About me, Kristina
My research is inspired by the interdisciplinary intersection of anthropology, theology and mission studies, as well as by the Anthropology of Christianity research field. Consistent themes running through my research are experiences of belonging, identity and how history and people’s experiences are interpreted through the Christian faith. In recent years, I have focused on issues connected with migration, integration and the role of the Church in a multicultural and multi-faith society. I also have a particular interest in Pentecostal Movement research and research on the African continent.
Keywords
Anthropology, migration, integration, multiculturalism, mission
CV
Docent in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University (2019)
Researcher, Unit of Research and Analysis at the Church of Sweden (since 2014)
Editor of the book series Svenska kyrkans forskningsserie (Swedish Church Research Series) (since 2017)
Director of the Swedish Institute for Missionary Research (2009–2010)
Associate Professor and Director of Studies at the Department of Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University, and Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Dalarna University (2007–2009)
Part-time Researcher at the Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm (2008)
Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University (2006).
My current research
Memories of mission. Memories and stories of Swedish missionaries from their time as missionaries in Zimbabwe, posted by the Church of Sweden.
The research project aims to analyse stories and memories of Swedish missionaries from their time working in Zimbabwe, posted by the Church of Sweden. With these stories and memories as a starting point, the study aims to add to existing knowledge about the Church of Sweden’s role as an actor in a colonial and post-colonial context.
Questions to be addressed by the project include:
In your stories about your own time as a missionary – what are the memories being shared?
What do the memories say about the relationships between the Swedish missionaries and the local population?
What do the stories and memories say about the Church of Sweden as an actor in a colonial and post-colonial context?
What characterises the official narrative of the mission in Zimbabwe? Does that narrative contrast with that of the individual missionaries?
My approach to the study is a qualitative one, which means that my researchies of the literature.
The project is a collaboration with Kajsa Ahlstrand, Professor of Mission Studies at Uppsala University, who for the purposes of the project is conducting archival studies on the Church of Sweden’s mission in Zimbabwe.
Senior Researcher: Kristina Helgesson Kjellin
Selection of my publications
“We can teach Swedes a lot!”: Experiences of in/hospitality, space making, and the prospects of altered guest-host relations among migrant and non-migrant Christians in the Church of Sweden. In: Contested Hospitalities in a Time of Migration. Religious and Secular Counterspaces in the Nordic Region. Bendixsen, Synnøöve K. N. and Trygve Wyller, (Eds) Routledge, 2019.
“Can we find other ways forward?” Church Relations among Migrants and Non-Migrants in the Church of Sweden. In: Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 9(1): 135–150, https://journal-njmr.org/articles/abstract/10.2478/njmr-2019-0006/
“Choice of Interpretation and Representation – Reflections on Power, Ethics, and Normativity”. In: What really matters. Scandinavian Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, edited by Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, 247–263. Eugene, Oregon: PICKWICK Publications, 2018.
In association with Blåder, Niclas (Ed). Mending the World? Possibilities and Obstacles for Religion, Church, and Theology. Eugene, Oregon: PICKWICK Publications, 2017.
“To build bridges and break the walls. The Church of Sweden and the Current Refugee Situation in Sweden.” Diaconia, Vol. 7 (2016) 75–80.
“Science in the Name of Jesus: Human Remains Collection by Swedish Missionaries Karl Edvard Laman and Selma Laman in the Two Congo States in the Early Twentieth Century.”
In CULT 7: Nordic Colonial Mind, edited by Serena Maurer, et al. Postkolonial.dk, 2010.
“Boundaries of South African Pentecostalism. The Case of the Assemblies of God.” In Global Pentecostalism, edited by David Westerlund, 27–42. I. B. Tauris: London and New York, 2009.