Michael Godhe

Associate professor, Docent

My research interests concern representations of the future. My teaching concerns the interplay between technology and culture and cuts across subjects such as the culture and media history of robots, androids and AI to Critical Future Studies.

Futuristic imagery in speculative fiction, popular science and in political thought

Portrait Michael Godhe Photo credit: Michael Godhe

My research interests concern representations of the future from a cultural and media history perspective. My focus on representations of the future can be described in terms of: (i) expectations, (ii) anticipations, (iii) prognosis, and (iv) orchestrations, which encompass how possible, probable or preferable futures are staged in speculative fiction (utopias, dystopias science fiction et cetera) – but also in different public and political spheres.

Together with Associate Professor Luke Goode (University of Auckland), I introduced a new, interdisciplinary research field which we came to label Critical Future Studies (CFS). A programmatic article appeared in Culture Unbound: Journal for Current Cultural Research, and Goode and I also co-edited a special issue of the same journal which collected recent work in CFS. The publications can be found here:

Together with William Bridges IV (the University of Rochester) and Luke Goode, we are currently launching The Journal of Social and Culture Possibilities, an open-access journal dedicated to future studies from humanities and social science perspectives. A call for papers will be sent out in 2022, and the first number is scheduled to the end of 2023.

I am also the founder of the Swedish research network Science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, which currently includes over 50 affiliated researchers.

Publications in selection

2022

2021

Academic merits

Academic background

Associate professor in Culture and Media. Department of Culture and society, Linköping University 2020.
Senior lecturer in Culture and Media.
Masters degree in History of ideas and Intellectual history, Uppsala University 1997.
PhD. tema Technical and Social change, Linköping University 2003.

Teaching

The Bachelor Program Kultur, samhälle och mediegestaltning, KSM.

Critical Future Studies, CFS

We invite researchers to join the network. Read more in the attached PDF.

The Critical Future Studies Network (PDF, 110,0 kB)

Full list of publications

Monographies and articles

Michael Godhe & Magnus Rodell, “Att förstå globaliseringen utifrån ett samtidshistoriskt perspektiv” [”Understanding Globalization From a Contemporary History Studies Perspective”], in Lychnos: Årsbok för idé- och lärdomshistoria, 2021.

Jerry Määttä, Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”A Conversation on AI, Science Fiction, and Work”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2021:2.

Helene Ehriander & Michael Godhe, ”Youth Solving Pandemics: Hopeful Futures in Maths Claesson’s Novel Pandemic”, in Neohelicon, 2021:2. [peer review]

Michael Godhe, ”Att lära sig framtidsberedskap: Om science fiction, didaktik och pedagogik” [”To Learn Preparedness for the Future: On Science Fiction, Didactics, and Pedagogics”], in Anders Burman, Joakim Landahl & Daniel Lövheim (red.), Moderna Pedagogiska Utopier [Modern Pedagogic Utopias] (Södertörn: Södertörn Högskola, 2021). [peer review]

Jerry Määttä, Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”Ett samtal om AI och science fiction” [A Conversation on AI and Science Fiction], in Bodén & Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe, ”Att lära sig leva med robotar: Om normaliseringen av robotar och AI i 2000-talets medier” [”Laerning to Live With Robots: On the Normalization of AI and Robots in 21st Century Swedish Media”], in Bodén & Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020). [English translation available on ResearchGate: (PDF) LEARNING TO LIVE WITH ROBOTS On the normalization of robots and AI in 21st Century Swedish Media [Pre-print] (researchgate.net)].

Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”], in Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe, “Hopeful Dystopias? Figures of Hope in the Brazilian Science Fiction Series 3%”, in Joe Trotta, Zlatan Filipovic & Houman Sadri (red.), Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 2019).

Michael Godhe, ”The Right Kind of Curiosity”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2019:1.

Michael Godhe, “’The Old Stories Had Become Our Prison’: Globalisation and Identity Politics in John Barnes’s Science Fiction Novels A Million Open Doors and Earth Made of Glass”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2018:1. [peer review]

Michael Godhe & Luke Goode, ”Critical Future Studies – A Thematic Introduction”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2.

Michael Godhe, “After Work: Anticipatory Knowledge on Post-Scarcity Futures in John Barnes’s Thousand Cultures Tetralogy”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2. [peer review]

Luke Goode & Michael Godhe, ”Beyond Capitalist Realism – Why We Need Critical Future Studies”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2017:1. [peer review]

Staffan Bergwik, Michael Godhe, Anders Houltz & Magnus Rodell, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”], in Bergwik, Godhe, Houltz & Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe, ”Post Scriptum: Vårt behov av geniala och innovativa individer”, [“Post Scriptum: Our Want of Genial and Innovative Individuals”], in Bergwik, Godhe, Houltz & Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe & Jonas Ramsten, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”] and ”Efterord” [”Afterword”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe, ”’Literature of estrangement’: Några linjer i feministisk utopi- och sf-forskning” [”’Literature of estrangement’: Some Features in Feminist Research on Utopia and Science Fiction”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe & Elin Bommenel, ”Teknik och vetenskap i populärkulturen: Tintin och 1950-talets drömmar och farhågor” [“Technology and Science in Popular Culture: Tintin and the Dreams and Fears of the 1950’s”], in Per Gyberg & Jonas Hallström (eds.), Världens gång – Om samspelet mellan teknik, människa och samhälle (Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2009).

Michael Godhe & Martin Kylhammar, ”Förord” [”Preface”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Vem blir rymdhavets Columbus? Utopiska föreställningar i rymdprojektet under 1950-talet” [“Who Will Become the Columbus of Outer Space? Utopian Beliefs in the Space Project During the 1950’s”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Att iscensätta det moderna: Stockholmsskildraren Claës Lundin som vetenskapsjournalist” [“Staging Modernity: The Stockholm Narrator Claës Lundin as Science Journalist”], in Anders Ekström (ed.), Den mediala vetenskapen [The Medial Science] (Hedemora: Nya Doxa, 2004).

Michael Godhe, Morgondagens experter: Tekniken, ungdomen och framsteget i populärvetenskap och science fiction i Sverige under det långa 1950-talet [Tomorrow’s Experts: Technology, Youth, and Progress in Popular Science and Science Fiction in Sweden During the 1950’s] (PhD. Thesis; Linköping; Stockholm: Carlssons, 2003).
Michael Godhe & Jonas Ramsten, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”] and ”Efterord” [”Afterword”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe, ”’Literature of estrangement’: Några linjer i feministisk utopi- och sf-forskning” [”’Literature of estrangement’: Some Features in Feminist Research on Utopia and Science Fiction”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe & Elin Bommenel, ”Teknik och vetenskap i populärkulturen: Tintin och 1950-talets drömmar och farhågor” [“Technology and Science in Popular Culture: Tintin and the Dreams and Fears of the 1950’s”], in Per Gyberg & Jonas Hallström (eds.), Världens gång – Om samspelet mellan teknik, människa och samhälle (Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2009).

Michael Godhe & Martin Kylhammar, ”Förord” [”Preface”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Vem blir rymdhavets Columbus? Utopiska föreställningar i rymdprojektet under 1950-talet” [“Who Will Become the Columbus of Outer Space? Utopian Beliefs in the Space Project During the 1950’s”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Att iscensätta det moderna: Stockholmsskildraren Claës Lundin som vetenskapsjournalist” [“Staging Modernity: The Stockholm Narrator Claës Lundin as Science Journalist”], in Anders Ekström (ed.), Den mediala vetenskapen [The Medial Science] (Hedemora: Nya Doxa, 2004).

Michael Godhe, Morgondagens experter: Tekniken, ungdomen och framsteget i populärvetenskap och science fiction i Sverige under det långa 1950-talet [Tomorrow’s Experts: Technology, Youth, and Progress in Popular Science and Science Fiction in Sweden During the 1950’s] (PhD. Thesis; Linköping; Stockholm: Carlssons, 2003).

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction-berättelsen som utvecklingsroman: Om olika framtidsförhållningar i science fiction och populärvetenskap under 1950-talet”, in Sam Inkinen, Henrik Bruun & Fredrik Lindberg (eds.), Framtiden i nuet: Om konsten att möta det okända (Helsingfors: Söderström, 2003).

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction–kertomus kehitysromaanina: Erilaiset tulevaisuuskuvat 1950-luvun science fictionissa ja populaaritieteessä”, in Sam Inkinen, Henrik Bruun & Fredrik Lindberg (eds.), Tulevaisuus.nyt: Riskiyhteiskunnan haasteet ja mahdollisuudet (Helsingfors: Finn Lectura, 2002).

Michael Godhe & Elin Bommenel [Frykman], ”Tintin, tekniken och politiken” [”Tintin, Technology, and Politics”], in Tvärsnitt, 2000:4. Revised version in Tintinsällskapets årsbok spring 2010.

Editorship

Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om morgondagens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe & Luke Goode (eds.), Critical Future Studies, Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2.

Staffan Bergwik, Michael Godhe, Anders Houltz & Magnus Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe & Jonas Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Martin Kylhammar & Michael Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Popular works

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction som framtidsoffentlighet” [”Science Fiction as a Futural Public Sphere”], in Isak Hammar & Jenny Larsson (red.), Humtank 2014-2019: Humanistiska dimensioner. Blogginlägg i urval (Lund: Humtank, 2019).

Michael Godhe, ”Morris utopi som ett tankeexperiment” [”William Morrs’s Utopia as a Thought Experiment”], in Next: Utopia (Norrköping: Norrköpings konstmuseum, 2016).

Helene Ehriander & Michel Godhe, ”Rymdäventyr i barn- och ungdomslitteraturen” [”Space Adventures in Children’s and Youth Literature”], in Cornelius Holtorf (ed.), Rymden och människan: Rymdforskning i humaniora, konst och samhällsvetenskap (Kalmar & Växjö: Linneuniversitet, 2015).

Michael Godhe, ”Allan Kämpe och drömmen om rymden” [”Allan Kämpe and the Dream of Space”], in Daedalus 2007.

Michael Godhe, Drömmen om rymden: Till månen och Mars [The Dream of Space: To the Moon and Mars] (Stockholm: LL-förlaget, 2004).

Michael Godhe, ”Ufon som ångestdämpare” [”UFO’s as Tranquilizers”], in Forskning & Framsteg, 2004:1.

Michael Godhe, ”Rymden som metafor för framtidens utopier” [”Space as a Metaphor for the Utopias in the Future”], in Framtider, 2001:2.

Essays and reviews

See DiVA for full list.

Organisation

Division of Culture, Society, Design and Media (KSFM)

The division conducts problem-oriented cultural science research and teaching at the intersection of the humanities and social sciences.

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FILFAK)

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences provides education and research in humanities, social- and behavioral sciences, commercial law, art disciplines and thematic science.