I am a historian of science, knowledge, and intellectual culture. Though my historical interests are wide-ranging, in my research I have been mainly preoccupied with the productive role of images—metaphors, models, diagrams, maps—in conceptualisations of natural order and hierarchy.
Born and raised in Sweden, I spent my student years in Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East, graduating with a BA Honours in Arabic and the Study of Religions from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and an MPhil degree in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge. Back in Sweden, I enrolled at Uppsala University, where I earned my PhD degree in the History of Science and Ideas in 2019.
Before returning to the Department of History of Science and Ideas as a Researcher in 2022–2026, I worked as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, Uppsala University. I also worked shorter periods for Södertörn University, the Karolinska Institutet, and the University of Lucerne. I have been a visiting researcher at the universities of Cambridge and Lucerne, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and the Centre Alexandre-Koyré (CNRS-EHESS-MNHN) in Paris.
I defended my doctoral dissertation, Trees of Knowledge. Science and the Shape of Genealogy, in 2019. The dissertation was reviewed in very positive terms and also earned me the 2020 prize for scientific achievement by the Carl Johans Förbundet, a royal society. A revised version of the study is forthcoming with Zone Books in association with Princeton University Press.
In 2022–2025, I was the principal investigator of Unmapping Africa. Enlightenment Geography and the Making of Blank Spaces, funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences. A special issue on the theme of the project is accepted for publication in the Journal of Historical Geography.
I will be spending the autumn of 2026 as a Sabbatical Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies, where I will be working on my first monograph (above).