Mikkel Bille

Mikkel Bille

Professor

Primary fields of research

Primary Research Area

My research focuses on people's practices with material culture, particularly the way cultural ideals shape the transition from one type of technology to another. I have a particular interest in architecture, home culture, light and atmosphere.

My PhD from University College London, UCL, focused on the Bedouin in Jordan, while further studies have been a comparative study of uses of light in Jordan and Denmark

Current research

My current research concerns the experience and design of lighting in urban spaces, as director of the Velux project Living with Nordic Lighting

I am also co-directing Urban Tech Lab where we use eye-tracking, Galvanic Skin Response and other technologies to investigate urban spaces in combination with qualitative methods.

Previous research concentrated on the transition from incandescent light to energy saving light bulbs in Denmark and Jordan. Particularly focusing on its reception and use in orchestrating spaces of hospitality and cosyness. The research addresses concepts such as atmosphere, materiality, technology and ethics.

Previously I have also focused on cultural heritage among the Bedouin in Jordan

Current research

My current research concerns the transition from incandescent light to energy saving light bulbs in Denmark and Jordan. Particularly focusing on its reception and use in orchestrating spaces of hospitality and cosyness. The research addresses concepts such as atmosphere, materiality, technology and ethics.

Teaching

  • Materiality - Things and technologies in cross cultural perspective
  • Cultural heritage - the past in the present
  • Antropological methods
  • Internship
  • Culture and rights
  • Supervision in theme such as material culture studies, heritage, architecture and urban studies

Selected publications

  1. Homely Atmosphere and lighting Technologies in Denmark: Living with Light

    Bille, Mikkel, 2019, London: Bloomsbury Academic. 192 p. (Home cultures; No. 11).

    Research output: Book/ReportBookResearchpeer-review

  2. Published

    Materialitet - en indføring i kultur, identitet og teknologi.

    Bille, Mikkel & Sørensen, Tim Flohr, 2019, 2. ed. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur. 251 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportBookEducation

  3. Being Bedouin around Petra: Life at a World Heritage Site in the Twenty-First Century

    Bille, Mikkel, 2019, London: Berghahn Books. 210 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportBookResearchpeer-review

  4. Verden ifølge Humaniora: 40 banebrydende begreber der former vores virkelighed

    Bille, Mikkel (ed.), Engberg-Pedersen, A. (ed.) & Gram-Skjoldager, K. (ed.), 2019, Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag. 352 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthologyResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Staging atmospheres: Materiality, culture, and the texture of the in-between

    Bille, Mikkel, Bjerregaard, P. & Sørensen, Tim Flohr, May 2015, In: Emotion, Space and Society. 15, p. 31–38

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    An Anthropology of Luminosity: the Agency of Light

    Bille, Mikkel & Sørensen, Tim Flohr, 2007, In: Journal of Material Culture. 12, 3, p. 263-284 22 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  7. Published

    An Anthropology of Absence: Materializations of Transcendence and Loss

    Bille, Mikkel (ed.), Hastrup, Frida (ed.) & Sørensen, Tim Flohr (ed.), 2010, New York: Springer Science+Business Media. 221 p.

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthologyResearchpeer-review

  8. Published

    Elements of Architecture: Assembling archaeology, atmosphere and the performance of building spaces

    Sørensen, Tim Flohr (ed.) & Bille, Mikkel (ed.), 2016, London: Routledge. 444 p. (Archaeological Orientations, Vol. 3).

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthologyResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    Politics of Worship in Contemporary Middle East: Sainthood in fragile states

    Bandak, Andreas (ed.) & Bille, Mikkel (ed.), 2013, Leiden: Brill. 215 p. (Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia, Vol. 111).

    Research output: Book/ReportAnthologyResearchpeer-review

Selected prizes

  1. Dansk Magisterforenings forskningspris for Humanistisk Forskning

    Bille, Mikkel (Recipient), 2021

    Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions

ID: 1834445