Re-imagining Scandinavia in the World: Colonialism and Race

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TORCH Nordic Network and the Race and Resistance programme are hosting a seminar on  "Re-imagining Scandinavia in the World: Colonialism and Race”.

Speaker: Dr Michael McEachrane (University College London)

Respondents: Professor Elleke Boehmer and Louisa Layne (University of Oxford)

Chair: Eveliina Pulkki (University of Oxford)
 

Perhaps especially from the 1960s to the 1990s, Scandinavian societies had an international reputation of being egalitarian with high levels of wealth equality and social justice. In addition they have been, and to a great extent still are, thought of as being exceptionally tolerant and open societies, unburdened by histories of colonialism and issues of race; anti-imperialists in solidarity with the global South and human rights champions with generous refugee and foreign aid programs. For long Scandinavian countries have also been thought as homogenously white. But what happens when none of this seems true any longer? How are we to understand Scandinavia's place in the world today?

Michael McEachrane is a visiting research fellow at University College London and the editor of Afro-Nordic Landscapes: Equality and Race In Northern Europe (Routledge, 2014). Currently he is working on a book-length project on reparatory justice for European colonialism, enslavement and native genocide with the working-title, "Decolonising Justice: Human Rights, Imperial Legacies and Reparations".

Sandwiches from 12.45; presentation at 1.00pm.

 

Nordic Network
Race and Resistance across Borders in the Long Twentieth Century

Contact name: Tessa Roynon
Contact email: tessa.roynon@rai.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Open to all