Supported by the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication, the Department of History and Area Studies hosts two research projects that explore issues in transnational history.

 

This project home page will be updated regularly.

The framework of the projects

Project A

” Institutions of democracy in transition. Transnational fields in politics, administration and law in Denmark and Western Europe after 1945 ” is a collective research project under the management of associate professor Ann-Christina L. Knudsen . The project runs from 1 February 2010 to 31 January 2013.

Short description

Research into international political history typically departs from a pre-defined understanding of the national vis-à-vis the international. It is true that post-1945 Western Europe was characterised by both the consolidation of democracies, and the creation of international organisations and institutions such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Community and European Union. One result of these developments is nevertheless a political and administrative landscape with partially overlapping national and supranational parliamentary assemblies, administrations and legal orders. The project explores how the interfaces of democracy’s institutions have been affected after politicians and civil servants have begun to act in these new transnational spaces. The core of the project is new historical research. In order to identify the “transnational”, the project departs in the metaphor of transnational fields and explorations into the way in which transnational fields are constituted. The aim of the project is moreover to contribute to the continuous development of theoretical and methodological approaches used in history, also with the aim of opening a dialogue with bordering disciplines in the study international and global phenomena.

The participants in the project are:

Ann-Christina L. Knudsen , project manager, associate professor (Aarhus University): ”Transnational political space and double-agents in the European Parliament, 1958-1979”

Kristine Midtgaard , associate professor, (University of Southern Denmark): ”Bodil Begtrup - woman in a world society. Positioning in an emerging field of international political rights”

A 3-year PhD scholarship (to be filled): ”Danes in Europe’s transnational parliamentary spaces”

A 1-year postdoc fellowship (to be filled).

In addition, two 4+4”-stipends will be attached to the project from the summer 2010, financed by the Faculty of the Humanities at Aarhus University. Applications are due by 15 March 2010, and potential candidates for these scholarships are welcome to contact Ann-Christina L. Knudsen before applying.

Project B

”The transnationalisation of Danish foreign policy – human rights, democracy and institutional culture in Danish foreign policy since the Second World War” is a two-year individual postdoctoral research project conducted by PhD Karen Gram-Skjoldager . The first year of the project (September 2009-August 2010) is funded by the European University Institute, Florence, where Karen Gram-Skjoldager is affiliated with the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies as a Jean Monnet Fellow. During the academic year of 2010-11, the project will be hosted by the Institute for History and Area Studies, Aarhus University.

 

Short description

The economic and political integration in Europe since 1945 has created new, semi-autonomous legal fields at the cross-roads of national and the international political institutions. These fields challenge and transcend the traditional dichotomisation of the political and legal system in national and international spheres. The international human rights regime is an early and prominent example of this development and the project aims to use the issue of human rights as an exemplary illustration of how the transnationalisation of international law has changed the nature and conditions of Danish foreign policy. The hypothesis of the project is that an essential component in this change is the strengthening and internationalisation of the foreign political bureaucracy. Since 1945 a new, influential group of bureaucrats has formed in the Danish Foreign Ministry; these bureaucrats have national careers but are at the same time deeply involved in cooperation with international political institutions and state representatives. Thus, they have been given the new and potentially important role as ‘transformers’ with insights into and the possibility to circulate national and international ideals, models and interests in the new field between national and international law. Drawing theoretical inspirations from sociology of law and political sciences, and using oral history as an integral part of its method, the project aims to identify these bureaucrats, explore their networks, collective identities and interests and, not least, their influence on Danish human rights policy.

Activities

11-12 February 2010: Conference of the Liaison Committee on the History of European Integration