It is with great sadness that we announce that our friend and colleague Anette Nyqvist passed away on July 6 after an extended period of illness. Anette was the deputy head and an associate professor in the department. She was the author of, among other books and articles, Reform and Responsibility in the Remaking of the Swedish National Pension: Opening the Orange Envelope (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and The Shimmer and Shade of Gold (Bokförlaget Max Ström, 2020) with photographer Susanne Walström. We remember her commitment, energy and wealth of ideas. Our thoughts go to her three children, large family and many friends in Sweden and around the world.

Since the Swedish Public Health Agency has withdrawn the recommendation for distance education for universities, the Department of Social Anthropology will shift to teaching on campus during the fall semester of 2021 on the undergraduate and advanced levels. An exception is Social Anthropology 1 (also the first semester of the undergraduate program) in which lectures will be held via Zoom and it will be possible to take part in seminar groups either via Zoom or on campus during the first quarter of the semester (2021-08-30 – 2021-09-29). Beginning with the second quarter we hope that all teaching will take place on campus. Seminars and lectures during the first half of the semester will take place in classrooms where it will be possible to retain physical distance if this remains necessary. If infection rates do not decline as anticipated there may be a return to distance teaching. It is also possible that some lectures and seminars, or classes, may take place via Zoom if this proves necessary.

This article by Maria Frederika Malmström in The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology tells a story of the aftermath of the ‘failed revolution’ in Egypt through the prism of sound and gendered political prisoner bodies. It created embodied re-actions among Cairene men—years after their lived prison experiences—in which depression, sorrow, stress, paranoia, rage, or painful body memories are prevalent.

In this piece, drawing on fieldwork experiences in Myanmar, Tomas Cole of the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, warns about the skewed understanding of the country and the coup that results when the analytic (or journalistic) gaze is too narrow. He dreams of a future federal and democratic Myanmar, a disbanded Tatmadaw and genuine peace for all.

Photo: Benjamin Small

When it was time for my widowed father to move to an old people’s home, I had to clean out his house. Starting with his desk, I soon found an old-fashioned fountain pen carelessly tucked into a drawer. The pen brought back fond memories of my Norwegian grandmother Astrid. I remembered how intrigued I had been by her writing desk, a secretaire made of light brown birchwood with small drawers in front. 

Annika Rabo, Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology, and Beppe Karlsson, Professor of Social Anthropology, are the editors of the newly published book Seedways - The circulation, control and care of plants in a warming world. The book is about seeds and why and how seeds matter today, as in the past. In a historical perspective the co-evolution of plants and humans can be traced through myths, rituals and cultural practices. In our present-day world of accelerating climate change, expansion of monocultural plantations and loss of biodiversity, collecting, saving and securing seeds has become a global concern. The volume is the result of a two-day international symposium held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in Stockholm 2018.