Ethnology is a cultural science that is both historical and has a contemporary focus. Research in Ethnology at Södertörn University includes areas such as cultural diversity, cultural processes and transnationalism.

The areas that are studied both historically and in the present day include cultural patterns, cultural and social exclusion and inclusion, the consequences of international migration and issues surrounding cultural pluralism, integration and segregation, gender and power, diaspora and cultural heritage. There is also interest in sustainability, issues of working life and class.

Overarching structures and societal changes are linked to the experiences, conceptual worlds and everyday life of individual people. A focus on culture related to the individual and everyday life belongs to the field of Ethnology. A great deal of the research conducted in the subject has, in various ways, a geographic orientation across national boundaries, which makes Ethnology at Södertörn University exceptional in the Swedish field of ethnographic knowledge. In accordance with the university’s profile, it is primarily the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe that captures our interest. Many doctoral theses have been written with a focus on Eastern Europe and a number of research projects are conducted in the area.

Research in the subject is conducted as part of the Historical Studies research area. Doctoral students in Ethnology are also admitted to the Baltic and East European Graduate School, provided that the thesis has a link to the Baltic Sea region or Eastern Europe in a broad sense.