The Department of Society, Culture and Identity is a multidisciplinary department operating at the intersection between the humanities and social sciences. Our focus is on issues related to the relationship between people and society.

Education at Society, Culture and Identity

The Department of Society, Culture and Identity conducts teacher training, study and career counsellor training and history studies. We offer three programmes for subject teachers: Social Science and Learning, History and Learning and Religious Studies and Learning. The department is also responsible for first-cycle studies in socially oriented subjects for preschool and years 1-6. This includes the course in Montessori pedagogy. The department has overall responsibility for history programmes and courses at Malmo University at first, second and third cycle.

Socially oriented subjects for preschool and years 1-6

The department is responsible for teacher training courses in socially oriented subjects at first-cycle level. These courses integrate subject and subject-specific didactics in geography, history, religion and social science. Both a classroom and critical social perspective are applied to the courses.

Heads of subject: 

Degree of Master of Arts/Science in Secondary Education

History and Learning

Specialist teacher training in history integrates three aspects of the subject: subject knowledge, methodology and didactics. This will prepare you for professional practice as a history teacher. The programme is permeated by the understanding that the actions of people in the past continue to have effects into the future. Today, we live with the problems and opportunities created for us by those who came before us. In the same way, we are creating the conditions for the people who will come after us. We are both creations and creators of history.

Heads of subject: 

Religious Studies and Learning

Issues of religion and ethics, and religion’s role in society, are constantly being raised today, both in Sweden and around the world. A modern, global, inclusive and diverse society places many demands on people. 

Heads of subject:

Social Science and Learning

Social Science and Learning studies and problematises social issues based on people, society and politics. 

Head of subject:

History and Learning

In History and Learning, we study social changes over time from sociohistorical and cultural analytical points of departure. Starting with a bottom-up approach, specific people and their living conditions are the focus of attention from perspectives such as class, gender, generation and ethnicity. The subject focuses on how living conditions and cultures have and continue to change in interaction with social structures and ecological conditions. The interplay between humans as culture-creating protagonists and their social, political and ecological surroundings are therefore studied through the lens of change. The critical cultural analysis provides a theoretical perspective that permeates the subject. The production, consumption, communication and reception of history and cultural heritage is studied from a social perspective. 

Head of subject: 

Ylva Grufstedt

Study and careers counsellors

The study programme for study and careers counsellors is a combination of behavioural science, social science, counselling methodologies and work placement (VFU). The programme deals with theoretical aspects of sociology, psychology, pedagogy and working life and the labour market.

Head of subject: 
Peter Gladoic Håkansson

Third-cycle studies: History and Didactics

History and Didactics study how societies and their citizens’ living conditions and experiences change over time. This research is characterised by a striving to write history ‘from the bottom up’, thus rendering visible the perspectives of previously marginalised groups.

The didactics of history are closely linked to this question: how is history produced, conveyed and received, both in an educational context and in society at large?

Research at the Department of Society, Culture and Identity

Researchers in the department are active in the humanities and other socially relevant research fields, across disciplinary boundaries. We also conduct subject-didactic research. In our research, we strive to contribute to a culturally, socially, economically and ecologically sustainable society with the help of cultural analytical and socially critical perspectives and methods. Our research is conducted in close collaboration with actors and institutions from the surrounding society, such as schools and cultural heritage institutions. We are interested in people's living conditions and experiences of the present and the past, and our research often emphasises the perspectives, learning, cultural heritage, religion, and history of marginalised groups. The department encompasses a doctoral programme in history and history didactics that is conducted in close connection with the National Graduate School in Historical Studies and the graduate school 'Finna vägar i en tid av stora framtidsutmaningar (FinnFram)' — 'Finding pathways in a time of great future challenges'.

Researchers, publications and research projects

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Collaboration at Society, Culture and Identity

Our education and research is conducted in close collaboration with surrounding communities. Please feel free to contact us with proposals for collaborations with our researchers or students.

National test in history

The Swedish National Agency for Education has been tasked by the Swedish Government with developing and implementing national tests in collaboration with higher education institutions. The task of developing the national test in history for year 9 students has been entrusted to Malmö University.