Bachelorkatalog HIS3090

• Politiske, sosiale og konstitusjonelle forhold i Skandinavia og det øvrige Europa på 1800-tallet
• Europeisk militærhistorie 1750-1945
• Nasjonal identitet og nasjonalisme
• Stormaktspolitikk på 1800- og 1900-tallet
• Militær opprørsbekjemping og doktrine

Verdensordenen som har eksistert siden 1991 (eller for den saks skyld 1945) forvitrer, mens liberale demokratier er under sterkt press og Russland fører en høyintensitets erobringskrig i Ukraina. Dermed vet vi at historien ikke sluttet samtidig som den kalde krigen. Tilbakekomsten av geopolitikk, innflytelsessfærer, realpolitikk, høyintensitetskrig mellom stater, autoritære strømninger (også i den vestlige hemisfære) og kanskje fremfor alt av en multipolar verdensorden tyder snarere på at historien har endret retning og at 1800-tallet er tilbake. Historien gjentar seg ikke, men den kan rime, og by på analogier som kan fremme enda bedre forståelse av vår egen tid og styrke samfunnsberedskapen. Studenter som ønsker å skrive bacheloroppgaver, masteroppgaver og PhD-avhandlinger om tematikk knyttet til det internasjonale systemet/politikk, krigføring, krig og samfunn, nasjonalisme (herunder imperialistisk nasjonalisme og pannasjonalisme) og utfordringer mot det moderne demokratiets fremvekst i (det lange) nittende århundret er derfor spesielt velkomne til å ta kontakt. Jeg veileder gjerne også prosjekter som på andre måter tar for seg politiske, sosiale og militære forhold i Norden og det øvrige Europa i tiden fra den franske revolusjonen til første verdenskrig.

Jeg veileder også gjerne militære studenter/stipendiater som skriver om COIN, MKF (manøverdoktrine/teori) eller militærhistoriske temaer.

Kunnskapshistorie

Ulrike Spring, epost: ulrike.spring@iakh.uio.no

Mitt forskningsfelt er kunnskapshistorie med fokus på polarhistorie, vitenskapelige ekspedisjoner, turisme, museumshistorie, historiebruk. Geografisk er jeg primært interessert i Arktis, Nord-Norge og Japan.

Ekspedisjoner: vitenskap og oppdagelse

På 1800-tallet ble mange ekspedisjoner sendt ut i verden. Kunnskapen om verden økte. De ”hvite flekkene” på verdenskartet ble stadig færre. Likevel fantes det fortsatt ukjente områder, særlig de polare områdene med nord- og sydpolen. Spørsmålet er hvorfor og hvordan ekspedisjoner til Arktis, men også til andre deler i verden, ble gjennomført, fra de første planene og finansieringen til formidlingen i etterkant. Ofte var ekspedisjonene tett knyttet til den voksende nasjonalismen i Europa, men de var også en sentral del av den økende vitenskapelige institusjonaliseringen. Ekspedisjon, nasjonsbygging og vitenskap sto altså i tett sammenheng. Materialet du kan bruke er for eksempel trykte kilder som aviser og tidsskrifter, samt arkivmateriale.

Mulige temaområder er:

• ekspedisjoners betydning for nasjonsbyggingen
• ekspedisjoner og vitenskapelig kunnskap
• den offentlige mottakelsen av ekspedisjoner
• vitenskapelige samlinger i museer
• gjennomføring av ekspedisjoner
• Reiseliv og turisme

Masseturismen som vi kjenner i dag er et fenomen fra 1800-tallet og sentralt for å forstå samfunnets utvikling frem til i dag. Industrialiseringen førte til etablering av ny infrastruktur som tog og dampskip: Det ble raskere og enklere å komme seg til ulike områder i verden. Fritid ble et viktig konsept og turoperatører begynte å tilby reiser for ulike behov. Å reise betyr også å danne seg bestemte bilder av andre kulturer og land: 1800-tallets turistreiser og reiselitteratur bidro til å lage bestemte bilder av ”de andre” som fortsatt kan spores i dag. Dette er altså et tema som åpner for ulike vinkler og problemstillinger. Materialet du kan bruke er for eksempel arkivmateriale fra historiske hoteller og turoperatører, trykte reisebeskrivelser og guidebøker, bilder og avisartikler.

Mulige temaer er:

• framstillingen av Norge eller andre land i reiselitteraturen og reisehåndbøkene
• framstillingen av ”de andre” i reiselitteraturen
• framstillingen av det norske (eller andres land) landskapet
• utviklingen av turismeinfrastruktur: transport og hoteller
• utviklingen av reiselivsindustrien: turoperatører og foreninger
• Museumshistorie og historiebruk i museer

Museer er steder hvor kunnskap samles inn og formidles. Mange museer som finnes i dag i Europa ble grunnlagt i løpet av 1800-tallet og første del av 1900-tallet. De forteller oss om hva samfunnet mener er viktig å bevare og hvordan fortiden tolkes til en gitt tid. De er altså sentrale aktører i å skape bestemte forestillinger om oss og vår fortid (og framtid).

Mulige temaer er:

• diskusjoner rundt grunnleggelsen av spesifikke museer
• diskusjoner rundt spesifikke (gjerne kontroversielle) utstillinger
• framstillingen av historie i historiske utstillinger
• framstillingen av historie i museets formidlingsmateriale tidligere og i dag
• Materialet du kan bruke for disse temaene er arkivmateriale, trykte kilder som aviser og brosjyrer, bilder og gjenstander.

I am a historian of US foreign relations, specializing in US Cold War nuclear strategy and arms control policy. I am happy to supervise students on a broad range of topics, including the history

of nuclear weapons, arms control, and disarmament, as well as most aspects of twentieth- century US foreign relations and domestic politics.

Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control My work on US-Soviet arms control falls into a broader trend in recent historical and political science research on nuclear weapons, which has sought to problematize the link between nuclear-strategic theory and states’ international behavior. In sum, researchers have discovered that canonical works of international relations relating to the allegedly revolutionary impact of nuclear weapons do not necessarily hold up when tested against the historical evidence.

As such, I am happy to supervise theses on the following topics:

• The evolution of US and Soviet nuclear strategy (developments in nuclear posture,

doctrine, employment plans).

• US and Soviet arms control policy (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Strategic Arms

Reduction Talks, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty).

• The history of nuclear nonproliferation, including US attempts to prevent states from

acquiring nuclear weapons and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) more broadly.

• The history of nuclear disarmament, including grassroots anti-nuclear movements.

This is not an exhaustive list. Please be in touch if you have an idea for an assignment relating to the history of nuclear weapons.

The Twentieth-Century United States (Foreign and Domestic)

In addition, I am also available to provide guidance on US domestic politics or foreign policy topics that fall outside the regional remits of the other members of the department who are supervising master’s dissertations this year. These could include, but are not limited to:

• US policy toward Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, Africa, non-Scandinavian European states.
• US entry to and participation in the First and Second World Wars.
• US Cold War strategy, including the end of the Cold War.
• The Progressive Era.
• The New Deal.
• Civil Rights.
• Ronald Reagan and neoliberalism.

This is a broad and non-exhaustive list, so feel free to reach out to discuss your assignment ideas.

Disease and Health in the Age of the Anthropocene, 1800-2000

The modern era was characterized by the idea that humans could rule over nature with an iron fist. Projects to transform nature were broad and ambitious: to transform deserts into gardens, reverse the flow of rivers, drain wetlands, transfer plants and domestic animals from one continent to another, and even burn fossil fuel to heat the climate. The idea that humans could rule over nature, and pollute it, without being affected by nature in turn, rested on the idea that society and environment were separate and independent and that humans were outside nature. This was the myth of the modern era. But was it possible to conquer nature, as so many in the modern era believed? In recent years, a more ecological understanding of the impact of human interventions in the environment has been developed, unsettling this modern myth. This literature sees human life and culture as entangled in the environment and dependent on it. In an exciting and dynamic area of historical research, historians have turned to examine the unintended consequences of interventions in the physical environment on human and animal health and disease.

Research topics at the intersection between environment, society, health and disease might include the relationship between the environment and specific diseases in either the pre-bacteriological, bacteriological, or ecological age, and in local, regional, national, international or global context (diseases to select from include bubonic plague, typhoid, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, malaria, hookworm, diphtheria, cholera, smallpox, lead poisoning, asthma, diabetes, or cancer); popular movements to study the impact of industrial and agricultural emissions and waste on health and disease (“people’s epidemiology”); environmentalist movements in relation to human health and disease; the study of the environment in specific medical disciplines and the marginalization of this research (in fields such as toxicology, oncology, public health, tropical medicine, or medical climatology); the health consequences of nuclear disasters and routine nuclear testing; diverse epistemological frameworks for understanding the nature-society-health relationship (indigenous, decolonial, and within biomedicine); ideas about the body and mind in relation to environment; probiotic approaches to health and disease. Studies making use of Norwegian primary sources are encouraged.

The Great Acceleration: International Organisations and the Environment since 1945

On December 4, 2018, Greta Thunberg gave a speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland, just three months after holding her first school strike in front of the national parliament in Stockholm. This speech raises several interesting historical questions. When and why did intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations become involved in questions of environmental politics? Who was held responsible for solving climate and biodiversity crises in the past? While today it is common to think of environmental problems as worldwide and a topic of international governance, this was not always the case. In fact, the environment was not considered a concern of party politics at all until the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, the history of international environmental politics, which emerged in tandem with national environmental politics, is not necessarily a progressive history. Whereas some international environmental historians argue that there was a distinctive period after World War II where idealistic visions of a shared world shaped political agendas, others trace continuities with imperial conservation rooted in the dispossession of colonial peoples’ land, removing their rights of hunting and agriculture, and even the violent removal of people from their land. Nature conservation in this guise had nothing to do with human wellbeing and everything to do with ensuring that natural resources would flow to industrial regions in the northern hemisphere.

Research projects might critically engage with the history of international environmental politics, organizations, movements, and science from 1945. They might focus on themes such as the relationship between international environmental politics and popular environmentalist movements and politics, scientific research and experts, decolonization and the rise of post-colonial nation states, the Eastern Bloc, Cold War competition, or the conservation of individual commodities and natural resources (i.e. rubber, nickel, timber, etc.); how international initiatives affected land use, indigenous livelihoods, and local politics in colonial, postcolonial, and decolonial contexts; international civil servants and experts and their engagement with environmental questions; the communication of international environmental programs to the public; and the emergence of environmental aid as a type of development aid. Research on Norwegian involvement in international environmental organizations and programs and the use of Norwegian primary sources is encouraged.

• Populærkultur og vestlige samfunn 1880-2000
• Britisk historie
• Kultur- og sosialhistorie
• Samfunnsvitenskapelig historie (Social Science History)
• Byhistorie

Language of writing and supervision: English or Norwegian

Youth: its classification, governance and experience

In the course of the 20th century, youth came to be regarded as a generational cohort of people that share a particular lifestyle, command consumer power and harbour a political potential. Social scientists played a major role in the ‘invention’ of youth particularly after the Second World War. Their knowledge was (and still is) used by both state authorities to educate, support or police adolescents and by the young themselves, who learned to conduct themselves as members of one generation.

A bachelor thesis in this field of research may focus on youth policy since the 1950s in view to the changing perception of young people, or it may concentrate on youth milieus, subcultures or lifestyle tribes with the question how scholarly or public knowledge about youth shaped their experience. In other words, how did the young develop a generational consciousness? A thesis may be based on historiographical research literature or may involve primary sources such as youth media (magazines, broadcasting, movies) and social scientific studies on youth that were published during the research period. Recent historiography on the topic allows to define a feasible case study and to develop fruitful research questions.

For an introduction to the topic see the textbook of Melanie Tebbutt, Making Youth: A History of Youth in Modern Britain, Basingstoke: Palgrave 2016, and Bart van der Steen, Knud Andresen, eds., A European Youth Revolt: European Perspectives on Youth Protests and Social Movements in the 1980s, Basingstoke: Palgrave 2016.

Local projects making use of Norwegian sources are strongly encouraged

Visions of the city: the rise and fall of social housing/the making of the ‘creative city’

Social historians have often focused on cities to study up-close the impact of larger social processes like (de-)industrialisation or the establishment of the welfare state on ‘ordinary’ people’s social relations. Social housing, which after relatively modest beginnings in the early twentieth century was in Western countries expanded considerably after 1945 before the initial enthusiasm and state investment declined in the 1970/80s, is one possible topic to study in detail the making and experience of society, the more recent gospel of the ‘creative city’ (and the accompanying privatisation of housing) another.

Focusing on town planning and housing policy, a bachelor thesis could study the visions of society such planning entailed and assess their consequences for people’s lives. There is a rich historiography on social housing in particular which should make it relatively easy to define a feasible and fruitful project. Students may start from the introduction by Shane Ewen, What is urban history?, Cambridge: Polity Press 2016, and/or the older book by Alison Ravetz, Council housing and culture: the history of a social experiment, London: Routledge 2001. The polemical article by Jamie Peck, “Struggling with the creative class”, in: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29, 4 (2005), 740-770, opens perspective on the ‘creative city’. Annual bibliographies published in the leading journal ‘Urban History’ offer a readily accessible overview of the field of research.

Local projects making use of Norwegian sources are strongly encouraged.

Lost in translation? Transfers of popular culture (to Norway)

Popular culture crossed national borders and was adapted to local contexts of production and consumption. One example is association football, which by the time of its global export in the late 19th century had become a working-class sport in Britain, its country of origin, while it was often adopted abroad first by middle-class cosmopolitans. Another case in point is movies that were dubbed and edited and subsequently acquired new meanings. A great number of studies on “cultural Americanisation”, among them Victoria de Grazia’s Irresistible Empire (2006), Karl Miller’s Segregating Sound (2010) or the contributions to the special issue of European Review of History, 20:5 (2013) on “Europop” may offer inspiration for a viable project.

Local projects making use of Norwegian sources are strongly encouraged

Creative Labour: work in twentieth-century cultural industries

Popular content from pop music to television shows is created by people who, in some form or other, get paid for their efforts. While they may seek creative autonomy, they share with “ordinary” workers a dependency on means of production, the competition on labor markets and risks such as unemployment and poor health. Cultural workers from musicians to Hollywood screen writers have formed professional bodies and trade unions to cope with risks collectively, and they are said to have developed a particular ethos of self-actualisation and entrepreneurialism that is regarded to be heralding the future of post-industrial work more generally.

Work in the cultural industries is widely debated in the social sciences by authors like Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, Richard Florida, David Hesmondhalgh and Matt Stahl. (For an introduction to the topic, I recommend James Kraft’s From Stage to Studio (1996) and Williamson/Cloonan’s Players’ Work Time (2016).) Informed by this Anglo-American research, a closer look at deposita of the Norwegian musicians’ union (Norsk Musikerforbund) held at Arbeiderbevegelsens Arkiv in Oslo may provide insights into, for instance, the local impact of the transition from “silent” to sound film on musicians’ working lives and trade union policy from the 1920s to the 1930s.

Local projects making use of Norwegian sources are strongly encouraged

«Vanlig folk» og hverdagsliv: 1900-tallets sosialhistorie

Mange forestiller seg et samfunn som en kontainer for en gruppe av mennesker med felles trekk. Men kanskje det er bedre forstått som koordinasjon mellom aktører som har ingen innsikt i hverandres tanker. En haug av faste eller implisitte regler hjelper med den koordinasjonen: organisasjoner definerer medlemsroller; arbeidskontrakter definerer oppgaver og lønn; kulturelle konvensjoner gir orientering for hvordan skal opptres i felleskap. Sosialhistorie er en vei å utforske hvordan og hvorfor disse regler forandret seg over tid og hvilke sosiale relasjoner de etablerte, for eksempel mellom kvinner og menn, gamle og unge, fattige og rike eller mennesker og dyr.

I denne omfattende definisjonen faller en utrolig mengde av mulige problemstillinger for en bacheloroppgave i historie. For å utvikle en problemstilling kan man tar utgangspunkt i ganske hverdagslige ting. Man kan, f.e., spørre hvordan relativt strenge høflighetsregler ble erstatt av et mer avslappet syn på det, hvordan og med hvilke konsekvenser reglene for flørting og dating endret seg, hvordan forholdene i familier har skiftet («helikopterforeldre», «nye» fedre, rebelsk ungdom) eller hvordan folk oppførte seg på utested (på kino, dansested, gate, torget, pub). Man kan sette søkelys på en interaksjonsmodus, f.e., konkurranse (dens aksept i arbeideridrett, mellom land om prestisje å være den lykkeligste/mest demokratiske/tillitsfulle osv. nasjonen), fysisk vold (f.e., slåsskamp) eller solidaritet. Man kan ta utgangspunkt i organisasjoner (fra Røde Kors til Greenpeace) eller en jobb (musikker, salgsperson, «tjenestepike»). Man kan også begynne med en sosial kategori (klasse, race, ungdom, etnisitet).

Jeg oppmuntrer studenter å begynne med noe konkret de er selv interessert i og søke i det neste skritt historiske forskningslitteratur om dette mulig tema. Da man leser seg opp og ser hva andre historikere har skrevet om det, finner man ut hvilke spørsmål, perspektiver og argumenter disse historikere har om det. Man deltar i en fagsamtale, og en mulig problemstilling for en bacheloroppgave formes.

Valg av et mulig tema er opp til studentene. Jeg tilbyr tipps for litteratursøk og hjelp til formuleringen av problemstillingen. Hvis mulig, gir jeg gjerne orientering til søk av primærkilder. Avhengig av hvor mange studenter har interesse å skrive en bacheloroppgave i sosialhistorie, organiserer jeg veiledning gruppevis.

The Age of World Wars and the History of Genocide

The twentieth century is rightly infamous for assembling two world wars, the so-called Cold War and various genocides, ranging from the massacres in colonial Africa and the Armenian case in 1915 to “ethnic cleansing” in Ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s, with the Holocaust as the most widely known example. The question if and why the century was particularly violent, which causes contributed to protracted conflicts, and what these say about modernity have preoccupied historians over the past seven decades while the complexity of these processes vexes researchers to the day: the Holocaust, for instance, showed very different dynamics in different places at different times, evidently involving different protagonists and often defying easy categorisations. Likewise, the question whether or not Germany and Austria “caused” World War I still invites heavy controversies.

I welcome papers on any issue falling within this broad thematic field, ranging from case studies of individual conflicts – say, the links between colonial rule and genocide, the German occupation in the two world wars, or the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the ensuing conflict(s) – to broader questions which tackle themes such as the history of state sovereignty, territoriality, concepts of modernity and rationality. Research on post-conflict strategies such as compensation, restitution, reconstruction, criminal trials of perpetrators, reconciliation, etc., is also invited. Suggestions from students are highly encouraged, and I will happy to discuss your ideas and help you develop them.

Modern Business and Labour History

If the 2008 financial crisis has had any positive effects at all, it may be the fact that it has rekindled interest in the history of capitalism. Over the past years many books have been published questioning the – possibly alleged, possibly real – hegemony of neo-liberalism and depicting the flaws within so-called free market economies. Such questions, however, require profound research into the workings of capitalist economies. This can be done on the usually macro-historical level of historically-minded economists or with a micro-historical methodology that is of particular interest to historians. Why are companies established, how do they operate, and why do they succeed or fail? Which decisions are being made by whom? How do management and the workforce interact? What does labour actually mean in different historical contexts? And how do enterprises interact with other sphere of society – politics and culture, sport and law, etc.?

Papers may deal with the histories of individual companies, with industries from shipbuilding to book publishing, with trade unions, or with matters of consumption. Analyses of lobbying practices or corruption scandals are as welcome as those of technological innovation and advertisement strategies.

Modern Legal History

Legalisation is one of the big secular trends of the modern age: the scope of what is covered by legal procedure has been continuously growing over the past 300 years. This is particular important as the law is the means by which societies both describe what they want to be and what they actually are. Constitutions define whether or not states are republics, democracies, monarchies, etc., whereas criminal codes determine what is deemed illegal (and thus illegitimate) while also showing that not everyone adheres to these definitions: murder is outlawed in all states but the fact that there are murder trials shows illustrates the gap between aspirations and facts. Still, not everything that is deemed illegitimate, illegal, or merely dangerous, is also illegal. And not everything that is illegal is necessarily criminal. In other words, the law is always the product of social negotiations and therefore a mirror of society. As such it is of acute interest to historians. Analysing parliamentary debates on law-making or international treaties which do the same beyond nation states, looking at criminal or civil proceedings in the courtroom, or tracing the genesis of arguments in the works of legal scholars help us understand how societies conceive of themselves. Students are invited to come up with ideas of their own – e.g., the debates about decriminalisation of abortion, post-World War II trials of so-called collaborators, the internationalisation of environmental law, etc. –and to develop them further with my help.

Fascisme er et begrep og et historisk og politisk fenomen som stadig vekker interesse blant akademikere, men også blant det store publikum. Uenigheten rundt definisjoner og tolkninger er stor, avhengig av hvilken metode og tilnærmingsmåte man velger. Det er denne uenigheten som fører også til et visst misbruk av begrepet. Noen refererer til fascismen som et overnasjonalt fenomen, med det mål å finne et minste felles multiplum og for å komme til en modell eller en kategori. Andre ser fenomenet som avhengig av tid og sted (Europa i mellomkrigstiden). Noen andre velger den komparative metoden som tar i betraktning flere historiske erfaringer (i Europa og andre steder i verden, før eller etter andre verdenskrig). Enkelte ser først og fremst på prototypen, det vil si det italienske regimet under Mussolini fra 1922 til 1945 (Fascismen).

En videre utfordring ligger i den teoretiske forskjellen mellom på den ene siden fascisme og høyreekstremisme, og på den andre høyrepopulisme og høyreradikalisme. Europas historie i det 20. århundret, både før og etter 1945, har gitt oss flere eksempler på enten regimer eller bevegelser/partier som har stilt seg kritiske eller i opposisjon til det liberale parlamentariske demokratiet forankret i egalitærisme og pluralisme.

En kritisk analyse av den historiske fascismen i mellomkrigstiden er utgangspunktet for fordypningsoppgavene som foreslås i det følgende. Ut fra enkelte begivenheter og forhold, er det ønskelig at kandidaten nærmer seg forståelsen av ulike tolkninger og teorier rundt diktaturene i Europa i perioden 1919-1945 som gir grunnlag for debatten rundt fascismen som et bredere fenomen enn det italienske. Samtidig åpnes det til fordypningsoppgaver som vil undersøke fascisme også i tiden etter 1945.

Nedenfor følger noen forslag til emner innenfor dette temaet. Det er mulig å modifisere disse i samråd med veileder:

• Fascisme: ulike tolkninger. Kandidaten vil bli bedt om å utforske og redegjøre for en eller flere av tolkninger og forskningsteorier som med legitimitet bidrar til forståelsen av fascismen. Man skal referere til arbeidene som fra og med 1920-tallet er blitt publisert om tolkninger av fascismen som ideologi eller regime. Kandidaten er spesielt oppfordret til å se på utviklingen innen forskningen om dette feltet i de siste tretti år.

• Fascisme, høyreekstremisme, høyreradikalisme og høyrepopulisme: begrepsforklaring og analyse.

• Krise av demokratiet. Overgangen fra det liberaldemokratiske systemet til diktaturet i flere europeiske land etter første verdenskrig og etter Wall Street-krakket.

• Neofascisme og/eller høyreradikale partier i Europa etter 1945. Forhold mellom politisk praksis i parlamentet og radikal (antidemokratisk og antiegalitær) tenkning. Utenomparlamentariske grupperinger og lederfigurer.

• Fascistisk ideologi i Europa i konstant utvikling. Ulike strømninger i ulike kontekster. Tematisk kontinuitet og/eller diskontinuitet mellom historisk fascisme i mellomkrigstiden og neofascisme i etterkrigstiden.

• Terrorisme på 1970-tallet i regi av høyreekstreme/nyfascistiske grupperinger.

Kandidaten skal utdype seg i ett spesifikt tema begrenset til én nasjonal kontekst. Hvis kandidaten behersker språket som er aktuelt for landet under undersøkelse, vil det bli et pluss å kunne lese kildene på originalt språk.

Wolff arbeider for tiden med følgende prosjekter og er åpen til oppgaveforslag relatert til disse temaene:

UiO: Demokrati:

Objections to Democracy (Ode) https://www.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/democracy/research/groups/objections-to-democracy/index.html

Experiencing American Democracy (ExAm) https://www.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/democracy/research/groups/experiencing-american-democracy/index.html

Antikkens virkningshistorie UiB https://www.uib.no/ahkr/160276/antikkens-virkningshistorie

I am particularly interested in supervising projects on urban history and labour history in the late 19th and 20th centuries. These areas can intersect with broader questions about class formation, state-society relations, political movements and cultural changes and continuities.

I am also keen to supervise topics exploring the changing meanings and perceptions of work and workplaces, as well as questions relating to gender, social reproduction, and household dynamics across urban and rural contexts. Other possible areas include political and social movements, trade union politics, forms of resistance, cooperatives and collectives, protests and strikes, as well as authoritarian regimes and states of emergency.

While my expertise is primarily in Indian history, I welcome projects on other regions as I am especially interested in the interactions between local, national, and global forces. Within global history, I am open to work on topics relating to the transnational flow of ideas, practices, and people.

I am also open to supervising other related topics. Supervision will be conducted in English.

Migration & Mobility

Technology and Urban History

Port-cities

Transnational flows of goods

Supervision will be in English or Norwegian

Danish and Norwegian High school graduates (1812-1875): a micro study

Denmark and Norway had the tradition of publishing short biographies of the entire nations’ high school graduate cohorts containing individual-level information about the graduates’ families, where they were from, details about their higher education, their entire careers, including places worked,

travels, achievements, publications, and more. The use of these historical sources enables previously impossible historical comparative analyses of access to formal higher education and practice.

Although Norway entered into a personal union with Sweden after being in a union with Denmark for several hundred years the social and cultural bonds between Norway and Denmark remained. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, new social and industrial structures developed in the two countries. Industries advanced and more technologically specialised industrial branches began to appear. The state bureaucracy and education systems expanded, and cities grew. At the same time, the first wave of people emigrating to America took place, especially from Norway but also from

Denmark. Using a pilot database with several hundred Danish and Norwegian transcribed high school biographies with details on the graduates’ social and family background, higher education, travels and work careers, memberships etc. the entire lives of high school graduates can be analysed. Who were the high school graduates at the time? Considering the changing social and economic conditions in the mid-19th century, how did high school graduates do in terms of education and career? What role did they play in the emerging industries and state administration? Drawing on micro history and prosopographical approaches, common patterns and differences, among an educational elite in terms of practices, cultures and performances can be analysed.

Linking education to industrial and technological change in Norway during the Second Industrial

Revolution (1880-1920)

Germany’s investment in technical and scientific education is often seen as the primary cause as to why this country took a leading industrial role in what was to become important, science-based and large-scale industries from the late 19th century. Also in Scandinavia, the high school, technical and university education systems expanded over the 19th century. The numbers of schools and students increased, yet we know little about the links between education, scientific knowledge and industry.

Questions about the value that different employers placed on the recruits’ educational attainment or work experience, and whether knowledge was transferred, have not been answered in a satisfactory way. By using a combination of business records and high school and technical school graduate biographies with detailed information about where they studied, travelled, worked and which work positions they held at any given time (at company level), virtually all “skilled” workers can be “followed” into the labour market. Those who were employed in a particular industry, or a particular company at a given time can be selected. Questions concerning whether, and why, firms and industries preferred to hire individuals with certain types of formal education, academic performance (grades) or work experience from certain industries or businesses, and what impact their employment had on business development, can be asked.

Mechanical workshops expanded greatly in Norway and Denmark from the first half of the 19th

century. Their economic activities were based on the creative design, manufacture and adaptation of machinery, techniques and services that were purchased and used directly in the operations of other industries. They went through a shift towards the end of the 19th century by becoming more specialised and supplying increasingly complex machinery, such as power stations, electric systems, converters, turbines, engines and ships. How the employers in the mechanical engineering firms valued different types of education and work experience is key to understanding their perception of how to ensure creativity and adaptability, and in turn, how skills were used in production. Archives of mechanical engineering firms from e.g., Aker Mechanical Workshop (located at the Technical Museum in Oslo) can thus be used in combination with the graduate biographies. This archive is very large and includes extensive documentation on staff and employment.

Skilled migration and knowledge transfer

It is often argued that the Scandinavian countries have had a particularly “outward looking” attitude, and the 19th and early 20th centuries are associated with large-scale Scandinavian emigration, in particular to America. Much has been written on Scandinavian emigration, but we know less about the “skilled” migrants, and what they did. From the perspective of the sending countries (Norway,

Denmark and Sweden), the loss of skilled labour led to concerns about “brain drain”. Yet, skilled migrants who maintained contact with their home country, or who returned to Scandinavia, might potentially have led to “brain gain” instead. What was the background and career trajectory of skilled migrants who left Scandinavia to go abroad? Were there differences in the background, education and work careers between those who went to the United States and those who went to Latin America, for example? For those who returned, was having been abroad an advantage? What did they do when they came back?

High school and technical school biographies from Denmark, Norway and Sweden with information about place of birth, family, education, and details about travels abroad; where they went, where they worked abroad and whether they came back to Scandinavia at a later point in their career, can be used to trace migrants on their professional career paths. Graduate cohorts (years) and Scandinavian country can be selected to be framed for bachelor theses.

Women’s access to higher education in Norway and Denmark (1875-1940)

Denmark and Norway had the tradition of publishing short biographies of their entire nations’ high school graduate cohorts containing individual-level information about their names (with pictures), birthplace, family, details about secondary and tertiary education, the graduates’ entire careers, including places worked, travels, achievements, publications, and memberships in societies and organisations. These sources can especially be interesting when investigating the educational opportunities of women. Considering that women in Denmark were allowed to enter university from 1875 and women in Norway from 1882, the impacts of these reforms on young women’s attendance at secondary and tertiary education, and how they compared to men, in the two countries can be explored. From then on, women could acquire tertiary education, and perhaps aspire to jobs in sectors and industries they did not have access to before. Did women immediately enter the education system and take higher education after the reforms were in place? For the women who took higher education; did they enter the labour market after their studies? This is a unique opportunity to analyse women’s access to education, and the benefits which arose from having an education in a region which is today famous for its gender equality.