Research interests
My research concerns constructions of gender, love and sexuality during pre- and early modern times. In the literary texts that I study in my thesis project, which are Marguerite de Navarre’s (1492-1549) Heptameron (1559), Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) poetry and the poetry of Gaspara Stampa (1523-1554), these configurations are under negotiation in several ways. I aim to analyze how power discourses, mainly Christian and Neoplatonic love philosophy, as well as literary models and traditions are appropriated and yet re-thought in the construction of sexuality and gender in these literary texts. More specifically I study how metaphors such as the Androgyne and the Phoenix are strategically employed and re-defined by the writers in order to create opportunities within their texts to transgress prevailing norms and assumptions about gender, love and sexuality.
The main objective of my current project is to broaden our understandings of a period in European intellectual history when women played a significant role as cultural agents for the very first time. By combining archival studies and literary analysis and by taking the two Italian poets Tullia d’Aragona (c. 1505-1556) and Gaspara Stampa as a point of departure, the project will explore how the networks of Italian women poets look like and how women poets make use of these networks in their literary discussions that frequently concern emotions such as love and desire. In addition, the project explores how literary and cultural networks shape the discourses of emotions by assessing women’s contributions to these discourses.
I teach comparative literature within the Department of Culture and Communication.
Conferences
- Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Albuquerque, November 1-4, 2018.
- "Senses, Emotions & the Affective Turn: Recent Perspectives and New Challenges in Cultural History", Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural Studies, Umeå, Sweden, June 26-29, 2017.
- Renaissance Society of America, annual conference, March 29-April 2, 2017
- Renaissance Prototypes. Tensions of Past and Present in Early Modern Europe, Norwegian Renaissance Society at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, September 28-30, 2016.
- Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Conference, Brügge, August 18-20, 2016.
- Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Conference, Vancouver, October 22-25, 2015.
- Movement and Arrest in Early Modern Culture, Stockholm University, November 5-7, 2014. Organizations Committee and paper presentation.
- Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Conference, New Orleans, October 15-19, 2014.
- Framing Premodern Desires. Between Sexuality, Sin and Crime, University of Turku, April 3-5, 2014.
- Gaspara Stampa and Renaissance Literature, Oslo University, March 13, 2013.
- Allusions an and Reflections: Greek and Roman Mythology in Renaissance Europe,
- Stockholm University and The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, June 7-9, 2012.
- Configurations of Desire in Premodern Europe", Barcelona, June 15-17, 2011. I presented the idea for my research project "Kärlekens framställningar. Representationen av kärlek, sexualitet och genus i några renässansverk/Performances of Love. Representations of Love, Sexuality and Gender in Renaissance Literature."
Presentations/lectures
Textival - Darlings, lecture on the early modern poet Gaspara Stampa, November 23, 2018.
8 mars at Strindbergs Intima Teater, lecture on the early modern women poets Gaspara Stampa and Tullia d’Aragona, March 8, 2018.
”Arkeologi och interpretation”, Fria seminariet i litteraturkritik, Linköping. Presentation of my work on Marguerite av Navarra and the androgyne, October 15, 2015.
”Kärleksdiktens kvinnliga röst – Gaspara Stampa”, Vandring genom litteraturen,
Strimman 2012-2013 - En serie öppna föreläsningar, 25 september 2012, link to SVT.
”Jag känner ingen avundsjuka mot er, ljuva änglar” on Gaspara Stampa’s poetry, Humanistdygnet, April 20, 2013.
Employment
Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature 2019
Doctoral student at The Graduate School in Language and Culture in Europe 2012-2019
Education
Courses at universities other than Linköping
Resources and Techniques for the Study of Renaissance and Early Modern Culture, Warburg Institute, University of London, 12-15 May 2014.
Maktens uttryck och anspråk 1200-1400. (Focus on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Tuscany.) Arr. by Centre for Medieval Studies at Stockholm’s University. Location: Florence, Italy, 23-29 April 2012.
Text-Memory-Monument. The use of the past in Italian Renaissance Culture. Summer school arr. by Arhus University, Denmark. Location: Rome, Italy, 17-29 July 2012.
The Medici Archive Project's online course in Italian Paleography and Archival Skills. 12 week online course given by MAP (Medici Archive Project) spring 2013.
Scholarships Received
Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse for a research visit in Italy, June 2018.
Fondazione Famiglia Rausing for a research visit in Florence, Italy, April-June 2017.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for a research visit as a Visiting Scholar at University of Virginia, January-May 2015.
Sven och Dagmar Saléns Stiftelse for a research visit as a Visiting Scholar at University of Virginia, January-May 2015.
Stiftelsen Torsten och Ingrid Gihls fond, a scholarship for academic work at the Swedish Institute in Rome. Summer school Text-Memory-Monument. The use of the past in Italian Renaissance Culture, July 2012.
Commissions of trust
Board member of Forskarutbildningsnämnden at The Faculty of Arts and Science, 2017-2018
Chair of the PhD Council at The Department of Culture and Communication, 2015-2016
Member of the Board of The Department of Culture and Communication, 2015-2016
Board member (substitute) of Forskarutbildningsnämnden at The Faculty of Arts and Science, 2015-2016