Simon Rastén

Simon Rastén

Postdoc

Member of:

    Simon Rastén is a cultural historian specialized in Danish colonialism in India. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher of the project 'Field/Work in the Archive: Herbaria as Sites of Cultural Exchange', funded by the Augustinus Fonden.

    Rastén has been a curator and a researcher at the National Museum of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen and has a comprehensive knowledge of archives and museum collections relating to the former Danish colonies. He is a founding member of the National Museum’s Serampore Initiative and has been engaged in public outreach through exhibitions, documentaries, restoration, heritage walks, media, talks and workshops.

    Current research

    • 'Field/Work in the Archive: Herbaria as Sites of Cultural Exchange', an investigation of the cultural significance and colonial past of the botanical collections held at the National History Museum of Denmark.

    Primary fields of research

    Colonial encounters, natural history collections, urban history, legal history, governance, microhistory, medical and environmental history, ethnography, scientific expeditions, history of ideas and heritage studies.

    ID: 235952743