Professor, Chair of Museology
Associate Professor of Archaeology
Interdisciplinary researcher in critical heritage studies
I am an archaeologist by training, working as an interdisciplinary researcher and professor of museology. In my research I study constructions and uses of the ancient past for contemporary purposes – in museums, tourism, and the popular media.
In my current research I investigate uses of DNA to construct historic identity. I am particularly interested in the effects of a growing interest in genetic methodology to establish human identity – in studies of prehistoric aDNA as well as in businesses of genetic ancestry testing – on our images of ancient people and our own relations to them. In the years 2018–2022 I was PI of the interdisciplinary research project Code–Narrative–History, which resulted in two books: Critical Perspectives on Ancient DNA (MIT Press, forthcoming 2024) and The Trouble with Ancient DNA (The University of Chicago Press, forthcoming 2025), a special issue in the Journal of Social Archaeology, and the articles Archaeogenetics in Popular Media; I am a Viking! and Petrous Fever (Current Anthropology, forthcoming 2024), among others. All publications from the Code Narrive History project are found here.
As a student of archaeology in the 1990s I began working in Southeast Asia, and my doctoral thesis (Uppsala University, 2004) was based on archaeological excavations in Laos. Working in Laos, I got interested in the uses and valuations of archaeological heritage in contemporary society. Ever since, my research and teaching has been focused on critical heritage studies, investigating how things, places and traditions of the past are valued and used in contemporary society. Influenced by postcolonial theory, I have taken special interest in relations between heritage and hegemonic power, and in lingering social and political structures from the 19th and early 20th century in contemporary heritage practices.
I have explored these questions in three major research projects after my doctoral thesis. One was funded by Sida/SAREC and investigated the relationships between archaeology, French colonialism and ecotourism in northern Laos. It resulted in the book Stones Standing (2015). The second project was in collaboration with Johan Hegardt and funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. It was a microhistorical study of international archaeology through the 20th century, where we followed the Swedish-born archaeologist Olov R. T. Janse from Norrköping to Washington, DC, via Uppsala, Paris, Hanoi, Manila, and Harvard University. The results of this project were published in the book The Archaeologist In-Between (2021). The third project: Code–Narrative–History was funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (2018–2022).
I worked with research and teaching at Stockholm University from 2006 to 2022, and joined the museology section at Umeå University in 2023. I have been Honorary Visiting Fellow at University College London since 2009, and have lectured at museums and universities in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, the UK, and the USA. I have worked at museums in Laos, Norway and Sweden (the Swedish History Museum and the National Museums of World Culture), have been Secretary of the Swedish Archaeological Society, editor of the journal Current Swedish Archaeology, and am a member of the editorial board for Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites.
Selected publications
Källén, Anna. The Trouble with Ancient DNA: Telling Stories of the Past with Genomic Science (The University of Chicago Press, coming January 2025).
Strand, Daniel; Anna Källén & Charlotte Mulcare (Eds). Critical Perspectives on Ancient DNA (MIT Press, coming July 2024)
Källén, Anna; Charlotte Mulcare; Andreas Nyblom & Daniel Strand, ’Petrous Fever: The Gap Between Ideal and Actual Practice in Ancient DNA Research’. Article accepted for publication in Current Anthroplogy.
2023
Källén, Anna. 'Paradox museum i museidiskursens gränsmarker.' Utställningskritik #4, 2023.
Källén, Anna. 'The Sigtuna Debacle: A story of ancient DNA, immigrants, and fake news in a Viking Age town in Sweden'. Elisabeth Niklasson (red.) Polarized Pasts: Heritage and Belonging in Times of Political Polarization. Berghahn Books.
2022
Källén, Anna. 'Hintang'. Article in conversation with art work by Tanatchai Bandasak. Ute Meta Bauer (red.) Climates. Habitats. Environments. The MIT Press & NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore.
2021
Källén, Anna & Johan Hegardt 2021. The Archaeologist In-Between: Olov Janse 1892–1985. Stockholm: Kriterium & Makadam.
Källén, Anna; Charlotte Mulcare, Andreas Nyblom & Daniel Strand 2021. ’Introduction: Transcending the aDNA Revolution’. Journal of Social Archaeology, Special Issue on Ancient DNA.
Strand, Daniel & Anna Källén 2021. 'I am a Viking! DNA, popular culture and the construction of geneticized identity'. New Genetics and Society.
Källén, Anna 2021. 'Kulturarv och gränser'. Yearbook of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities 2021, Ed: Ulrika Gustafsson, Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, pp. 77–88.
Källén, Anna & Daniel Strand 2021. 'Viking DNA and the pitfalls of genetic ancestry tests'. The Conversation.
2020
Källén, Anna 2020. 'De första svenskarna – arkeogenetik och historisk identitet'. Fronesis, nr 66–67, pp 110–123.
Björkman, John; Victoria Fareld & Anna Källén (Eds) 2020. Eros, philia, agape – kärlekens kulturhistoria. En vänbok till Inga Sanner. Lund: Ellerströms förlag.
Björkman, John; Victoria Fareld & Anna Källén 2020. 'Kärlekens kulturhistoria – en introduktion'. Eros, philia, agape – kärlekens kulturhistoria. En vänbok till Inga Sanner, ss 9–22. Lund: Ellerströms förlag.
2019
Källén, Anna; Charlotte Mulcare, Andreas Nyblom & Daniel Strand 2019. 'Archaeogenetics in Popular Media: Contemporary Implications of Ancient DNA'. Current Swedish Archaeology, vol 27, pp 69–91.
Källén, Anna (red.) 2019. Heritage and Borders. KVHAA Konferenser 100. Stockholm: Vitterhetsakademien.
Källén, Anna 2019. 'Heritage and Borders: An Introduction'. Heritage and Borders, Ed: Anna Källén. KVHAA Konferenser 100. Stockholm: Vitterhetsakademien, pp 7–12.
Källén, Anna & Johan Hegardt 2019. 'Arkeologen och avståndet'. Tidens landskap: en vänbok till Anders Andrén. Eds: Cecilia Ljung et al. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, pp 276–278.
2018
Källén, Anna. 'När streckkoder blir identiteter och berättelser'. Tidskriften Respons, vol 2, 2018.
2017
Källén Anna & Fredrik Krohn Andersson. 'Portik som politik'. Medusa 38:4, pp 2–7.
2015
Källén, Anna. Stones Standing: Archaeology, Colonialism and Ecotourism in Northern Laos. UCL Critical Heritage Studies Series. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press (nu Routledge).
Källén, Anna. 'Postcolonial Theory and Sámi Archaeology – A Commentary'. Arctic Anthropology, vol 52:2, pp 81–86.
Källén, Anna. 'Hintang and the Double-Bind Promise of Development'. Museums, Heritage, and International Development. Eds: Paul Basu & Wayne Modest. Routledge Studies in Culture and Development Series. London: Routledge. Pp 229–249.
2014
Hegardt, Johan & Källén, Anna. 'Translated objects: The Olov Janse Case'. Museum Worlds, vol 2 (2014), pp 42–62.
Källén, Anna. 'The Invisible Archaeologist: Letters from the UNESCO secretariat 1946-1947'. Journal of Social Archaeology. 14(3), pp 383–405.
Källén, Anna & Hegardt, Johan. 'A Cosmopolitan History of Archaeology: The Olov Janse Case'. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, Vol 24 (2014).
2013
Källén, Anna (ed.) Making Cultural History. Essays from the Research School of Studies in Cultural History. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Källén, Anna. 'Laos, Cultural Heritage Management in'. Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology. Springer Press.
2012
Källén, Anna. 'A Plea for Critique – Comments on Bjørnar Olsen, "After Interpretation: Remembering Archaeology"'. Current Swedish Archaeology, vol 20, 2012, pp 61-66.
Källén, Anna. 'Hintang and the Dilemma of Benevolence'. Appropriating the Past: Philosophical Perspectives on the Practice of Archaeology II. Eds: Geoffrey Scarre & Robin Coningham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp 119-138.
2011
Hegardt, Johan & Källén, Anna. 'Being through the past. Reflections on Swedish archaeology and heritage management'. In: Ludomir Lozny (Ed.). Comparative Archaeologies: A Sociological View of the Science of the Past. Springer Press. Pp 109–135.
2010
Jakobsson, Mikael & Källén, Anna. 'A Hobbling Marriage: on the relationship between the collections and the societal mission of the Historical Museum'. Current Swedish Archaeology, Vol 17, 2009, pp 151–164.
2004
Källén, Anna. And Through Flows the River: Archaeology and the Pasts of Lao Pako. PhD dissertation at the Dept of Archaeology and Ancient History. Studies in Global Archaeology 6, Uppsala: Uppsala University.
(more publications in Academia)