Research Seminars

The Public Sphere and Freedom of Expression: Britain and the Nordic Countries, 1815-1900

7-8 June 2018

Venue: UCL, Pearson Building (North East Entrance) G22 LT

A conference organised by the UiO:Nordic project Offentlighet og ytringsfrihet i Norden, 1815-1900 (The Public Sphere and Freedom of Expression in the Nordic Countries, 1815-1900) based at the University of Oslo and the Department of Scandinavian Studies at UCL. 

A full programme is available here. 

For further information about this event, please contact Dr Elettra Carbone (elettra.carbone@ucl.ac.uk) and Dr Ruth Hemstad (r.s.hemstad@iakh.uio.no).

The Making of ‘Norden’ in the UK and France

A UCL- French Embassy Funded Workshop for Researchers and Research Students in Scandinavian Studies at UCL and Paris-Sorbonne

Thursday 3. May and Friday 4. May

UCL, South Wing G12 Council Room

The workshop brings together senior researchers and PhD students from UCL and Paris-Sorbonne working in the multi-disciplinary area of Scandinavian Studies. With combined perspectives from disciplines such as modern and medieval literatures, welfare studies, film studies, art history, mobility, reception, publishing and translation studies, the researchers will explore how conceptions and imaginations of the Nordic or ‘Norden’ have materialized in France and the UK from the medieval age to the present, in various contexts and media. Can we, or should we, understand the ‘outside’ (i.e. Anglophone/Francophone) perception, appropriation and imagination of the Nordic region by using terms such as ‘Nordientalism’ or ‘Borealism’, or are there better ways to approach the multi-directional conceptual, aesthetic and affective appreciation of ‘Norden’? In short, the workshop will address the question: how has ‘Norden’, as an imaginary, aesthetic, material and political space, been made, remade and recycled in the UK and France? This is a new collaboration between the Scandinavian Studies departments of two major European universities. It is our expectation that the workshop will lead to future cross-channel collaborative efforts including joint publications, research-student exchanges and conferences.

Public Lecture

Prof. Sylvain Briens (Paris Sorbonne), "Borealism: In Search for the North".

IAS Common Ground (South Wing, Wilkins Building, UCL), Thursday May 3rd from 5pm to 7pm

Since antiquity the North has fascinated historians, geographers, philosophers and Southern writers, who have projected various forms of discourse onto it, from scientific observations or social and political considerations to dreams, fears and fantasies. This projection can be referred to as “borealism”, by analogy with the term “Orientalism”, as defined by Edward Saïd. Borealism describes the North as a discursive space, produced by and for the South. Unlike orientalism, which is exclusively produced by Occidental discourse, borealism is also sometimes reproduced in Nordic expressions of self-identity. Professor Briens will present aspects of “French borealism” with the example of the reception of Nordic Theater in Paris at the end of the 18th Century.

Respondents: Dr Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (UCL Scandinavian Studies), Dr Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies) and Dr Pierre-Brice Stahl (Paris Sorbonne)

The lecture is part of the UCL-French Embassy funded workshop “The Making of Norden in the UK and France”.