Anna-Stina Hägglund

My research interests center on donations and the interactions between monastic communities and local societies, with a particular focus on the role of donations in the culture of remembrance upheld by the female religious. My current project "Lived Remembrance around Female Monasteries in Late Medieval Sweden" investigates the role of women in commissioning and maintaining remembrance practices for their kin. I specifically examine the role of foster/adopted daughters sent to monastic communities and their responsibilities in caring for the families of their foster parents.

Additionally, I explore the material aspects of remembrance culture through the pious networks established by last wills, where testators directed their interests towards various religious institutions. I am also studying wills as interregional documents that encompassed beneficiaries in multiple locations, particularly through the wills of Hanseatic merchants and their support of urban religious communities across the Baltic Sea region.

One of my main fields of expertise is the Birgittine Order and its establishment across Europe in the 15th century. I have studied the monasteries of the Order from the regional perspective of Northern Europe and investigated the role of regional and local actors in the foundation and support of Birgittine monasteries.