Aarhus University

The course offers students “Danish Perspectives” to a wide range of fields within arts and the humanities. Students gain an overview of Danish history, but also Danish culture and cultural history. Throughout the course students discuss how one can describe the Danes as a people – while at the same time being critical as to whether it is possible to determine a people in such a stereotypical way at all. The student is given a general introduction to various perspectives of Danish culture ranging from literature, music, film and TV to the narrative culture of the Vikings, the Danish history of slavery and the perceived particularities of Danish identity and Nordic “exceptionalism”.

This course explores major themes, patterns, developments, and conflicts in American history, politics, and society, from the pre-colonial era to the present day. Drawing on a range of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, both historical and contemporary, it outlines phases, continuities, and changes in the nation’s history, identifies key ideologies and institutions, introduces theories and analytical methods that shed light on the nation’s development, and highlights how understandings of the present-day United States call for an informed, critical knowledge of its past. The course includes topics such as liberty and equality, individualism and community, nationalism and regionalism, self-reliance and welfare, business and labor, slavery and race, immigration and identity, ethnicity and gender, domestic reform and overseas expansion, and hot and cold wars. It also addresses the growth of the United States from its origins as a British colonial outpost to its contemporary status as global superpower. In addition, the course enables students to produce written work on topics within its subject areas.

The first part of the course focuses on history and culture, starting with a brief historical view of Danish society since 1800. It then analyzes culture from two perspectives: the history of ideas in Danish society and Danish cultural value systems. This entails a brief introduction to key Danish thinkers and cultural movements and their political impact, and an introduction to Danish cultural values and the development and changes of such values over the last 30 to 40 years. The second part of the course takes an institutional approach to the Danish political system, including its labor market structures and education system, by descriptions of specific societal sectors, drawing on theory about institutional orders and business regimes. Continuing with the institutional approach, the third part of the course focuses more specifically on the business sector leading to a discussion of key industries and types of firms in the Danish economy.

This course explores the complex and influential connections between food, culture, self, place, and taste. Across the world, food is increasingly on the agenda, in relation to many themes: health, economy, politics, climate, famine, and obesity. There is an increased need for humanistic approaches to the understanding of how tradition, history, and cross-cultural practices influence people's eating and food choices. The course provides students with humanities-based insights into a wide array of aspects of food culture, including lifestyle; food politics; identity and the body; food and media; urban gardening; food taboos; food security; commensality; the globalization of taste; and the history of the chef.