From roots to futures: Histories, beliefs, and environments in the North 30 credits

About the course

The course gives you an interdisciplinary introduction to the Nordic countries and the circumpolar area through perspectives from history, archaeology, history of ideas and religious studies. You will follow the development from Viking Age societies and Arctic cultural environments to contemporary discussions about religion, energy, climate and sustainable social development. We examine how people in the north have lived, organised their societies and interpreted the world around them.

During the course, we study how natural resources, technological innovations, beliefs, political processes and cultural expressions have influenced people's lives and shaped the region's history and present. The course is suitable for those who want to broaden their knowledge of the Nordic countries and the Arctic and their importance in understanding both historical processes of change and current societal challenges.

**Module: The Circumpolar Past: Archaeology and Societies of the North**
The module introduces archaeology through the study of the Circumpolar past. It examines how archaeological knowledge is produced through the analysis and interpretation of material remains and introduces fundamental archaeological methods and source materials. With a focus on Arctic and Subarctic societies, the module explores long-term developments in settlement patterns, resource utilisation, technology, mobility, and social organisation. The module also addresses cultural heritage, Indigenous perspectives, and the role of archaeology in contemporary societal debates.
**Module: History of Sweden**
During this module we will focus on important themes in Swedish History during the last one thousand years: the end of the Viking age and the transformation into a sovereign protestant nation, the age of empire and the geopolitical and cultural consequences of the Napoleonic period, the industrialization and mass politics of the nineteenth century, the democratization and development of the welfare state, Sweden during the second world war and the cold war and finally minorities in Sweden and the Nordic countries.
**Module: Conceptions of Power: Energy, Environment, and the North**
The module Conceptions of Power: Energy, Environment, and the North introduces students to the history of energy as an idea, shaped by changing conceptions of nature, progress, and the nation, with a particular focus on the twentieth century. Using the Nordic region, and Sweden in particular, as its point of departure, the course examines how oil became a decisive energy source in processes of modernization and how forests and rivers came to be understood as the foundation of an independent energy system. Against this background, the module explores how different energy systems, including fossil fuels, hydropower, nuclear power, and renewable energy, have been associated with distinct visions of the future and specific ideas about whom or what energy is intended to serve. Students learn to analyze representations of northern energy landscapes as expressions of these ideas and to understand how the Nordic region has been imagined as an empty frontier and a “land of the future” during its transformation into an industrial society. The module highlights a range of social, political, and intellectual perspectives on energy systems and emphasizes that conservation, resistance, protest, and competing understandings of nature have always been integral parts of energy debates rather than obstacles to development. Students are also introduced to historical perspectives on the ongoing energy transition. Through these perspectives, they learn to recognize in contemporary promises and conflicts the same enduring tensions between ideas of progress and their social and environmental costs that have historically shaped relationships between power, nature, and society in the Nordic region.
**Module: Religion, Spirituality and the Secular in Sweden**
The module focuses primarily on Sweden’s contemporary religious, spiritual, and secular landscape, and to some extent on the historical conditions that have shaped it. Central areas of focus are the understanding and practice of religion, spirituality, and non-religion in Sweden. Throughout the module, we will critically examine the idea of Sweden as a secular country from religious studies perspectives on religion, spirituality, and secularity. We will approach religion, spirituality, and secularity as inseparable from social norms and other societal factors. A major part of the module is devoted to enabling students to acquire and apply a religious studies conceptual framework for understanding religion, spirituality, and secularity in contemporary Sweden.