Nordic Spaces

Nordic Spaces secures contract for book series with Ashgate

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:18:06 +0000

The first three volumes will be published during 2012: Science, Geopolitics and Culture in the Polar Region: Norden Beyond Borders, which is edited by Sverker Sörlin and deals with the relation between the Nordic region and the arctic; Communicating the North: Media Structures and Images in the Making of the Nordic Region, edited by Jonas Harvard and Peter Stadius, which analyses Nordic media structures and media images of Norden, and Performing Nordic Heritage: Museums, Festivals and Everyday Life, edited by Peter Aronsson and Lizette Gradén, which explores how museums and everyday practices have formed relations to purportedly Nordic history and traditions. The following two volumes will be published in 2013, namely Models of Democracy in Nordic and Baltic Europe: Political Institutions and Discourse, edited by Nicholas Aylott, and Nordic Dance Spaces: Location and Dislocation, edited by Karen Vedel and Petri Hoppu.

New book by the Dance in Nordic Spaces project

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:03:31 +0000

Book description:

What is the role of dance in the formation of the geopolitical region known as the Nordic Countries or Norden? In this book a group of dance scholars from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden shed light on the topic by juxtaposing material relating to theatrical, folkloric and social dancing in the 20th and 21st centuries. Contextualized in the wider cultural and political making of the region, the chapters relate dance to questions of emerging nations, canon building, local variations of global trends and democratic practices in the arts.

The book is intended for an international readership with an interest in dance in all its manifestations.

The book is edited by Karen Vedel. It contains the following contributions:

Karen Vedel: Dance and the Formation of Norden
Petri Hoppu: National Dances and Popular Education – The Formation of Folk Dance
Canons in Norden
Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka: Tracing Dance Fields
Karen Vedel: Strategically Nordic. Articulating the Internal Logic of the Field
Mats Nilsson: Participatory Dancing – the Polska Case
Inger Damsholt: Nordic Night Fever
Lena Hammergren: Dance and Democracy in Norden
All authors: Reflexive Notes. A Conclusion

Debate on the future of the Nordic Region

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:55:48 +0000

On September 25, Jonas Harvard, manager of the Nordic Spaces research programme, participated in a televised debate at the Swedish Book and Library fair in Gothenburg. The theme was the future of Nordic cooperation and the Baltic region.

Participants in the debate were Jonas Harvard, Sofi Oksanen, Finnish author and winner of the Nordic prize for literature in 2010, Birgitta Ohlsson, Swedish minister for the EU, and Gunnar Wetterberg, proponent of a Nordic federation. The debate was led by journalist Bengt Lindroth, for many years Nordic correspondent at Sveriges Radio.

Description of the session:

Att stärka Norden – att uppdatera nordismen

Vad förenar de nordiska länderna idag, och vad skiljer dem åt? Finns det en meningsfull nordisk identitet på 2000-talet? Och om det gör det, varför vänder sig kulturkonsumenter i Norden ständigt till den anglosaxiska kultursfären? Medverkande: Gunnar Wetterberg, historiker och debattör knuten till SACO, som utformat ett uppmärksammat förslag om en nordisk förbundsstat, Birgitta Ohlsson, EU-minister (FP), Jonas Harvard, historiker vid Mittuniversitetet och Södertörns högskola, Sofi Oksanen, författare, 2010 års mottagare av det i år 50-årsjubilerande Nordiska rådets litteraturpris.

Moderator: Bengt Lindroth, journalist, tidigare Nordenkorrespondent.

Book launch at Almedalen political week

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:26:41 +0000

Participants:

Per Unckel, County Governor of Stockholm County, Baltiska året 2011.
Nicholas Aylott, Political Scientist, University of Södertörn.
Pärtel Piirimäe, Associate History Professor, University of Tartu. (Since Piirimäe could not attend, the content of his presentation was summarized by Jonas Harvard)
Ojars Eriks Kalnins, Chairman Foreign Affairs Committee, Latvian Parliament.
Moderator, Anders Björnsson Editor Baltic Worlds, University of Södertörn.

Description of the seminar.

The Baltic Countries – 20 years after their regained independence

Arrangör:Baltiska året 2011/Riksbankens Jubileumsfond/Sida Östersjöenheten Dag:4/7 2011 11:30 – 13:00

20 years ago Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence. What have they achieved since then? To what extent has Sweden and the other Nordic countries served as role model for them? What are the challenges ahead for the next 20 years?

Which identity is constructed in these countries and what factors affect the nation building process? We tend to lump them together as the “Baltics”, how true is that? Should they rather be seen as part of the Nordic block or a new Nordic-Baltic block? These questions will be discussed in the seminar based on the 2011 year-book from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond called “A Nordic room” where researchers and politicians are discussing challenges for the future Baltic Sea Region. The book will be released at the seminar.

Nordic Spaces scholars participate in SASS conference in Chicago

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:08:48 +0000

The first session was a presentation of the framework of the Nordic Spaces programme, and papers from two of the sub projects.

Session title: Nordic Spaces
Chair: Jonas Harvard, Södertörn University
“Nordic Spaces: Defining the Area of Research,” Jonas Harvard,
Södertörn University
“Performing Nordic Spaces in Scandinavian Museums in the United
States,” Lizette Gradén, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design
(Konstfack)
“Acceptance and Conformity: Merging Modernity with Nationalism in
the Stockholm and Chicago Exhibitions 1930 and 1933,” Peter Stadius,
University of Helsinki

The second session dealt with the Nordic region and perspectives of globalization:

Session title: European Experiences of Global Visions

Chair/Moderator: Andrew Newby
“Scandinavia and the British Isles: Perspectives on Teaching and
Networking,” Andrew Newby, University of Aberdeen, University of
Helsinki
“The Welfare State: A Way of De%ning Nordicness,” Johan Strang,
University of Helsinki
“Nordic Societies and Cultures: A Common Discourse beyond the
Welfare State and the Sagas,” Peter Stadius, University of Helsinki

New book: “Ett nordiskt rum”

Jonas Harvard — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:26:06 +0000

The book has been edited by Jenny Björkman, Björn Fjæstad and Jonas Harvard and contains contributions from Andres Andresen, Tartu; Peter Aronsson, Linköping and Växjö; Nicholas Aylott, Stockholm; Stuart Burch, Nottingham; Inger Damsholt, Copenhagen; Björn Fjæstad, Stockholm; Lizette Gradén, Stockholm; Norbert Götz, Stockholm; Jonas Harvard, Stockholm; Karl Magnus Johansson, Stockholm; Lisbeth Lewander, Göteborg; Pärtel Piirimäe, Tartu; Valters Scerbinskis, Riga; Kadri Simm, Tartu; Sverker Sörlin, Stockholm; Sanna Turoma, Helsinki; Gunnar Wetterberg, Stockholm; Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch, Åbo.

Read more at (in Swedish) http://www.rj.se/svenska/1023/var/newsID/466

Presentations in Tromsö, 11-14 August

Jonas Harvard — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:14:10 +0000

Half day session HA 6. National History – Nordic Culture. Negotiating identity in the museum

Ansvarlig:

Peter Aronsson, Linköpings Universitet, Sverige

Abstract:

This panel investigates how images of Norden as a supranational identity have provided, and continue to provide, arenas for negotiating political, military, social, economical, ethical and cultural understandings of community in specific public and nationalised contexts.
Museum institutions provide our focal point since they are especially effective vehicles for charting change and continuity, revealing internal co-operation and contestation within Norden and providing a link with other such institutions in northern Europe. Through interconnected investigations we will scrutinise the political and cultural map of Norden in heritage institutions. Locating heritage, museums and commemorations as our methodological lens we will discuss the role of concepts of Norden in the spatial transformation, international adaptation, and internal negotiation of the historical culture of Norden from 1800-2000.
As there are only room for short 15 minutes presentations at the session, participants are welcome to download preliminary version of the full papers from the 1 August at: http://bit.ly/kqfd14

Program:
•   Chair: Peter Aronsson
•   Magdalena Hillström: Norden at Nordiska museet
•   Peter Stadius: Happy Countries. Emerging Welfare Scandinavia and the Foreign Eye
•   Ingemar Lindaräng: Trans-national and national commemorations in Norden
•   Olav Christensen: Negotiating Norden over and at the borders.
•   Egle Rindzeviciute: North Beyond Norden. Images of the North in the Construction of National Community at the Lithuanian National Museum
•   Lizette Gradén: Performing Nordic Spaces in Scandinavian Museums in the United States.
•   Stuart Burch: Banal Nordism. Recomposing an old song of peace.

Peter Stadius talks on Finnish TV about

Jonas Harvard — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:37:54 +0000

Nordic Spaces researcher Peter Stadius from the Centre for Nordic Studies, Helsinki University was invited to speak on the topic. Listen to the show at this link.

Lithuanian Embassy in London

Jonas Harvard — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:29:03 +0000

An international conference devoted to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its legacy was held at UCL, in October 2009 to mark Lithuania’s millennium. The event was attended by scholars from Lithuania, the UK, the USA, Germany, and Poland. Seven of the papers delivered at this conference have been revised and expanded, and are published in the latest issue of Central Europe.

The journal is edited from the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and publishes original research articles on the history, languages, literature, political culture, arts and society of the lands once part of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The articles in the special issue are concerned with themes of religious and national identity, and cover the entire period from the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387 to the ongoing rebuilding of the Grand Ducal Palace in the Lower Castle in Vilnius.

Dr Richard Butterwick is Senior Lecturer at UCL-SSEES. He graduated in History from Queens’ College, Cambridge, and was awarded his DPhil by Oxford University. A revised version was published by Oxford University Press in 1998 as Poland’s Last King and English culture: Stanisław August Poniatowski 1732-1798. His field of research is the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the eighteenth century. He is the outgoing editor of Central Europe, and the author of one of the articles in the special issue: How Catholic was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Later Eighteenth Century?

Dr Eglė Rindzevičiūtė is a Researcher at Gothenburg University. She graduated in Art History from Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, gained her MSc in Cultural Management from the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and MA in Nationalism Studies from the Central European University in Budapest. She was awarded her PhD in Culture Studies by Linköping University, Sweden. The special issue of Central Europe contains her paper Imagining the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Politics and Economics of the Rebuilding of Trakai Castle and the ‘Palace of Sovereigns’ in Vilnius.

If you wish to come to this event please register by e-mail to blssecretary@hotmail.com and pay at the door (cheque or exact amount in cash, please, £8 per person, students free). There will be an opportunity to buy copies of the issue at a reduced price.

10 January, 2011. 6.30 for 7pm, Lithuanian Embassy in London, 84 Gloucester Place, W1U 6AU. £8 per person, students free.

Theme Issue on Nordic Heritage

Jonas Harvard — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:30:27 +0000

http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/current-volume.html

For over a decade studies of the uses of the past have been a prominent trait of cultural research when it comes to fields such as nationalism, monuments and museums. The representation of Nordic cultures has in its turn a historical reputation that stretches from the Vikings and the Thirty Years’ War to the idea of a modern Nordic welfare state. It has never been exactly clear what to incorporate in the Nordic cultural sphere or how to handle unity and difference to reconstruct and renegotiate national identity. This ambivalence has been productive and transported images and values across borders and spheres.

This thematic section explores these images by highlighting Nordic experiences of uses of the past in a European and international context. Ten articles on subjects such as the performance of Scandinavian heritage in the US, the cultural heritage of the Cold war and museum building and regional and national identity give a rich and diverse perspective on the local and global use of Nordic History.