<p>1 DVD-bilaga. Medverkande: Mercedes Gomez (harpa), Stina Hellberg (harpa)</p>

This essay examines cloud depictions made by the Swedish artist Charlotte Wahlström (1849–1924) during the turn of the twentieth century. The purpose of the essay is to increase the knowledge of the works of a relatively unexplored female artist and discuss how an ecocritical perspective can bring new light to landscape painting during this period of time. The material consists of a selection of six landscape paintings with cloud motifs displayed at the exhibition Kvinnliga pionjärer – Visionära landskap at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde in Stockholm. The analysis is based on formal aspects from Allan Ellenius’ scheme for image analysis combined with an ecocritical theoretical approach, which puts the cloud paintings in an Anthropocentric context. By painting, Wahlström positions herself to the clouds, which reflects the relation between human and nature. Wahlström’s cloud paintings tend to be seen as subjective mood paintings, on which human feelings are reflected, regardless of the stylistic depiction of the clouds. The result shows that an ecocritical focus enables an image analysis that puts the clouds and the nature in focus, free from human’s projection of her own feelings. Ecocriticism cannot, however, see beyond the fact that a painting is an artefact made by and regarded by humans, and in turn always subjective.

An expanding field of historical study is interested in examining the connection between gendered spaces in academia and the dynamic identities available within them, inspired by the theoretical framework of the “scientific persona”. By drawing on this discussion, the thesis aims to showcase the institutional and social circumstances through which early female university students came to produce and reshape academic identities in Sweden in the 1890s. It focuses on the establishment of “Uppsala kvinnliga studentförening” (UKSF), the first local university association for women students in Sweden, thus locating the process that produces academic identities at the crossroad of individual and collective strategies and forums. To this end, the thesis analyzes UKSF’s protocols in addition to autobiographical documents by two early members, Lydia Wahlström and Gulli Petrini. The study shows that by providing a collective forum, UKSF managed to enable a wholly new way of being a female student. This process, which shaped both collective and individual identities, was linked to socialization and assimilation. A complete assimilation through the embodiment of an available male academic persona was, however, not possible. Rather, the female students merged identities based on several repertoires. For instance, Lydia Wahlström crystallized a persona drawing on the position as president of UKSF. At times, however, she seems to have embodied male academic personae in male dominated academic spheres. The essay additionally offers approaches to analyzing the long-lasting challenge for female students to aspire an academic career.