2026.09.15
Network coordinator: Georg Wink
Centre for the Study of Global Nationalisms (CSGN)
Nationalism is back – or never has been gone – and nowadays often takes new unexpected forms which we should take seriously and examine carefully. We focus on the phenomenon in Europe and the United States, but are aware that nationalisms also exist as a powerful force with original ideologies in the so-called non-Western World.
The Centre for the Study of Global Nationalisms (CSGN) engages critically with the major field of studies concerned with nationalisms, elucidating the range of expressions of national thought and action in the past and present. We will explore national ideas, idioms, discourses, literatures, images and media, as well as the political practices and realities produced by these new national themes. In a truly transdisciplinary perspective, we bring together researchers from the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and beyond. By doing this we combine the necessary theoretical knowledge, historical discernment, regional expertise and language proficiency which is deeply needed to scrutinize in a comparative perspective the variety of nationalisms in their specific contexts, traditions, transformations and global entanglements.
The concept of the nation, historically crucial for defining the structure of the modern world and its prevailing identities, continues to be indispensable in articulating and understanding politics, society and culture. Part of our research deals with the historical role of the nation as a unifying and potentially emancipatory frame, subverting other orders and being subverted by them. While scholars in the 1990s expected the dusk of the nation, events of the 21st century have demonstrated how national ideas resist transnational Globalization, Europeanization and Cosmopolitanism, all of which are now under continuing challenge. Instead of declining in importance, the nation has become the mobilizing element in new, resurgent or reinvented illiberal ideologies, discourses and political practices and movements. Invoking the nation is now standard rhetoric used to erode or openly attack established liberal democracies, with dramatic implications for the European political landscape and for the global order as well.
One of our focus areas (see projects below) is the Global so-called "New Right". As such we understand illiberal ideologies, movements and politics which are on the rise – not only in Europe and the United States but also in Russia, Latin America and South Asia, among other places. The world has not experienced similar growth since the 1930s, as Enzo Traverso remarks in his famous book on Postfascism. We try to go beyond established explanatory concepts like populism, authoritarianism and xenophobic identitarianism by paying special attention to often overlooked antimodern and de-secularizing tendencies.
CSGN's commitment is to contribute, through research and outreach, to a better understanding of global nationalisms and their roots in the past, across languages and regions. Hosted by the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies and advised by an international Steering Committee (see below), the Centre is designed as an interdisciplinary hub for scholars working on nationalisms at the University of Copenhagen and other Danish universities and research institutions, together with partners abroad.
- Associate Professor Georg Walter Wink, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies (director)
- Associate Professor Jørn Boisen, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies (Co-coordinator).
- Associate Professor Anna Lena Sandberg, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
- Associate Professor Mogens Pelt, Saxo Institute
- Associate Professor Haakon Ikonomou, Saxo Institute
- Professor Dorthe Lønsmann, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
Networks and research projects
Far right thought in a global perspective: Traditionalist reactions to Western liberal modernity
Coordinator: Georg Wink, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Languages
This project has received funding from the HUM:Global Flagship Initiative, 2025-2026. The goal of this Flagship is to strengthen the investigation of far-right ideologies by creating research infrastructure and attracting external funding. During the academic year 2025/2026, the project organized invited expert talks, seminars and internal workshops to explore and delimit the broader field of “Globalized Anti-Modernism”, elaborated research plans and identified funding opportunities. The first grant which this Flagship attracted is the DFF Explorative Network Grant (see above) while others are under evaluation and in preparation.
Associated researchers:
- Georg Wink (University of Copenhagen, Department for English, Germanic and Romances Studies)
- Tim Rudbøg (University of Copenhagen, Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies)
- Mikhail Suslov (University of Copenhagen, Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies)
- Mikkel Bolt (University of Copenhagen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies)
- Jun Liu (University of Copenhagen, Department of Communication)
- Atreyee Sen (University of Copenhagen, Department of Anthropology)
- Somdeep Sen (Roskilde University, Department of Social Sciences and Business)
- Manni Crone (Danish Institute for International Studies DIIS)
- Hjalmar Falk (University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Education)
- Gabriella Elgenius (University of Gothenburg, Department of Sociology and Work Science)
Nation, Geopolitics and Imperialism
Coordinator: Mogens Pelt, Saxo Institute
Associated researchers:
Researchers
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Affiliated researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alejandro Ayala-Wold | PhD fellow, University of Bergen | +4755588819 | |
| Amedeo Varriale | Research fellow, European Center for Populism Studies | ||
| Andrzej Turkowski | Postdoc, Copenhagen Business School | +4538153589 | |
| Nik Hasif | Junior fellow, National University of Malaysia | ||
| Agustín Conde de Boeck | Postdoc, National University of Córdoba, Argentina | ||
| Filipe Queiroz | Postdoc, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil | ||
| Fabio Ferrarini | Adjunct Professor, University of Milan | ||
| Rasmus Glenthøj | Professor, University of Southern Denmark | +4565503354 | |
| Joana-Isabel Duyster Borreda | Senior Researcher, University of Heidelberg, Stiftung Ebert Gedenkstätte | ||
| Gabriella Elgenius, | Professor, University of Gothenburg | +46317863769 | |
| Elias Stumpf | Internship student, Munich Security Conference (MSC) |
Coordinators
Georg Wink (coordinator)
Jørn Boisen (co-coordinator)
Newsletter
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Find us
South Campus, Njalsgade 76a, room 4B-0-58.