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Språkvelger

Norsk

Mattias Bäckström

Mattias Bäckström

Associate Professor
Department of Historical and Classical Studies

mattias.backstrom@ntnu.no
+4773412864 Bygg 11, Rom 11558, Dragvoll
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About

CV

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).

  • KULMI2200. Work placement and Bachelor’s thesis in cultural heritage, NTNU.
  • KULMI2300. Introduction to museology, NTNU.
  • KULMI3080. Internship, NTNU.
  • KULMI3090. Master’s thesis in cultural heritage management, 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).

Competencies

  • Cultural Heritage Management
  • Cultural History
  • Cultural heritage
  • Curatorial Studies
  • Exhibition Studies
  • Heritage Studies
  • History of Science
  • History of architecture
  • History of ideas
  • History of knowledge
  • History of media
  • Modern history after 1800
  • Museology
  • Uses of the past

Research

  • Museologi og museumsforskning
  • Media, data, museums
  • Kunnskapshistorisk forskningsgruppe

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

  • Chronological
  • By category
  • See all publications in Cristin

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

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 Nordic Academic Press
    Academic monograph

2015

  • Bäckström, Mattias. (2015) Making things matter. Meaning and materiality in museum displays. Nordisk Museologi
    Academic article

2012

  • Bäckström, Mattias. (2012) Hearths of the heart. Folk life, folk museums and historical memorials in Scandinavia, 1808–1907 . Gidlunds förlag Gidlunds förlag
    Doctoral dissertation

Journal publications

  • 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
  • Bäckström, Mattias. (2020) The Dragvoll University Campus – the first 50 years. Universitetsavisa
    Feature 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

Books

  • Bäckström, Mattias. (2021) Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess (2. utgave). Nordic Academic Press Nordic Academic Press
    Academic monograph
  • Bäckström, Mattias. (2016) Att bygga innehåll med utställningar: Utställningsproduktion som forskningsprocess. Nordic Academic Press Nordic Academic Press
    Academic monograph

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

  • KULMI2300 - Introduction to Museology
  • KULMI2200 - Work Placement and Bachelor's Thesis in Cultural Heritage
  • KULMI3080 - Internship
  • KULMI3090 - Master's Thesis in Cultural Heritage Management
  • KULMI3105 - Theories and Methods in Cultural Heritage Management

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
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