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I
have a PhD degree in the field of history of ideas,
and
earlier academic degree in history of art, history of literature
and French. Besides "family research and development"
which resulted in three children and so far nine grandchildren,
I worked previously as publishing editor, language editor
at the Swedish parliament, and as teacher of French. Later,
in parallel with my research, I have taught early design
history at the university's School of Design and contributed
with lectures at e.g. the Nordic Forum for Design Studies
in Oslo (symposium on France - Nordic Countries).
My
doctoral dissertation deals with the idea of "better
things for everyday life", that is, the idea of universal
"democratic" design which is affordable by "everybody".
Its initial emphasis is on the history of the Swedish Society
of Arts and Crafts during the years 1915-1925 and the role
of its manager, later professor at Uppsala university, Gregor
Paulsson.
Statistics from Umeå University
indicates that the dissertation was the most downloaded
of all available doctoral dissertations at the university,
i.e. more than 13.000 downloadings from year 2004 to
2012. Considering that the main text (except
an extensive summary) is written in Swedish the international interest for the subject is comparable
with that for the most diffused Swedish dissertations
in English language and in the field of humanities. The dissertation was also noted
in the press (Västerbottens Kuriren 2008-09-12).
I
am interested in matters of aesthetics, lifestyle och
taste,
as well as in the idea of "national" as contrasted
to "international" design ideals. What does
the present "cult of design" stand for? I am,
further, interested in the
ceramic center in Gustavsberg, nearby Stockholm, the site
of a historically important porcelain/china factory.
For the future I feel committed to
questions of relations between aesthetics, economics, politics
and ethics at the interface with theology in the field
of
theological aesthetics.
Further
details on my work can be extracted from the following extended
bibliographic data of the dissertation. Its list of referenced
literature (in Swedish, English, French and German) includes
a selected set of my publications (below).
Ivanov,
Gunnela (2004). Vackrare vardagsvara - design för
alla? Gregor Paulsson och Svenska Slöjdföreningen
1915-1925 [Better things for everyday life – Design
for everybody? Gregor Paulsson and the Swedish Society
of
Arts and Crafts 1915-1925]. Umeå: Umeå
university, Dept. of Historical Studies. (PhD doctoral
dissertation, ISBN 91-7305-648-0, ISSN 1651-0046, 336
pages and list of
literature of 303 items. See abstract
in English at
with a link to the integral text
in pdf-format, 1,8 MB,
which includes an abstract in Swedish on p. 21, a summary
in English (pdf) on pp. 307-314,
and the literature-bibliography of 300 items on pp. 318-330.
The official library presentation of the publication indicates that it was downloaded about 22.000 times since year 2004 up to November 2018.
KEYWORDS
in various languages which describe the area of my work
and my future interests:
design,
formgivning, hantverk, konstindustri, handicraft, craftsmanship,
arts and crafts, art and technology, industrial art, arts
décoratifs, industrial design, history of design,
household wares, architecture and engineering, housing problem,
home furniture, romanticism, Deutscher Werkbund, Bauhaus,
Slöjdföreningen, Svensk Form, Swedish grace, IKEA,
taste, social aesthetics, Sozial Ästhetik, theological
aesthetics, functionalism, reformation of museums, exhibitions,
fairs, departement stores, supermarkets, adult education.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1) Vackrare vardagsvara - design för alla? Gregor Paulsson
och Svenska Slöjdföreningen 1915-1925. Umeå:
Umeå universitet, institutionen för historiska
studier - idéhistoria. Doktorsavhandling, ISBN 91-7305-648-0,
ISSN 1651-0046, 336 sidor. (Umeå, 2004)
ENGLISH SUMMARY pp. 307-314. Bibliography with more than
300 references pp. 318-330.
2)
"Svenska Slöjdföreningen och Deutscher Werkbund
vid tiden för första världskriget: Gregor
Paulsson som tidsspegel", i Från moderna
helgonkulter till självmord: Föredrag från
Idé- och vetenskapshistorisk konferens 1995,
red. Thomas Kaiserfeld (Stockholm, 1995).
3)
"Den besjälade industrivaran", i Formens
rörelse: Svensk Form genom 150 år, red.
Kerstin Wickman (Stockholm, 1995).
4)
"Gregor Paulsson som tidsspegel", i Att skriva
om konsthistoriker & konsthistorieskrivning, red.
Hans Dackenberg & Marta Järnfeldt-Carlsson (Umeå
1997).
5)
"De levandes museum" och "Gregor Paulsson
– visionären", i Kunskapsarv och museum:
Rapport från museidagarna 1995 och 1996 i Umeå,
red. Bengt Lundberg & Per Råberg (Umeå,
1997).
6)
"Hinduismen och det gudomliga skådandet",
i Vidgade vyer: Globalt perspektiv på idéhistoria,
red. M. Fazlhashemi, A. Öckerman, R. Ambjörnsson
(Lund, 2000).
7) Swedish Grace. Stockholm: Orosdi-Back, 2017 (ISBN: 9789188629043). Beyond several reviews in the press the book was judged as year 2018 best book among The Collector's Awards 2018 och was presented in Gods och Gårdar, November 2018, pp. 94-98.
PHOTOS
Photos
from the public defence/disputation of the PhD thesis, 28
May 2004 (Photographer: K Ivanov)
Photos from the post-disputation
social event (Photographers:
W & O Schedin)
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