorities, in particular the Roma people, in order to understand what happens at the frontline of heritage work – where there is no map or compass.
I gained my PhD in 2006 with the dissertation On the urban Surface:On the historicization of Haga [På stadens yta]. The study (prized by the Kungl. Gustav Adolfsakademin för svensk folkkultur) put a foucauldian perspective on the discursive play that successively in a process ranging over 150 years transformed ordinary urban built environments into heritage objects: old-and-ugly into old-and-nice. In subsequent studies this research field has been methodologically developed in the direction of ANT and mobility studies.
I have been acting director of studies for the BA programme in Built Heritage 2006-2012. Since 2013 I am research coordinator of Curating the city Resarch Cluster, Centre for Critical Heritage Studies. The research cluster is set up in cooperation between HDK and Dept of Conservation at UGOT, and the Urban Lab, UCL, London. A sabbatical leave was spent at the chair of Sybille Frank, Prof. Dr. phil., Urban and Regional Sociology, Department of Sociology, Technische Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität zu Darmstadt. I became docent in 2018. I am regularly lecturing in scholarly contexts, also internationally, and taking part in public events, but I also have several scholarly commissions. I am principal PI in several research projects |