Mattias Bäckström
About
Mattias Bäckström is Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage Management at the NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has a PhD and holds the title of Reader of History of Ideas and Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. In his research, he focuses on the history, theory and practice of heritage and museums, exhibitions and collections, as well as on the history of science, history of media, and history of architecture and the built environment.
Between 2015 and 2018, Mattias was a Postdoctoral Fellow in History of Knowledge at the Centre for Museum Studies at the University of Oslo in Norway. Mattias has also studied at the Uppsala University in Sweden, where he wrote his Master’s thesis in Art History with emphasis on the History of Architecture and the Built Environment.
The scholarly monograph Att bygga innehåll med utställningar. Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess (To build content with exhibitions. Exhibition production as research process) has been reissued in a new edition (2021). The book is published by Nordic Academic Press (print book in 2016 and 2021, e-book in 2017) and by MTM Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (audio book in 2018).
The point of departure of this monograph is Mattias’s own experiences from university research and exhibition productions. In the book, he studies exhibiting as idea and process through historical, theoretical and practical perspectives, and discusses thoroughly a new kind of research activity that takes place in and by means of exhibition productions: exhibition-specific research.
To read more, please see the English summary on Academia.
In 2012, Mattias successfully defended his PhD thesis in History of Ideas and Science, which was undertaken at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion at the University of Gothenburg: Hjärtats härdar. Folkliv, folkmuseer och minnesmärken i Skandinavien, 1808–1907 (Hearths of the heart. Folk life, folk museums and historical memorials in Scandinavia, 1808–1907), published by Gidlunds förlag in 2012.
The doctoral thesis deals with, among other things, the new view of landscapes, buildings and artefacts as significant, memory-bearing structures that emerged in Scandinavia in the nineteenth century.
To read more, please see the English summary on Academia.
Museum and heritage sector
Mattias has a professional background in the museum sector and heritage sector in Sweden, first and foremost at the Västernorrland County Museum in Härnösand. He has worked as a museum curator and project leader of exhibitions, festivals, seminar series and concert series, but also as a researcher and investigator in exhibition, heritage and museum projects.
He is currently member of two expert groups in Gothenburg. The first expert group focuses on the new permanent exhibition at the Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, the second group on research in collection management at the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Gothenburg.
In exhibition productions and heritage projects, from the mid-1990s and up until today, Mattias has cooperated extensively with institutions, for example with the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Swedish Exhibition Agency, the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, the Museum of Gothenburg, the Sundsvall Museum, and the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg and Härnösand. He has also collaborated with individual artists, musicians and researchers as well as with local and regional institutions, organisations and societies. Today, he cooperates with the Medical History Museum in Gothenburg and the Stjørdal Museum Værnes.
To see a selection of the curatorial and conservation projects, please visit Mattias Bäckström’s webpage on Academia.
Ongoing research
In his ongoing research work, Making things matter. Meaning and materiality in museum displays, Mattias examines how museums in Berlin, Copenhagen, London and Stockholm (from c.1880 to c.1920) used and reshaped concepts of knowledge in and by means of exhibited collections and permanent exhibitions. How did these museums shape art history, cultural history and prehistory?
The other ongoing research project, Mediating medicine, is a co-operation between the Department of Cultural Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and the Medical History Museum in Gothenburg. Writing together with the museum director and the museum pedagogue, as a way of practicing a museum-specific approach in scholarly research, the contribution of Mattias and his museum colleagues is a media-historical study of the Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg from a media-system perspective.
Academic interests
- History, theory and practice of heritage and museums, exhibitions and collections.
- Heritage, history and memory.
- Views of history, ideals of society, and production of knowledge in and by means of museum, exhibition and heritage practices.
- Images, objects and spaces, and maps, buildings and landscapes from historical and theoretical perspectives.
- Exhibition production as research process.
Research networks
- Exhibition Studies. A Nordic Network
- FOMU – Research at museums
- Research Network for Studies in the Curatorial
- The Nordic Nineteenth-Century Research Network
Teaching
Mattias is lecturer and supervisor in museology, cultural heritage management, heritage studies and exhibition studies (at the NTNU since 2019, at the University of Gothenburg 2005–2021, and at the University of Oslo 2015–2018).
- KULMI2200. Period of practical training and Bachelor’s thesis in cultural heritage, NTNU.
- KULMI2300. Introduction to museology, NTNU.
- KULMI3080. Practice, trainee period, NTNU.
- KULMI3090. Master’s thesis in cultural heritage, NTNU.
- KULMI3105. Theories and methods in cultural heritage management, NTNU.
- KULMI2400. Period of practical training and project work in cultural heritage, NTNU (2020–2021).
- KA1120. Politics and ideology of cultural heritage, UGOT (2010–2021).
Publications
2022
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Bäckström, Mattias.
(2022)
Friluftsmuseets tidiga idéhistoria.
Västergötlands fornminnesförenings tidskrift.
volum 2021–2022.
Academic article
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2022)
Robert Thavenius (2021): Nationalmuseum som konsekrerande institution 1890–1920 (licentiatavhandling).
Nordisk Museologi.
Review
-
Bäckström, Mattias;
Eriksen, Anne;
Jensen, Bernard Eric.
(2022)
En läsvärd och gedigen avhandling i gränslandet mellan historiedidaktik och museihistoria.
Nordisk Museologi.
Review
2021
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2021)
Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess (2. utgave).
Nordic Academic Press. 2021. ISBN 978-91-88909-99-2.
Scientific monography
2020
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Pierroux, Palmyre;
Bäckström, Mattias;
Brenna, Brita;
Gowlland, Geoffrey;
Ween, Gro Birgit.
(2020)
Museums as Sites of Participatory Democracy and Design.
A History of Participation in Museums and Archives. Traversing Citizen Science and Citizen Humanities.
Academic chapter/article
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2020)
Dragvoll – de första 50 åren.
Universitetsavisa.
Chronicle
-
Bäckström, Mattias;
Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen;
Hove, Jon Olav;
Müller, Insa.
(2020)
Innspill til Høringsutkast til etiske retningslinjer for norske museer, Norsk ICOM og Norges museumsforbund (ePhorte saksnummer 2020/16248).
2020.
Report
2018
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2018)
Intersecting heritage, milieu and environment: The concept of Nordic museology in the early 1990s.
Nordisk Museologi.
Academic article
2016
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2016)
Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess.
Nordic Academic Press. 2016. ISBN 978-91-88168-57-3.
Scientific monography
2015
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2015)
Making things matter. Meaning and materiality in museum displays.
Nordisk Museologi.
Academic article
2012
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2012)
Hjärtats härdar: Folkliv, folkmuseer och minnesmärken i Skandinavien, 1808–1907.
Gidlunds förlag. 2012. ISBN 978-91-7844-843-2.
PhD thesis
Scientific articles
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2022)
Friluftsmuseets tidiga idéhistoria.
Västergötlands fornminnesförenings tidskrift.
volum 2021–2022.
Academic article
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2018)
Intersecting heritage, milieu and environment: The concept of Nordic museology in the early 1990s.
Nordisk Museologi.
Academic article
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2015)
Making things matter. Meaning and materiality in museum displays.
Nordisk Museologi.
Academic article
Journal publications
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2022)
Robert Thavenius (2021): Nationalmuseum som konsekrerande institution 1890–1920 (licentiatavhandling).
Nordisk Museologi.
Review
-
Bäckström, Mattias;
Eriksen, Anne;
Jensen, Bernard Eric.
(2022)
En läsvärd och gedigen avhandling i gränslandet mellan historiedidaktik och museihistoria.
Nordisk Museologi.
Review
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2020)
Dragvoll – de första 50 åren.
Universitetsavisa.
Chronicle
Books
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2021)
Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess (2. utgave).
Nordic Academic Press. 2021. ISBN 978-91-88909-99-2.
Scientific monography
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2016)
Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess.
Nordic Academic Press. 2016. ISBN 978-91-88168-57-3.
Scientific monography
Part of book/report
-
Pierroux, Palmyre;
Bäckström, Mattias;
Brenna, Brita;
Gowlland, Geoffrey;
Ween, Gro Birgit.
(2020)
Museums as Sites of Participatory Democracy and Design.
A History of Participation in Museums and Archives. Traversing Citizen Science and Citizen Humanities.
Academic chapter/article
Report
-
Bäckström, Mattias;
Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen;
Hove, Jon Olav;
Müller, Insa.
(2020)
Innspill til Høringsutkast til etiske retningslinjer for norske museer, Norsk ICOM og Norges museumsforbund (ePhorte saksnummer 2020/16248).
2020.
Report
-
Bäckström, Mattias.
(2012)
Hjärtats härdar: Folkliv, folkmuseer och minnesmärken i Skandinavien, 1808–1907.
Gidlunds förlag. 2012. ISBN 978-91-7844-843-2.
PhD thesis
Teaching
Courses
Media
2023
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2023) Å gjenbruke teori og praksis på reflektert vis: den nye museologien, den foranderlige basisutstillingen og det desentraliserte økomuseet. Bergkunstsenter – seminar om formidling . Stjørdal museum Værnes; Værnes. 2023-02-02 - 2023-02-02.
2022
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Academic lectureBäckström, Mattias. (2022) A few notes on the history of ideas of the exhibition as essay. From the Scenic Essay to the Essay Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts beyond Literature and Film . Ghent University. KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts Ghent; Ghent. 2022-04-29 - 2022-04-29.
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Academic lectureBäckström, Mattias. (2022) Om forskning i förhållande till utställning: essäistisk utställning, forskningsbaserad utställning och populärvetenskaplig utställning. Forskande utställning och utställd forskning . FOMU Forskning vid museer i Sverige; Linköping. 2022-05-19 - 2022-05-19.
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InterviewBäckström, Mattias; Hallman, Teres. (2022) P3 Dokumentär: Jakten på kyrkotjuven. Sveriges Radio P3 [Radio]. 2022-04-17.
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Academic lectureBrandt, Thomas; Bäckström, Mattias. (2022) Conceptualizing and situating knowledge production: The academic office in history and theory, and locally at the Dragvoll University Campus in Trondheim. 10th ESHS Conference . European Society for the History of Science; Brussels. 2022-09-07 - 2022-09-10.
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Academic lectureBrandt, Thomas; Lykknes, Annette; Bäckström, Mattias; Rabben, Magne Brekke; Ellingsen, Ellen J. Grav. (2022) Symposium: The Office as a Place of Production, Adaptation, and Circulation of Scientific and Academic Knowledge. 10th ESHS Conference . European Society for the History of Science; Brussels. 2022-09-07 - 2022-09-10.
2021
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2021) En essäistisk forskningsprocess i och genom utställningsproduktion. KULMiST 2021. Kunnskapsbygging . NTNU Kulturminneforvaltning og MiST Museene i Sør-Trøndelag; Trondheim. 2021-09-13 - 2021-09-14.
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2021) Hovedtaler: Utstillingsproduksjon som forskningsprosess. Spreng grensene! Formidling blir forskning. Nasjonalmuseets formidlingsseminar . Nasjonalmuseet og Norges Museumsforbund Seksjon formidling; Oslo. 2021-11-25 - 2021-11-26.
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InterviewBäckström, Mattias. (2021) Hvordan forske på formidling?. Nasjonalmuseets nettsted [Internett]. 2021-11-05.
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Academic lectureBrandt, Thomas; Lykknes, Annette; Bäckström, Mattias; Rabben, Magne Brekke; Ellingsen, Ellen Grav. (2021) Kontoret - idémiljø og minneteater. Universitetshistorie – viktig kunnskapshistorisk material eller et hår i suppa? . NTNU Forum for NTNU-historie/Vitenskapsmuseet; Trondheim. 2021-10-19 - 2021-10-20.
2020
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2020) Forskning och kunskapsuppbyggnad som flödande rikedom. Forskning och kunskapsuppbyggnad i samlingsförvaltning – vad är det? . Göteborgs Stad Kulturförvaltningen; Göteborg. 2020-06-12 - 2020-06-12.
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Academic lectureBäckström, Mattias. (2020) Huvudtalare: Om heritologi och museologi, kulturarvsstudier och museistudier samt nordisk museologi. En skiss över forskning och vetenskapsteori internationellt. Workshop om kritiska kulturarvs- och museistudier . Mittuniversitetet, Kritiska kulturarvs- och museistudier; Sundsvall. 2020-01-14 - 2020-01-14.
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Academic lectureBäckström, Mattias. (2020) Huvudtalare: Utställningen som kopplingspunkt för olika slags kunskapsprocesser: bildningsverksamhet, forskningsverksamhet och inkluderande verksamhet. MIUN Research Exhibition: Upplevelsebara forskningsutställningar i det fysiska och digitala biblioteksrummet . Mittuniversitetet, MIUN Research Exhibition; Östersund. 2020-01-13 - 2020-01-13.
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2020) Om några brytpunkter i utställandets idéhistoria och ett par idéer till den nya basutställningen på Röhsska museet. Ny formhistoria. Ett seminarium om en ny basutställning . Röhsska museet; Göteborg. 2020-11-16 - 2020-11-16.
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2020) Policy utifrån tre sammanhang. Styrdokument och kunskapsuppbyggnad i samlingsförvaltning . Göteborgs Stad Kulturförvaltningen; Göteborg. 2020-11-04 - 2020-11-04.
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InterviewBäckström, Mattias; Andersson, Elisabet. (2020) Ur svenska hjärtans djup. Kärleksbombningen kan rädda Skansen ur krisen. Svenska Dagbladet Kultur [Avis]. 2020-06-14.
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Popular scientific lectureBäckström, Mattias; Stang, Margrethe C.. (2020) Dragvolls arkitekturhistorie. Historisk arkitekturvandring . Den norske historiske forening HIFO Trøndelag; Trondheim. 2020-11-11 - 2020-11-11.
2019
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2019) Forskjellige kulturarvbegreper i dagens kulturminne- og kulturarvsektor. Typisk trøndersk? Kunnskapsgrunnlag for ny regional plan for kulturminner i Trøndelag . Trøndelag fylkeskommune og NTNU Kulturminneforvaltning; Trondheim. 2019-09-25 - 2019-09-25.
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LectureBäckström, Mattias. (2019) Keynote: Exhibition as circle, project and space: Bildung, research and inclusion. Exhibiting the Arctic. The Nordic Cross-Arctic Museum Network Workshop . Nordiska museet, The Nordic Cross-Arctic Museum Network; Stockholm. 2019-12-05 - 2019-12-06.