Scandinavian Studies

This is a higher level course (CEFR B2 - C1) for international students. Students will learn about the genre features of non-fiction texts such as reader’s comments, opinion pieces, and job applications. Through writing summaries, students learn how to extract information from complex texts. Other relevant topics include the writing process, response/feedback groups, and the ideals of plain language. Students are expected to participate in response/feedback groups and actively give feedback to their peers. The learning objectives for written production in the curriculum Norwegian for immigrants - level C1 form the basis of the teaching, and the course is therefore useful for students who wish to take the Norwegian language test at level C1. This is a proficiency course with a final portfolio assessment.

The course provides an orientation on the history of Swedish music in contemporary culture. Social and historical contexts are of central importance in this course. Emphasis is placed on popular music traditions (music production and technology) from the twentieth century, such as jazz and rock. The course considers both Sweden's historical and recent musical contributions to a wealth of national and international genres and cultural trends.

The Nordic countries have often been regarded as model societies, famous for their high levels of economic prosperity, social equality, and political stability. Students discuss the historical roots of this distinctive Nordic experience and how it has changed since the end of the Cold War, as the Nordic countries have needed to adopt to new regional, Europewide, and global developments. The historical introduction is followed by a thematic examination of contemporary Nordic societies in a comparative perspective, looking at the varied legacies of the Nordic model. Topics include Nordic foreign and security policy, domestic politics and the rise of the populist right, immigration and integration, crime and justice, gender equality, environmentalism and Nordic co-operation. It should be noted that a focus on the Nordic countries also provides a new perspective on some of the most important developments affecting the whole of Europe over the last 30 years. 

During the Viking Age, Northmen streamed out of Scandinavia, travelling far and wide across and around Europe, and to Constantinople and the Caspian Sea in the east. A vast amount of diverse source material, written and archaeological, bears witness to the Scandinavian expansion and conveys a multitude of roles in which they engaged, e.g. terrifying raiders, peaceful traders, or mercenaries.

The objective of this course is to examine the geographical expansion of vikings, and their interrelations with different cultures, and how this comes across in the source material. At the end of the course students are expected to have a thorough overview of the main events of the period, and a good idea on the relevant geographies and cultures, as well as a grasp on comparing different viking communities in different regions.

This course provides an introduction to Ibsen’s dramatic production, emphasizing its historical context. It analyzes the plays as part of and influenced by social, political, and cultural forces, and as part of changing aesthetic and artistic norms. The course examines selected works against the background of changing literary, theatrical, and cultural paradigms in Ibsen’s own time and pays special attention to Ibsen’s renewal of the dramatic tradition. It investigates his plays not only as dramatic texts but also through historical performances from Ibsen’s time.

This course gives an introduction to the Nordic social and welfare state models focusing on work, family, immigration, labor relations, economic policies, pensions, schooling, and gender equality. Theoretically, the course is informed by comparative welfare state research and political economy. It focuses on contemporary debates on the sustainability of Nordic welfare state models in the context of challenges such as the ongoing pandemic, ageing, flows of immigrants and asylum seekers, financial internationalization, climate crisis, and relations to the EU single market. The course covers the historical roots of the Nordic states and the development of their political and welfare systems in the twentieth century. Also discussed are the social conflict lines, alliances, and compromises that created the post-war context of highly organized civil societies (centralized labor unions and employers associations, strong organizations of farmers and fishermen), and how they are linked to the state in patterns of democratic corporatism. Other topics covered are: the reconciliation of work and family life in the setting of the Nordic welfare state; the policy reforms that have been agreed on in order to respond to present challenges; and the sustainability of the ambitions of gender equality and universalist welfare provisions. Reflecting on both the history and the contemporary challenges of the region, the course critically assesses various idealized accounts of Nordic peculiarities and discusses the similarities and differences between the Nordic countries with that of other European countries.

This course is to help students evaluate, both politically and aesthetically, the way Nordic films convey their social and cultural values and commitments. Given the belief in film's historical and social significance, it is the particular purpose of this course to look at Nordic films from 1945 to the present and analyze how they perceived and conjured up the social and cultural landscape. In addition, we will also look at some of the major political events and social and cultural trends that dominated a decade and left a mark on its films. In order to achieve these goals, we will examine three different areas more closely: a) state control and support of film production; b) film cultural characteristics, both those which seem to point in the direction of a unity in Nordic contexts and those that define each country respectively; c) Nordic cinema in transition in times of transnationalism and globalization.

This course provides a theoretical overview of the key historical developments and on-going contemporary debates in Norwegian architecture and design. The interplay between architecture, city planning and design, and the specific Norwegian cultural, economic, and political environment in which they are practiced as applied design disciplines, is a central focus for exploration and discussion in the course. Norway’s role within overlapping Scandinavian, European, and increasingly global, contexts is also explored through the study of key international developments and the impact of these upon Norwegian architectural, city planning, and design discourse. The City of Oslo especially (considered in terms of its key historic and contemporary buildings, cultural institutions, public space and contrasting urban environments) is actively used as a "living classroom" for exploration of these issues and the wider questions that the issues subsequently raise. 

This course takes as a starting point the expansive understanding of feminism as a value system rather than a style or movement to elucidate and make meaning of contemporary Nordic art within a global context. The course underscores feminism’s historical, theoretical, and activist facets, focusing on a transnational, situated, and intersectional approach to understand feminist practices in and around contemporary Nordic art. Understood in the broadest sense to include other normative-critical approaches such as postcolonialism, in this course feminism is deployed as an emancipatory modality to deconstruct and contextualize the most important issues concerning contemporary art today, including migration, sexuality, race, ecology, and the move towards the digital—and how the Nordic cases interact with, correspond to, and challenge wider global patterns. The course nevertheless provides a solid historical overview of feminism within the realm of art from 1970 onwards and develops an understanding of foundational and more recent feminist theory, as well as the ability to recognize and apply an activist approach to contemporary art. Nordic examples make up the core of the course to provide a nuanced knowledge of the immediate art environment (including visits to local museums, art institutions, and practitioners). With its intersectional and reflexive approach, the course conveys the intergenerational, gender-fluid, heterogeneous, and transnational nature of feminist practices today by contextualizing them within a global framework. to convey the intergenerational, gender-fluid, heterogeneous, and transnational nature of feminist practices today by contextualizing them within a global framework.

This seminar covers Norwegian history, political system, welfare state, economy, environmental issues, gender issues and family, minority and immigration, media, education, literature, visual arts, music, religion, and identity. It provides an overview and understanding of Norwegian culture and society in a historical and contemporary perspective.