About us

The Department of Culture and Aestethics conducts research and teaching within seven main areas: Art History, Cultural Heritage Studies, Curating, History of Ideas, Literature, Musicology, and Theatre and Performance Studies.

The Department of Culture and Aestethics was founded January 1st 2015, when three departments became one: the Department of Art history, The Department of Literature and History of Ideas and the Department of Music and Theatre.

Today, the Department of Culture and Aestehtics is the largest department of the Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University, with about 150 employees, and 1000 students per academic year. Among our employees are researchers, of which around 50 are doctoral students, teachers, and administrative personnel.

 

About the buildings

The Department of Culture and Aesthetics is situated in the Manne Siegbahn buildings at Campus Frescati, in the Royal National City Park.

The Manne Siegbahn buildings were designed by the architect Gustav Holmdahl (1879-1958) and were erected in 1936. The buildings are Named after Nobel laureate Manne Siegbahn, professor of experimental physics at Stockholm University. When The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences founded an institute with Manne Sigbahn as director, the house at Frescativägen No. 22 was built as a private residence for him. The other Manne Siegbahn buildings were built for the Manne Siegbahn Institute. The Manne Siegbahn laboratory was a part of the Department of Physics at Stockholm University and was performing research and development in accelerator physics. The the laboratory also housed a cyclotron for the purpose.

Find us

The Faculty Club Manne Siegbahn, for Stockholm University employees with memberships resides at Frescativägen No. 22 in the Manne Siegbahn buildings.

The laboratory from when research and development in accelerator physics was conducted in the buildings is now rebuilt, and since 2019 it is the Stockholm University exhibition space Accelerator.

Manne Siegbahn-husen sedda från ovan.
The Department is situated in the brown brick Manne Siegbahn Buildings at Campus Frescati. Photo: Sören Andersson / Stockholm University
 

History

The Department of Culture and Aesthetics was founded 1 January 2015, when the departments of Art History, Literature and History of Ideas, and Music and Theatre Studies were joined together. By the that time, the Departments of Literature and History of Ideas, and Music and Theatre were already cooperating, since they had moved in togehter in the Manne Siegbahn buildings from the Södra Husen on the other side of the Frescati Campus. When the Department of Art History also moved in, all three departments started an active collaboration with both administration and interdisciplinary research. Research schools of Aestetichs and Cultural History started and the new Department of Culture and Aestethics was built on this collaboration.

 

Prizes and Awards

This is a list of prizes and awards won by researchers and teachers at the Department of Culture and Aestethics.

2022

  • Kellgrenpriset - Anders Cullhed
  • Svenska Akademiens Finlandspris - Janina Orlov
  • Birgittapriset - Mia Åkestam
  • Kungl. Vetenskaps-Societetens Thuréuspris - Anders Cullhed

2021

  • Högskoleföreningens pris för "framstående vetenskaplig prestation" inom den humanistiska fakulteten - Carina Rech
  • Strindbergspriset - Ulf Olsson

2020

  • Rettigska priset - Anna Dahlgren

2019

  • Nexø Fondens pris - Per-Olof Mattsson
  • Kungl. Vitterhetsakademiens pris för förtjänt vetenskapligt arbete - Ljubica Miočević
  • Det Beskowska stipendiet av Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien - Elisa Rossholm

2018

  • Johan Nordströms och Sten Lindroths pris för framstående vetenskapligt arbete - Matts Lindström
  • Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademiens pris ur Torsten Janckes minnesfond - Madeleine Modin
  • Medal Komisji Edukacji Narodowej for outstanding pedagocial efforts - Krzysztof Bak
  • Hugo Bergroth-priset - Janina Orlov

2017

  • International Research Society for Children’s Literature award for the best anthology of the year - Elina Druker
  • Schückska priset - Ulf Olsson
  • Sommarpriset - Isabelle Ståhl
  • Samfundet De Nios Särskilda Pris - Anders Hallengren
  • Samfundet De Nios julpris - Isabelle Ståhl

2016

  • Children’s Literature Association Edited Book Award - Elina Druker
  • Pro Finlandia-medaljen - Janina Orlov

2015

  • Disapriset - Sara Danius
  • Högskoleföreningens pris för "framstående vetenskaplig prestation" inom den humanistiska fakulteten - Magnus Bremmer
  • Johan Lundblads pris för ett förtjänstfullt och av god stilkonst präglat arbete inom äldre historia eller klassisk filologi - Anders Cullhed
  • Junipriset - Karin Helander
  • Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien pris för förtjänt vetenskapligt arbete - Franziska Bork Petersen

2013

  • Högskoleföreningens pris för framstående vetenskaplig prestation inom humaniora - Anna Jörngården
  • Kungliga Vitterhetsakademiens pris för förtjänt vetenskapligt arbete - Axel Englund

2012

  • Hertig Karls pris - Elisabeth Mansén
  • Kungliga Vitterhetsakademiens pris för förtjänt vetenskapligt arbete - Thomas Götselius

2011

  • Schückska priset - Boel Westin
  • Högskoleföreningens pris för framstående vetenskaplig prestation inom humaniora - Inga Elmqvist Söderlund

2008

  • Övralidspriset - Anders Cullhed

2007

  • Schückska priset - Anders Olsson
  • Rettigska priset - Anders Cullhed
  • De Nios Astrid Lindgrenpris - Boel Westin
  • Universitetets pedagogiska pris - Krzysztof Bak
Illustration för priset Årets lärare
Illustration: SaraMara

Every year since 1992, Stockholm University has awarded one or more talented teachers a prize of SEK 50,000 and a diploma that is formally handed over at the annual promotions and installation ceremony at the City Hall. The award is to be used to enable the teacher to carry on developing his or her professional competence. If you are a student or an employee at Stockholm University you can nominate a teacher for the award!

2007

Krzysztof Bak, Literature and History of Ideas

2000 

Karin Helander, Theatre and Performance Studies

About the award

These dissertations from the Department of Culture and Aestethics have been awarded by the Swedish Academy.

2014

  • Anna Jungstrand, Det litterära med reportaget: Om litteraritet som journalistisk strategi och etik

2012

  • Maria Wahlström, Jag är icke heller en: den svenska dagboksromanen

2011

  • Per Anders Wiktorsson, Den utvidgade människan. Om Eyvind Johnsons Krilontrilogi
  • Axel Englund, Stroke Darkly the Strings. On Paul Celan and Music

2010

  • Maria Andersson, Att bli människa. Barn, sedlighet och kön i Amanda Kerfstedts, Helena Nybloms och Mathilda Mallings författarskap 1880–1910
  • Thomas Götselius, Själens medium. Skrift och subjekt i Nordeuropa omkring 1500

2009

  • Åsa Mälhammar, En svensk harlekinad. Narren som litterärt motiv hos Carl Jonas Love Almqvist", Hjalmar Bergman och Lars Forssell

2008

  • Elina Druker, Modernismens bilder. Den moderna bilderboken i Norden
  • Stefano Fogelberg-Rota, Poesins drottning. Christina av Sverige och de italienska akademierna
  • Christer Johansson, Mimetiskt syskonskap. En representationsteoretisk undersökning av relationen fiktionsprosa-fiktionsfilm

The awarding of an honorary doctorate is an expression of the University's appreciation of outstanding contributions in one or more of the University's areas of academic activity.

The following schollars have been awarded an honorary doctorate, by nomination from the department:

2019 Photography Historian Eva Dahlman
2018 Actor Stina Ekblad
2014 Theatre Researcher Elaine Aston
2011 Art Curator David Neuman
2010
 Author Ulf Stark
2003 Author Gun-Britt Sundström
2001
 Translator Brita af Geijerstam

1999 Publisher Per I. Gedin

1995 Author Per Wästberg

1993 Author Ying Toijer-Nilsson
1989 Author Lennart Hellsing

More about the Honorary Doctorates at Stockholm University

Tomas Tranströmer
Tomas Tranströmer. Foto: Albert Bonniers Förlag

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. During the 1950s Tomas Tranströmer studied literature and poetics, the history of religion, and psychology, at Stockholm University College, which in 1960 became Stockholm University. In 1956 he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in the same subjects. After completing his studies, Tomas Tranströmer was employed in 1957 as an assistant at the Institution for Psychometrics at Stockholm University.

Honorary Doctor at Faculty of Humanities 1990

Tomas Transtromer, born 1931, appears not only as one of the century's great Swedish poets — he is also an internationally celebrated poet, translated into over thirty languages.

Leading poets in other countries have also been inspired by his poetry, including the poet's Chinese interpreter Bei Dao and Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky. Brodsky has in fact previously proposed Tranströmer as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tranströmer pursued his studies and his first professional practice at Stockholm University, and the first major work on his poetry - Kjell Espmark's "Resans formler" - (1983) was published here.

More information

"The Nobel Prize in Literature 2011 - Bio-bibliography". Nobelprize.org. 7 Oct 2011

Kjell Espmark, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Stockholm University is a member of the Swedish Academy.

Anders Olsson, Professor Emeritus of Literature at Stockholm University, is chair of the Committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

Contact

Head of the department
Communications officer and web manager
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