Stefan Jonsson is Professor of Ethnic Studies at REMESO. He received his Ph.D. from the Program in Literature at Duke University, USA, in 1997. Between 1998 and 2000 he was a fellow in residence at Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and in 2006 Visiting Professor at University of Michigan. He has also been associate professor of aesthetics and research leader in cultural theory at Södertörn University, Sweden.
Together with professor Peo Hansen, Jonsson is working on a project about the colonial prehistory and legacy of the European Union,; their widely acclaimed Eurafrica: The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism was published in 2014 He also conducts research on ‘the category and fantasy of ‘the masses’ and ‘the people’ in European culture, which has resulted in A Brief History of the Masses: Three Revolutions (2008) and Crowds and Democracy: The Idea and Image of the Masses from Revolution to Fascism (2013) both from Columbia University Press. This line of research continues in new projects, one on ‘monstrous events’ with a focus on collective political protest in 2011 and after, and the other on the ways in which art and literature help us understand democracy, politics, migration and other collective phenomena.
Stefan has also written extensively on racism, multiculturalism, identity politics, postcolonial culture, and globalization. He frequently appears in Dagens Nyheter and other major Swedish media as cultural critic and commentator.
Stefan Jonsson is deputy director of REMESO and responsible for its doctoral and master’s programmes in Ethnic and Migration studies.
