2021
If a Tree Falls in the Archive?
Finding Cold War Women as Diplomats Hidden in Plain Sight. Open Zoom Keynote Victoria Phillips (London School of Economics)
Time and place: Jan. 22, 2021 11:00 AM–12:30 PM, Zoom
The workshop "Scandinavian Internationalists: Transnational Biographical Entry Points" invites to the Open Zoom keynote Victoria Phillips (London School of Economics).
The event is part of the NOS-HS workshop series Scandinavian Internationalist Diplomacy, 1920s-1970s.
Organizers
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (University of Oslo)
- School of Culture and Society (Aarhus University)
- Centre for Modern European Studies (University of Copenhagen)
- Saxo Institute (University of Copenhagen)
Gro Harlem Brundtland’s take on internationalism
Everything is connected to everything. The event is part of the NOS-HS workshop series "Scandinavian Internationalist Diplomacy, 1920s-1970s".
Time and place: Jan. 20, 2021 1:00 PM–2:30 PM, Zoom
The workshop Scandinavian Internationalists: Transnational Biographical Entry Points invites to Open Zoom keynote Olav Njølstad, Nobelinstuttet, Oslo.
Organizers
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (University of Oslo)
- School of Culture and Society (Aarhus University)
- Centre for Modern European Studies (University of Copenhagen)
- Saxo Institute (University of Copenhagen)
2020
Entangled Histories of Palestine and the New Left in Norway
Time and place: Mar. 10, 2020 4:15 PM–5:45 PM, NT 408
Sune Haugbølle is Professor in Global Studies at Roskilde University. He has published widely on the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East and is currently leading the research project Entangled Histories of Palestine and the Global New Left 1967-1982.
This talk draws on recent fieldwork into the Norwegian Palestine solidarity movement in the 1970s. Whereas most existing research examines the movement in relation to the Norwegian left and solidarity work, this talk and the project that it is part of asks to what extent Palestinian and other partisans of the New Left globally became entangled through their cooperation, what they learned from each other, and how transformative the mutual ideological exchange was for all parties.
By analyzing the meeting through a close reading of Palestinian as well as Norwegian (and Danish, Swedish, Cuban and other) archives of the Left, the project wants to go beyond national historiographies of the New Left.
Understanding entanglement better allows us to reassess what kind of globality emerged in the New Left, and what kind of impact it has left on political culture broadly. The work also poses challenges of how to write global micro-histories of cultural and political transfers.
Medusa's Eternal Recurrence. History, Myth and the “World Horizon”
Time and place: Mar. 2, 2020 2:15–4:00 PM, NT 12. floor
Carolyn Biltoft from Graduate Institute Geneva (via Skypelink).
Every historical narrative is by its nature an act of re-telling, an interpretive reiteration of that which had already been uttered or recorded. Moving away from the mere idea of history as myth in the sense so often associated with the concept of "invented traditions," this paper attempts to think more broadly about the parallels between the meaning-making role of mythology and the narrative work of especially world or global history. First, the paper unfolds as a critical survey of the appearance of the figure of Medusa in a range of nineteenth and twentieth century texts and images-from the works of Sigmund Freud, to the Sicilian flag, to the Versace logo.
In exploring the historical conditions surrounding the "Medusa's" recurrence in diverse and indeed global contexts, the paper suggests that we might find a fertile parallel for rethinking how historians first excavate and then re-narrate the past. What do we learn from the many ways that the figure of Medusa has returned as a sign of eroticism, excite, fear or disdain? This is a particularly useful exercise precisely if we are to fully interrogate how and to what extent contemporary political narrative arcs, tropes, and metaphors influence historians' relationship to the " sources" and the stories that they set out to retell.
Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting that the recurrence and reinterpretation of specifically mythological metaphors provides a non-linear and much longer-term modality for reconsidering world historians desire to make sense of the "whole" of human history.
2019
The Place of Battle in the Context of Civil War and Rebellion under the Anglo-Norman Kings, c. 1100–c.1154
Professor Matthew Strickland from the University of Glasgow will hold a guest lecture on the following topic: Bella plus quam civilian? The Place of Battle in the Context of Civil War and Rebellion under the Anglo-Norman Kings, c. 1100-c. 1154
Time and place: Mar. 20, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, P. A. Munchs hus, 3. floor seminarroom 360
The Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History welcomes you to yet another guest lecture in the lecture series connected with the research project Civil Wars in a Comparative Perspective.
All are welcome!
Abstract
The extent to which commanders either pursued a conscious strategy of battle avoidance, in line with the teachings of the late Roman military writer Vegetius, or conversely followed a battle-seeking strategy, has been a central and ongoing debate in the recent historiography of medieval warfare. Yet beyond purely military considerations, cultural factors, and in particular the nature of the enemy, might exert as much influence on the decision as to whether or not to commit forces to a major engagement. Nowhere was this more true than in the context of civil war.
This paper uses the civil wars between Henry I, king of England, and his brother Robert, duke of Normandy (both sons of William the Conqueror), and the civil war been King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, as two key case studies to explore the circumstances in which battle was either avoided or decided upon. Moral qualms about shedding the blood of relatives and friends on the opposing side exercised a powerful influence for restraint, yet conversely leaders might attempt to break a protracted political deadlock between contending factions by achieving a major victory on the battlefield.
I will argue that another complicating factor in a commander’s ability or willingness to commit to battle was often the fear of treachery or uncertainty regarding the support of nobles in such a moment of crisis. Yet pitched battle was seen as a judicial ordeal, the judicium Dei, in which God would give victory to the contender with the most just cause. To refuse battle, especially during war fought for contenting claims to legitimate rule, thus ran the risk of undermining a leader’s authority by highlighting his lack of confidence in the justness of his claim. Still worse, a commander might suffer defeat or even capture – as happened to Robert, duke of Normandy, at Tinchebrai in 1106, and to King Stephen at Lincoln in 1141.
How did such events affect the status of these defeated leaders, and how was their capture perceived by contemporaries? Finally, I will suggest that in situations of civil war, even a victory in battle could be problematic. Thus, for example, Henry I’s defeat of his brother Robert at Tinchebrai was strategically decisive and gained him the control of Normandy, but the lengths to which he went to justify the battle and the capture of his own brother sharply reveal the trauma that the event caused within Anglo-Norman elite.
2018
Guest lectures in conservation and restoration
All are welcome to the following two invited guest lectures: «Colour and Colour Change in Van Gogh’s Paintings» and «Insights into the organic materials of objects, their changes and preservation»
Time and place: Oct. 17, 2018 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, The National Museum's Main Auditorium, Kristian Augusts gate 23, 8th floor
Ella Hendriks: «Colour and Colour Change in Van Gogh’s Paintings»
Hendriks is full Professor of Conservation and Restoration of Moveable Cultural Heritage at the Faculty of Humanities (Department of Arts & Culture), University of Amsterdam, where she teaches at all levels of the five-year conservation training programme and supervises PhD’s. After training as a conservator of easel paintings at the Hamilton Kerr institute, University of Cambridge, UK, she moved to Holland where from 1987 to1999 she was Head of Conservation at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, and from 1999-2016 Senior Paintings Conservator at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 2006 Hendriks gained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam relating to technical and conservation studies of Van Gogh’s paintings in the Van Gogh Museum collection and continues to perform research in this area. She holds a broad interest in aspects relating to the theory and history of conservation and enjoys working together with specialists from other fields to develop new conservation tools and methodologies.
Adriana Rizzo: «Insights into the organic materials of objects, their changes and preservation»
Rizzo is a Research Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She graduated in industrial chemistry from the University of Venice, Italy, and received a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Following internships in the scientific departments of the National Gallery in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, she joined the Metropolitan Museum in 2004. Here, she carries out analytical work for the study and conservation of a variety of objects from different periods and cultures, mainly using molecular spectroscopy and mass-spectrometry techniques. She is interested in the study of organic materials and their degradation, and conservation-related issues.
Abstract
«Insights into the organic materials of objects, their changes and preservation»
The identification of the materials of artworks, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, as well as fashion items, is a very important complement to connoisseurship and preservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From materials one can determine the technique of manufacture, assess the date and provenance of the artworks, and even confirm attributions. Sometimes the current appearance of objects can differ from what was originally intended due to chemical and physical changes that occurred in their materials. These changes can be a consequence of inherent instability of the materials themselves, environmental factors and human interventions, including handling and the artwork’s conservation history.
This presentation will illustrate some challenging cases where the investigation of organic media in museum objects has improved their appreciation, as well as informed their preservation for posterity.
Fortifying rulership in late Iron Age-early medieval Scotland, c.300-1000 AD
Guest lecture with Dr. Gordon Noble, University of Aberdeen.
Welcome, the lecture is open for all.
Time and place: Oct. 16, 2018 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarrom 2
Abstract
Since 2012 the University of Aberdeen has been conducting major research excavations on a series of fortified settlement enclosures in Pictland, Scotland. First mentioned in late Roman writings as a collection of troublesome social groupings north of the Roman frontier, the Picts went on to dominate northern and eastern Scotland until late first millennium AD. The excavations by the Department of Archaeology at Aberdeen have uncovered hitherto unknown high status settlements in northern Pictland in association with a series of dramatic symbol stone monuments. This talk will outline the results of the project and discuss ways in which we can track the development of rulership in the first millennium AD through the material record.
Guest lecture in Conservation Science
Prof. Dr. Robert J. Flatt, Chair of Physical Chemistry of Building Materials at ETH Zürich, will give a lecture on the topic: “Salt damage: What is it? What to do about it? And how to test for it?”.
Time and place: June 8, 2018 2:15 PM, Professorboligen, Karl Johans gate 47
About the speaker
Robert J. Flatt has been Professor for Physical Chemistry of Building Materials at the Institute for Building Materials of ETH Zürich since 2010. He previously worked as Principal Scientist Head of Inorganic Materials in Corporate Research at Sika Technology AG. Before joining Sika, he worked as postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Dr. George W. Scherer at Princeton University on the fundamental aspects of salt crystallization in porous media and on particle-modified consolidants. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Materials Science Department (1999) and a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (1994) from EPFL.
Flatt is the recipient of several prestigious international honors and awards: the Sandmeyer Award from the Swiss Chemical Society (2016), the Stephan Brunauer Award (2010) and the Ross Cuffin Purdy Award (2007) from the American Ceramic Society, to name only a few. He is also the RILEM Robert L’Hermite Medalist for 2003 for his “…contributions to the basic understanding of the mechanisms of dispersants in concrete…”.
Robert J. Flatt is author of more than 200 papers on international scientific journals and conference proceedings and has a h-index of 37 (source: Google Scholar).
His research interests includes the areas of: materials science of conservation and repair of built cultural heritage, colloidal and interfacial science applied to construction materials, and processing of construction materials.
Cultural heritage in armed conflict: Syria - present and future
Time and place: Mar. 5, 2018 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11 Seminarroom 2
Guest lecture: Dima Chahin is an architect, with a master’s degree in restoration of historical buildings and preservation of archaeological and natural urban regions, from University of Damascus and the Ecole de Chaillot, Paris. Chahin worked for more than ten years as advisor in the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums, Syria.
In this lecture, she will address present and future challenges facing cultural heritage preservation in Syria.
Open for all - free admission.
Ark4210 spring 2018.
The Insta-dead: Studying the online trade in human remains
Time and place: Feb. 26, 2018 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11 Seminarroom 2
Guest lecture: Dr. Damien Huffer is a postdoctoral fellow at Stockholm University's Department of Archaeology & Classical Studies. He is a bioarchaeologist and osteologist by training with interest in Southeast Asian and Near Eastern prehistory, reconstructing diet, mobility and social organization in the past through isotopic analysis of human remains. His current research focuses on the ethics, legality and general operation of the online human remains trade and bioarchaeological approaches to understanding Colonial era collecting.
Free admission - open for all.
Ark4210 spring 2018.
2017
War, Liberalism, and the Invention of US National Security
A public lecture with Andrew Preston from the University of Cambridge. This event is open for all.
Time and place: Dec. 4, 2017 1:30 PM–3:00 PM, Niels Treschows hus, Lecture room on the 12th floor
About the Lecturer
Andrew Preston is professor of American history at Clare College, Cambridge University.
He is the author of The War Council: McGeorge Bundy, the NSC, and Vietnam (Harvard University Press, 2006) and Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012), among other works.
Organizer
Group for Contemporary History (Faggruppe for samtidshistorie)
Guest lecture: The Last Holocaust Trials – 70 Years of Reckoning with Nazi Atrocity
IAKH's Contemporary History Group is pleased to welcome distinguished scholar of international law Lawrence Douglas to give a guest lecture at the University of Oslo.
Time and place: Sep. 21, 2017 12:15 PM–1:30 PM, Niels Treschows hus, 12th floor
Professor Douglas, who is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought at Amherst College, is a prolific writer and one of the leading scholars on the history of international criminal law, war crimes trials, and collective memory.
All interested are invited; no registration is required. We are looking forward to welcoming you.
Researching Trade in Looted Antiquities
Guest lecture: Trade in looted cultural objects is destructive and illegal, yet international public policies have failed to supress such trade. In this lecture, the cultural, criminal and economic aspects of the illicit trade in cultural objects are addressed.
Time and place: Apr. 26, 2017 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Seminarroom 1, Blindernveien 11
Dr. Neil Brodie is a Senior Research Fellow on the Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project at the University of Oxford. He has been researching the illicit trade in cultural objects since 1997 and has published widely on this and related issues.
Free admission/open for all.
Ark 4210 Spring 2017
Community Archaeology: cases, models, methodology
Guest lecture: Community Archaeology is a term increasingly used to describe a wide range of engagements between different publics and the archaeological heritage. In this lecture we will explore some different examples of what might be seen to be community archaeology, consider the theoretical frameworks informing how community archaeology is situated, and look at approaches both to community engagement in archaeology, and to community archaeology research.
Time and place: Apr. 19, 2017 2:00 PM–4:00 PM, Seminarroom 1, Blindernveien 11
Dr Suzie Thomas is University Lecturer in Museology at the University of Helsinki, Finland.She is co-editor of the Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage.
Free admission/open for all.
Ark 4210 Spring 2017
Heritage as a field of study
Guest lecture: Heritage studies are characterized by a multitude of methodological approaches, reflecting a research community with a mix of social scientists, humanists, legal scholars, etc.
Time and place: Apr. 12, 2017 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Seminarroom 1, Blindernveien 11
In this guest lecture, Dr Herdis Hølleland addresses how heritage studies are conducted. Hølleland is researcher at the Norwegian institute for cultural heritage research (NIKU).
Free admission/open for all.
2016
Old Wine in New Bottles? The "New" History of Capitalism
On August 29 author and associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, Stephen Mihm, is visiting the University of Oslo and will give a lecture as part of the course HIS2354 - The History of Consumer Society and its Discontents.
Free admission and open for all.
Time and place: Aug. 29, 2016 12:15 PM–2:00 PM, Vilhelm Bjerknes' hus: Auditorium 1
Since the financial crisis of 2008, a growing number of historians have come to identify themselves as so-called "historians of capitalism". But how new is this approach, and how does it change the way we study the economic and business history of the modern era? Historian Stephen Mihm of the University of Georgia, one of the figures identified with this movement, will explain the origins of this movement and the ways it is both a genuinely novel approach to the study of the past as well as a revival of long neglected methods of historical inquiry.
Stephen Mihm is an Associate Professor in History at the University of Georgia. Mihm is the co-author with Nouriel Roubini of the New York Times Bestseller Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance (2010), and the author of A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States (2007). Mihm is also a frequent contributor in the American media about economic history. He is a weekly columnist for Bloomberg View, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and to the Boston Globe.
GIS analysis and landscape phenomenology: new approaches to understand the identity of Ionia
Open guest lecture by Dr. Alan Greaves.
Time and place: May 4, 2016 10:15 AM–12:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, room 2
Dr. Alan Greaves is senior lecturer at Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and visiting fellow at Koç University, Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul.
His research focuses on the Bronze Age-Iron Age Anatolia (Turkey) and particularly its role as a bridge between the cultures of East and West, both ancient and modern. He also work on Archaic Greek archaeology, especially colonisation, economy and religion. He is currently the Chair of Mediterranean Archaeology Research Group. His numerous publications include the books John Garstang's Footsteps Across Anatolia / Anadolu'da John Garstang'in Ayak Izleri. Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (2015), The Land of Ionia: Society and Economy in the Archaic Period (2010) , Transanatolia: Bridging the Gap between East and West in the Archaeology of Anatolia (2007) and Miletos: A History (2002).
War and the protection of cultural heritage
Three lectures with internationally recognised scholars to discuss and debate advocacy for the protection of cultural heritage. Open for all.
Time and place: Apr. 21, 2016 2:00 PM–5:00 PM, The Aula, University of Oslo
The staff of Conservation Studies, University of Oslo, has invited internationally recognised scholars to discuss and debate advocacy for the protection of cultural heritage. Three lectures will be followed by a public conversation mediated by Dr Paul Fox (Member of the UK National Committees of the Blue Shield).
Professor Peter Stone OBE
UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, Newcastle University, & Secretary General of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield
Lecture theme: Whose cultural heritage is the 1954 Hague Convention meant to protect? Can cultural property be protected during conflict?
Professor Barbara Welzel
Professor of History of Art, Technische Universität Dortmund
Lecture theme: How is the care of cultural heritage tied to human rights?
Professor Christopher Prescott
Professor of Archaeology, and Head of Research for the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo
Lecture theme: Looting and illicit trade in cultural artefacts: challenges and implications for academia.
The event, which will be introduced by Dr Noëlle Streeton (Associate Professor, Conservation Studies, IAKH), is supported with funding from the Department for Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo.
Trade in looted antiquities - academia and white collar crime
Guest lecture by Neil Brodie
The lecture is organised by IAKH as part of the course ARK4210-Heritage, Material Culture and Conflict.
Free admission and open for all.
Time and place: Mar. 9, 2016 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
Neil Brodie is an archaeologist by training, and has held positions at the British School at Athens, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, where he was Research Director of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, Stanford University’s Archaeology Center, and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow: http://traffickingculture.org/person/neil-brodie/
The experimental and experiential making of Norse combs
Guest Lecture by Ian Dennis
The lecture is organised by IAKH as part of the course Archaeological Illustration.
Time and place: Mar. 14, 2016 12:15 PM–1:45 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
Ian Dennis is visiting lecturer from Cardiff University. His current research interests focus on the use of experimental archaeology to explore craft manufacturing techniques from Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Norse Britain. He is Archaeological illustrator at Cardiff University and has been involved in the excavations at numerous sites in Wales and England.
Indigenous resilience under the rule of militarised Christian theocracies in the medieval eastern Baltic
Guest lecture by Dr Aleks Pluskowski. Open for all.
Time and place: Feb. 3, 2016 4:00 PM, Seminar room 2, Blindernveien 2
Dr Aleks Pluskowski specialises in the archaeology of later medieval Europe and crusading. His interests include exploring ecological diversity across medieval Europe, focused on zooarchaeology and inter-disciplinary perspectives of human-animal relations. In recent years, Aleks has been principal investigator of the ERC-funded project ‘The Ecology of Crusading’, which examines the environmental impact of crusading and colonisation in the eastern Baltic.
2015
The Psychological Turn in the Study of Medieval Vengeance
Guest lecture by Stephen D. White, a leading medieval historian. Open for all.
Time and place: Feb. 25, 2015 2:15 PM, P. A. Munchs hus auditorium 13
Recently, medieval historians have taken a Psychological Turn in studying vengeance by treating it as an emotional impulse that is hard-wired into the human brain.
Since this view of vengeance closely resembles the one developed by Steven A. Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), this paper uses a critical review of the Psychological Turn in medieval vengeance studies to question the value of integrating theories of evolutionary psychologists such as Pinker into historical studies of violence.
Stephen D. White is a Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Medieval History in Emory College.
Rulers and Rulership in Northern Britain, 800-1200
Guest lecture by Alex Woolf from University of St Andrews. Open for all.
Time and place: Jan. 21, 2015 10:15 AM, P.A. Munchs hus, Room 9
Alex Woolf holds a BA in Medieval History and Medieval English and a M.Phil. in Archaeology.
Prior to taking up his current post at the University of St Andrews, in 2001, he had held lecturing posts in Archaeology at the University of Wales Lampeter (1995-1997) and in Celtic and Early Scottish History and Culture at the University of Edinburgh (1997-2001).
In 2010 he was awarded a Ph.D. by portfolio from the University of St Andrews for his work on Politics and Identity in Early Medieval Scotland.
2014
Corded Ware and Bell Beakers - What are they good for?
Corded Ware and the subsequent Bell Beaker Culture are central in the discussion on cultural impulses in Norway in the Middle Neolithic B and the Late Neolithic. This is particularly related to changes in technology, economy, and settlement patterns. Open for all.
Time and place: Nov. 28, 2014 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blinderveien 11, room 2
A guest lecture by Martin Furholt, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Martin Furholt is an expert on Neolithic Europe. His research includes the monuments of Funnel Beaker Culture, Corded Ware, Copper Age (Badener Culture), and the Early and Middle Neolithic of the Aegian.
He has lead the research programme ‘Early monumentality and social differentiation’ at Kiel University, where he holds the position of Docent. One of his areas of expertise is the Corded Ware. This material phenomenon characterises the Middle Neolithic Period phase B in large parts of the Baltic Sea and its surrounding regions.
Cultural heritage as scene of cultural conflicts
Heidi Wirilander has done a case study of public interventions in cultural heritage context. Open seminar.
Time and place: Oct. 31, 2014 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, auditorium 2
Heidi Wirilander is a PhD fellow at University of Jyväskylä and guest researcher at IAKH.
Landscapes of Governance in Anglo-Saxon England: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Guest lecture by Andrew Reynolds from University College London. Open for all
Time and place: Oct. 29, 2014 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blinderveien 11, room 2
Soils as an archaeological source: geochemical analysis using pXRF on Iron Age sites
Guest lecture by Rebecca Cannell from Bournemouth University. Open for all.
Time and place: Oct. 24, 2014 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminaroom
American indians: Ethnic cleansing or genocide?
Guest lecture with Gary Anderson from University of Oklahoma. The lecture is open to the general public.
Time and place: May 8, 2014 12:15 PM–2:00 PM, Room 2, Georgs Sverdrups House
Irish light on Norway's Viking-age history?
Open guest lecture by Dr. Colman Etchingham.
Time and place: Feb. 25, 2014 12:15 PM–1:15 PM, Cafe Snorre, 4 etasje i Niels Treschows hus, UiO
Dr. Colman Etchingham (Department of History, National University of
Ireland Maynooth). Etchingham will visit IAKH as an Erasmus teacher this spring.
After a half-hour lecture there will be opportunities to ask questions and comment.
Coffee and tea will be served.
2013
A Movement of Movements or a Conjuncture of Forces? Interpreting the 1960s, Half a Century On
Open guest lecture by professor Douglas Rossinow
Time and place: Nov. 26, 2013 12:15 PM–1:15 PM, Niels Treschows hus, room 408
Rossinow is professor in history at Metropolitan State University, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Fringes of Monasticism. History and research in Iceland
Open guest lecture by professor Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, The University of Iceland.
Time and place: Oct. 25, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, Seminar Room 2
About the lecture
The presence of over ten monastic institutions in Iceland during the Roman Catholic period (AD 1000-1550) points towards a considerable influence of monasticism in the medieval Icelandic society. Although being so common in a rather thinly populated country, with approximately 30 000 inhabitants during the medieval times, monasticism has only been sporadically investigated in Iceland, mainly due to a general lack of resources on them. The prevailing view have for long been that Icelandic monasteries functioned somewhat differently than their counterparts elsewhere in the Catholic world. The belief was that the island’s geographical isolation in the North Atlantic prevented the monasteries fulfilment of shared basic objectives.
Still, in 2002–2012, an archaeological investigation was though undertaken of the ruins of an Augustinian monastery that operated at Skriða in East Iceland from 1493 until 1554. This monastery is the only one in Iceland – and the northernmost in Europe – to have been excavated in its entirety. The results from the excavation show in fact how social systems can cross geographical and cultural borders without necessitating fundamental change, other than those triggered by the constant process of development and hybridization. It demonstrates thus how the symbiotic objectives of celibacy, charity and local requirements appeared in its buildings and artefacts. In the lecture, a general overview of the history and research on monasticism in Iceland will be given along with a short description on its world-wide objectives and aims. At the same time, the excavation at the monastic site at Skriðuklaustur will be used as an example on a hybrid form – the fringes – of monasticism at the frontiers of medieval Europe.
Navigating between conceptual and empiricist history: about the use of social sciences in medievalist research
Open guest lecture by professor Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
Time and place: Oct. 18, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, Seminar Room 2
About the lecture
When I was trained as a medievalist in the Netherlands the early 1980s, the long-standing positivist tradition in medieval studies was just giving way to new ideas borrowed from the French histoire des mentalities, directing our attention from wie es wirklich gewesen to a cultural approach, focusing on history ‘from below’. Next, turn after turn – linguistic, cultural, et cetera – would transform medieval studies into the wide-ranging field it is today. First studying medieval archaeology and then working with archaeologists – with much too high expectations about what this collaboration might bring – I became interested in cultural and social anthropology. Following the lead of
American historians such as Barbara H. Rosenwein, Stephen D. White and William I. Miller I discovered the possibilities of using concepts derived from anthropology such as gift exchange and conflict settlement as a way to interpret the sources I was reading – charters and chronicles dating from the Central Middle Ages. In my lecture I want to explain what this use of theories and concepts from anthropology may have yielded in terms of heuristics and hermeneutics and how historians have developed since. Finally – as a suggestion for the discussion – I will defend my view that for medieval historians navigating between a conceptual and an empiricist approach may be the most fruitful in the end.
Propaganda and Advertising in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative History of Knowledge and Techniques
This is an open workshop. Please send an email to Erlend Haavardsholm e.k.haavardsholm@iakh.uio.no latest 7. October if you like participate.
Time and place: Oct. 14, 2013 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, Meeting room 1224, Niels Treschows Hus, 12th floor.
Programme
- 9:00 Welcome and coffee
- 9:30 Introduction
- Irene Di Jorio (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Véronique Pouillard-Maliks (University of Oslo)
- 10:00 Keynote speech
- Hartmut Berghoff (German Historical Center, Washington, D.C.), 'Unlimited Powers of Persuasion? Marketing and Advertising in the 20th Century'
- 11:00 Advertising agencies and technicians in transatlantic perspective – Chair Tor Egil Førland (University of Oslo)
- Bianca Gaudenzi (University of Cambridge), ‘An American in fascist Europe:The activities of J. Walter Thompson in interwar Germany and Italy’
- Ferdinando Fasce (University of Genoa), 'War is the Health of Advertising. U. S. Admen in the World Wars'
- 12:30 Lunch break
- 14:00 Advertising techniques, communication agencies, and politics in tension – Chair Elisabetta Cassina Wolff (University of Oslo)
- Irene Di Jorio (Université Libre de Bruxelles), '«Un métier qui ne s’improvise pas». Propaganda and Advertising in the Vichy Regime'
- Hallvard Notaker (University of Oslo), 'Knowledge Excluded: Organizational and cultural barriers to the mediatization of a Norwegian Political Party in the 1980s'
- 16:00 Discussion, conclusions, and afternoon coffee
- 19:00 Conference speakers dinner
Organisers
- Irene Di Jorio (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
- Véronique Pouillard-Maliks (University of Oslo),
- Linda Risso (University of Reading)
Contact
Erlend Haavardsholm (University of Oslo, IAKH): e.k.haavardsholm@iakh.uio.no
St Philip and the tombs of the saints in the new Christian landscapes of Anatolian cities
Open guest lecture by professor Francesco D’Andria, University of Lecce, Italy.
Time and place: Oct. 8, 2013 9:15 AM–10:45 AM, Domus Nova, Aud. 7, 7. floor, St. Olavs plass 5
From the age of Constantine, when the free practice of Christian cult was allowed, a process, which should cause a radical transformation of the cities of the Empire, was initiated. The construction of churches, which become the new centres of social aggregation, makes a profound mark on the ancient cityscape. In this context the Anatolian cities bring forward some very significant examples. Some necropolis areas which, in the course of the imperial period, had covered specific functions connected to the social visualization of family groups, takes on new functions connected to the veneration of the tombs of the saints. Large sanctuaries grow up around them, and within the urban grid plans new communication lines are opened. In Anatolia the examples of Hierapolis (the tomb and sanctuary of St. Philip), of Ephesus (the Seven Sleepers and St. John) and of Meriamlik (the tomb of St. Tecla), demonstrate these dynamics in an exemplary way.
Centres of learning in the North-Atlantic Community
This is an open seminar. If you like to come to the seminar, please send an email to Jón Viðar Sigurðsson
Time and place: Sep. 13, 2013 9:15 AM–3:00 PM, Georg Sverdrups hus, undervisningsrom 1
Program
- 9.15-10.00 Colman Etchingham: Learning in the Ostman (Hiberno-Norse) towns of Ireland, 11th and 12th centuries
- 10.15-11.00 Maire Ni Mhaonaigh: Ethnicity and Identity in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
- 11.15-12.00 Alex Woolf: The Early History of Aberdeen: reshaping northern Scotland in the reign of David I
- Lunch
- 13.15-14.00 Elizabeth Ashman Rowe: The Hebridean Connection of the Annales Regii
- 14.15-15.00 Jón Viðar Sigurðsson: “Atburðr á Finnmǫrk”: Monasteries, bishoprics and co-operation in the Old Norse society
- Coffee
Law and Cultural Heritage Management: A Legal Historiography of United States Archaeology
Open guest lecture by Hilary Soderland
Time and place: Sep. 10, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 9, U40
Soderland is professor at the University of California - Berkeley.
The Nuclear Revolution and the End of the Cold War
Open seminar by Professor Cambell Craig
Time and place: Sep. 5, 2013 12:15 PM–2:00 PM, Niels Treschows building, room 534
Craig is Professor in International Politics at Aberystwyth University.
The American Way of International Relations
Open guest lecture by Professor Cambell Craig
Time and place: Sep. 3, 2013 12:15 PM–1:15 PM, Niels Treschows building, room 534
Craig is Professor in International Politics at Aberystwyth University.
15th-16th Century Netherlandish, German and East Anglian workshop practices: patterns of local production, regional schools and foreign trade in religious art
This seminar is open for everone who is interested.
Time and place: Aug. 28, 2013 9:15 AM–12:00 PM, Frederiksgate 3, room 110
Program
- 09.15-09.25 Noëlle Streeton presentasjon av prosjektet Maleri og polykrom skulptur i Norge etter svartedauden 1350-1550
- 09.25-10.10 Kristin Kausland, Late-medieval liturgical shrines from churches in the North: their physical build-up and a parallel to Västerås.
- 10.25-11.10 Abbie Vandivere: From the Ground Up: Surface and Sub-Surface effects in Early Netherlandish Paintings
- 11.25-12.10 Lucy Wrapson: Grouping East Anglian Screens
The multiple expressions of soft power
A Workshop on Contemporary International History and Politics.
Time and place: May 28, 2013 10:15 AM–3:00 PM, The Norwegian Nobel Institute
Open session on 28. May
On Tuesday, May 28, there will be presentations by four distinguished experts addressing different aspects of the soft power phenomenon and scholarly debate:
- 10.15 – 11.00 am: Professor Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute: “How to measure power, especially soft power”
- 11.15 – 12.00 am: Professor Christine Ingebritsen, Director of the Center for West European Studies, University of Washington: “The paradox of Scandinavian power: From crime fiction to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
- 1.15 – 2.00 pm: Professor Victoria de Grazia, Director of the European Institute, Columbia University: “A short critical history of the ‘Soft power’ concept, 1990-2010”
- 2.15 pm – 3.00 pm:Sir Robert Cooper, Counsellor in the European External Action Service: “Soft power, the postmodern state and world order.”
The talks will be followed by a panel discussion, chaired by Dr. Asle Toje, Research Director at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The venue will be open for a wider audience.
Closed session on 29. May
On Wednesday, May 29, a workshop will be arranged for a small group of PhD candidates from Scandinavian universities and research institutions. The candidates are expected to present a chapter or extract of their PhD dissertations and will in return receive feedback from their fellow-candidates and at least one of the lecturers. All papers will be distributed in advance.
Deadlines
- Submission of abstracts for papers: 26 April
- Submission of papers: 13 May
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted electronically to Adviser Erlend K. Haavardsholm (e.k.haavardsholm@iakh.uio.no ) by 26 April 2013. Abstract submissions should include a title, author(s), contact information and abstract.
Acceptance will be communicated to the authors by 1 May 2013. The approved participants should thereafter submit their paper to e.k.haavardsholm@iakh.uio.no no later than 13 May 2013.
The PhD candidates will obtain credit points according to the rules applying at their respective institutes. Participation in the workshop, including a 10 minute presentation of own paper and comment on 2 fellow-candidates’ papers is however required to receive credits.
Anglo-American Perceptions on, Relations with, Judgments on the Italian Social Republic (RSI) during the Italian Civil War: A WWII Marriage of Convenience
Open guest lecture by Oreste Foppiani, Associate Professor of International History & Politics at Webster University Geneva, Department of History, Politics, and International Relations.
Time and place: May 14, 2013 12:15 PM–1:30 PM, Niels Treschows hus, 12. floor
About the lecture
During World War II, as far as the conduct of the Italian Campaign was concerned, the Allies diverged on certain things. On 4 June 1944, once liberated Rome, these divergences became frictions, if not open clashes. In fact, the US and British general officers had a hard row to hoe. Precisely, they had a different approach towards the future of the Peninsula and that of the neo-fascists fighting in Northern Italy in the puppet state led by Mussolini. The latter was not comparable to an average quisling and from the early autumn of 1944 he enjoyed an unexpected freedom of manoeuvre, which could have helped him to find an exit strategy with or without the help of the Germans or the Nazis.
About Oreste Foppiani
Oreste Foppiani is Associate Professor of International History & Politics at Webster University Geneva, Department of History, Politics, and International Relations (www.webster.ch). Dr. Foppiani earned a Ph.D. in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (HEI) in 2008. His dissertation, which has been published in 2011 (www.peterlang.com), is on Anglo-American relations with, perceptions of, and judgments on, the Italian Social Republic during the Italian Civil War (1943-1945).
During his PhD he received the Albert Gallatin Fellowship in International Affairs to spend a year at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, and was awarded a scholarship from the Department of Political Sciences of the Catholic University, Milan, to spend a semester at the National Archives-Public Record Office in Richmond, Surrey, UK.
He has conducted research on historical topics, such as the Spanish-American War, Anglo-American relations during World War II, Republican Fascism, the US and Italian Navies, British and US intelligence during World War II, the history of European integration, EU security policies, EU-US relations and US power politics.
He is currently working on a project on EU policies and laws vis-à-vis illegal immigration in the Mediterranean region. Besides his historical research, Dr. Foppiani comments and writes in the popular press on the issues of the day concerning EU-US relations, US foreign policy, NATO, and security. He is a regular contributor to Italian and Swiss newspapers and a permanent correspondent accredited to the United Nations Organization. He has published articles in Relations Internationales, European History Quarterly, Révue Militaire Suisse, The Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Rivista Marittima, and Il Politico. Last but not least, he is a senior reserve officer of the Italian Navy (www.marina.difesa.it).
Klasies River and adaptations during MIS 5
Open guest lecture by Sarah Wurz, Institute for Human Evolution, University of Witwatersrand and Department of Archaeology History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway.
Time and place: Apr. 23, 2013 10:15 AM–12:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
About the lecture
Klasies River, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, contains extensive deposits dating to between 80 and 115 000 years ago. The more than 12 metres of MIS 5 shell midden layers contain evidence of changing environmental conditions and cultural conventions. There is scope for further development of the extensive database developed by Singer & Wymer, Deacon and others. Current research at Klasies River include more extensive illustration of the sections; further description of the complexity of MIS 5 lithic assemblages and how it compares to other contemporaneous assemblages; more extensive dating; microwear and residue analysis of selected artefacts; microstratigraphical and geoarchaeological analysis; and investigating lithic raw material and floral resources. Klasies River is one of a number of sites nominated for World Heritage Status and how this may impact on conservation and scientific research will also be discussed.
Nordic Historical Methodology in the 1960s: Trans-Nordic Neo-Empiricism and the Semiotic Challenge
Open guest lecture by Peter Edelberg, PhD, postdoc at the Saxo Institute, Copenhagen University.
Time and place: Apr. 9, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Niels Treschows House, room 408
About the lecture
In the 1960s in all the major Scandinavian countries historians felt that new theories and methods were needed for the study of history, and at the same time that the important tradition of empiricism had to be kept but reformulated. My talk takes as its point of the departure the five new handbooks on historical method that were written in Scandinavia in the 1960s. I analyze them, compare them, and sort out how they relate themselves to each other. Very different images of neo-empiricism emerges from this analysis, and in the chapter I discuss how they distance themselves from each other and at the same time claim a common Nordic historical historiographical standpoint.
The second part of my talk places the Scandinavian neo-empiricism in a larger European setting. Historians in Britain, France, and Germany were increasingly distancing themselves from empricism at the same time as Scandinavian historians were reformulating it. E. H. Carr, Michel Foucault, and R. C. Collingwood, as well as the Annales scholars and the conceptual historian were all walking in other directions than their Scandinavian collegues.
The semiotic challenge that questioned the validity and status of empirical knowledge was thus met in very different ways among European historians. Scandinavian historians self-consciously carved out a trajectory from classical empiricism through the philosophical challenges of the postwar era and pointed towards a more democratic and rational future. Just as nineteenth century history writing had co-created and celebrated the nation state, postwar history co-created and celebrated the welfare state
The implications of interdisciplinarity: conservation research and the writing of material histories
Open guest lecture.
Time and place: Apr. 5, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
The lecture is by associate professor in conservation Noëlle Streeton at IAKH.
The prehistoric saltmines of Hallstatt– Mining Salt in An Alpine Region
Open guest lecture by Mag. Kerstin Kowarik og Mag. Hans Reschreiter, Natural History Museum Vienna Prehistoric Department
Time and place: Mar. 15, 2013 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
About the lecture
The archaeological sites located in the „Salzberg Valley“ 400 m above the ancient mining town of Hallstatt represent a unique setting in the cultural and economic history of Europe.The prehistoric salt mines must be counted among the most important archaeological sites of Europe. The preserving conditions for organic material in the salt mines are virtually unique in Europe. All organic remains in the mines (e.g. wooden tools, leather objects, textiles, grass and bast ropes, human coprolites etc.) have been preserved. This mine waste represents an extraordinary ´data base´ allowing important insights into prehistoric economic and social structures, technological innovation and working routine.
Mining structures of the size and kind of the Hallstatt salt mines do not only represent important centres of production but also centres of consumption and generate high demands of workforce and means of production and subsistence. Large scale mining, metal processing, ceramic, textile or salt production as well as large building projects require an extensive set of “secondary” activities before and during production. As these generate high demands on workforce, means of production, means of subsistence and transportation to produce a much needed good, they strongly impact local as well as superregional socioeconomic networks.
2012
An Eye for Odin? Divine Role-Playing in the Age of Sutton Hoo
Open guest lecture by Neil Price, Professor in archaeology, University of Aberdeen.
Time and place: Nov. 30, 2012 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
Cosmopolitan Heritage: Archaeology beyond Nationality
The principal aim of this open seminar is to positively challenge participants to think “cosmopolitan” about their own work and to engage in discussion of past, present and future archaeological research and heritage management.
Time and place: Nov. 22, 2012 10:15 AM–Nov. 23, 2012 4:45 PM, Lucy Smith’s Building, 10th floor, Rådssalen
We ask participants to reflect on the following key question, on the basis of their own work: How do we study and manage heritage beyond nationality? It is our intention that the presented papers subsequently will be published in an anthology.
Registration
Registration is open until Monday 5 November. Send an email to:
p.d.fredriksen@iakh.uio.no or torgrim.guttormsen@niku.no
Contact
Per Ditlef Fredriksen
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History
University of Oslo
p.d.fredriksen@iakh.uio.no
Phone +47-22841911
Torgrim Sneve Guttormsen
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
torgrim.guttormsen@niku.no
Phone +47-23355059
Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity (c.300-600)
Open lecture by Ildar Garipzanov, Associate professor in medieval history, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History
Time and place: Nov. 9, 2012 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
About the lecture
this lecture will be a introduction to Garipzanovs project Graphicacy and Authority in Early Europe: Graphic Signs of Power and Faith in the Early Middle Ages (c. 300–1000)
The strange return of the ethnograhic other in early medieval history
Open guest lecture by Geoffrey Koziol, Professor in history, University of Berkeley.
Time and place: Nov. 2, 2012 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
Geoffrey Koziol has amongst other published the books "The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840-987)" and “Begging Pardon and Favor: Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval France".
Wearmouth and Jarrow: two early medieval monasteries in a historic Northumbrian landscape
Open guest lecture by dr. Sam Turner, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Newcastle.
Time and place: Oct. 12, 2012 3:00 PM–4:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
About the lecture
This paper results from a project which ran for three years from 2009-2012 at the Anglo-Saxon monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. The research focuses on the physical remains and archaeology of the two surviving churches of St Peter and St Paul, their topographical location and their broader context in the historic landscape. The work shows how Wearmouth and Jarrow were fully engaged with the world around them at a range of different scales, in a way that is typical of early medieval monastic foundations. The project brought together a large team of archaeologists and others and to harness the value of different sources by integrating historical records and archaeological data in an innovative GIS (Geographical Information System).
New fieldwork included geophysical and palaeoenvironmental surveys around the monasteries and in their hinterland, providing new data on the form of the monastic sites and their impact on the wider landscape. A new digital survey of the surviving structures was complemented by geological analyses of the buildings’ fabric in order to provide new information on the construction of these remarkable buildings.
Beyond the Walls of Constantinople: Revealing the infrastructure of a great city from its hinterland
Open guest lecture by professor James Crow, University of Edinburgh.
Time and place: Oct. 12, 2012 2:15 PM–3:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
About the lecture
My paper will be of two parts, the first will provide an introduction to the provision and supply of water for the new city, and second part will discuss in greater detail evidence for the Christian carvings found on a number of the large bridges.
Since its foundation in 330 Constantinople has flourished as a political and commercial centre taking advantage of its strategic situation between Europe and Asia. From the outset the expanding city faced the challenge to provide a water supply sufficient for the consumption of its many fountains, baths and increasing numbers of domestic consumers. Almost surrounded by the sea, the city has a serious deficit of local fresh water sources. The boundaries of the new city of Constantine and his successors were pushed beyond the limits of the Greek city onto higher ground. This lay above the channels of the existing aqueduct of Hadrian and could not be supplied by water channels driven by the force of gravity. Thus new water sources needed to be found in order to supply the new districts of the city and the demands of the increasing population.
It took over a century, from c.345, for Roman engineers and surveyors to create the most ambitious network of water channels and bridges known from the ancient world. There were two main phases in the development of the new channels, firstly a line into Thrace completed by 373 with a total length of 268 kms in length. This line was extended during the fifth century and by the time it was completed around CE 450 the total length of all the aqueduct channels was 494 kms. Although the springs at Pazarlı, near Vize, are 126 km from the city, the total length of the channels can be estimated at 410 km.
Christian decorations
On a number of the largest aqueduct bridges the main facades and arches are decorated with a range of Christian symbols and writings. These will be illustrated and their significance will be discussed as a representation of imperial ideology and how they can aid a better understanding of the chronology of the system.
About James Crow
James Crow is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. He has taught at the Universities of Warwick and Newcastle upon Tyne and from 2001-2005 was associate director of the AHRC Centre for Byzantine Cultural History with the Universities of Sussex and Queen's, Belfast. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and of Scotland. He has excavated on Hadrian's Wall and has directed fieldwork projects in Turkey, most recently in the hinterland of Constantinople. His publications include four books and many articles concerned principally with Roman frontier studies and Byzantine archaeology in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Professors at world's end
Conflict dynamics in the struggle between secular and mendicant theologians at the university of Paris in the 1250s’.
Time and place: Oct. 11, 2012 4:15 PM–6:00 PM, Blindernveien 11, seminarroom 2
Open guest lecture by dr. Sita Steckel, University of Münster.
About the lecture
Research on the pre-modern period has long insisted that law and formalized structures of decision-making cannot be explained as arising suddenly from dark origins in the high Middle Ages. While most work has so far looked at the interrelation of legal and 'informal' or ritualized decision making, the paper will look at the role religious arguments played in the shaping of specific legal procedures.
It starts from the idea that heresy trials are a good focus point, as the concept of 'heresy' is relevant in legal and in religious and theological discourse. Using the examples of the important 1256-7 trials from the so-called 'Mendicant Controversy' at the University of Paris, against the Joachimist Gerardino de Borgo San Donnino and the polemicist William of Saint-Amour, the paper aims to put the growth of legal thought and religious argument in closer relation to each other.
Human Rights and Heritage Ethics
Time and place: May 8, 2012 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Seminarrom 2, Blindernveien 11
Professor Lynn Meskell, Stanford University.
About the lecture
This paper discusses the efficacy of applying a framework of universal human
rights to resolve heritage conflicts. It considers the pitfalls and potentials in particular heritage settings for both archaeologists and the constituencies we seek to represent.
A distinction is made throughout the paper between invoking universal human rights, as opposed to other rights or claims more broadly. Specifically, I ask what does the mantle of universal human rights bring to heritage? What additional work might it perform, and who wins and loses when archaeologists elevate cultural heritage to this arena of urgency? If archaeologists want to pursue this route, what steps might they take to be conversant with human rights and, more importantly, effective in practically implementing that knowledge?
I then describe the situation in post-apartheid South Africa—a nation that has arguably crafted the world’s most liberal constitution, yet in reality faces numerous challenges to instrumentalizing human rights. In terms of South African heritage rights, the archaeological site of Thulamela is offered as an example of conflict resolution at the local level by briefly examining the role of archaeologists and several connected communitieseach vying for access and ownership of the site. Following Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum I suggest that heritage practitioners might be more effective and ethically responsible by being attendant to pragmatic approaches that enhance human capabilities and human flourishing.
Dirty, Pretty Things: On Archaeology and Prehistoric Materialities
Time and place: May 7, 2012 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Seminarrom 2, Blindernveien 11
Professor Lynn Meskell, Stanford University.
About the lecture
Looking over the new canon of materiality studies I am intrigued as to why archaeology — the study of the human past through its material remains — is often silent. In this new wave of writing you are more likely to find literary theorists, geographers, anthropologists,historians, and even classicists discussing the constitution of the object world and our human engagement with things, instead of
archaeologists. I would suggest that the omission of an archaeological contribution is more revealing about a broader scholarly reticence to engage with the messiness of things, their fundamental embeddedness and their myriad historical residues and entanglements.
Contemporary ruminations on the object typically focus on free-standing things — those unencumbered by complicated contexts and other substances, whether a rock, a cell phone or a snow shaker. The object in and of itself is manifest as a salient set of representations and significations: it stands at the center of external histories, politics, personalities and so on, that can be read off the artifact. From this centripetal perspective the chosen thing has primacy and is elevated to a new status, whereas its co-products and the matrices in which it is embedded are rendered secondary and supplemental.
Archaeology today has moved away from a purely, or purist, object-oriented approach and concerns itself with multiple associations, layerings, scalar analyses and specializations. I outline these developments through a study of Neolithic figurines — once the domain of artistic descriptions and quasi-religious projections — now situated within a diachronic spatial analysis, clay sourcing and manufacture, and similarly involves ascertaining the volumes of midden deposits, comparisons with the percentages of species in faunal assemblages, considerations of human body shape from isotopic data extracted from human bone and so on. In archaeology such chains of evidence and associations build a greater richness andunderstanding of things, but in doing so perhaps things lose their boundedness, their discrete qualities, and what makes them special or separate.
Introduction to fascism in Italy
Time and place: Apr. 25, 2012 11:15 AM–12:00 PM, Seminarrom 15, P. A. Munchs hus, Blindern
Professor emeritus John Pollard from Anglia Ruskin University, England.
Pius XI, Racialism and the Jews
Time and place: Apr. 24, 2012 2:15 PM–3:00 PM, Auditorium 4, Eilert Sundts hus
Professor emeritus John Pollard from Anglia Ruskin University, England.
Pollard about the lecture
Over the last forty or fifty years, hundreds of books, essays and articles, scholarly and journalistic, have been written about pope Pius XII, Hitler and the Holocaust. Rather less has been written about his predecessor, Pius XI(1922-1939) and his attitudes towards the Jews and the racialism of both Hitler and Mussolini. Using Pius XI’s papers which have been available in the Vatican Archives since September 2006, I will explore the development of Pius XI’s attitudes before his death in February 1939 and therefore consider the legacy he left his successor on these issues.
Clerical Fascism
Time and place: Apr. 24, 2012 12:15 PM–1:30 PM, Niels Henrik Abels hus, room 1133
Professor emeritus John Pollard from Anglia Ruskin University, England.
Pollard about the lecture
The term ‘clerical fascism’ in inter-war Europe arguably covers a multitude of sins: close relationships between the church and fascist regimes; movements like the Centro Nazionale Italiano in Italy and the Iron Guard/Legion of the Archangel Michael in Romania; and ideologies like those of General O’Duffy’s Blueshirts in Ireland of the ‘Aryan Christianity’ of some believers in Germany and Sweden. In this paper I will explore these phenomena and consider why Christians—Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant were attracted to fascism in these forms.
Among Etruscan Kings and Magistrates. Some Views on the Political Organisation of an Ancient Society
Time and place: Apr. 24, 2012 10:15 AM–12:00 PM, Seminarrom 1, Blindernveien 11
Professore Associato Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin, Salento universitet, Lecce, Italy
Changes in Lifestyle in Ancient Rome across the Iron Age/Roman Transition: The Evidence from Animal Remains
Time and place: Apr. 23, 2012 4:15 PM–6:00 PM, Seminarrom 2, Blindernveien 11
Professore Associato Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin, Salento universitet, Lecce, Italy
2011
Lesley Abrams: Migration, Diaspora, and Identity in the Viking Age
Time and place: Dec. 14, 2011 10:15 AM–12:00 PM, Blindernveien 11. Seminarrom 2
Lesley Abrams: England and the Vikings in the 21st Century
Time and place: Dec. 12, 2011 2:30 PM–3:30 PM, Georg Sverdrups hus aud.2
Crafting Network in Viking Towns
Time: June 10, 2011 1:00 PM, seminarrom 2, Blindernveien 11
Program
- 13.00
- Steve P. Ashby: A History of Combmaking: biographies of innovation
- Lise Bender Jørgensen: Textile crafts and networks in the viking age
- Penelope Walton Rogers (by Skype): Non-Ferrous Metalworking Part II: the Products
- Unn Pedersen: Non-Ferrous Metalworkers in the Scandinavian Viking Age towns
- 15.00 Tea
- 15.30
- Johan Callmer: TBC
- Mats Roslund: From the hands of Guests and Diasporas: ceramics and social networks in Late Viking Age eastern Denmark and Sweden
- Søren M. Sindbæk: Crafting Networks – the dynamics
- 17.00 Open discussion and reception