Josefine Wikström
About Josefine Wikström
Josefine Wikström is a critic, theorist, and researcher in the philosophy of art, with a particular focus on dance and performance within contemporary art. Her research primarily addresses the form, critique, and autonomy of contemporary dance and performative art, as well as the aesthetic dimensions of subjectivity and citizenship. Her theoretical framework encompasses post-Kantian philosophy, Marxism, critical theory, and aesthetic pedagogy.
Her doctoral thesis, Practices of Relations in Task-Dance and the Event-Score: A Critique of Performance (Routledge, 2021), examines dance and performance practices of the 1960s and develops a critique of the cultural-theoretical concept of performance in favour of an art-critical one. Her research is continuously published in academic journals and edited volumes, and engages primarily with contemporary art, dance, and performance from art-philosophical and historical-materialist perspectives.
Between 2021 and 2023, Josefine Wikström participated as a researcher in the project Culture, Autonomy, Action, funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, together with Kim West and Gustav Strandberg. The project examined the significance of the concept of autonomy in aesthetic, philosophical, and political practices, specifically in relation to cultural policy initiatives.
In addition to her academic publications, Josefine Wikström maintains an ongoing practice of critical writing on dance and contemporary art, including work as a dance critic for Dagens Nyheter. Her essays and critical texts have been published in journals such as Paletten, Glänta, Mute, and Radical Philosophy. She is also an editor of the experimental art and philosophy project SITE Zones, is active within the artistic platform SKOGEN in Gothenburg, and has previously worked on performance- and choreography-related projects such as INPEX (2006–2010) and International Festival (2004–2010). She is regularly invited as a lecturer, external examiner, and discussant at other higher education institutions in Sweden and internationally, such as KHIO in Oslo, and gives Master’s-level workshops at festivals including Hangö Teaterträff in Finland.
She holds a PhD from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London (2017), an MA in Aesthetics and Art Theory (2009) from the same institution, and a BA in Comparative Literature from Stockholm University (2007). She also holds a one-year certificate from The Place, London Contemporary Dance School (2004), and completed the Poppius School of Journalism programme (2005). Wikström has previously held permanent positions as Senior Lecturer in Aesthetics at Södertörn University (2021–25) and as Senior Lecturer in Dance Theory at Stockholm University of the Arts (2019–22). At the Academy of Music and Drama, she is Head of Subject and Research for Performative Practice and Director of Studies for the Contemporary Performative Arts programme, as well as a member of the editorial board of the university’s journal PARSE.
Josefine Wikström’s teaching is characterised by a critical practice of theory that situates students’ artistic work in relation to concepts, intellectual traditions, and modes of inquiry. She is driven by the autonomous forces within the practices of art and philosophy, and by the critical task of placing them alongside one another in new and challenging ways.