Anneli Ekblom

My research and teaching are experimentations in ways of ‘seeing the world relationally’. The climate crises and the precarious conditions of the Anthropocene calls for new ways of representing and knowing the world. I study relations between humans-nature ranging from changes in vegetation and settlement to conflicts and contestations when it comes to conservation and heritage, exploring forms of representation that convey the intimate entanglement of people, other organisms and landscapes.

My interest in Historical Ecology was formed during the time I wrote my PhD thesis at Uppsala University, cross-examining many sources; archaeological data, written sources, interviews with local residents, palaeoecology and landscape analysis to produce an environmental history of a place. Furthermore, the thesis presented environmental data from a region, southern Mozambique where there had been no similar analysis, enabling me to pioneer in this area. After completion of my thesis, I was fortunate to be able to expand my interest also to southern Africa, working within Kruger National Park with vegetation history during a three year long post-doc at Long term ecology lab, Oxford University. Coming back to Uppsala I continued expanding my interest in historical ecology through various research projects both in Southern and Eastern Africa and Sweden. I have for a long time been engaged in the student-initiated and driven Centre for Environment and Development Studies (Cemus) both as a lecturer and examinator and as director (2017-2018).

Apart from the above engagements I also have a number of commissions of trust: from Jan 2015 until present I am Chair of the Board of Societas Archeologica Upsaliensis (SAU) a contract archaeology company aimed to link rescue archaeology with academia and education and research. Since September 2014 I am member of the Scientific Steering Committee of Integrated History and Future for People on Earth IHOPE and now also chair the International Programme Office; From pril 2015-Sep 2018 Steeringgroup for Centre for Biological Diversity (CBM), SLU and Uppsala University and from March 2016-2018 I was Member of Swedish National Committee for Global Environmental Change, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Teaching

My main teaching activity is coordinating and supervising the Master's Programme in Global Environmental History. So far, we have had 87 students graduate from the programme; see the list of their theses here.

On master level I teach the courses Historical Ecology (7,5 ECTS), Africa: Histories, Ecologies, and Sustainabilities (7,5 ECTS, every even year), Cultural Heritage Management and Contract Archaeology (7,5 Credits, every odd year). In addition, I also give single lectures at the undergraduate level on archaeological methods, archaeobotany, domestication, geology and vegetation history, landscape management, heritage, and biodiversity conservation. At Cemus, I also give lectures on Environmental History and links to sustainability.

Current Projects

Archlab and Uppsala Archaeobotanical Group (UAG): UAG is a member of the VR-funded National Infrastructure Archlab, a collaborative venture of 13 high-profile laboratories supporting archaeological science research and development. UAG specifically develops methodologies for microfossil analyses of pollen and phytoliths, testing the possibilities of AI in pollen identification, all open source and with searchable files through the international collaboration NEPal. Since 2024, we have taken contracts for pollen, phytoliths and macrofossil analyses. We develop the archaeobotanical method to address archaeological research in Swedish heritage management and contract archaeology. UAG convey contacts with other experts and specialists within the UAG network, we also organise monthly seminars and training. If you want to be involved, please contact Anneli Ekblom.

Biocultural Heritage, under this theme we explore the intersection between archaeology, landscape management and conservation to create new opportunities for heritage, conservation, rural development and climate mitigation efforts to better inform each other. Through case studies we want to build comparative studies and also transdisciplinary collaboration between communities on practices conducive to biocultural heritage. Currently, we have ongoing projects in Sicily, Mozambique and formerly, Ängersjö parish, Sweden.

The Historical Ecology of Olive Sicily project is funded by VR (2020-2025) with Vincenza Ferrara, Agricultural and Forestry Science, Palermo University and Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University. Together with local farmers, we document local practices and knowledge of olive management. The collaboration with local stakeholders and involved methodologies also constitute a new framework for collaborative research and sustainable management of old olive trees and associated cultural landscapes.

Through a Sida (Swedish Agency for Development Collaboration) funded training programme with Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique on “Biocultural Heritage: developing new industries” several scholars are also building knowledge in and around bicultural heritage from the perspective of archaeology and heritage assessment (Omar Madime), and the perspective of locally protected forests (Pascoal Gota). Other scholars are working with heritage management of rockshelter sites and linkages with heritage tourism and comanagement (Decio Muinga). Other PhD students are working on coastal diversity and climate adaption see projects here

Limpopo Life is an 18-year-long project together with Dr Michel Notelid, will soon be published as a book. The book centres around the area now proclaimed as Limpopo National Park. Our research moves in the cross-section between oral history, heritage, archaeology, ecology and conservation. The project was funded by VR 2012-2015 and weave together many narratives around the landscape. See project presentation here

Recontextualising Climate Change: The debates on climate change tend to be embedded in Eurocentric, Modernistic, and Hegemonic discourses or embedded in a simplistic behavioural and/or moralistic discourse. This discourse creates a frustrated sense of precarity or a sense of denial. Using data from different periods and parts of the globe, this theme is intended to examine how researchers conventionally understand past climate change and ask how we might rethink the material record of social adaptabilities and transformations to better understand what it means to live through an era of rapid climate change. This interest has led to the hosting of the European Society of Environmental History of Climate Histories in Uppsala 18-22 of August 2025. At the conference, we hope to bring together academia, artists and civil society in a conversation about what it means to live in the climate crisis.

Long-term landscape dynamics of the Southern Africa savanna: The development of tools for fine-tuning climate projection models, biome-shift predictions, and land cover change is of crucial relevance for decision-making and policy formulation with respect to biodiversity, livelihood security and social planning. The project is a long-standing one and is being collaborated with many other authors in South Africa, Mozambique, and Madagascar (see publications below).

Old projects

Ekologiska rum Mälardalen (The ecological dynamics of places in Mälardalen): The project, aims to analyse and synthesise the current knowledge on palaeo-ecology, human transformations of the landscape and ecological dynamics in the Mälar valley. See publication Framtidens naturvärden i kulturmiljöer - fallstudie Gamla Uppsala.

Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) (funded by the Swedish Research Council, VR in association with Sida 2017-2020), but publications are still forthcoming. Countries in eastern Africa require new frameworks for envisioning and planning desired futures. We ask how socioecological systems may respond to future climate change and social scenarios, focusing on the last 300 years. See project webpage.