Tim Flohr Sørensen

Primary fields of research

I am a reactionary archaeologist, and I primarily work within contemporary archaeology and archaeological theory. In particular, I am interested in probing deep into the surface, exploring archaeological challenges with a persistent urgency within the discipline. Thus, my research is by no means ground-breaking, innovative, original, progressive, avant-garde or revolutionising. Rather, I seek to hold on to questions that have marked archaeology since its origins in the 19^th century: how to deal with the fact that its source material is always characterised by some degree of disappearance, by fragmentation and by vagueness?

Since 2005, I have studies cemeteries in Denmark through a contemporary archaeological gaze. In recent years, my work has been complemented by the study of contemporary processes of decay and ruination (see current research)

Other aspects of my research are centred the Early and Middle Neolithic and the study of megalithic burial monuments; on burial mounds and cremation in the Early Bronze Age, in addition to technology and metalwork in the Early Bronze Age, focusing on themes such as prototyping, copying and serial production.

Current research

My current research explores archaeological de/formation processes at cemeteries and in various modern ruins, including decaying domestic architecture, military facilities and industry.

Particularly, I focus on neglectable objects that seem to be culture historically insignificant and that are socially impotent or meaningless, but that are present nevertheless; objects that are otherwise disregarded as irrelevant or without context and which do not seem to have any information value. The aim is thus to attempt to describe an archaeology, which may offer a space for the occurrence of accidental objects. To this end, I explore forms of representation that do not aim for systematic, objective documentation, but can accept that the chance observation necessarily must depend on subjective, speculative fabulation.

CV

Current position

Associate professor of contemporary archaeology and archaeological theory, The Saxo Institute.

Director of The Hub for Speculative Fabulations upon Incidental Observations.

President for the national corps of censors for archaeology and heritage Studies

Board member of Dialogues with the Past (the Nordic PhD school in archaeology)

Member of the Research Committee, The Saxo Institute.

Member of the Library Committee, The Saxo Institute.

Prizes, distinctions, awards and major grants

None

Membership of Societies / Fellowships

None

Education

2013 University teaching methods for assistant professors and postdocs, Aarhus University.

2010 PhD, Aarhus University, Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology. For my PhD research I enjoyed an internationalisation grant from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, allowing me to spend 18 months at the University of Cambridge as part of my PhD research.

2003 MA, University of Wales Lampeter, Landscape Archaeology (with Distinction).

1999 BA, University of Copenhagen, Near Eastern Archaeology.

Former employment

2014-2017 Assistant professor, University of Copenhagen, Department of Archaeology, The Saxo Institute.

2012-2014 Assistant professor, Aarhus University, Department of Society and Culture, Section for Archaeology.

2010-2012 Postdoctoral researcher (Marie Curie Fellow), University of Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Research Associate at St John’s College, Cambridge (2011-2012).

2009-2010 Academic assistant, Aarhus University, Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology.

2006-2009 PhD fellow, Aarhus University, Institute of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology.

Participation in projects

2019- Director of The Hub for Speculative Fabulations upon Incidental Observations.

2016-2018 Co-director of the pilot project Breaking Glass: The archaeology of financial crisis with Anna S. Beck (Museum Southeast Denmark / Aarhus University).

2014-2015 Participating in the project Concrete Heritage Lab: Rethinking the Port of Aarhus as industrial heritage (directed by Mads Daugbjerg), funded by Aarhus University.

2011-2014 Employed on the project Death, Materiality and the Origin of Time (directed by Professor Rane Willerslev), funded by the Danish Research Council.

2010-2011 Employed on the project Forging Identities (directed by Professor Helle Vandkilde), funded by the EC FP7 programme.

Fieldwork experience

2019-

Incidental observations of insignificant objects, Denmark and Sweden

2014-

Ruin research, various locations, Denmark.

2016-2018

Holmegaard Glassworks (interior).

2007-2013

Cemetery research Odsherred, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Denmark.

2011
Borum Eshøj, Denmark (excavator; directed by Dr Mads K. Holst).

1998
Gavurkalesi, Turkey (excavator, illustrator; directed by Dr Stephen Lumsden).

Kaman Kalehöyük, Turkey (excavator; directed by Dr Sachihiro Omura).
Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa (excavator; directed by Professor Lyn Wadley).

1997
Gavurkalesi, Turkey (excavator, illustrator; directed by Dr Stephen Lumsden).

Peer reviews for

• Antiquity
• Archaeological Dialogues
• Arkæologisk Forum
• Cambridge Archaeological Journal
• Current Swedish Archaeology
• Emotion, Space and Society
• Estonian Journal of Archaeology
• European Journal of Archaeology
• Folklore
• Gefjon
• Geografiska Annaler
• HEROM. Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture
• International Journal of Heritage Studies
• Journal of Contemporary Archaeology
• Journal of Material Culture
• Material Culture Review
• Mortality
• Norwegian Archaeological Review
• Primitive tider
• Qualitative Sociology
• Slagmark
• In additon to several book chapters

Organisation of seminars and conferences

2017

Antinomies of Vagueness: Exploring obscurity, vacancy and ambiguity as cultural resource. Conference at the University of Copenhagen, co-organised with Martin Demant Frederiksen (University of Copenhagen). 20.4.2017-21.4.2017. Copenhagen, DK.

2016

Materialities of the Pressing Past: Challenges in post-medieval archaeology and the archaeology of the recent past. PhD seminar, organised with Þóra Pétursdóttir (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) for DialPast (the Nordic PhD school for archaeology). 31.4.2016-4.11.2016, Copenhagen, DK.

On the Trace: Passing, presence and the persistence of the past. Conference at the University of Copenhagen, co-organised with Þóra Pétursdóttir (UiT The Arctic University of Norway). 22.9.2016-23.9.2016. Copenhagen, DK.

2015

Technologies of Disposal: The archaeology of waste, burial and removal. Session at Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group XV, co-organised with Vivi Lena Andersen (University of Copenhagen), 18.4.2015, Copenhagen, DK.

2014

Concrete Heritage: Industry, Inclusion, Intervention. Conference at Aarhus University, co-organised with Casper Andersen and Mads Daugbjerg (AU). 13.11.2014-14.11.2014. Aarhus, DK.

Crisis: Cultural responses to collapse, conflict and emergency. PhD workshop at Aarhus University, co-organised with Felix Riede and Annette Højen Sørensen (AU). 6.11.2014-7.11.2014, Aarhus, DK.

Technologies of Time: The temporalities of ethnographic and archaeological research in the digital world. PhD workshop at the IT University of Copenhagen, co-organised with Steffen Dalsgaard (ITU), Christopher Gad (ITU) and Michael Eilenberg (Aarhus University). 2.10.2014-3.10.2014, Copenhagen, DK.

Travelling Temporalities. Workshop co-organised with Mette Løvschal, Morten Nielsen and Rane Willerslev (Aarhus University), 6.4.2014-7.4.2014, Aarhus, DK.

2013

Ruination and Conservation: Practical perspectives on the management of architectural heritage. Seminar co-organised with Rainer Atzbach (Aarhus University), 26.9.2013, Aarhus, DK.

Materialities of Passing. Workshop co-organised with Peter Bjerregaard and Anders Emil Rasmussen (Culture Historical Museum Oslo), 20.4.2013-21.4.2013, Oslo, NO.

2012 

Collecting and Recollecting the Past: Heritage at the intersection of practice and analysis. Seminar co-organised with Mads Daugbjerg (Aarhus University), 29.11.2012, Aarhus, DK.

Materialities of Time: Ritual, death and the practice of archaeology. PhD seminar, organised for DialPast (the Nordic PhD school for archaeology). 14.6.2012-16.6.2012, Aarhus, DK.

Understanding Atmospheres: Culture, Materiality and the Texture of the Inbetween. Conference co-organised with Mikkel Bille (University of Copenhagen), Peter Bjerregaard (Culture Historical Museum, Oslo) and Anne Line Dalsgaard (Aarhus University), 16.3.2012-17.3.2012, Aarhus, DK.

2011

Let the Metal Flow. Workshop co-organised with Maikel H.G. Kuijpers (University of Cambridge), 30.9.2012, Cambridge, UK.

2010

Ethics and Politics. PhD seminar co-organised with Maikel H.G. Kuijpers and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen (both University of Cambridge), 28.11.2012-29.11.2012, Cambridge, UK.

2009

The Affective Properties of Architecture. Session at Theoretical Archaeology Group 31, co-organised with Serena Love (Stanford University) and Oliver J.T. Harris (University of Cambridge), 18.12.2009, Durham, UK.

2008

The Presence of Absence: Materiality and Beyond. PhD seminar and conference coorganised with Mikkel Bille (Univeristy College London) and Frida Hastrup (University of Copenhagen), 19.4.2008-20.4.2008, DK.

2007

The Art of Destruction: Phenomenology, Fragmentation and Material Culture. PhD seminar and conference co-organised with Mads Dengsø Jessen and Troels Myrup Kristensen (both Aarhus University), 6.12.2007-7.12.2007, Aarhus, DK.

Intentionality, Dysfunctions and Unintended Consequences. Session at Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group IX, co-organised with Søren Sindbæk (Aarhus University), 12.6.2007, Aarhus, DK.

Teaching

I teach theoretical courses at BA and Master's levels, in addition to themed courses at the Master's level.

• I am interested in supervising BA projects and Master's dissertations within the following periods and topics:
• Modernity and the recent past, including contemporary archaeology
• The Early and Middle Neolithic
• The Early Bronze Age
• death and burial
• materiality studies
• archaeological theory
• landscape studies and architecture
• contemporary archaeology and (critical) heritage studies
• ruins, ruination and decay
• emotions, affect, atmosphere, the senses
• time, temporality and chronology

Supervision of MA dissertations

I supervise MA dissertation students continuously and have finalised the supervision of 18 dissertations since 2014.

PhD projects

I co-supervise PhD projects for Pernille Desirée Peiter Pantmann (University of Copenhagen), Casper Toftgaard (University of Copenhagen),, Julie de Vos (Aarhus University), Silke Holmqvist (Aarhus University) and Linda Boye (University of Copenhagen). I was co-supervisor for  Anna Severine Beck (Aarhus University) and external advisor for Sebastian Becker (graduated, University of Cambridge)