Jonatan PetterssonView profile
Associate Professor
Jonatan Pettersson is an Associate Professor in Scandinavian languages at Stockholm University, working within the Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism. His academic work focuses on medieval textual culture, Scandinavian philology, and historical linguistics, with particular emphasis on Bible translations and the evolution of Old Swedish language. He is actively involved in two key research groups: Scandinavian Philology and Language History, and Network Language and Power. Dr. Pettersson's research interests primarily center on medieval textual culture, with special focus on Bible translations in the Nordic region, vernacularization processes, and manuscript studies. His work examines how language evolved from Old Swedish to Early Modern Swedish, particularly through religious texts. He investigates the relationship between language, power structures, and cultural change in medieval Scandinavia, analyzing how translation practices reflected and shaped societal transformations. His research also explores the literary reception of courtly culture and romance literature in East Scandinavia. His recent publications (2021-2025) demonstrate a consistent focus on change in medieval textual culture, particularly examining how biblical texts were translated and adapted in the Nordic context. His work shows increasing attention to methodological approaches for studying textual change, with publications from 2023-2025 forming a cohesive exploration of models of change. The research spans from specific manuscript analyses to broader theoretical considerations of how we conceptualize textual evolution. Dr. Pettersson is actively involved in the Scandinavian philology and language history research group, which focuses on the study of language and literature from older periods, particularly runic, Old Swedish, Old Icelandic, and Early Modern periods. He also contributes to the Network Language and Power, which examines how language interacts with power structures - a field that has gained relevance with rising populism and societal polarization.








