Nordic models: The culture and politics of a region

In our historical present, to engage in the study of culture requires an examination of the cultural contexts and their histories from where we speak, listen, and act. Our research engages the Nordic region, and more specifically the welfare state, as a distinct framework for the positionalities and perspectives whose implicit notions are often taken for granted and remain an un-scrutinized backdrop of the study of art and culture.

© Elmgreen and Dragset/VISDA, When a Country Falls In Love with Itself, 2008

Our research revisits the dominant and the marginal, and the residual and the emergent cultural histories of the Nordic now. While we share an interest in what has come to be known in political science as a specific type of nation-state, the Nordic welfare state, and in its genealogies, its promises, and its paradoxes, we are more concerned with the Nordic welfare model not as a state model but as a cultural model. Viewed as a specific cultural structure, the Nordic welfare model is a model of and for the senses, which is to say a model structuring aesthetic regimes, cultures of feeling, and ways of belonging. Just some of the questions we consider include: How best to understand the aesthetic and affective conventions of Scandinavian nationalism? What are the recurring tropes in the staging of “Nordicness” – and what and who is left out of this specific cultural and political framing?

 

 

Our meta-perspective this semester: positioning. How and why, or why not, do we (and our international colleagues) situate ourselves explicitly in our writing and otherwise? This will be a red thread in cluster meetings.

7-9 January
Writing Retreat
Venue: Stuebjerggård

Fri 28 February, 12:00-14:00
On Everyday Utopias
Tue Andersen Nexø

Mon 17 March, 13:00-14:00
”Folkelighed”
Xenia Brown Pallesen

Mon 31 March
Isumasioqatigiinneq eqqaasitsisoq – A Re-Membering Seminar
With Vivi Sørensen, Jessie Kleemann, Elisabeth Blind Heilman, Sara Aviaja Hammeken, Sirí Paulsen, Kuluk Helms, Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt and more

Fri 4 April, 13:00-15:00
Findings: The Art of Nordic Colonialism
Mathias Danbolt

Mon 19 May, 10:00-12:00
Indigeneity and the Nordics

Tues 10 June, 13:00-15:00 (NB: New Date!)
The Black Panther Party in Scandinavia Robert Nilsson Mohammadi

Tues 17 June, 18:00-20:30
Dinner

The programme is subject to change. For more information, please contact head of cluster, Devika Sharma, thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Researchers

Internal

Name Title Phone E-mail
Cramer, Nina Enrolled PhD Student +4535335087 E-mail
Ehlers, Jeannette Pollard PhD Student E-mail
Ellegaard, Line Postdoc +4535320534 E-mail
Gaonkar, Anna Meera Teaching Assistant Professor +4551225698 E-mail
Greaves, Kerry Associate Professor +4522744513 E-mail
Holme, Oliver Wiant Rømer PhD Fellow +4535328909 E-mail
Moore, Signe Søndergaard PhD Fellow +4535336139 E-mail
Nexø, Tue Andersen Associate Professor +4535321268 E-mail
Pallesen, Xenia Brown PhD Fellow +4535336552 E-mail
Ringsager, Kristine Associate Professor E-mail
Schmidt, Cecilie Ullerup Associate Professor E-mail
Sharma, Devika Associate Professor +4535329261 E-mail
Suneson, Ellen Guest Researcher E-mail
Tygstrup, Frederik Deputy Head of Department +4535328207 E-mail
Ullman, Anna PhD Fellow +4535336306 E-mail

Affiliated participants

Niklas Freisleben Lund (SDU)
Solveig Daugaard (AU)

Steering Committee

Ellen Suneson
Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt
Kristine Ringsager
Devika Sharma

Contact

Cluster leadership: Devika Sharma