Nordic Fragments: Tracing UK-Nordic Mobility

On 18-19 March 2021, UCL hosted the conference UK-Nordic Mobility: Tracing Flows and Building Networks, a two-day online event which explored how mobility has affected and continues to affect the identities of the UK and the Nordic region from the nineteenth century onwards. The conference, which counted 30 contributors from 6 academic institutions (UCL, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages) and 8 non-academic organisations (DELT, Norvik Press, The Anglo-Norse Society, The Danish Church in London, The Finnish Institute, The Linnean Society, The Representation of the Faroes in London, SELTA), explored mobility through four panels: Teaching and Learning, Living and Imagining Brexit and Migration, Publishing and Translation and UK-Nordic Representations. 

Through these interconnected strands as well as a panel discussion on Societies and Communities, focusing on the changing role of research and (multi)cultural heritage societies based in London, the conference aimed to encourage collaboration and discussion between the academy, heritage communities and non-academic audiences. 

The conference also saw the launch of the online exhibition Nordic Fragments, where historical items from UCL Art Museum (part of UCL Culture) and UCL Special Collections (UCL Library Services) are combined with modern-day digital objects in order to explore stories of Anglo-Nordic connections from the nineteenth century onward and emphasize continuities and changes. 

The objects featured in the exhibition are ‘fragments’, ranging from unpublished nineteenth-century engravings of Norwegian landscapes to papers relating to the Scandinavian visits of former UCL members of staff, from the original drawings of Danish Golden-Age painters to entire rare book collections. These objects are organised into three areas – Landscapes and Communities, Translation and Remediation, Research and Teaching – where they are arranged chronologically.  

Besides highlighting the links between the UK and the Nordic countries, the online exhibition and its objects casts light on the important role that university archives and access to them play in the production of culture and dissemination of education. 

So come and explore some of our Nordic Fragments!
https://nordicfragments.org/ 

Sponsor: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/critical-heritage-studies/