Charlotta Forss

Charlotta Forss is a Lecturer at the Department of History and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University, specializing in early modern worldviews (1550-1800) at the intersection of cultural history and history of science. Her work examines how spatial and bodily experiences shape geographical and medical knowledge within political and cultural identities.

Her research focuses on 17th-century interpretations of seasons and climate around the Baltic Sea, analyzing connections between weather experiences, bodily perceptions, and identity formation. She also investigates health and morality in early modern sauna culture across Sweden and Finland, exploring how this multi-functional space (used for bathing, medical procedures, food preparation, and socializing) reveals attitudes toward the body and socially accepted practices. Additional work includes historical cartography of the Arctic, examining indigenous mapping traditions and politicized climate representations from antiquity to the early 20th century.

Dr. Forss completed her 2018 doctoral dissertation on continental concepts in 17th-century Swedish geographical knowledge and is authoring the forthcoming book Mapping the North (fall 2025). She currently leads two major projects: Is Winter Coming? Early Modern Interpretations of the Seasons Around the Baltic Sea (2024-2030, Baltic Sea Foundation-funded) and A naked state: Health and morality in the Swedish sauna, ca. 1600-1800 (Swedish Research Council-funded).

While Dr. Forss has secured significant research grants from the Baltic Sea Foundation and Swedish Research Council, no scientific awards or fellowships are documented in the provided materials. Her advising activities and laboratory affiliations remain unspecified in available records.