ClaytonFogg at 14:22, 27 April 2026

2026-04-27T14:22:47Z

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{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = [[Professor]]
| name = Bengt G. Karlsson
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1961}}
| citizenship =
| othernames =
| occupation =
| known_for = ''Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India’s Northeast''<br>
'Anthropology and the Indigenous Slot'
| alma_mater = [[Lund University]]
| thesis_title = Contested Belonging: An Indigenous Peoples Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan
| thesis_url = https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/18297
| thesis_year = 1997
| discipline = Anthropology
| sub_discipline = [[Environmental anthropology]], [[Development anthropology]]
| workplaces = [[Stockholm University]]
}}
{{Short description|Swedish anthropologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}}

'''Bengt Gosta Karlsson Bermsjo''' is a professor of social anthropology at [[Stockholm University]]. His research engages mainly with Indigenous people in [[Northeast India]] and political ecology. He is known for his book, ''Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India’s Northeast,'' and article, "Anthropology and the 'Indigenous' Slot."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karlsson |first=Bengt G. |date=2003-12-01 |title=Anthropology and the ‘Indigenous Slot’: Claims to and Debates about Indigenous Peoples’ Status in India |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308275X03234003 |journal=Critique of Anthropology |language=EN |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=403–423 |doi=10.1177/0308275X03234003 |issn=0308-275X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Bengt G. Karlsson {{!}} IIAS |url=https://www.iias.asia/profile/bengt-g-karlsson |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=www.iias.asia}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Styrelse |url=https://ssag.se/om/organisation/styrelse/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi|language=sv}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Bengt grew up in the coastal town of [[Piteå]] in [[Norrbotten County]], the northernmost [[län]] in Sweden. He left the town when he was 19.{{sfn|Kikon|Karlsson|2019|p=114}} Bengt's paternal grandfather worked as a teacher in the mining town of [[Gällivare]] in northern Sweden, who later became a labour party leader and then the chairman of the city council.{{sfn|Kikon|Karlsson|2019|pp=113-114}}

Karlsson received his PhD in Social Anthropology from [[Lund University]] in 1997. His dissertation titled, ''Contested Belonging: An Indigenous Peoples Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan'' dealt with 'the modern predicament of the Rabha or Kocha people, their survival in the forest and their quest for identity.' For the thesis, Karlsson spent a year, between 1990 and 1995, for [[Ethnography|ethnographic]] fieldwork with the [[Rabha people]] living in India,<ref name=":2" /> especially villages around [[Buxa Tiger Reserve]] and areas in the [[Dooars]] in North Bengal.{{sfn|Kikon|Karlsson|2019|p=119}} He also undertook [[archival research]] with the [[India Office Records]] in London.<ref name=":2">{{Cite thesis |last=Karlsson |first=Bengt G. |title=Contested Belonging : An Indigenous Peoples Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan |date=1997 |degree=thesis/docmono |publisher=Lund University |url=http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/18297}}</ref>

Karlsson has lived in several countries such as [[Austria]], [[India]], the [[United States]], [[England]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], and [[Kenya]]. Several of his childhood friends have returned to Piteå after living and working in [[Stockholm]] for a few decades.{{sfn|Kikon|Karlsson|2019|p=114}}

== Academic career ==
Karlsson was the director of the Nordic Centre in India from 2005–2006 while affiliated with [[Uppsala University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.nordiccentreindia.com/history |access-date=2026-02-21 |website=Nordic Centre in India}}</ref>
[[File:Karlsson in 2023.jpg|thumb|Prof. Karlsson in 2023]]
He is an elected member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities]] since 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 June 2015 |title=Karlsson, Bengt G. |url=https://www.vitterhetsakademien.se/ledamoter/ledamoter/karlsson-bengt-g..html |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien |language=sv}}</ref> He is a board member of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.<ref name=":1" /> Since the formation of the Stockholm Center for Global Asia at Stockholm University in 2021, to promote research and education in Sweden focused on Asia, he has been one of its board member.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 December 2025 |title=About the centre - Stockholm Center for Global Asia |url=https://www.su.se/english/divisions/stockholm-center-for-global-asia/about-the-centre |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=Stockholm University |language=en}}</ref>

== Research ==
Karlsson is an environmental anthropologist.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bengt G. Karlsson |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=eWnriPwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref>

Karlsson published ''Unruly Hills'' in 2011 with [[Berghahn Books]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karlsson |first=Bengt G. |url=https://books.google.se/books?id=_-MRFbForK4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India's Northeast |date= |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-85745-105-7 |location=New York and Oxford |language=en}}</ref> [[Orient Blackswan]] and Social Science Press published the South Asia print in 2011. Anthropologist [[Robbins Burling]] in his review of the book calls the book a "penetrating, although dispiriting, analysis of the terrible economic, political, and environmental problems... of Meghalaya." Burling recommends the book to understand [[corruption]], land alienation, and [[exploitation of natural resources]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Burling |first=Robbins |author-link=Robbins Burling |date=2011 |title=Book Review: Unruly Hills: Nature and Nation in India’s Northeast |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097639961100200111 |journal=Millennial Asia |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=136–139 |doi=10.1177/097639961100200111 |issn=0976-3996 |via=Sage Journals|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is one of the significant monographs from Sweden that engages with anthropological concerns at the intersections of human ecology and political ecology while focusing on [[Northeast India]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hannerz |first=Ulf |author-link=Ulf Hannerz |title=Swedish Anthropology: Past and Present |journal=kritisk etnografi – Swedish Journal of Anthropology |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=59 |doi=10.33063/diva-355995}}</ref>

== Books ==

* ''Contested Belonging: An Indigenous People’s Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal'' (Routledge, 2000)
* ''Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India’s Northeast'' (Berghahn Book, 2011)
* ''Leaving the Land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India'' (Cambridge University Press, 2019, co-authored with [[Dolly Kikon]])

=== Edited volumes ===

* ''Indigeneity in India'' (Kegan Paul, 2006, with [[Tanka Bahadur Subba]])
* ''Geographies of Difference: Explorations in Northeast Indian Studies'' (Routledge, 2017, with M. Vandenhelsken and M. Barkataki-Ruscheweyh)
* ''Seedways: The Circulation, Care and Control of Plants in a Warming World'' (Vitterhetsakademien, 2021, with [[Annika Rabo]]).

== References ==
{{ref-list}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last1=Kikon |first1=Dolly |author1-link = Dolly Kikon |last2=Karlsson |first2=Bengt G. |year=2019 |title=Leaving the Land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-10849-442-7 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/leaving-the-land/B242D899A9697438DC2DD37EA5D8E437}}

== External links ==

* [https://su-se.academia.edu/BengtGKarlsson Karlsson on Academia.edu]
* [https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/person.jsf?pid=authority-person%3A85269&dswid=-6164 Karlsson on DiVA portal]
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karlsson, Bengt G.}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:Uppsala University alumni]]
[[Category:Lund University alumni]]
[[Category:Swedish anthropologists]]
[[Category:Swedish ethnographers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Stockholm University]]

Bengt G. Karlsson - Revision history

ClaytonFogg at 14:22, 27 April 2026