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Anna Bohlin

Senior Lecturer

School of Global Studies
Telephone
+46 31-786 41 44
Mail
anna.bohlin@globalstudies.gu.se
Visiting address
Konstepidemins väg 2A
41314 Göteborg
Room number
C317
Postal address
Box 700
40530 Göteborg

About Anna Bohlin

After my Ba (Hon) in Social Anthropology and Politics at SOAS, University of London, I completed a doctoral degree in social anthropology at University of Gothenburg in 2001. Between 1997 and 2008 I was involved in research and teaching in South Africa. I am currently Associate Professor in Social Anthropology and from 2011 I have been a lecturer in the subject at the School of Global Studies.

Areas of interest My research interests include second-hand and re-use, alternative heritage practices, memory and material culture. Previous research has focused on the link between memory and place and its significance for processes of democratisation, citizenship and nation building. I have investigated memory and uses of history within the South African government’s land restitution programme; place, memory and citizenship in urban contexts and the related field of reconciliation, public memory, and other forms of heritage-related activities. Other areas of interest have included participation in cultural resource management as well as the construction and management of "nature" and "culture" within the restoration of watercourses.

Current research

Recently I have been interested in the intersection between things/materials, temporality and sustainability. My current research explores relations to everyday domestic items from a posthumanist perspective. among other things through the project Re:heritage. Circulation and marketization of things with history, Swedish Research Council, 2014-2019, which investigated reuse as an embodied and alternative form of heritage. As part of the project I also collaborated with the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg for their exhibition Human:Nature, 2019-2021. Currently I examine the social and material configurations that lead to things remaining in households for extended periods of time rather than being divested in the project Staying (with) Things: Alternatives to Circular Living and Consuming, Swedish Research Council 2020-2024. I am part of the leadership group of the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, a partnership between University College London and University of Gothenburg.

Teaching and tutoring I teach mainly within social anthropology and the Ma Programme in Global Studies on topics such as sustainability and waste, material culture, reconciliation, urban studies, heritage and research methods. I also supervise within the PhD-programme in social anthropology (current doctoral supervision: Proshant Chakraborty and Nanna Rask).

Other positions

President of the Swedish Anthropological Society (SANT)

Member of Editorial Committee, kritisk etnografi: Swedish Journal of Anthropology