Josefine Wikstrom

Josefine Wikstrom serves as Lecturer and Program Coordinator at Södertörn University's Department of Culture and Learning, teaching aesthetics across undergraduate and graduate programs including the distance course Dance and Philosophy and advanced Theory and Method seminars. Her academic practice critically integrates philosophical frameworks with contemporary artistic production.

Her educational trajectory includes:

• Bachelor's degree in Literary Studies (Stockholm University)
• Master's degree in Aesthetics and Art Theory (Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University)
• PhD from Kingston University (2017), with thesis published as Practices of Relations in Task-Dance and the Event-Score: A critique of Performance (Routledge, 2021)

Wikstrom's research centers on art's autonomy within critical theory, specializing in Marxist and Frankfurt School analyses of dance/performance in contemporary art. She currently investigates art's sociopolitical function amid hypercapitalism and dedemocratization, recently concluding the RJ-funded project "Culture, Autonomy, Action" with colleagues Kim West and Gustav Strandberg. Her work consistently examines how aesthetic practices negotiate power structures in late-capitalist societies.

She actively supervises master's and doctoral candidates while serving as opponent at doctoral seminars across Swedish institutions including the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Beyond academia, Wikstrom contributes dance criticism to Dagens Nyheter, co-edits the SITE Zones art-philosophy project, and organizes public discourse through SKOGEN's study circles like 2022's "Art, Crisis, Capital".