Daniel Larsson
About Daniel Larsson
I am an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Gothenburg. My research focuses on early modern Sweden, with particular attention to living conditions in relation to scarcity, epidemics, and crop failures, often examined in light of regional and topographical conditions. Methodologically, I aim to combine intricate, detailed empirical studies with broader analytical questions.
My interest in hunger and disease began during my student years and led to my doctoral dissertation in 2006, The Hidden Transition, in which I examined long-term changes in mortality and population development. In the project After the Wars (VR 2013), I investigated harvests, epidemics, and demographic patterns during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Notably, my study of Lima in Dalarna, 1631–1775 (“Early Modern Mortality,” Scandinavian Journal of History, 2019), revealed connections between harvest outcomes, mortality, and epidemics for a very early period in this context. My interest in demography, society, and epidemics is also reflected in the popular history monograph Cholera: Society, Ideas, and the Catastrophe of 1834 (Carlssons Bokförlag, 2015).
Alongside this work, I have conducted research in urban history. In 2010, the book By the Falls: The History of the Trollhättan Region (swe. Vid fallen. Om Trollhättebygdens historia) was published, the result of a multi-year project funded by the Municipality of Trollhättan. I later had the privilege of participating as a historian in projects linked to the extensive excavations of Nya Lödöse in Gothenburg. This work resulted in several publications in which, through interdisciplinary collaboration with archaeologists, we combine material and written sources to analyze urban space and social environments.
In addition to my research, I am an experienced teacher and supervisor at both undergraduate and graduate levels. I am deeply committed to collaboration and public outreach, including partnerships with cultural heritage institutions and public lectures. Historical research is not only an academic practice but also a way of contributing to a broader understanding of societal challenges—past as well as present.
At present, I am working with a colleague on a wide-ranging monograph—touching on demography, economy, weather, famine relief, as well as epidemics, politics, and mentalities—on the severe famine of the 1690s.