Maria Bäcke

Assistant Professor of General Literary Studies
Department of Language, Aesthetic Learning and Literature , School of Education and Communication
Research Leader of CCD - Communication, Culture and Diversity
Programme Manager of LeaDS

Currently holding positions as programme director for the master's programme LeaDS and as leader for the research environment CCD (www.ju.se/ccd) at Jönköping University, I have a PhD in TechnoScience. My PhD thesis (Power Games: Rules and Roles in Second Life, 2011) focuses on power, hierarchies and roles in online role-play groups. My current research centers around similar issues as I study structures of ownership, power, authority and subversion as well as digitalisation in schools and in postcolonial contexts. I have also worked in teacher education since 2004. 

My current research thus merges the fields of digitalisation, education, and cultural studies. The cultural aspects have been my main research focus for a long time as I have analysed this in fictional literature, but I have drawn on this perspective when analysing non-fictional reseach material related to digitalisation, diversity, and education.

In various constellations, I'm currently studying the reasons for, and processes behind, the selection of EdTech for students. A related area of interest is students' use of the same tools in schools, at leisure centres, and in municipal adult education, drawing on issues of power and subversion in "Big Data," i.e. data ownership and data mining/harvesting.

I am the Swedish PI for the GTSF (Global Teachers for a Sustainable Future) project funded by Erasmus+. The focus of the GTSF project is internationalisation at home within teacher education.

Other tasks and qualifications

See ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9212-8551

Hemsida: http://www.baecke.se

Article

Bäcke, M. (2022). Resisting commodification: Subverting the power of the global tech companies Bandung, 9(1-2), 49-79. More information
Bäcke, M. (2022). The global north and the global south negotiations of power: a literary discourse study of Angola’s Agualusa and Ondjaki Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 17(4), 312-322. More information
Bäcke, M. (2012). Make-believe and make-belief in Second Life role-playing communities Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 18(1), 85-92. More information
Bäcke, M. (2007). "Freedom for just one night": the promise and threat of information and communication technologies Women Writers: a zine. More information
Bäcke, M. (2007). "Freedom for Just One Night": The Promise and Threat of Information and Communication Technologies Women Writers: a zinenet. More information

Doctoral thesis

Bäcke, M. (2011). Power games: Rules and roles in Second Life (Doctoral thesis, Karlskrona: Blekinge tekniska högskola. Sektionen för planering och mediedesign). More information

Book chapter

Bäcke, M. (2021). Diskursanalys i engelsk­undervisningen. In: A. Eilard & C. Dahl (Ed.), Diskursanalys: med utbildningsvetenskapliga perspektiv (pp. 125 -142). Lund: Studentlitteratur AB More information
Bäcke, M., Hult, F. (2019). A TESOL Practicum in Sweden. In: A. Cirocki, I. Madyarov & L. Baecher (Ed.), Current perspectives on the TESOL Practicum: Cases from around the globe (pp. 247 -263). Cham: Springer More information
Bäcke, M. (2019). Migration, Integration and Power: The Image of “the Dumb Swede” in Swede Hollow and the Image of Contemporary New Swedes in One Eye Red and She Is Not Me. In: A. Tilbe & R. M. Rafik Khali (Ed.), Culture, literature and migration (pp. 73 -88). London: Transnational Press More information
Bäcke, M. (2009). Self, setting, and situation in Second Life. In: Francisco J. Ricardo (Ed.), Literary art in digital performance: case studies in new media art and criticism (pp. 109 -142). New York: Continuum More information
Bäcke, M. (2009). De-colonizing Cyberspace: Post-Colonial Strategies in Cyberfiction. In: Francisco J. Ricardo (Ed.), Cyberculture and New Media (pp. 189 -196). Amsterdam: Rodopi More information

Conference paper

Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2021). Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: Remediating an International Masters’ Programme Environment. Designs for Learning: Remediation of Learning online conference, May 25–26, 2021, Stockholm university, Sweden. More information
Bäcke, M. (2014). The framework for university level text analysis. Kristianstad: Kristianstad University Press, Text Analysis Symposium at Kristianstad University, April 2014. More information
Bäcke, M. (2008). Avant-Garde and Subversion in an Online 3D World. Luton, UK Under the Mask 2014: Perspectives on the Gamer, June 7th 2008, Luton, UK. More information
Bäcke, M. (2007). Identity to Fit the Environment: The Creation of Avatars in Second Life Role-Playing Sims. League of Worlds 4 Conference, The Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden, 9-13 October, 2007. More information
Bäcke, M. (2007). Construction of Digital Space: Second Life as a fantasy or a work tool. M3 - The Virtual '07. More information
Bäcke, M. (2006). Avatars in Second Life: Creating a Persona in a Virtual World. Boone, North Carolina League of Worlds 3 Conference. More information

Conference proceedings (editor)

Mattisson, J., Bäcke, M. (Eds.). (2014). Text analysis: culture, framework & teaching: conference proceedings from the Text Analysis Symposium at Kristianstad University, April 2014. , Kristianstad: Kristianstad University Press More information