University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Kenneth Nyberg

Senior Lecturer

Department of Historical
Studies
Telephone
+46 31-786 45 09
Mail
kenneth.nyberg@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
J607
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Kenneth Nyberg

Introduction

Born in 1971, PhD in History from the University of Gothenburg in 2001 and research fellow at Uppsala University from 2002–2005. Appointed Senior Lecturer in history at the University of Gothenburg in 2008 and Reader in 2010. After serving as the Chair of the University's Board of Teacher Education (2010–2011) and conducting a major research project (2011–2014), I am now mainly engaged in teaching and course development with an emphasis on online education, blended learning and digital humanities.

Research

In my doctoral dissertation, Bilder av Mittens rike (“Images of the Middle Kingdom”, 2001), I examine continuity and change in the descriptions of China found in Swedish travel accounts between 1749 and 1912. Since then, I have mainly worked and published on 18th century Natural History expeditions, especially the long voyages undertaken by the 'disciples' of the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus. On these and related subjects, I have written several articles and, with Hanna Hodacs, the book Naturalhistoria på resande fot (“Natural History on the Move”, 2007). I have also published an annotated catalogue of Pehr Löfling's “Letter-Book” in the Archives of the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid (2008).

At the end of 2014, I concluded a three-year research project called "Pehr Löfling and the globalization of knowledge, 1729–1756", which was funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. As part of the project, I studied the life and work of one Linnaean disciple who travelled to Spain and present-day Venezuela before he died from a fever, probably malaria, at a young age. A summary of the project, which was also part of a larger research collaboration with the Spanish historian Manuel Lucena Giraldo, can be found here. While I am currently evaluating where to go next in my research, my interests continue to be focused on Sweden’s global history in the early modern era, especially the role that scientific travel and the social practices associated with it played in that history.

On my personal website, Tidens skiften (http://kennethnyberg.org), and the Pehr Löfling project site (http://pehrlofling.wordpress.com), more information can be found about my research. Finally, my interest in the emerging fields of digital history and digital humanities (DH) has led to me being one of the lead co-authors, together with Finnish historian Jessica Parland-von Essen, of the web based introductory book, Historia i en digital värld (“History in a digital world”) (http://digihist.se). Some of my other writings, including my dissertation and the catalogue of Pehr Löfling’s ”Letter-Book”, are available for download in full-text at http://kennethnyberg.org/fulltext/.