My scholarly interests are 20th century Nordic and European cultural and media history. My research focus has been Cold War culture, especially media narratives in the postwar era, fiction and feature film of the Cold War, the culture of civil defence and everyday militarization in the atomic age, the material cultural heritage of the Cold War, literary journalism, and transnational broadcasting.

My dissertation Mannen i mitten. Ett spiondrama i svensk kallakrigskultur ("The man in the middle: A spy drama in Swedish Cold War culture", 2004) explored the cultural figure of the spy in Swedish 1950s and 1960s media and popular culture. In a post doc research project "The people's home in the atomic age: Civil defence information and the Swedish narrative of community, 1945–1965" (financed by the Swedish Research Council, 2005-2009), I investigated the narratives of fear and safety, warfare and welfare, in Swedish civil defense culture of the 1950s and 1960s. The project resulted in a series of articles and book chapters in Swedish, English and German.

In the project "Entangled television histories: Media networks and programme exchange between Sweden and the GDR, 1969–1989" (financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2015-2019), I investigated the relationship between Swedish and East German television in the 1970s and 1980s. The project tapped into not only the discussion on transnational broadcasting, but also the recent trend within Cold War studies challenging traditional ideas of division and bipolarity by investigating the period in terms of East-West entanglements, interconnections, exchanges, and circulation. In connection to my own research, I started a research group with two other researchers, Sune Bechmann Pedersen and Laura Saarenmaa. The title of the project was "Transborder television: The Nordic countries and the GDR" (financed by the Crafoord foundation, 2016-2018). Our work resulted in a series of book chapters and articles in journals such as Media History, Nordicom Review and Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.

In a recently financed project, "Media knowledge and Cold War preparedness: Mass communication theories and media practices in the service of the Swedish psychological defence, 1953–1985" (Vetenskapsrådet, 2020–), I explore the establishment of the Swedish psychological defence and its significance for the circulation of media knowledge and mass communication theories in the postwar era. The project has active links to perspectives within the history of knowledge and the history of science, but is also a continuation of my long-standing interest in civil defence and the (media) history of information and propaganda. Together with Rosanna Farbøl I also investigate psychological defence in Denmark and Sweden in a project financed by the Crafoord Foundation (2021–). Rosanna and I currently run the research network "Transnational histories of civil defence", and our first edited volume Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Preparedness and Survival (eds. Cronqvist, Farbøl & Sylvest) was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.

Over the years I have edited several other books, among these 1973. En träff med tidsandan ("1973: A date with the Zeitgeist", Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2008); Mediehistoriska vändningar ("Media historical turns", Lund: Mediehistoria, 2014), Återkopplingar ("Reconnections", Lund: Mediehistoria, 2014), and War remains: Mediations of suffering and death in the era of the World Wars (Lund: Nordic Academic Press). My interest in research in higher education, and Ph D education in particular, resulted in the volume Det goda seminariet. Forskarseminariet som lärandemiljö och kollegialt rum ("The good seminar: The research seminar as a learning environment and collegial space", Stockholm/Göteborg: Makadam, 2016).

Since 2014, I am also the main coordinator of the international research network "Entangled media histories (EMHIS)" with members from around 15 countries in Europe and Australia. The network was financed by STINT Institutional Grant, 2014-2019, and has arranged about 10 conferences in four countries. The EMHIS blog could be found here: https://emhis.blogg.lu.se

Together with Sune Bechmann Pedersen I am the project leader and responsible for the research platform DigitalHistory@Lund, financed by the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology in Lund and launched in January 2021. The platform is a cooperation between the Section for Media History at KOM and the Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK) at the Department of History. Our work could be followed here: https://digitalhistorylund.com

I am an Honorary Associate at the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Media History at Bournemouth University, UK. In the past, I have been a guest researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy; the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research in Hamburg, and the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University, Sydney. Currently, I am on the board of Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund (The Science Society in Lund), the Centre for Oresund Region Studies (CORS), the editorial board of Lund University Press, and the editorial board of the book series Mediehistoriskt arkiv. I am a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (KVA), class X humanities, and the Royal Society for the Humanities in Lund. I am also serving on two review panels at the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), one for Historical Sciences and Archaology, and the other for grants to scientific journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

I write frequently articles in newspapers and magazines, for example in Svenska Dagbladet, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Populär Historia and Respons. Recensionstidskrift för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap.

Between 2013 and 2016, I was the Lund University representative in Humtank, a national think tank for promoting the humanities. My work in Humtank involved taking part in public debates as well as arranging seminars and events, for example at the Gothenburg Book Fair.

Between 2007 and 2010, I worked part-time as a yearbook editor for Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Stockholm, and between 2018 and 2020 I was a deputy director of the academic think tank LU Futura based at Lund University.