Mattias Bäckström

About

Mattias Bäckström is Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage Management. 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 essayistic 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, how museums of cultural history joined together ideas and conceptions about art, morality and science with historical remains and reconstructions when creating their exhibitions, museal dioramas and other museal stagings.

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.
History and theory of the material turn, the spatial turn and the practical turn.
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

FOMU – Research at museums
Research Network for Studies in the Curatorial
The Nordic Nineteenth-Century Research Network
Forum for the history of NTNU

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).

KULMI2400. Period of practical training and project work in cultural heritage, NTNU (2020–2021).
KA1120. Politics and ideology of cultural heritage, UGOT (2010–2021).

Research

Kontoret – idémiljø og minneteater

Pilotprosjektet «Kontoret – idémiljø og minneteater» utvikler strategier og metoder for å dokumentere og studere betydningen av kontor for forskning og undervisning. Det er også et faglig utviklingsprosjekt for forvaltningen av NTNUs akademiske kulturarv.

Publications

2022

Bäckström, Mattias; Eriksen, Anne; Jensen, Bernard Eric. (2022) En läsvärd och gedigen avhandling i gränslandet mellan historiedidaktik och museihistoria. Nordisk Museologi
Book review
Bäckström, Mattias. (2022) Robert Thavenius (2021): Nationalmuseum som konsekrerande institution 1890–1920 (licentiatavhandling). Nordisk Museologi
Book review
Bäckström, Mattias. (2022) Friluftsmuseets tidiga idéhistoria. Västergötlands fornminnesförenings tidskrift
Academic article

2021

Bäckström, Mattias. (2021) Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess (2. utgave). Nordic Academic Press Nordic Academic Press
Academic monograph

2020

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). Program for kulturminneforvaltning, IHK, NTNU
Report
Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) The Dragvoll University Campus – the first 50 years. Universitetsavisa
Feature article
Pierroux, Palmyre; Bäckström, Mattias; Brenna, Brita ; Gowlland, Geoffrey; Ween, Gro Birgit. (2020) Museums as Sites of Participatory Democracy and Design. Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

Part of book/report

Pierroux, Palmyre; Bäckström, Mattias; Brenna, Brita ; Gowlland, Geoffrey; Ween, Gro Birgit. (2020) Museums as Sites of Participatory Democracy and Design. Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

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). Program for kulturminneforvaltning, IHK, NTNU
Report
Bäckström, Mattias. (2012) Hearths of the heart. Folk life, folk museums and historical memorials in Scandinavia, 1808–1907 . Gidlunds förlag Gidlunds förlag
Doctoral dissertation

Teaching

Courses

Media

2023

Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2023) Å gjenbruke teori og praksis på reflektert vis: den nye museologien, den foranderlige basisutstillingen og det desentraliserte økomuseet. Stjørdal museum Værnes Bergkunstsenter – seminar om formidling , Værnes 2023-02-02 - 2023-02-02
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2023) Utställningen som essä – om tvärkunskapliga forskningsprocesser i gränslandet mellan konst, teknik, erfarenhet, kunnande och vetenskap. Statens historiska museer och Göteborgs universitet Det digitala museet , Historiska museet i Stockholm 2023-03-07 - 2023-03-07
Academic lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2023) «Det er et nyt Udtryk, dette om Arbeidets Naturhistorie» (1865). Eilert Sundt om norskt byggnadsskick och ett friluftsmuseum på 1860-talet. Folklivsarkivet och Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper vid Lunds universitet Nils Månsson Mandelgren och kampen för kulturens framtid , Arkivcentrum Syd i Lund 2023-03-16 - 2023-03-16
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias; Stang, Margrethe Cecilia Molland. (2023) Dragvoll-safari. Forelesning og vandring om Universitetssenteret på Dragvoll og dets arkitektoniske og akademiske ideer og uttrykk. Fortidsminneforeningen, Trondheim og omegn lokallag Dragvoll-safari , Universitetssenteret på Dragvoll i Trondheim 2023-05-25 - 2023-05-25
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2023) Bryt fasaden gjennom utstillingsproduksjoner i bygningssamlinger på kulturhistoriske museer. Bryt fasaden, Nettverk for minoriteter og kulturelt mangfold. Mangfoldsnettverket Bryt fasaden – nasjonalt seminar , Stiklestad Nasjonale Kultursenter 2023-05-08 - 2023-05-08
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2023) Kulturminneforvaltning ved NTNU i og gjennom ph.d.-avhandlinger og masteroppgaver 2008–2023. Et mangfold av temaer om kulturmiljøsektoren og museumssektoren. Kulturminneforvaltning ved NTNU og MiST Museene i Sør-Trøndelag KULMiST 2023 Tekniske og industrielle kulturminner , Trondheim 2023-09-20 - 2023-09-20

2022

Academic lecture

Brandt, 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. European Society for the History of Science 10th ESHS Conference , Brussels 2022-09-07 - 2022-09-10
Academic lecture

Brandt, 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. European Society for the History of Science 10th ESHS Conference , Brussels 2022-09-07 - 2022-09-10
Interview

Bäckström, Mattias; Hallman, Teres. (2022) P3 Dokumentär: Jakten på kyrkotjuven. Sveriges Radio P3 Sveriges Radio P3 [Radio] 2022-04-17
Academic lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2022) A few notes on the history of ideas of the exhibition as essay. Ghent University. KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts Ghent From the Scenic Essay to the Essay Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts beyond Literature and Film , Ghent 2022-04-29 - 2022-04-29
Academic lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2022) Om forskning i förhållande till utställning: essäistisk utställning, forskningsbaserad utställning och populärvetenskaplig utställning. FOMU Forskning vid museer i Sverige Forskande utställning och utställd forskning , Linköping 2022-05-19 - 2022-05-19

2021

Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2021) Hovedtaler: Utstillingsproduksjon som forskningsprosess. Nasjonalmuseet og Norges Museumsforbund Seksjon formidling Spreng grensene! Formidling blir forskning. Nasjonalmuseets formidlingsseminar , Oslo 2021-11-25 - 2021-11-26
Interview

Bäckström, Mattias. (2021) Hvordan forske på formidling?. Nasjonalmuseets nettsted Nasjonalmuseets nettsted [Internet] 2021-11-05
Academic lecture

Brandt, Thomas; Lykknes, Annette; Bäckström, Mattias; Rabben, Magne Brekke; Ellingsen, Ellen Grav. (2021) Kontoret - idémiljø og minneteater. NTNU Forum for NTNU-historie/Vitenskapsmuseet Universitetshistorie – viktig kunnskapshistorisk material eller et hår i suppa? , Trondheim 2021-10-19 - 2021-10-20
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2021) En essäistisk forskningsprocess i och genom utställningsproduktion. NTNU Kulturminneforvaltning og MiST Museene i Sør-Trøndelag KULMiST 2021. Kunnskapsbygging , Trondheim 2021-09-13 - 2021-09-14

2020

Interview

Bäckström, Mattias; Andersson, Elisabet. (2020) Ur svenska hjärtans djup. Kärleksbombningen kan rädda Skansen ur krisen. Svenska Dagbladet Kultur Svenska Dagbladet Kultur [Newspaper] 2020-06-14
Academic lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) Huvudtalare: Utställningen som kopplingspunkt för olika slags kunskapsprocesser: bildningsverksamhet, forskningsverksamhet och inkluderande verksamhet. Mittuniversitetet, MIUN Research Exhibition MIUN Research Exhibition: Upplevelsebara forskningsutställningar i det fysiska och digitala biblioteksrummet , Östersund 2020-01-13 - 2020-01-13
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) Om några brytpunkter i utställandets idéhistoria och ett par idéer till den nya basutställningen på Röhsska museet. Röhsska museet Ny formhistoria. Ett seminarium om en ny basutställning , Göteborg 2020-11-16 - 2020-11-16
Popular scientific lecture

Bäckström, Mattias; Stang, Margrethe C.. (2020) Dragvolls arkitekturhistorie. Den norske historiske forening HIFO Trøndelag Historisk arkitekturvandring , Trondheim 2020-11-11 - 2020-11-11
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) Forskning och kunskapsuppbyggnad som flödande rikedom. Göteborgs Stad Kulturförvaltningen Forskning och kunskapsuppbyggnad i samlingsförvaltning – vad är det? , Göteborg 2020-06-12 - 2020-06-12
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) Policy utifrån tre sammanhang. Göteborgs Stad Kulturförvaltningen Styrdokument och kunskapsuppbyggnad i samlingsförvaltning , Göteborg 2020-11-04 - 2020-11-04
Academic lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) Huvudtalare: Om heritologi och museologi, kulturarvsstudier och museistudier samt nordisk museologi. En skiss över forskning och vetenskapsteori internationellt. Mittuniversitetet, Kritiska kulturarvs- och museistudier Workshop om kritiska kulturarvs- och museistudier , Sundsvall 2020-01-14 - 2020-01-14

2019

Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2019) Forskjellige kulturarvbegreper i dagens kulturminne- og kulturarvsektor. Trøndelag fylkeskommune og NTNU Kulturminneforvaltning Typisk trøndersk? Kunnskapsgrunnlag for ny regional plan for kulturminner i Trøndelag , Trondheim 2019-09-25 - 2019-09-25
Lecture

Bäckström, Mattias. (2019) Keynote: Exhibition as circle, project and space: Bildung, research and inclusion. Nordiska museet, The Nordic Cross-Arctic Museum Network Exhibiting the Arctic. The Nordic Cross-Arctic Museum Network Workshop , Stockholm 2019-12-05 - 2019-12-06

Språkvelger

Mattias Bäckström