Kristian Göransson
Senior Lecturer
Department of Historical StudiesAbout Kristian Göransson
Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History.
I read Classical Archaeology & Ancient History plus Latin and Greek at Lund University where I took my BA in 1996 and MA in 1998. After some years working as a field archaeologist in Italy and in museums in Edinburgh and Stockholm, I returned to Lund to do a PhD in Classical Archaeology & Ancient History. In 2007 I defended my thesis The Transport Amphorae from Euesperides: The Maritime Trade of a Cyrenaican City 400-250 BC. The thesis is a study of maritime trade in the Classical and early Hellenistic periods based on the transport amphorae found in the British-Libyan excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi), Libya, where I participated for several years.
In 2007 I became Curator at the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet) in Stockholm. At the museum I was responsible for the Greek and Roman collections including the Cyprus collections and led the work with the new Cyprus gallery, which opened in 2009 as well as numerous temporary exhibitions.
After six years at the museum I was appointed Director of the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, where I stayed for six years (2013-2019) before moving back to Sweden to take up my current position as Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg in 2019.
My research interests include the Greek colonisation, in particular in Sicily and Libya, but also the ancient economy and ancient pottery studies.
Since 2016 I direct an excavation project at Francavilla di Sicilia in northeast Sicily. The project aims at investigating a Greek inland settlement dating to the fifth century BC. It is a collaboration between the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, the Parco Archeologico di Naxos-Taormina and the Comune di Francavilla di Sicilia.
Since the beginning of 2020 I conduct a research project on the Greeks in ancient Cyrenaica at the Swedish Institute at Athens, funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ).
I mainly teach Greek history, Greek art and archaeology, Roman history and the Hellenistic world.
I am also Curator of the University of Gothenburg Museum of Antiquities, a small but good collection of mainly pottery from the ancient civilisations in the Mediterranean. Please contact me for any questions regarding the collections or visiting the museum.
Selected academic memberships:
Corresponding member of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI).
Board member of the Research Foundation Fondazione Famiglia Rausing at the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome.
Member of The British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies (formerly the Society for Libyan Studies) at The British Academy, London.
Expert reviewer of project applications for the Research Council of Flanders (FWO), Brussels.
Expert reviewer of project applications at the University of Cyprus Internal Research Funding Programme, Nicosia.