Centre for the Study of Nationalism
The Centre for the Study of Nationalism engages critically with the modern and contemporary nation-state, whose components have come to define the structure of the modern world and its prevailing identities.
Some time ago, the nation-state was generally regarded as moribund, overtaken by globalization, Europeanization or some other form of transnationalism, but today most people realize that this is not true. The world still consists of nation-states and the international system is largely based on the idea of national sovereignty. In addition, the resurgence of the radical right and the rise of populism have recently made the claims and attractiveness of nationalism abundantly clear, though in new forms and with new implications for the future of the global order.
Nationalism, nationalization, citizenship, sovereignty: these and similar terms are increasingly salient in political and academic agendas, public discourses and private concerns about the condition and future of the nation-state and its international environment as manifested in in questions of populism, borders, unification, segregation, and secession.
The return of nationalism in new formats
Some time ago, the nation-state was generally regarded as moribund, overtaken by globalization, Europeanization or some other form of transnationalism, but today it is obvious that this is not true – and probably never was. The world still consists of nation-states and the international order is largely based on the idea of national sovereignty. The resurgence of the radical right, the rise of populism, anti-immigrant and anti-foreign discourses and stereotypes, and the struggle of nations (within or across existing states) to acquire an independent political structure have made the claims and attractiveness of nationalism abundantly clear. The idea of the nation-state and the dreams connected with it are still very much with us and provide a framework for political ambitions, security, as well as daily lives, but without carrying the modernizing promise of economic improvement, civic progress and political trust that it once did.
Globalization and transnational processes have changed the environment of nations and states, and unprecedented divisions and cleavages have appeared between defenders of the historical ‘national culture’ on the one hand – the so-called populists – and on the other liberalists and globalizers, who perceive the interaction between their nation-state and the remaining world in more dynamic and flexible terms. Although occasionally misconstrued, the view of this latter group is not anti-nationalist. Most people in fact are still, in the terms coined by Michael Billig, ‘banal nationalists’, but the environment in which their nationalism plays out and the hopes pinned to the future of the nation-state have dramatically affected cultural, symbolic and political forms of national expression, leaving the issue variously defined and often inadequately understood.
Aims and objectives
The Centre for the Study of Nationalism will focus its ambitions, resources and activities on producing research that contributes to scholarly debate, education and outreach on the conundrums that the nation-state leaves us with: the role of its historical paths; the interactions between sovereignty and international collaboration; the relevance of its borders; the relationship between homogeneity and multiculturalism; the tensions between singular and multiple citizenship; the connection between nationalism and civilization and between nationalism and populism; the increasing rejection of non-Western migrants; the discourses defending national belonging and cohesion; the relationship between national elites and the people; the different types of nationalism – not least 'peripheral nationalism', as represented by e.g. secessionist attempts in Catalonia and the Basque country in Spain, or Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq: 'ethnic groups' pursuing dreams about their own state and trying to secede from their current political structures; and the increasing divide between rational and affective approaches to the meaning of ‘my country’.
We are less concerned with the longue durée of ‘nations’, understood as collectivities that date back several thousand years, and whether or not clans, tribes and kinships are akin or similar to modern nations. Instead, we want to engage critically with the modern and contemporary nation-state, whose components – nation and state, formal and informal groups, individual and institutional actors, in different patterns of interaction – have come to define the structure of the modern world and its prevailing identities. Not to the exclusion of other forms of belonging, but as a superordinary feature, whose potential is found in all manner of desperate and, some would argue, anachronistic reactions (e.g. Brexit, Orbanism, Catalonian independence, Erdogan's Ottoman visions, the Krimean annexation, Trumpist Americanism, the Venezuelan crisis, and other manifestations of illiberal or liberal nationalisms).
Relations and approaches
Nationalism and national identity politics are also increasingly visible in the attempts of diasporic communities to reproduce – in different ways and based on a multitude of cultural and political interpretations – national spaces and rituals outside the core national territory. We are thus occupied with issues pertaining to nationalism and national identities and their entangled relations with religious identities, migratory processes, European integration, imperialist ambitions, capitalist structures, populist reactions, diasporic dreams, conceptions of borders, democracy and citizenship – and the directions in which such processes shape trajectories for the future.
We will pursue these aims through research projects, networks, seminars, conference participation, guest programs and the like, and we will seek to influence public debates, both nationally and internationally, through a multitude of knowledge-sharing activities.
Nationalism and national identity as general reference points lend themselves superbly to multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, and as far as concrete theories, data sampling and methodological preferences go, the Centre for the Study of Nationalism assumes an eclectic and open position, whilst stressing the importance of integrating cultural, social, historical and political aspects of issues under investigation.
- Professor Morten Heiberg, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Professor Ulf Hedetoft, Saxo Institute
- Professor Catharina Raudvere, Co-director, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
- Associate professor Gabriella Elgenius, University of Gothenburg
- Associate professor Mogens Pelt, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Marie Riegels Melchior, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Janus Mortensen, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Guest researcher Joana-Isabel Duyster Borreda, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
Nationalism and populism
Responsible: Ulf Hedetoft
Nationalism and religion - claims of heritage and authenticity
Responsible: Catharina Raudvere
Nationalism, irredentism and imperialism
Responsible: Mogens Pelt
Nationalism and secession
Responsible: Morten Heiberg
Nationalism, homeland and diaspora
Responsible: Gabriella Elgenius
Nationalism and everyday life
Responsible: Marie Riegels Melchior
Nationalism and Language – Sociolinguistic Perspectives
Responsible: Janus Mortensen
Associate faculty
- Associate professor Kristine Marie Berg, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
- Associate professor Trine Brox, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
- Professor Tine Damsholt, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Juliane Engelhardt, Saxo Institute
- Professor Nils Holtug, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
- Associate professor Søren Ivarsson, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Miklós Áron Sükösd, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
- Associate professor Niklas Olsen, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Jes Fabricius Møller, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Marie Sandberg, Saxo Institute
- Associate professor Martha Sif Karrebæk, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
- Associate professor Marie Maegaard. Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
- Associate professor Janus Spindler Møller, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
- Associate professor Georg Walter Wink, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Associate professor Nieves Hernández-Flores, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Associate professor Dorte Lønsmann, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
Affiliates
- Simon Cecchin Birk, PhD student, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Languages, UCPH
- Carl-Henrik Bjerstrom, Postdoc, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Torkel Brekke, Professor, Oslo University
- Ismar Dedovic, PhD, Saxo Institute, UCPH
- Tóra Djurhuus, PhD student, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Languages, UCPH
- Martha Aggernæs Ebbesen, Research assistant, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Erik Sporon Fiedler, PhD student, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, UCPH
- Helene Grøn, Part-time lecturer, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Jens Tang Kristensen, Associate professor, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, UCPH
- Sacramento Rosello Martinez, Postdoc, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Turid Nolsøe, PhD fellow, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
- Rouzbeh Parsi, Program director, Foreign Policy Institute, Sweden
- Bo Petersson, Professor and advisor to the vice chancellor, Malmö University
- Matthew Dal Santo, PhD (Cambridge) and former Postdoc (Saxo)
- Kristian Olesen Toft, PhD student, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Hans-Jörg Trenz, Professor, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, UCPH
- Ahmed Abou El Zalaf, Research assistant, SDU
Catharina Raudvere
Raudvere, Catharina 2022: Narratives and Rituals of the Nightmare Hag in Scandinavian Folk Belief. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Raudvere, Catharina 2018: Nostalgia, Loss and Creativity. Political and Cultural Representations of the Past in South-East Europe (Modernity, Memory and Identity in Southeast Europe) Ed. Catharina Raudvere. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gabriella Elgenius
Elgenius, G. 2024: 'The Politics of Ethnic Nationalism, Nostalgia and Anti-Immigrant Framing: The trajectory of the Sweden Democrats 1989 – 2022'. In: Michael Samers, Jens Rydgren (eds.): Migration and Nationalism: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Northampton, MA: Edgar Elder.
Elgenius, G., and Rydgren, J. 2022: 'Nationalism and the Politics of Nostalgia'. Sociological Forum, 37 (51), 1230-1243.
Elgenius, G., and Garner, S. 2021: 'Gate-keeping the nation: discursive claims, counterclaims and racialized logics of whiteness'. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44 (16), 215-235.
Elgenius, G., and Rydgren, J. 2018: ‘Frames of Nostalgia and Belonging: The Resurgence of Reactionary Ethno-Nationalism in 'Sweden’. Special Issue on Far-Right Movements, European Societies.
Elgenius, G. 2018: ‘Deconstructing the History of Nationalism: The Cultural Turn and post-structuralism’. In Berger and Storm (eds.), Writing the History of Nationalism. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Georg Wink
Wink, G 2023, ‘The Heralds of the Gospel: Catholic Antimodernism as New Right Utopia and Lifestyle Practice in Brazil’ Journal of Political Ideology Vol. 28, No. 2 [forthcoming].
Wink, G 2023 ‘Angels at the Top, Rocks at the Bottom: Naturalized Inequality in Brazilian Conservative Thought’ Social Sciences 12, 692, 15 p.
Wink, G 2023, ‘Facing the Challenges of Climate Change – Latin American Perspectives’ Iberoamericana – Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Vol. 52, No. 2.
Wink, G 2023, Conservadorismo Brasileiro e a Nova Direita, trans. Ludimila Hashimoto Barros. Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Emcomum, 370 pages.
Wink, G 2021, Brazil, Land of the Past: The Ideological Roots of the New Right. Cuernavaca, Mexico: Bibliotopía, 340 pages.
Ejdesgaard Jeppesen, AM; EG Palomares Rodríguez & G Wink (eds.) 2021, Pensamiento Social Danés sobre América Latina. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 224 pages.
Wink, G 2021, ‘La utopia imperial de Brasil y su resurrección en la nueva derecha’. In J Pro, M Brenišínová & E Ansótegui (eds.), Nuevos mundos: América y la utopía entre espacio y tiempo. Madrid / Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana / Vervuert, 271–300.
Brandellero, S; D Pardue & G Wink (eds.) 2020, Living (Il)legalities in Brazil, Abingdom, UK: Routledge, 182 pages.
Wink, G 2020, ‘A mão invisível de Deus: sobre a aliança entre liberais e conservadores na nova direita brasileira’ Dialogos Latinoamericanos No. 29, 71–87.
Wink, G 2020, ‘Demokratiets krise og højrefløjs-skiftet i Brasilien’. In P Seeberg & M Thorup (eds.), Demokratiets krise og de nye autokratier. Aarhus: Universitetsforlag, 325–348.
Janus Mortensen
Mortensen, Janus 2024. 'Beyond Threat or Opportunity: English and Language Ideological Tensions in the Nordic Countries'. English in the Nordic Countries, 1st ed., vol. 1, Routledge.
Mortensen, Janus, and Kamilla Kraft (eds.) 2022. Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Mortensen, Janus 2020. 'Beyond language change: ELF and the study of sociolinguistic change'. In: Anna Mauranen and Svetlana Vetchinnikova, eds. Language Change: The Impact of English as a Lingua Franca. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lønsmann, Dorte and Janus Mortensen 2018. Language policy and social change: A critical examination of the implementation of an English-only language policy in a Danish company. Language in Society, 47(3): 435-456.
Janus Spindler Møller
Møller, Janus Spindler et al. 2023. ‘Languaging and Language Policies among Multilingual Children and Youth Groups in Finland and Denmark.’ Policy and Practice for Multilingual Educational Settings, vol. 138, Multilingual Matters.
Møller, Janus Spindler, and Salö, Linus 2022. ‘Introduction: Spaces of Upset in the Nordic Region’. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, no. 275.
Møller, Janus Spindler. 2018. Recognizing languages, practising languaging. In Jürgen Jaspers and Lian Malai Madsen, eds. Critical Perspectives on Linguistic Fixity and Fluidity: Languagised Lives. London: Routledge, 29-52.
Møller, Janus Spindler. 2018. ‘You Black Black’: Polycentric norms for the use of terms associated with ethnicity. In Karel Arnaut, Martha Sif Karrebæk, Massimiliano Spotti and Jan Blommaert, eds. Engaging Superdiversity: Recombining Spaces, Times and Language Practices. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 123–146.
Joana Duyster Borreda
Borredà, Joana Duyster 2023. “Book Review: The First World War and the Nationality Question in Europe.” Studies on National Movements, vol. 11, no. 1, NISE.
Borredà Duyster, Joana 2022. “International Models and Influences on Catalan Nationalism: Regionalism, Gender and the Ethnic - Civic Dichotomy, 1880-1920.” National Identities, vol. 24, no. 5.
Marie Sandberg
Sandberg, Marie et al. (eds.) 2022. The Migration Mobile: Border Dissidence, Sociotechnical Resistance, and the Construction of Irregularized Migrants. Rowman & Littlefield.
Sandberg, Marie & Melchior, Marie 2018: ’EUROP’: House of European History mellem paneuropæisk og postnational erindringspraksis. Kulturstudier, nr. 1, vol. 6.
Martha S. Karrebæk
Karrebæk, Martha S. 2023. 'No Puedes Hablar Ahora: Voice in an Interpreter-Mediated Court Meeting.' Language & Communication, vol. 93.
Karrebaek, Martha, et al. 2023. “You May Now Speak to Your Lawyer- When Interpreters Mediate Judges’ Information to the Accused.” Language and Law, vol. 9, no. 2.
Karrebæk, Martha S. 2021. Pigs and pork in Denmark: Meaning change, ideology and traditional foods. Signs & Society.
Karrebæk, Martha S. and Janus Spindler Møller 2020. Languages and regimes of communication: Children’s struggles with norms and identities through chronotopic work. In A.P.C. Swanenberg and S. Kroon, eds. Chronotopic Identity Work: Sociolinguistics analyses of cultural and linguistic phenomena in time and space. Routledge.
Karrebæk, Martha S. and Özgün Nergiz 2019. Language ideologies, the soft g, and parody in the Turkish mother tongue classroom. Multilingua.
Tine Damsholt
Damsholt, Tine, et al. (eds.) 2023. Crossroads of Heritage and Religion: Legacy and Sustainability of World Heritage Site Moravian Christiansfeld. Berghahn.
Damsholt, Tine 2018: “Når blot alle de dejlige nydanske viser, der myldrede frem, havde genlydt i vore skoler, marker og skove”. Patriotisk fællesskab og national selvforståelse i sang. I: Fællessang og fællesskab. (Stine Isaksen red.). s. 69 -93. Videncenter for sang, Herning.
Ulf Hedetoft
Hedetoft, Ulf 2022. “Multiculturalism: Symptom, Cause or Solution?” Challenging Multiculturalism, Edinburgh University Press.
Hedetoft, Ulf 2020. Brexit: A Valediction. Forbidding Mourning. Ethnologia Europaea. Journal of European Ethnology, vol. 50 (2).
Hedetoft, Ulf 2020. Paradoxes of Populism: Troubles of the West and Nationalism’s Second Coming. Anthem Press.
Hedetoft, Ulf 2020. 'The Nationalization of the People'. Paradoxes of Populism, Anthem Press.
Hedetoft, Ulf 2019. “A Near-Existential Dilemma: The European National Template, the Accommodation of Diversity and the Nationalist Backlash.” National Identities, vol. 21, no. 4.
Hedetoft, Ulf 2018: Review of M. Ehala, Signs of Identity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
Hedetoft, Ulf 2018: Kronik [Op-ed], Weekendavisen, June 8-15: ’Populismens tid’ [’The Age of Populism’].
Hedetoft, Ulf 2018: ‘A near-existential dilemma: the European national template, the accommodation of diversity and the nationalist backlash’. National Identities, Fall.
Newsletter
Coordinator
Georg Walter Wink, Associate Professor, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, email: georg.wink@hum.ku.dk
Find us
South Campus, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, 24.3.
About the centre
Professor Ulf Hedetoft, founder of CSN, talks about nationalism and the new centre.
Opening lecture by Michael Herzfeld
Global Populism and the Dangerous Echo of European Nation-Building
Read abstract (pdf).