About the project
The project illuminated how portrayals of gender intersect with interpretations of cultural and ethnic diversity and variation. By examining how this has changed over time and where we stand today, we aimed to:
- Map out how gender and diversity have been presented in both scholarly and popular representations.
- Contribute to increased awareness of how we depict gender and diversity today. In this way, we could contribute to more balanced and alternative narratives grounded in empirical material from different periods in the Nordic past. The goal was to create narratives of the past that resonate with a wider audience.
Inspired by critical perspectives on cultural heritage, gender theory, and queer theory, we explored how gender and diversity manifested in various types of representations of the Nordic past and to what extent these portrayals nourished contemporary Nordic identities.
In line with intersectional approaches and in response to current debates on demographic changes and multiculturalism, we emphasized that gender operates in conjunction with other identity-shaping categories.
This interdisciplinary project was anchored in archaeology, with collaborators from museology, theology, history, critical heritage studies, art history, and interdisciplinary gender studies.
Duration
1. January 2021 – 30. November 2023
Cooperation
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (UiO)
- Museum of Cultural History (UiO)
- The Faculty of Theology (UiO)
- Centre for Gender Research (UiO)
Financing
The research project was financed by UiO:Nordic, The University of Oslo.
Events
Conference - Gendering the Nordic Past: Dialogues between Past and Present
The conference Gendering the Nordic Past: Dialogues between Past and Present marks the concluding part of a collaborative research project where the main aim has been to evaluate and revitalize the field of gender studies of the Nordic Past.
Time and place: Apr. 26, 2023 12:30 PM – Apr. 28, 2023 12:00 PM, Professorboligen, Karl Johans gate 47
Gendering the Nordic Past, funded by UiO:Nordic, has brought together scholars from a range of disciplines including critical heritage studies, archaeology, history, theology, history of religion and art history. The project has sought to probe the ways in which gender interacts with our perceptions and representations of the past, as well as taking a critical look at how gender is typically included in representations of the past.
In this conference, we invite keynote speakers to bring a wider international context to our project results. We also invite project participants to present results and reflect upon what they will bring with them from Gendering the Nordic Past into their future and ongoing research. In this way, we hope that this conference will provide a platform for inspiring dialogues and further collaboration.
Having produced an edited volume which brings together contributions from project participants, this conference will celebrate the conclusion of our project by providing a platform for project results, whilst simultaneously inviting new avenues for exploration dialogues between Past and Present.
Scholarly program
Wednesday 26th April 2023
- Welcome from the project leads, Unn Pedersen, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History and Marianne Moen, Museum of Cultural History, and Tore Rem, director UiO: Nordic.
- Keynote by ?óra Péturdóttir, IAKH, UIO, Archaeological Theory from a gender perspective.
- Papers and discussions Bronze Age into Iron Age part I
- Lene Melheim Why patrilocal female exogamy? A critical view on kinship narratives from the Nordic Bronze Age.
- Sigrun Vidarsdottir From ash to bone - changes in burial practice from Pre-Roman Iron Age to Roman Iron Age in ?stfold.
- Papers and discussions Bronze Age into Iron Age part II
- Lisbeth Skogstrand A Network of Girls. Gendered mobility in Roman Period Scandinavia.
- Marie Amundsen Revisiting the richly furnished burials of the Migration Period in Southern Norway.
- Ingunn R?stad Women, Warriors and the Negotiation of Identity in Migration-period Scandinavia.
Thursday 27th April
- Keynote II Rachel Crellin, University of Leicester, Gender through a posthumanist feminist lens.
- Papers and discussions Gendered exchange and economies
- Hilde Sandvik Household perspective on early modern economies in the North.
- Ragnhild B? Gullsauma?ar mjok: Gender and Ornamental Practices in Late Viking Age.
- Papers and discussions Gender identities in mortuary contexts
- Mari ?stmo Lasting relations. Gendered identities in cemeteries.
- Sarah Croix Porous identities - gender-less graves at Viking-Age Galgedil, Denmark.
- Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson Markers of gender (?) in Viking Age archaeological contexts.
- Papers and discussions Gender in representations of the past
- Laia Colomer PastWomen Network: working for a gender-inclusive visual representation of the past.
- Cassidy Lee Croci Visualising Gender: A Social Network Analysis of Women in Landnámabók 'The Book of Settlements'.
- Aukse Katarskyte Iduna’s apples and the ideal of female domesticity. A Victorian retelling of a Scandinavian myth.
- Papers and discussions Classical perspectives and embodied gender
- Elisabeth Aslesen Gender encountered through the body in Iron Age Scandinavia: a multiscalar approach.
- Reinert Skumsnes Alternative body worlds in ancient Egyptian healing texts.
- S?ren Handberg Women in Early Iron Age Athens.
Friday 28th April
- Keynote III: Catherine Frieman, Australian National University, The F word - towards a feminist archaeology for the 21st century (Zoom).
- Papers and discussions Gender in dissemination of the past
- Unn Pedersen Gendering Iron Age Scandinavia: Archaeological storytelling for kids.
- Marte Spangen Researching and disseminating multiple diversities in the past.
- Anne Irene Ris?y Presentations of women and law in the eddic poems: related to a Late Iron Age reality?
- Closing remarks, Ingrid Fuglestvedt, University of Oslo