About me, Carola
As a historian, I see historical studies as a way of stepping back from the present and highlighting new perspectives. By examining how people in the past have wrestled with and reasoned about various issues, we can place our own conditions and standpoints into context, obtaining a grasp on strands of thinking and strategies that can deepen our understanding of the challenges we face. I also research into how interpretations of the present are intertwined with ideas about the past and future.
Keywords
Cultural heritage, Anthropocene, historical consciousness, historical meaning-making, church space, ritualisation, history, sustainable development, existential sustainability, ecologisation
My current research
My research highlights how historical arguments are used, for example, to justify actions in the present. It also examines and highlights the problems of how and for what purposes history is used. The Church of Sweden is an organisation in which traces of the past are constantly present and represent a framework for new interpretations, actions and positions. My current research focuses on how historical meaning-making takes shape in the work on sustainable development and within various church practices and rituals. Concepts such as existential sustainability and ecologisation are important tools in the search for sustainable ways of viewing the relationship between people and the environment. A number of my current projects are described below.
Ecologisation in museums (project in progress, 2022–2024)
This is a research and development project funded by the Umeå Transformation Research Initiative (UTRI) at Umeå University. Led by Senior Lecturer Annika Bünz, the project explores how museums of cultural history can develop new narratives about the relationship between humans, animals and nature. The project is a collaboration with the Vallby Open Air Museum, Västerås. It also explores how museums can develop their work to align with existential sustainability. An article Berättande på museer (Story Telling in Museums), published in the online journal Utställningskritik (2023), offers an insight into some of the basic concepts in the project. The project will be the subject of two further articles in 2024, one of which deals with existential sustainability in museums.
Changing church spaces (project in progress 2023–2025)
The project, which developed from a project-based collaboration with researchers at Åbo Akademi University, was initially funded by the Polin Institute in Turku (see Changing Spaces: Ritual Buildings, Sacred Objects and Human Sensemaking). The project is examining church spaces and ritual sites from different perspectives. For example, it poses questions about how the use of religious spaces and sacred objects changes when defined as cultural heritage, about the tension between tradition and change and about the use of nature as a site for religious rituals, from both a historical and a contemporaneous perspective. The project will be presented in various contexts, at conferences and in book form, For example, I will be giving a lecture entitled Berättelser om en dopfunt: Tankar om vatten, kulturarv och existentiell hållbarhet (Stories of a baptismal font: Thoughts on water, cultural heritage and existential sustainability) at a cultural heritage symposium Kyrkliga kulturarvsmöte och nyskapade riter och relationer (The intersection between church and cultural heritage, and new rites and relationships) to be held at Stiftets Hus, Uppsala, on 10 October 2023.
Being a church in the Anthropocene (project in progress 2024–2026)
In this project, I study how the Church of Sweden is meeting the challenges that society faces in the form of climate change, ecosystem threats and reduced biodiversity. How is the Church responding to the current climate crisis and how is this changing the Church? What manifestations of deeper ecological awareness can be detected in the various rites, practices and spaces of the Church? By linking processes of change at local and national level, the project can highlight room for manoeuvre, agency of change and inhibiting structures.
Use of images by the Church of Sweden: On eco-theology and visual culture (project in progress 2024–2026)
This project focuses on contemporaneous use of images in the Church of Sweden. The Church’s visual culture and visual theology is an important area of research, and this project examines in particular the Church’s multimodal communication from the perspective of ecocritical-oriented research topics. The study therefore focuses above all on images and videos that are used to communicate the Church’s work on sustainability and that in various ways represent the Church’s view of nature.
Ever since the Middle Ages, church spaces have been a place for multimodal communication, where images have been given great prominence. The historical importance and function of church art is well documented in art and cultural history research. However, developments in the 21st century, where the Church is no longer an established church and now operates as an independent actor in a wider digital media landscape, have not yet been explored in detail. The Church of Sweden’s occasional communication is described as a form of mission, while it also aims to spread awareness of and consolidate the Church’s brand. Which visual messages and narratives does this communicate, and how are they to be interpreted from a theological perspective?
The Early Modern Pastor in the North (project in progress 2023–2025)
This is a book project in which researchers from Sweden, Finland and Norway are examining the conditions of the clergy in the period 1550–1800. The book focuses on the specific conditions that emerged in the northern areas of Sweden-Finland and Denmark-Norway. One of the themes in the book is the role of the ministers in the all-embracing Protestant colonisation of the areas, and the actions of the priests in the witch trials of the era. My contribution to this anthology will deal with the different relationships with nature that were expressed in the encounter between the clergy and the Sami. The anthology will be published in 2025 as part of a series published by the Religious History of the North research network based at Umeå University.
Qualifications and titles
Ph.D., Umeå University (2004)
Doctor of Theology, Åbo Akademi University (2009)
Senior Lecturer in Church History, Åbo Akademi University (2010)
Professor of Church History, Uppsala University (2015)
Positions held (selection 1997–2023)
Researcher, Unit of Research and Analysis, Department of Ecclesiastical Life, Church of Sweden, 2023–
Associate Professor, initially in Religious Studies, then in History with a specialisation in History Education at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Mid Sweden University, 2016–
Project Researcher, Polin Institute, Turku, 2021–2023
Project Manager, Museum of World Culture, Project Researcher 2019–2021
Associate Professor in Historical and Systematic Theology, Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University, 2012–2018
Project Researcher, Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, Department of History and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University, 2015–2020
Professor of Church History, Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University, 2015
Postdoctoral Researcher, Research and Analysis Unit, Church of Sweden, Uppsala, 2014
Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Theology, Åbo Akademi University, 2011–2015
Ph.D. student at Mid Sweden University, Härnösand Campus, 1997–2003