Hampus Östh Gustafsson
Researcher at Department of History of Science and Ideas
- E-mail:
- hampus.osthgustafsson@idehist.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3P
- Postal address:
- Box 629
751 26 UPPSALA
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Short presentation
Researcher in History of Science and Ideas. In 2021, I defended my doctoral thesis on the legitimacy of the 20-century humanities in Swedish politics of knowledge. Since then, I have broadened my research on the history of the humanities in the modern period, and also engaged with issues of temporality and organisation in university politics. In 2024, I will begin two new research projects on research funding in the history of the humanities and social sciences.
Keywords
- book history
- crisis
- democracy
- historiography
- history of education
- history of humanities
- history of knowledge
- history of research funding
- history of universities
- politics of knowledge
- temporalities
Biography
PhD, History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, 2021.
Reviews of my doctoral dissertation are available in History of Humanities and Nordic Journal of Educational History.
2023–2025 I also conduct the project "The Humanist Diaspora: Migration of Humanists and the Circulation of Knowledge in Swedish Society 1876–1926" at Lund University, funded by the Crafoord Foundation.
Researcher in the interdisciplinary group HEOS (Higher Education Organization Studies) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2023.
Research Fellow, Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 2022.
Visiting doctoral student, Faculty of English, University of Oxford, 2017.
MA, History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, 2014.
Erasmus student, History, University of Manchester, 2011.
Research
My research interests are focused on the history of universities, the societal value of the human sciences, and the modern politics of knowledge. My articles have appeared in journal such as Higher Education, History of Humanities och History of Intellectual Culture. I am editor of the Swedish journal Högre Utbildning and member of the Early Career Researcher Board of Higher Education Quarterly.
In my doctoral thesis, I examined how the humanities were legitimised in Swedish society during the 20th century, thus attempting to historicise the recurring notion of the so-called 'crisis in the humanities'. The thesis also sheds new light on the shifting relationship between the humanities and democracy, thereby bringing further nuances to the ongoing debates on the state and legitimacy of the humanities. Comparative studies on the history of humanities have emerged as an ambitious field of research in recent years. By avoiding a limited focus on individual humanistic disciplines, my thesis deepens our understanding of the role assigned to knowledge in modern politics.
In two recent projects I have examined examples of historical narratives of the humanities that were mobilized in times of crisis throughout the 20th century, with the American literary critic R. S. Crane as my prime example, and also the marginalization of Swedish philosophy of history in the early 20th century. These studies tie in with my general interest in historical theory. This is further developed in novel projects that concern temporal collisions and synchronization in the context of political reforms in the history of universities.
Publications
Selection of publications
- Knowledge for the unknown? (2024)
- R. S. Crane and the Invention of the Humanities (2024)
- Kunskapskulturer på tvären-Längdsnitt genom svensk mångvetenskaplig infrastruktur (2024)
- Forum (2023)
- The Humanities in Crisis (2023)
- A Slow Form of Governance? (2023)
- The Humanities and the Modern Politics of Knowledge (2022)
- Folkhemmets styvbarn (2020)
Recent publications
- "Outroduction" (2024)
- Knowledge for the unknown? (2024)
- Kung med kulturpolitiska stormaktsambitioner (2024)
- A History of the Humanities in the Modern University: A Productive Crisis, written by Sverre Raffnsøe (2024)
- R. S. Crane and the Invention of the Humanities (2024)
All publications
Articles
- Knowledge for the unknown? (2024)
- Kung med kulturpolitiska stormaktsambitioner (2024)
- A History of the Humanities in the Modern University: A Productive Crisis, written by Sverre Raffnsøe (2024)
- R. S. Crane and the Invention of the Humanities (2024)
- Futures of the History of the Humanities (2023)
- A Slow Form of Governance? (2023)
- Unity Lost (2022)
- Universitetens vita kaniner (2022)
- Hotet om ett humanistproletariat (2022)
- Review of Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon, Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. (2022)
- Review of Zoe Hope Bulaitis, Value and the Humanities: The Neoliberal University and Our Victorian Inheritance. Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. (2021)
- Review of Vidar Grøtta, The Transformation of Humanities Education: The Case of Norway 1960–2000 from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective. Global Studies & Theory of Society 3. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2019 (2020)
- Review of Dennis A. Ahlburg, ed., The Changing Face of Higher Education: Is There an International Crisis in the Humanities? International Studies in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge, 2019. (2019)
- Universitetsdebatt i skuggan av Brexit (2018)
- Den nya generationens svek (2018)
- Planlös forskning? (2018)
- Diktarnas drömmande spiror (2018)
- Kunskapshistoriens samtidsrelevans (2018)
- The Discursive Marginalization of the Humanities (2018)
- Humanioras historia som ett globalt forskningsfält (2017)
- Universitetet mellan det förflutna och framtiden (2016)
- Elfenbenstornet under belägring (2016)
- Dikten i "den nya fredens värld". Litteraturdebatt i tidskriften Samtid och Framtid 1944–1949 (2016)
- Dikt och demokrati (2015)
- Urtidsgrå augustidagar (2014)
- Krigets historiografiska funktion (2013)
- Gunnar Aspelin och historismens kris (2013)
- Historiens återkomst (2013)
- Friktionernas krig (2011)
Books
- Kunskapskulturer på tvären-Längdsnitt genom svensk mångvetenskaplig infrastruktur (2024)
- Forum (2023)
- The Humanities and the Modern Politics of Knowledge (2022)
- Folkhemmets styvbarn (2020)
Chapters
- "Outroduction" (2024)
- Positiva humanister? (2024)
- The Humanities in Crisis (2023)
- Afterword (2023)
- "Lyxblommor i folkhemmets fönster" (2023)
- Introduction (2022)
- Gadfly or Guide of Souls? (2022)
- Jenny Bergqvist Hansson (2022)
- Humaniora (2022)
- Mobilising the Outsider (2020)
- Auschwitz, Adorno and the Ambivalence of Representation (2015)
Other
- Humanisternas enastående karriärer – allt var inte bättre förr (2024)
- Collegial Purgatories in an Accelerating Academia? (2023)
- När höglandets vetenskapliga kontroverser blev riksangelägenheter (2023)
- Humanioras samhällsroller och demokratins allmänheter (2021)
- Humaniora bortom politikens festtalsklichéer (2021)
- ”Oh, the humanities!” (2019)
- "The Centre Must Fall" (2019)
- Performative Commemoration of Painful Pasts (Conference Report) (2016)
- Holocaust Memory Today (Conference report) (2013)