Maria Bäcke

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
Department of Language, Aesthetic Learning and Literature , School of Education and Communication
Associate Professor in Pedagogy (Applied IT)
Research Leader of CCD - Communication, Culture and Diversity
Presentation Publications

Currently holding positions as programme director for the master's programme LeaDS (Learning, Digitalization, and Sustainability) and as leader for the research environment CCD (Communication, Culture, and Diversity) at Jönköping University, Maria Bäcke has a PhD in TechnoScience. She is also the co-coordinator of the EARLI SIG 21 “Diversity in Education,“ and editorial board member for Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. Her PhD thesis (Power Games: Rules and Roles in Second Life, 2011) focuses on power, hierarchies and roles in online role-play groups. Her current research centers around similar issues as she studies structures of ownership, power, authority and subversion as well as digitalisation in schools and in postcolonial contexts. She has also worked in teacher education since 2004. 

One part of Bäcke's current research thus merges the fields of digitalisation, education, diversity and cultural studies as she is currently studying how GenAI is used in schools, as well as the reasons for, and processes behind, the selection of EdTech and the implementation of GenAI for students.

Another part of her research focuses on school attendance to find ways to discuss and explore solutions to school attendance problems (SAP) with pupils and school personnel at upper secondary level.

Current Research

Bäcke is the PI for the project Goda exempel för skolnärvaro (Good examples for school attendance),  financed by ULF for the years 2025-2026, where researchers from Jönköping University and Gothenburg University collaborate with school leaders and staff in Jönköping. The goal is to coordinate efforts and facilitate for children and youngsters who either fail to attend school (i.e. problematic school absence) or risk finding themselves in that position.

The book chapter Digital hållbarhet (Digital Sustainability) can be found in the book Digital kompetens för lärare (Digital Competence for Teachers) (published by Gleerups). It focuses on ecologic, economic and social sustainability in relation to digitalisation in schools.

The project Futures Day – Who holds the future? is a collaboration with an upper secondary school in Jönköping, but a series of collaborations with other schools in other parts of Sweden are underway. Focus in this project is students' ideas about technology and the role of AI in the future drawing on futures scenarios as a framework. It focuses on sustainability from ecologic, economic and social points of view.

The REaD-IT project (2022 - current) focuses on the reading strategies of students at upper secondary level and highlights the invisible competencies (primarily digital and language ones) as paths towards active citizenship.

The book chapter The Unbearable Lightness of Imagination in a GenAI Era has been written together with fellow researchers at Jönköping University and focuses on the Futures Day project for the book Postdigital Imaginations: Critiques, Methods, and Interventions.

Other tasks and qualifications

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

Hemsida: http://www.baecke.se

Article

Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2024). Editorial: Learning, digitalization, and social sustainability Frontiers in Communication, 9. More information
Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2024). Lost opportunities for globalisation, digitalisation, and socially sustainable education? Advocating for digital and global Bildung in Swedish upper secondary schools Frontiers in Education, 9. 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. (2022). Resisting commodification: Subverting the power of the global tech companies Bandung: Journal of the Global South, 9(1-2), 49-79. 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 zinenet. 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

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

Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2026). Sustainability and Digital Technology in Education. In: Michael A. Peters & Richard Heraud (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation (pp. 1 -6). Singapore: Springer More information
Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2025). The Unbearable Lightness of Imagination in the GenAI Era: Changing Creative Writing Practices in School. In: Petar Jandrić, Juha Suoranta, Marko Teräs & Hanna Davis (Ed.), Postdigital (Re)Imaginations: Critiques, Methods, and Interventions (pp. 265 -284). Cham: Springer More information
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. (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., 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. (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

Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M., Haglind, T., Galbraith, A., Selvander, F., Rangsjö, J. (2026). Futures Day: Framtidsperspektiv och kollaborativt skrivande med GenAI i svensk- och teknikämnet på gymnasiet. Malmö: Nationella nätverket för svenska med didaktisk inriktning, SMDI 2024, Sextonde konferensen i svenska med didaktisk inriktning, Framtidens svenskämne – tradition och förnyelse, 26-28 november 2024, Luleå, Sverige. More information
Vigmo, S., Bäcke, M. (2026). Nordic Students in European Higher Education Collaborations: A Critical Student Agency Perspective. NERA 2026, Annual Conference, March 4-6, 2026, Aarhus, Denmark. More information
Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2026). Nordic Students in European Higher Education Collaborations: A Critical Student Agency Perspective. NERA 2026, Annual Conference, March 4-6, 2026, Aarhus, Denmark. More information
Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2026). Diffraktivt skrivande av framtidsberättelser skapade med generativ AI. Skriv! Les! Nordisk forskerkonferanse om skriving, lesing og literacy, 12-13 maj, 2026, Trondheim, Norge. More information
Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2026). Futures Day: Reclaiming Media Realities Through Imagination: Upper-secondary school students create futures about technology with GenAI. Media Realities International Symposium 2026, 29-30 April 2026, HLK, Jönköping University. More information
Vigmo, S., Bäcke, M. (2026). Celebrating the Metamorphosis: Enacting Agency in a European Higher Education Collaboration. EARLI SIG 10, 17, 21 and 25 Conference 2026, Meaningful Metamorphoses: Navigating Learning and Instruction in/for Times of Change, March 25-27, 2026, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany. More information
Godhe, A., Lindberg, Y., Bäcke, M. (2025). Co-authoring a school assignment with AI. ARLE SIG TALE 3rd Research Symposium “Digital technologies, literacy and schooling: Responding to ‘newness’, Larnaca, Cyprus, 10-13 June 2025. More information
Godhe, A., Lindberg, Y., Bäcke, M. (2025). Samskrivande med AI – process och berättelser. NNFF10: School subject, student, world: new relationships? The tenth conference of Nordic Network for Research in L1 Education, 2-4 december 2025, København, Danmark. More information
Bäcke, M. (2025). Students’ Imaginaries of Futures: Diversity, Center-Peripheries, and Equity. EARLI 2025 Conference, Realising Potentials through Education: Shaping the Minds and Brains for the Future, 25-29 August 2025, University of Graz, Austria. More information
Bäcke, M., Sánchez, A., Yashenkova, O., Moșoi, A., Knappitsch, E. (2024). Futures imaginaries of globalisation and internationalisation in education. 12th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD), "Solutions for the future!", September 19-21, 2024, New York, United States. More information
Godhe, A., Lindberg, Y., Bäcke, M. (2024). Who holds the future? Teachers’ work with students’ future thinking, sustainability & technology. NERA Conference 2024, "Adventures of Education: Desires, Encounters and Differences", 6-8 March 2024, Malmö, Sweden. More information
Smithberger, S., Vigmo, S., Bäcke, M. (2024). Students’ reading strategies at upper secondary level for active citizenship. SIG 10, 21 & 25 Conference, "Walking the talk: Co-constructing the politics of meaning, diversity & learning", Bari, Italy, 11-13 September 2024. More information
Lindberg, Y., Godhe, A., Bäcke, M. (2024). Diffractive creation: Students’ collaborative writing processes and practices with GenAI. HEEL Seminar, 21 October 2024, online. More information
Godhe, A., Lindberg, Y., Bäcke, M. (2024). Students create futures: Diffraction patterns in writing practices and processes with GenAI. Udforsk AI 2024, Nordic Conference on AI Research in the Education Sector, 2-3 December, Kristiansand, Norway. More information
Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2023). Invisible and unrecognised global citizenship and diversity among students at upper secondary level. The 20th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 22-26 August 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece. More information
Bäcke, M., Gambarato, R., Tárcia, L., Alzamora, G., Cunha, L. (2023). Transmedia Educommunication Method for Social Sustainability. The 20th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 22-26 August 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece. More information
Vigmo, S., Bäcke, M. (2023). Reading for pleasure and reading for school – Student agency vs normative curricula. The 20th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 22-26 August 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece. More information
Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2023). Invisible Languages and Unrecognised Globalisation: Linguistic Competence at Swedish Upper Secondary Level. AILA 2023, Lyon, France, July 17-21. More information
Bäcke, M., Bäcklund, J. (2022). Agency, Policy, Literacy – Sustainable Digitalization in Swedish Schools and Theatres in the 21st century. GoPar 2022, 27-29 April 2022 online, Jönköping University, Sweden. More information
Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2022). A Space and Place for Workplace Collaboration and Trust during the Pandemic and Beyond? An Auto-Ethnographic Exploration of Emergent Transformative Practices. Praxis symposium IV, 16-18 May 2022. More information
Bäcke, M., Vigmo, S. (2022). Tid och rum för tillit och akademikers gemensamma lärande under pandemin: En autoetnografisk studie av transformerade och transformerande lärandepraktiker. NU2022, Stockholm, 15-17 Juni 2022. More information
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. (2020). Resisting Commodification: The Importance of Education in Today’s Media Landscape. LeaDMe, Learning, Digitalization, and Media International conference, 13-15 February 2020, Mumbai, India. More information
Bäcke, M. (2019). Migration and the Motherland: Ex-Colonisers and Ex-Colonised in the literary works of José Eduardo Agualusa and Ondjaki. The Migration Conference 2019, Bari, Italy, 18-20 June 2019. More information
Bäcke, M. (2019). Reading the Power Structures: Potential Pitfalls when Teaching Democracy and Democratic Values in Scanian Schools. MuDD2019 - Multilingualism, Diversity and Democracy, 8-10 April 2019, Jönköping, 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). Construction of Digital Space: Second Life as a fantasy or a work tool. M3 - The Virtual '07. 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. (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