The Nordic Museum Graduate School for Museum Employees
The purpose behind the Nordic Museum Graduate School is to provide employees at the museum and within state-run cultural heritage management with the opportunity to pursue comprehensive doctoral studies within an academic discipline. Accordingly, those accepted have been provided the opportunity to defend their doctor’s theses at universities whilst retaining their position at their ordinary workplace on a part-time (20%) basis.
In total, the foundation’s board of directors has granted close to SEK 26 million to the programme. In the autumn of 2001, an agreement was reached with the Nordic Museum, which is responsible for the programme’s administration and implementation.
A call for applications was made and eleven doctoral positions were appointed in the spring of 2002. In 2004, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities awarded supplementary grants to graduate schools, through which an additional two doctoral students were accepted into the programme.
A number of doctoral students defended their doctor’s theses during 2007 and 2008. Anneli Palmsköld received her PhD for her thesis Textila tolkningar: om hängkläden, drättar, lister och takdukar (2007), (Textile Interpretations), as did Eva Gustavsson for “Grassland Plant Diversity in Relation to Historical and Current Land Use” and Ingrid Åkesson for Med rösten som instrument: perspektiv på nutida svensk vokal folkmusik (The Voice as an Instrument: Perspectives on Current Swedish Vocal Folk Music). In 2008, Hedvig Schönnbäck defended the thesis, De svenska städernas begravningsplatser 1770-1830: arkitektur, sanitet och det sociala rummet (Cemeteries in Swedish Cities, 1770-1830: Architecture, Hygiene and Social Space), while Bo Larsson defended De glömda verkstäderna: en studie av två familjeföretag på den uppländska landsbygden ca 1930-2000 (The Forgotten Workshops: a Study of Two Family-Owned Companies in Rural Uppland, 1930-2000).
Together with the graduate school’s efforts to increase the number of qualified researchers at museums, RJ and the steering group for the graduate school have also been involved in the public debate on the continuing need for increased competence within the sector. This has been emphasised, for example, by the steering group’s chairperson, senior lecturer Sten Rentzhog, in the journal Research & Museums from 2006.
Further information on all doctoral students, their research projects and the aims of the graduate school can be found, in Swedish, on the Nordic Museum website. Click on ‘Forskning’ and then on ‘Forskarskolan’ to find this information.
Administrative Group:
Senior lecturer Sten Rentzhog, County Custodian of Antiquities, Jamtli (Chairperson)
Christina Mattsson, Director, Nordiska museet
Professor Janken Myrdal, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Senior lecturer Mats Rolén, Research Director, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Professor Ulf Sporrong, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
Professor Birgitta Svensson, Institute of Ethnology
Professor Eva Österberg, Department of History, Lund University
Ongoing work is managed by a working group consisting of Ulrich Lange, Janken Myrdal and Sten Rentzhog.
Coordinator and Secretary: Ulrich Lange, PhD
Updated 11 September 2008.