Anna Petersson is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and an Associate Professor (Docent) in Theoretical and Applied Aesthetics. Petersson has a Master of Fine Arts from Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, for which she designed urns and gravestones for both humans and companion animals. Her previous research points to how memorial objects and places can serve as ritual and symbolic tools that support the bereaved’s conceptions and memories of the deceased. Her studies also include investigations of how memorial places can be integrated into the urban structure; an outlook on animals’ place in the contemporary human cemetery culture and practice; and an exploration of how design decisions in a “room of silence” at a Swedish hospital are conditioned by ritual acts as well by practical and spontaneous place-making processes. Petersson is currently part of the research project ‘Rooms for aging – existential perspectives for better living environments’, and the collaborative initiative Cemeteries of the Future.

Petersson, A. & Sandin, G. (2020) ‘Interior design dilemmas in a shared room of silence’, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 16:22, 213-235.

Petersson, A., Cerwén, G., Liljas, M. & Wingren, C. (2018) ‘Urban cemetery animals: an exploration of animals’ place in the human cemetery’, Mortality, 23:1, 1-18.

Petersson, A. & Wingren, C. (2011) ‘Designing a memorial place: continuing care, passage landscapes and future memories’, Mortality, 16:1, 54-69.

https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/anna-petersson/