Stein Farstadvoll
Job description
I am Stein Farstadvoll, an archaeologist at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. My field is contemporary archaeology, the archaeology of our own time, the recent past, and how the material past as a whole is a part of the present day and future. I study what happens to places and things after people leave them, such as ruins, overgrown gardens, abandoned villages and German military sites from the Second World War. Much of my fieldwork is in Finnmark, in the far north of Norway.
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Research interests
Contemporary archaeology and the archaeology of the recent past, mainly in northern Norway. I am interested in how human-made things live on after they are no longer in use.
- Ruins and abandoned places
- Depopulation
- Second World War remains and conflict archaeology
- Heritage management inclunding nature
- Ecological theory, both natural and humanistic
- Archaeological theory and thing theory
- Dialectical materialism
Bluesky: @steinfarstadvoll.bsky.social
Instagram: @steinfarstadvoll
Teaching
I teach archaeology at the bachelor's and master's levels at UiT, including the introductory course "What is Archaeology?", Contemporary Archaeology, archaeological theory, conflict archaeology, and archaeological field courses. I supervise master's students and PhD candidates, and gladly welcome students who wish to conduct research on contemporary archaeology, conflict, or cultural heritage. Together with colleagues, I work with project-based learning oriented toward material culture. In 2023, the academic community in archaeology received UiT's Education Award. In my teaching I often use Archaeological laboratory we have here at the institute at UiT campus Tromsø.
CV
Positions
2022– Associate Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
2020–2022 Postdoctoral researcher in Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene (Research Council of Norway), UiT
2019–2020 Researcher, UiT
2015–2019 PhD candidate in Object Matters: Archaeology and Heritage in the 21st Century (Research Council of Norway), UiT
2010–2015 Field archaeologist in contract archaeology for Tromsø Museum, the NTNU University Museum, the Museum of Cultural History (University of Oslo), Buskerud County Council and Aust-Agder County Council
Education
2019 PhD in archaeology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Thesis: A Speculative Archaeology of Excess: Exploring the Afterlife of a Derelict Landscape Garden
2010 MA in archaeology, University of Tromsø
Service
2025– Editor at NAR - Norwegian Archaeological Review
2022– Organiser of the archaeology research seminars, UiT
2022–2026 Steering committee member, Nordic TAG (Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group)
Selected publications
Olsen, Bjørnar, Stein Farstadvoll, and Geneviève Godin, eds. 2025. Unruly Heritage: Archaeologies of the Anthropocene. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Farstadvoll, Stein, Ingar O. Figenschau, Bjørnar Olsen, and Christopher L. Witmore. 2022. "Excavating War and Idleness: The Case of Sværholt." Journal of Conflict Archaeology 17 (2): 87–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/15740773.2022.2111539
Farstadvoll, Stein. 2022. "A Thorny Past: The After-War Life, and Beyond, of Nazi World War II Barbed Wire in Norway." Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 9 (1): 82–103. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.21640
Farstadvoll, Stein, and Gørill Nilsen. 2020. "Naturmangfoldloven – vern av løse og 'faste' kulturminner fra andre verdenskrig som del av særpreget og karakteren til landskapsvernområder." Primitive tider 20: 119–140. https://doi.org/10.5617/pt.8397
Farstadvoll, Stein. 2019. "Vestigial Matters: Contemporary Archaeology and Hyperart." Norwegian Archaeological Review 52 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2019.1577913
Farstadvoll, Stein. 2019. "Growing Concerns: Plants and Their Roots in the Past." Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 5 (2): 174–193. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.35117