Dr. Helena Wangefelt Ström is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Museum and Heritage Studies at the Department of ALM (Archives, Library, and Museum) at Uppsala University. Her PhD in Museology (2022) at Umeå University investigated religion as heritage, the heritagization of religion, and various uses of religious heritage in the past and today. She is in charge of the MA program in Museum and Heritage Studies, her research interests include broadly heritage politics, dark heritage, collecting practices in the early modern period, and religious heritage in early modern Italy. Dr. Wangefelt Ström is a member of the National Archives’ consultation committee, member of the board of Gotland County Museum, affiliated to Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici in Rome, and affiliated to the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University (CRS) where she is a research leader for the theme of Secularism, Secularity, and Human Rights. She has been invited to give key note lectures at, among others, The Meertens Instituut in Amsterdam, The Institute for Historical Studies in London, and The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and has published her scholarship in international and national publications.

Selected publications:

Wangefelt Ström, Helena. 2022. Lighting Candles before a Headless Jesus: Sacred Heritage, Heritagized Sacredness, and the Many Journeys between Categories. Umeå: Department of Culture and Media Studies, Umeå University.

Wangefelt Ström, Helena. 2019. “How Do Museums Affect Sacredness? Three Suggested Models.” ICOFOM Study Series, no. 47(1-2).

Wangefelt Ström, Helena, and Federico Barbierato. 2018. “ ‘Omne Malum Ab Aquilone’. Images of the Evil North in Early Modern Italy and Their Impact on Cross-Religious Encounters.” Visions of North in Premodern Europe, Vol. 265–286. Turnhout.