Scandinavian Studies

This is the five ECTS unit version of Introduction to Norwegian that takes place both online and in class. This is an introductory Norwegian language course for international students taught in English; though both Norwegian and English language is used in class. The students follow a MOOC online course (Introduction to Norwegian) for four weeks, and then four meetings are held on campus. In addition to getting an introduction to Norwegian language, the students become familiar with the student life and everyday life at UiO. After taking this course students are able to express themselves comprehensively on familiar topics, both written and oral; understand oral Norwegian about familiar topics when the interlocutor speaks clearly and slowly; understand written Norwegian about familiar topics; master Norwegian morphology and syntax reviewed during the course; and master basic Norwegian pronunciation reviewed on the course. 

This course provides basic knowledge of social work in Sweden. The goal is to enhance theoretical and practical knowledge of social work in Sweden and highlight the different types of actors and contexts where social work operates (public, private, and voluntary sector). The course focuses on Swedish social work, but also embraces the students' prior knowledge and experiences of social work in different environments. In the first part of the course, students map their conception of social work in Sweden followed by a theoretical introduction to welfare and social work in Swedish society from a historical perspective to the present situation, including current changes. Legal aspects of the society and social work are highlighted. In the second part of the course, the focus is on practical social work. Students are introduced to different perspectives of social work through field studies and discussions with professional social workers and service users who represent different organizations and authorities.

This course examines the tumultuous period of history known as the Viking Age (793 – 1066) from Vínland in the West to the Caspian Sea in the East. It traces the stories of Viking raiders and settlers in Christian Europe, the Islamic Caliphate, and the New World by interrogating a number of English-translated sources, including the Old Icelandic sagas, the writings of Latin chroniclers and Arabic geographers, and art and material culture. The course investigates what it meant to be a Viking; whether it was a lifestyle or an ethnic identity; whether Vikings were bloodthirsty marauders, well-armed businessmen, or hipsters with a snazzy sense of style, as they appear in some modern reconstructions; and how the people who spread across the islands of the North Atlantic lived in their daily lives. Finally, the course examines the enduring attraction and impact of the three centuries of chaos and expansion that emanated from Scandinavia during the Viking Age.

Runology is concerned with some 1300 years of the history of writing. Runes constituted the script used by many Germanic peoples from the second century A.D. Their use died out in Norway around 1400. This course spans the entire history of runes and gives an overview of both the secondary literature and the inscriptions themselves. For a relevant point of comparison, the course also includes a concise introduction to contemporary Roman Alphabet epigraphy in Scandinavia.

This course offers an introduction to Norwegian dialects, Norwegian language history, and New Norwegian both as cultural heritage and as a language of use. This course is an overview of the Norwegian language situation before and now. Upon completion of the course, the students must have knowledge of the main points in dialectology. They must work practically with target samples and be able to recognize the four main groups into which Norwegian dialects are divided. The students must have a good insight into Norwegian dialects and dialect variation and an overview of the historical and political background for the current situation. They must be able to transfer their knowledge of Norwegian colloquialisms to confidential situations. The students should also be familiar with some main features of Norwegian language history and have knowledge of Nynorsk's place in Norway today. They must be able to read and understand Nynorsk texts in various genres from blogs and newspapers to professional articles and shorter literary texts. The students gain insight into the Nynorsk vocabulary and basic grammatical features of the Nynorsk language and use this competence to write their own texts in Nynorsk. Students must have completed NORINT0130 – Norwegian for international students, level 3 or equivalent as a prerequisite.

This course provides insight into three interconnected fields of inquiry: the interdisciplinary study of contemporary Scandinavia and the larger Nordic region; the analysis of a large variety of cultural products; and an understanding of how narratives and images reflect past and present transnational and transcultural relations. The interdisciplinary course relates close readings of literary texts, films, art works, and other cultural products to discussions of the larger socio-political and media-aesthetic context. Among other things, this context is marked by the global circulation of ideas and artifacts; migration and diversity; climate change and other environmental concerns; and decolonization processes. Within the Nordic region, changing relations between majorities and minorities and between centers and peripheries are at stake that link the region to transformations on a global level. A special focus is directed at cultural and geopolitical changes in the Nordic part of the Arctic; at shifting relations within the Danish Realm between Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands; at the situation of Indigenous people in the region including the Sámi of the northern Scandinavian peninsula; and at the legacies of the transatlantic enslavement trade linking Scandinavia to Africa and the Caribbean. The course looks at how artistic, medial, and public expressions represent and reflect these processes. It presents a variety of textual, visual, and audiovisual material, as well as discourses and practices that reflect current shifts in Nordic self-images; imagined communities on national, regional, and global levels; and transnational entanglements. In short, the course explores and expands the notion of Scandinavia or “Norden” and traces the region’s transnational connectedness as reflected by contemporary arts and public discourse.

The course reviews the shaping of Swedish industrial culture and society from 1800 to 2000. The topics addressed include the transformation of the agricultural production system and the development of an infrastructure for transport, communications, and power transmission. The significance of technical change for the transformation of Sweden from a poor country to an industrialized and democratic society with a well-developed welfare state, Sweden's military-industrial complex, and the concept of the Swedish model are analyzed in the course.

The course presents an outline of Swedish art and visual culture from prehistoric times on to the present era, with insights in art from other Scandinavian countries.  The objects of study comprise diverse types of work such as artwork, mass-produced images and photographs, architecture and urban planning. 

This course is designed for international students. It is a course within the science of religion, and it deals with the religion in Denmark before the introduction of Christianity. The course reads poems concerning pre-Christian deities from Iceland as well as the medieval Icelandic writer Snorri, which makes it possible to get a glimpse of the mythology of the Scandinavians before Christianity. The gods Odin, Thor, Vanir, Loki and Balder are accentuated. The course also goes beyond mythology and tries to get an idea about the religious rituals and the religious experts of the Norsemen. The course includes an excursion to Lejre, Trelleborg and Roskilde and an excursion to Scania in Sweden to visit a couple of burial places in the shape of a ship and also some well-preserved runic stones. Students get an introductory understanding of ancient Nordic religion, mythology, its sources, as well as the archeological remains of it.