Anna Storm

Deputy Head of Department, Professor

My research focuses on “industrial afterlives”, that is, the lingering effects of industrial activities and their social, cultural, and environmental expressions.

How to live with ambiguous pasts in changing industrial landscapes

My research interests are centered on industrial and post-industrial landscapes and their transformation, comprising both cultural and "natural" environments, in physical and imaginary sense. Such landscapes challenge the way we understand ecology, aesthetics, memory and heritage, and trigger concerns about power relations.

I hold a PhD in the History of Technology from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and am Associate Professor (Swedish “Docent”) in Human Geography from Stockholm University. Previously I have had positions at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment), Stockholm University (Department of Human Geography) and Södertörn University (Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES, and the Institute of Contemporary History, SHI). Since 2019 I am Professor of Technology and Social Change at Linköping University.

Video presentation Show/Hide content

Anna Storm, professor of Technology and Social Change

The professor installation is usually part of the academic festival that takes place once a year. As a result of Covid-19, the 2020 holiday was postponed and held on 4 September 2021 in the Student House. In connection with this, this short video presentation was produced.

Publications Show/Hide content

For a list of publications and other relevant experiences, see CV on LinkedIn.

2022

2021

Research Show/Hide content

Dounreay nuclear power station in northern Scotland. In the foreground grazing sheep, in the background the North Sea.

Nuclear Natures

“Nuclear natures” is a key category of environments, connected to active and closed nuclear power plants, as well as to radioactive waste storages, influencing the livability of numerous areas in the near and distant future. (2022-2026, VR)

Radioactive hotspot marked with a warning sign, Chernobyl, Ukraine.

The Key Information File and Beyond

How are we to transfer information to future generations about nuclear waste repositories? What is the key information to be provided and who will be able to understand the message? (2021-2023, SKB)

Nuclearwaters

Is nuclear energy in fact to be conceptualized as a hydraulic form of technology, with much deeper historical roots than we use to think? If so, how will the writing of nuclear history be affected? (2018-2022, ERC)

NuSPACES

Cultural heritage processes are currently gaining traction in relation to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Who are the key actors in these processes and what stories are taking shape? (2021-2024, JPI/VR)

Cold War Coasts

Coastal landscapes on opposite shores of the Baltic Sea have for long been “co-produced” as ideas about “the others’” military capacity influenced infrastructural development and local livelihoods. (2019–2022, Formas)

Atomic Heritage goes Critical

Cultural and material remnants of nuclear power production is a form of critical contemporary heritage which is currently becoming pertinent, even critical, to examine. (2018-2021, RJ)

Photo credits

Nuclear Natures. Dounreay nuclear power station in northern Scotland. In the foreground grazing sheep, in the background the North Sea. Photo: Anna Storm
The Key Information File. Radioactive hotspot marked with a warning sign, Chernobyl, Ukraine. Photo: Jorge Franganillo from Barcelona, Spain, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nuclearwaters. The reactor hall with the reactor basin at Barsebäck nuclear power plant in southern Sweden. Photo: Anna Storm
NuSPACES. Exhibition on nuclear power and history connected to Barsebäck nuclear power plant in southern Sweden. Photo: Anna Storm
Cold War Coasts. Decaying military remnants at the Baltic Sea coast at Karosta in Latvia. Photo: Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Atomic Heritage. Control panel in the control room at Barsebäck nuclear power plant in southern Sweden. Photo: Anna Storm

Teaching Show/Hide content

Graduate and undergraduate teaching

I am course responsible for “Självständigt arbete i samhällsplanering” (Bachelor thesis in Urban and Regional Planning), code 709G17, and involved in other courses at Linköping University with individual lectures and seminars in first, second and third cycle.

Doctoral supervision and mentorship Show/Hide content

rebecca.ohnfeldt@liu.se

Doctoral students at other universities

Achim Klüppelberg (since 2018, at KTH)
Siegfried Evens (since 2018, at KTH)
Alicia Gutting (since 2018, at KTH)
Emmeline Laszlo Ambjörnsson (PhD 2021, at Stockholm University)
Karin Edberg (PhD 2018, at Södertörn University)

Mentees

Karin Skill (2021 at LiU)
Andrei Stsiapanau (2020–2021 at KTH and LiU)
Kasia Keely (2016 at Södertörn University)
Natasha Webster (2015–2016 at Stockholm University)

News Show/Hide content

Anna Storm shakes hands with the Vice-Chancellor at the professor's installation in September 2021.

Anna Storm inaugurated as professor

Anna Storm was officially inaugurated as professor on Saturday 4 September. It is a position that in Anna’s case has brought more chances to make a difference and build new research environments. “It was much better than I had dared to hope.”

Professor Anna Storm and Thomas Keating.

They will write warning text - to be understood for 100,000 years

Thomas Keating and Anna Storm have the mission to figuring out how to warn humans or other living organisms in 100,000 years that there is dangerous nuclear waste in a special place.

A big building in sunset, there is warm light coming from the windows, on the ground outside there is a bit of snow.

SEK 49 million from Swedish Research Council

Six LiU researchers will receive almost SEK 49 million from the Swedish Research Council’s latest round of funding. The projects concern areas such as epigenetics, mega coal-fired power plants, rehabilitation in conflict zones and tuberculosis.

Organisation Show/Hide content

Bilden visar man som arbetar med solceller. Picture shows solar.

STRIPE

STRIPE stands for Socio-technical research of infrastructures, politics and the environment. It gathers researchers with an interest in the political and environmental dimensions of infrastructures such as energy, transport and waste.

Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

In an increasingly complicated world, there is a need for researchers that can handle both breadth and depth, and can collaborate across disciplinary borders. Major societal questions are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective at TEMA.

About LiU

Linköping University, LiU, offers innovative education and boundary-crossing research. The students are among the most desirable in the labour market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.