DNA from archaeological remains show exceptional migration to Scandinavia during the Viking era

A new study based on 297 ancient Scandinavian genomes analysed together with the genomic data of 16,638 present day Scandinavians resolve the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia – encompassing the Roman Age, the Viking Age and later periods. A surprising increase of variation during the Viking period indicates that gene flow into Scandinavia was especially intense during this period.

Annual report of the Centre for Canadian Studies (2022)

This document is a summary of the activities of the Centre for Canadian Studies for the year 2022. The Centre is administrated by a board of five members who meet three times a year.

New research school in Islamology – important to keep the competence alive

Early December this year the Swedish Research Council granted funds of almost SEK 25 million for a new research school in religious studies, with a focus on Islamology.

New perspectives on the historical present

Victoria Fareld is in a new article exploring the relation between the present, the past and the future in a intertwined rather than chronological view of times.

Open lecture with world-renowned egyptologist Zahi Hawass

On Monday December 12, one of the foremost egyptologists Dr. Hawass, will come to Sweden to give an open lecture in the Aula Magna at Stockholm University.

New book about Ocean Bound Women in the 19th century

World Scientific Publishing has published the book Ocean Bound Women. Sisters Sailing Around the World in the 1880s–The Adventures–The Ship–The People, written by Anders Hallengren, Associate Professor of Literature at Stockholm University.

New study on ancient DNA from Mesopotamia

Archeologists from Stockholm University have participated in a new study on DNA from 13 individuals at the Stone age site Çayönü in south-eastern Turkey.

Vasa's sister ship Äpplet found – a unique historical discovery

Marine archaeologists from Vrak - Museum of Wreck have found the wreck of the naval vessel Äpplet, Vasa's sister ship. The ship was first launched in 1629 and was built by the same master shipbuilder who completed the Vasa. The discovery was made within the research programme "The Forgotten Fleet", which is led by Stockholm University.

Conversation with Jan Eliasson

HBC Director Makko in discussion with former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson.

New book on Sweden's 200-Year Long Peace

The book "200 Years of Peace" studies Sweden's two centuries of peace from fresh societal, political and military perspectives. It is the outcome of the Blix Centre's first ever workshop held in April 2020.

Ny bok belyser Sveriges långa fred ur olika perspektiv

I boken "200 Years of Peace" analyseras den långa svenska freden ur både samhälleliga och politiskt-militära perspektiv. Boken är resultatet av centrumets första workshop någonsin som hölls digitalt i början av pandemin i april 2020.

They map the meeting between modern humans and wild fauna in the northern hemisphere

With the help om advanced DNA technology, researchers will map the human encounter with the wild fauna in Eurasia. What happened when they interacted and how have they affected each other?

Facklitterärt samtal med Jan Eliasson

HBC:s föreståndare Makko samtalade med toppdiplomaten Eliasson på Kulturhusets "Fackscenen".

Det Internationella atomenergiorganets historia

Elisabeth Röhrlich presenterar sin nyutkomna bok Inspectors for Peace. A History of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Svante Pääbo in Aula Magna on the origin of man

Watch a film with this year's Nobel laureate in medicine, Svante Pääbo, when he in 2017 lectured on the origin of man and Neanderthal DNA in Aula Magna at Stockholm University.

Students from Stockholm University participate in a summer school in Piazza Armerina

From July 3, until July 17, an international Summer School of Archaeology (ArchLABS – Archaeological heritage in Late Antique and Byzantine Sicily) is being held in the Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina in Sicily

Unique Viking Age shipyard discovered at Birka

Archaeologists from Stockholm University's Archaeological Research Laboratory have located a unique Viking Age shipyard site at Birka on Björkö in Lake Mälaren. The discovery challenges previous theories about how the maritime activities of the Viking Age were organised.

New book about Colonial Objects in Early Modern Sweden and Beyond

Mårten Snickare has written about objects acquired in colonial contact zones and displayed by Swedish elites in the seventeenth century.

Precious Stones in 14th Century Plague Remedies: Visiting Scholar in Stockholm

In her dissertation, Raissa Bombini examines the use of gemstones and other minerals as plague remedies, or amuletic-remedies, during the Black Death. Right now she is a visiting scholar at the History department.

Victoria Fareld about time in new article

Victoria Fareld, associate professor of History of Ideas at Stockholm University, has written the article "Time" in the anthology The Routledge Companion to Historical Theory, edited by Chiel van den Akker.

New online distance courses during the autumn semester 2022

A number of courses in Asian and Middle Eastern languages and cultures will be web-based distance courses during Autumn 2022.

Scientists: Don’t look at the 1980's as a reference for the Baltic Sea

The photos of happy fishermen in the 1980's holding huge cods, almost larger than themselves, are iconic and often contrasted by a small meagre fishes caught today. But this period of time was an anomaly in the Baltic Sea history, and should not be regarded as a reference state, says scientists after having compiled and analysed large quantities of information from the last century.

New book: Nell Walden, Der Sturm, and the Collaborative Cultures of Modern Art

Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, associate professor in Art History at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, is the author of the new book Nell Walden, Der Sturm, and the Collaborative Cultures of Modern Art.

The author Ulla Bjerne and the Politics of Female Embodied Experience

A new article about the authorship of Ulla Bjerne (1890–1969), written by associate professor in literature Boel Hackman at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, has been published in NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.

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".

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.

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.

Centre of Paleogenetics is looking for a laboratory assistant

Tanja Schult about "The Invisible Camp – Audiowalk Gusen" at The Place of Memory – conference

The conference "The Place of Memory – Memory in Place" was held by Vienna-Jerusalem Graduate School 2021 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on October 6-9, 2021.

New Book by Åke Engsheden: Ancient Place-names in the Governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh

This book is a diachronically oriented toponomastic study of a single northern Egyptian governorate. At its core it is a gazetteer of ancient place names that are likely to have, or have been claimed to have, origins either in ancient Egyptian, Coptic, or Greek.

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.

A new anthology faces the sea

Facing the Sea - Essays in Swedish Maritime Studies touches on bowmanship, the nation in maritime magazines, toys as maritime objects - and more. This time, thte CEMAS anthology is in English.

Barley cultivated in the vicinity of Storsjön, Jämtland, have a unique genetic code

Genetic studies of barley cultivated in the 19th century, from the district around Storsjön, Jämtland, reveal that they are of a different type compared to the rest of Sweden and Norway.

A new book about Holocaust Commemoration

Tanja Schult, associate professor in Art History at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, is one of the editors of the new anthology Performative Holocaust Commemoration in the 21st Century.

A transom reveals date of a unique fluit-wreck in the Baltic sea

An international diving group has successfully identified a fluit-wreck while making a documentary film.

New publication: Arts of Incompletion: Fragments, Drafts, Revisions in Words and Music

The new interdisciplinary anthology Arts of Incompletion: Fragments, Drafts, Revisions in Words and Music based on the 2017 Stockholm conference of the International Association for Word and Music Studies held at the Department of Culture and Aestethics has been published.

Special issue on aDNA in the Journal of Social Archaeology

A special issue on aDNA was recently published in the Journal of Social Archaeology, vol 21:2, 2021, edited by researchers at the Department of Culture and Aestethics and project members of the research project "Code, Narrative, History: Making sense of ancient DNA in contemporary culture”.

A new dimension to early medieval mortuary rites

New research argues that reopening graves actually was a widespread practice that was part of regular mortuary customs.

Petra Dotlacilová recieves grants from The Swedish Research council

In her new research project, "The Fabrication of Performance: Processes and Politics of Costume-Making in the 18th-Century", Petra Dotlacilová will examine power and ideology in the 18th century theatre costumes.

Birka’s lost moat found by archaeologists

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place regarding the Viking town of Birka. Parts of the town were encircled by a moat, suggesting that Birka was fortified against hostile attacks. This is one of the findings of a new archaeological research study at Stockholm University.

Ancient DNA analysis reveals Asian migration and plague

Ancient DNA reveals a history of migrations, continuity, and diseases in northeastern Asia.

Birka’s lost moat found by archaeologists

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place regarding the Viking town of Birka. Parts of the town were encircled by a moat, suggesting that Birka was fortified against hostile attacks. This is one of the findings of a new archaeological research study at Stockholm University.

Exploring the unfinished encyclopedias

Linn Holmberg, researcher in History of Ideas at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, and Maria Simonsen researcher at Aalborg University are the editors of Stranded Encyclopedias, 1700–2000, a new anthology published by Palgrave Macmillan in the series ”New Directions in Book History”.

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?

New book series: Critical Editions in Culture and Aesthetics

Editorial Boards for Book Series Stockholm University Press Editorial Advisory Boards, consisting of prominent and knowledgeable scholars, judge all publications based on their academic standards, and assist authors to increase their quality and impact.

"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.

New interpretation of Norse religion

Recent research on pre-Christian Nordic religion demonstrates that there was much greater variation in Norse religion than previously thought. This is one of the conclusions of a new comprehensive interdisciplinary compilation of the research landscape.

Rare coin identified in Viking Age hoard

During the autumn of 2020, a silver hoard was found by the company Arkeologerna, part of the National Historical Museums, at a Viking Age farm in Viggbyholm, north of Stockholm. Jens Christian Moesgaard, professor of numismatics at Stockholm University, was contacted to help archaeologists identify the coins.