Description
Maja Gunn is a Professor of Crafts, specialising in textiles. She is Research Leader at the Department of Crafts and leads Konstfack’s Research Platform Heritage, Culture, Community. From 2025 to 2030, she leads the artistic research environment Textile Heritage, funded by the Swedish Research Council, which investigates museums’ textile collections. Her work spans and moves between artistic practice and research, often in collaboration with other disciplines, researchers, and artists.
At Konstfack, she teaches on the Master’s Programme CRAFT!; the course Research Lab CRAFT (not offered in the 2026–2027 academic year); and at doctoral level. In addition, she regularly participates in and organises lectures, seminars, and symposia outside the regular teaching programme, and gives guest lectures at universities in Sweden and internationally.
Maja Gunn holds a PhD in Design and is an artist, designer, curator, and writer. Her ongoing and previous research includes, among other areas, the activation and artistic investigation of museum collections; speculative and alternative approaches to historiography; fashion and textiles in relation to gender and sexuality; body and performativity; designed living environment and artistic co-creation processes; studies of the political and social role of crafts; as well as norm-critical innovation and how design can promote gender equality.
Peer-reviewed conference papers during 2026: Gunn, Maja (2026) “The Knowledge of the Hand: Material Intelligence in Research on Textile Heritage”. Keynote Speaker. NordFo Conference. Stockholm; Gunn, Maja (2026) “Designed Living Environments”. Conference paper. Arts in Society Conference. Athens, Greece; Gunn, Maja (2026) “Collaborative Making and Its Contribution to Social Engagement and the Sustainable Built Environment”. Conference paper. Design Principles & Practices Conference. Rome. Italy
Presentations (not peer-reviewed) during 2026: Gunn, Maja (2026) Textila arv, Futures Present, Research Symposium, Konstfack; Gunn, Maja (2026) “Design in Collaborations: Research Interacting with Society, One Day About Design Research, Konstfack; Gunn, Maja (2026) “Crafting Connection: Tactile Practices as Tools in the Co-Creation of Sustainable Living Environments” Konstfack Research Week.
As a costume designer, Maja Gunn has worked in television, film, theatres, and opera houses. Maja Gunn has had solo exhibitions at, among others, the Textile Museum, Museum Anna Nordlander, Norrbotten Museum, and Steneby Konsthall, and has participated in group exhibitions at, among others, ArkDes, Färgfabriken, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, USA. In autumn 2026, she has been invited to create a Salon with/at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and she will participate in a group exhibition at Rian Designmuseum.
Maja Gunn is a member of the Board of Governors of Konstfack.
Previously, Maja Gunn was a Professor at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg. She has also held positions at Beckmans College of Design, the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, and Halmstad University, and has undertaken numerous commissions and assignments within art, design, and crafts. She has served as an expert reviewer for the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, the Swedish Arts Council, and Vinnova, as well as for several universities in Sweden and internationally.