Kristian Petrov

I am a member of KuFo (the culture studies research group), one of Karlstad University’s prioritized research groups.

My research has three orientations. The first concerns overall theoretical and political-philosophical questions about the modern project, globalization and human rights. The second is in medical humanities, where I study controversies in psychiatry, suicide prevention, public health and nutrition from historical and cultural perspectives. The third orientation consists of aesthetically-cultural ideas and practices that are analyzed in relation to different philosophical, political and social contexts, while these ideas themselves cast an explanatory light on the context in which they belong.

The common denominator of these three research interests is partly my conceptual-history approach (combined with hermeneutics and sometimes phenomenology and material cultural studies) and, partly, my interdisciplinary orientation in trying to identify in disparate materials mutual contact points that can instructively reflect each other. Here I have been inspired by Fredric Jameson’s idea of cultural translation (transcoding).

As a humanistic researcher, I try to produce results that, at best, can be useful for theoretical discussions as well as clinical and practical activities in areas such as the social sciences, natural science, medicine, politics, administration and cultural projects. Humanists should perhaps not demand the privilege of holding the ultimately correct answers, but they can probably illuminate and evaluate different crucial options at a deeper level.

Selected Academic Publications

Books

Lettevall, Rebecka and Kristian Petrov (eds.) (2014). Critique of Cosmopolitan Reason: Timing and Spacing the Concept of World Citizenship, New Visions of the Cosmopolitan 2, Patrick O’Mahony and Tracy Skillington (eds.), Oxford: Peter Lang (340 pp) [externally peer reviewed]. ISBN: 978-3-0343-089804. ISSN: 1664-3380.

Petrov, Kristian (2006), Tillbaka till framtiden: Modernitet, postmodernitet och generationsidentitet i Gorbačevs glasnost´ och perestrojka (Back to the Future: Modernity, Postmodernity and Generational Identity in Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika [with a summary in English]), Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 11, Huddinge: Södertörn University (SH) (408 pp). ISBN: 978-91-89315-67-9. ISSN: 1652-7399. http://www.diva-portal.org/sh/abstract.xsql?dbid=1155

Research Reports

Petrov, K. et al. (2023), Forskningsförmedling – en humanistisk paradgren (Public Outreach of Science – From the Viewpoint of the Humanities), Humtank, report No. 8 (24 pp). http://humtank.se/rapporter/

Petrov, K. et al. (2022), Humaniorastrategier i Sverige (Strategies for the Humanities in Sweden), Humtank, report No. 7 (40 pp). http://humtank.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/rapport_7_2022_a5_final.pdf

Petrov, K. (2010), Döden i livet och livet i döden: Förutsättningar för en befolkningsinriktad suicidprevention i ett idéhistoriskt perspektiv (Death in life and Life in Death: Conditions for Community/Public Health Based Suicide Prevention from a Viewpoint of the History of Ideas), Mariestad: Public Health Committee, Region Västra Götaland (52 pp).

Selected Papers in Journals and Anthologies

Externally reviewed (by anonymous peer reviewer)

Petrov, K. (2023). ”Att studera politiska ismer: Den ryska nihilismen mellan rörelse och doktrin” (Studying Political Isms: Russian Nihilism between Movement and Doctrine), in Perspektiv på politisk idéhistoria, Hjalmar Falk, My Klockar Linder, Petter Tistedt (eds.), Södertörn Studies in Intellectual and Cultural History 9/Södertörn Academic Studies 93, Huddinge: Kriterium/Södertörn University: 253–275. https://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1764792/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Petrov, K. (2019).”’Strike out, right and left!’: A conceptual-historical analysis of 1860s Russian nihilism and its notion of negation”, Studies in East European Thought, vol. 71, nr 2: 73–97: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-019-09319-4

Petrov, K. (2015). “Att förutsäga framtiden – och förlösa den: En undersökning av den postkommunistiska transitologins idéhistoria och tidsuppfattning” (How to Predict (and Deliver) the Future: A Study of the Intellectual History and Concept of Time of Post-Communist Transitology), Nordisk Østforum, vol. 29, No. 4: 387–417. https://www.idunn.no/nof/2015/04/att_frutsga_framtiden_-_och_frlsa_den_en_underskning_

Petrov, K. (2014). “The Concept of Transition in Transition: Comparing the Post-Communist Use of the Concept of Transition with that found in Soviet Ideology”, Baltic Worlds, vol. 7, No. 1: 29–41. http://balticworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BW-Transitology-1-2014.pdf

Petrov, K. och R. Lettevall (2014). “Toward a Critique of Cosmopolitan Reason”, in Critique of Cosmopolitan Reason: Timing and Spacing the Concept of World Citizenship, K. Petrov and R. Lettevall (eds.), New Visions of the Cosmopolitan 2, Patrick O'Mahony and Tracy Skillington (eds.), Oxford: Peter Lang: 3–34.

Petrov, K. (2013), “The Art of Dying as an Art of Living: Historical Contemplations on the Paradoxes of Suicide and the Possibilities of Reflexive Suicide Prevention”, Journal of Medical Humanities, vol. 34, No. 3: 347–368. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10912-013-9235-7

Petrov, K. (2013), “Russia in the European Home? Convergence, Cosmopolitanism and Cosmism in Late Soviet Europeanisation”, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 65, No. 2: 321–346. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09668136.2012.759718

Petrov, K. (2012), “Från blodbesudlat kolonialsocker till livsviktigt blodsocker: Svensk-europeiska teman i sockrets globala kulturhistoria” (From Blood-Stained Colonial Sugar to Life-Essential Blood Sugar: Swedish-European Themes in the Global Cultural History of Sugar), RIG: Kulturhistorisk tidskrift, nr 3: 129–154. http://journals.lub.lu.se/index.php/rig/article/view/10587

Petrov, K. (2008), “Construction, Reconstruction, Deconstruction: The Fall of the Soviet Union from the Point of View of Conceptual History”, Studies in East European Thought, vol. 60, No. 3: 179–205. http://www.springerlink.com/content/128286460937736h/

Internally reviewed (by editor)

Petrov, K. (2017). ”Förståelse utan förförståelse?: Hermeneutisk-teoretiska reflektioner kring lärande och socialisation hos en grupp studieovana svenska universitetsstudenter, 2004–2006” (Understanding without Pre-Understanding?: Hermeneutical and Theoretical Reflections on Learning and Socialization among Unexperienced Swedish University Students, 2004–2006), in Studentcentrerat lärande, bedömning och examination: Bidrag från universitetspedagogisk konferens 2016, Madelaine Johansson & Lena E. Johansson (eds), Utveckling av undervisning och examination i högre utbildning 1, Ingrid Mossberg Schüllerqvist et al. (eds), Karlstad: Universitetspedagogiska enheten, Karlstad University: 129–155.

Petrov, K. (2015), “‘Transition’ in Hindsight: 1990s Transitology as an Object of Intellectual History”, in Beyond Transition? Memory and Identity Narratives in Eastern and Central Europe, Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Niklas Bernsand and Eleonora Narvselius (eds.), CFE Conference Papers Series 7, Lund: Centre for European Research, Lund University: 11–22.

Petrov, K. (2011), “Från autocheir till suicide” (From Autocheir to Suicide), in Språket i historien, historien i språket, Mats Andrén et al. (eds.), Arachne 22, Gothenburg: Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion, University of Gothenburg (LIR): 351–363.

Petrov, K. (2010), “Söta drömmar och diaboliska frestelser” (Sweet Dreams and Diabolic Temptations), in Drömmar: En vänbok till Ingemar Nilsson, Mats Andrén et al. (eds.), Arachne 21, Gothenburg: LIR, 205–222.

Petrov, K. (2010), “Frihetens tveljus: Om 1700-talets förflutna framtid” (Paradoxes of Freedom: On the Bygone Future of the 18th century), in 1700-talets Göteborg, Charlotta Dohlvik et al. (eds.), Gothenburg: Gothenburg State Museum, 7–33.

Petrov, K. (2004), “Från vetenskaplig socialism till socialistisk vetenskap: Reflektioner kring sovjetisk vetenskapsideologi mot bakgrund av den ryska idéhistorien” (From Scientific Socialism to Socialist Science: Reflections on Soviet Science Ideology from the Point of View of the Russian History of Ideas), in Vetenskapshistoriska uppsatser, Aant Elzinga & Ingemar Nilsson (eds.), Arachne 19, Gothenburg: LIR: 29–74.

Petrov, K. (2004), “A Third Way for the Second World? Russia's Ambivalent Identity”, in Contemporary Change in Russia: In From the Margins?, Egle Rindzeviciute (ed.), Baltic and East European Studies 3, Huddinge: SH: 31–54.

Petrov, K. (2000), “Den ojämna kampen: Om fyra säkerheter i Kants teori om det sublima” (The Losing Battle: On the Security System in Kant’s Theory of the Sublime), in Kants tredje kritik: Sju essäer, Sven-Eric Liedman (ed.), Arachne 15, Gothenburg: LIR: 25–46.

My previous teaching experiences—from the University of Gothenburg, Södertörn University, Borås University, the European Humanities University in Minsk and Örebro University—encompass all academic levels. In particular, I have taught in the disciplines of the History of Ideas and Educational Science, but I also have experience from subject areas such as Russian, Political Science, Health Sciences, Medicine, Suicidology, Philosophy, Theory of Science and Research Methodology. Recurrent teaching topics include human beings as social and cultural creatures, cognitive and epistemological approaches, political ideologies, human rights, the Swedish Model and East-West/North-South cultural encounters.

As a teacher at Karlstad University, I have had the privilege of being responsible for courses in Cultural Studies on globalization and multiculturalism, cultural heritage, Nordic cultural and contemporary history and cultural studies theory and methodology as well as thesis supervision (candidate level). Besides being a course coordinator for the courses in the history of ideas and science, from basic- to bachelor level, I also give lectures and supervise on courses in history (bachelor- and master level). At the PhD-student level, I teach in the philosophy, theory and history of science, research ethics and suicidology and I am deputy supervisor of one doctoral student in History and one in English.

Starting in 2021, I was for two and a half years ethics advisor for Karlstad University, with responsibility for the research conducted at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.Together with Sofia Wijkmark I have between 2015 and 2020 been the coordinator of Karlstad University’s collaboration with Västanå Theater. I also deliver lectures and conduct discussions outside academia on topics such as globalization, democracy, multiculturalism, critique of culture and civilization, the open and secular society, perceptions of time in different cultures, the relationship between Russia and Europe, human rights, totalitarian ideologies, views on nature and the environment and diet- and health-related controversies. An additional area concerns the cultural history of emotional life and mental illness, in relation to questions related to suicide, gender and social media use in the information age. Over the years, I have also had the advantage of getting my research results spread in Swedish and international media.

Regarding academic cooperation projects, I was one of the main organizers of the international conference Selma Lagerlöf 2018 at Karlstad University, and I arranged the international interdisciplinary conference Cosmopolitanism in a Wider Context: Conceptualizing Past and Present at Södertörn University and the Nobel Museum in Stockholm in 2011. I am also a member of the think tank Humtank as well as the networks GEXcel – International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies; Network for researchers in suicidology and public health suicide prevention coordinators; Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Cultural Borders of Europe; Higher education; Medical History Network; and the History of Political and Social Concepts Group.