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

Contents

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.

Expected learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

**Module: The Circumpolar Past: Archaeology and Societies of the North **

Knowledge and Understanding

• account for fundamental archaeological source materials, methods, and research questions relating to the Circumpolar region,
• account for key features of the long-term development of Arctic and Subarctic societies from prehistory to the historical period.

Skills and Abilities

• search for, compile, and utilise scholarly information to address archaeological questions,
• compare and discuss archaeological examples from different parts of the Circumpolar region in both oral and written forms.

Judgement and Approach

• reflect on the significance of archaeology for understanding cultural heritage and identity in Circumpolar regions,
• evaluate the importance of source-critical and ethical perspectives in archaeological contexts.

**Module: history of Sweden **

Knowledge and Understanding

• Show a basic knowledge of the milestones in Sweden's history,
• Show a basic understanding of the various external and internal historical forces that caused changes in Swedish history.

Skills and Abilities

• Be able to discuss important social, political and cultural changes in Sweden,
• Individually or in groups summarize, discuss and present subject-relevant problems that are treated during lectures, presentations and in texts.

Judgement and Approach:

• Individually or in a group, be able to take a stand on simpler questions of historical morality in Swedish history,
• In a fundamental way, understand history on its own terms - avoid anachronisms.

**Module: Conceptions of Power: Energy, Environment, and the North**

Knowledge and Understanding

• describe key developments in the intellectual history of energy during the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on Nordic and Swedish contexts,
• explain how different energy systems have been associated with particular visions of the future and conceptions of nature, progress, and the nation.

Skills and Abilities

• analyze representations of northern energy landscapes as expressions of historically changing ideas about nature and society,
• apply concepts and perspectives from the history of ideas to a defined body of material and present the analysis in written form with appropriate use of sources and references.

Judgement and Approach

• critically examine the notion of the Nordic region as an empty frontier for energy development and discuss which perspectives and interests such representations make visible and which they obscure,
• discuss the promises and conflicts of the ongoing energy transition in relation to longer intellectual and historical tensions between ideas of progress and their costs.

**Module: Religion, Spirituality and the Secular in Sweden **

Knowledge and Understanding

• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of religious, spiritual, and secular aspects of Swedish society, both in the present day and historically,
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the concepts used in the academic study of religion to investigate religiosity, spirituality, and secularity,
• Demonstrate a basic understanding that both everyday and scholarly ideas about religion, spirituality, and secularity are constructed within social and political contexts.

Skills and Abilities

• Be able to discuss, analyze, and describe religiosity, spirituality, and secularity in contemporary Sweden,
• Be able to use concepts from the academic study of religion to discuss, analyze, and describe religiosity, spirituality and secularity in contemporary Sweden.

Judgement and Approach

• Be able, at a basic level, to distinguish between academic religious studies approaches and everyday understandings of religion, spirituality, and secularity in Sweden,
• Be able, from a basic religious studies perspective, to engage with the understanding that the concepts of religion, spirituality, and secularity are historically, socially, and politically constructed.

Required Knowledge

General entry requirements

Form of instruction

The course is held in English and consists of lectures, seminars, group exercises, oral presentations and individual work. When participation in lectures or exercises is compulsory, i.e. of an examining nature, this is specifically stated in the schedule. In case of absence on a compulsory occasion, supplementary assignments are provided by the teacher.

Examination modes

The course is examined continuously through oral assignments in the form of compulsory seminars and group assignments, as well as through written assignments, examination assignments and examinations. Seminars, presentations and other group assignments are assessed with the grades Pass (G) or Fail (U). Individual examination assignments and examinations are assessed with the grades Pass with distinction (VG), Pass (G) or Fail (U).

In order to pass an individual module with at least the grade Pass (G), all compulsory seminars and group assignments as well as the individual written assignments must have been given the grade Pass (G). In order to receive the grade Pass with distinction (VG) on a module, the grade on all group assignments must have been given the grade Pass (G), and that all individual written assignments have been given the grade Pass with distinction (VG). To receive Pass with distinction (VG) on the entire course, the grade Pass with distinction (VG) is required on at least three out of four modules and Pass (G) on other parts.

A re-examination must be offered no later than two months after the ordinary examination, however, a re-examination must be offered no earlier than ten working days after the result of the ordinary examination has been announced and a copy of the students' examination is available. For examinations carried out during the months of May and June, the first re-examination may be offered within three months of the ordinary examination. In addition, at least one additional re-examination must be offered within one year of the ordinary examination, a so-called catch-up examination. A person who has passed the examination may not undergo a re-examination for a higher grade.

For students who have a recommendation of support for students with disabilities the examiner may decide on individual adaption of examination modes set out in the course syllabus. Individual adaption of examination modes must always be considered based on the student's specific needs and the framework of the intended learning outcomes in the course syllabus. For more information, see Procedure for support for students with disabilities and Rules for grades and examination.

Other regulations

Rules for grades and examination govern what applies regarding retakes when a course has been discontinued or a syllabus has undergone major changes.

In a degree, this course may not be included together with another course with similar content. In case of uncertainty, the student should consult the director of studies at the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.