Helena Wangefelt Ström

PhD in Museology. Senior Lecturer in ALM, specialisation in Museum and Heritage studies at the department of ALM. I teach in the master's programs in ALM and Digital Humanities. My doctoral thesis investigates the transfers between sacredness and heritage, focusing 17th century Rome and Venice, with a background in History of ideas and science. I am interested in uses of heritage in relation to politics, identity, and the training of AI, and in the relationship between heritage and history.

My PhD thesis, Lighting candles before a headless Jesus. Sacred heritage, heritagized sacredness, and the many journeys between categories, investigates the transfers between sacredness and heritage: as a production of categories, and as practice. The main case study of the production of sacred heritage is early modern Rome and Venice, and the investigation of practices includes examples from various times and religions.

My general field of interest is vast and includes, among other topics: heritage production and heritage politics, history of religion and history of ideas, visual and material culture, museum culture and authenticity, and cultural policy and politics. I am currently interested in classification and categorization practices, and how AI plays into these within the heritage field. Also, I am interested in developing methods through which scholars within heritage studies and history can meet and collaborate. Religion and its role in society today is an overarching theme for my research interests. My professional background includes museum practice at Skokloster castle, NGO project management, and cultural policy making and funding.

Member of the steering board of the international research groups EMoDiR (Early Modern Religious Dissents and Radicalism, www.emodir.net), and RCHG (Religion and Collections Heritage Group, https://religioncollections.wordpress.com/).

For more information, see Academia: https://umu.academia.edu/HelenaWangefeltStröm

Andligt kulturarv – Religion, mångfald och museer. I de flesta museisamlingar finns föremål från olika religioner. På Historiska museet finns t ex en stor samling medeltida kyrkokonst. Sverige är ett sekulariserat land, hur påverkar det religiösa kulturarvet oss idag? Och vilken roll kan museer spela i diskussioner om de existentiella utmaningar som samhället står inför idag? Vilka frågor och ställningstaganden är viktiga? Medverkande: David Thurfjell, professor i religionsvetenskap vid Södertörns högskola, James Webb, konstnär, Maria Kjellsdotter Rydinger, präst och projektledare för ”Tillsammans för Sverige”, samt Helena Wangefelt Ström, forskare i museologi vid Umeå universitet.