Dag Avango

Dag Avango is a professor of history, specializing in the history of technology and cultural heritage, with a focus on late modern times. His research lies at the interface between archeology and history, combining theoretical approaches and methods from history, archeology, critical heritage studies and STS. In his research, Avango has examined the interaction between people and things in historical processes of change. His focus has been on the history and cultural heritage of the polar areas – the Antarctic and Arctic – exploring how and why historical processes of change have taken place there, what their consequences were for people and environments. Avango’s historical research has an emphasis on the history of extractive industries and on cultural heritage.

Avango has conducted and promoted history research and education that speaks to important societal challenges in the present, prompted by a conviction that the discipline history is of central importance in dealing with the great challenges of our time. Avango’s research regarding the Antarctic have partly focused on the historical development of extractive industries such as sealing and whaling, partly about the history of scientific research. He has also published on the after lives of stations for extraction and science in the Antarctic, including heritagization.

Research projects / interests:

• History of whaling
• History of sealing
• Heritagization
• Environmental history

Areas of interest:

• Polar archaeology
• Cultural heritage
• Polar Governance
• Tourism
• Humanities
• History
• Environmental Management
• Polar Policy
• Geopolitics
• Human Geography
• Architecture

Keywords: Heritagization, whaling, sealing, re-use, geopolitics, history, archaeology