Anna Karlström is a lecturer and researcher in heritage studies at the department of art history, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Sweden. Before taking up her current position, Anna completed her PhD, a study of Buddhist values of heritage and alternative approaches to preservation in Laos, in 2009 at the department of archaeology, Uppsala University, including half a year as a research associate at the department of anthropology, University College London. After her PhD was completed, a post-doctoral fellowship concerning the concept of indigeneity in relation to heritage in Southeast Asia followed, at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies unit, University of Queensland, Australia. Anna has led research projects with archaeological and ethnographic investigations in Southeast Asia, Australia and Sweden and is currently in charge of a project on ancient bronze drums as indigenous heritage in Southeast Asia. Her research interests include relations between heritage and the sacred, the materiality of popular religion, contemporary uses of archaeology and community involvement in heritage research, which have resulted in publications in edited book s as well as in the journals Material religion and Journal of social archaeology. Anna’s PhD resulted in the book Preserving Impermanence, the creation of heritage in Vientiane, Laos (2009) and the post-doctorate in the edited volume Archaeologies of ‘us’ and ‘them’, debating the ethics and politics of ethnicity and indigeneity in archaeology and heritage studies (forthcoming, 2016). Anna is currently also employed at the county administration office in Visby, Sweden, as a heritage administrator.