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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 407: A Scandinavian Sonderweg?, IV: A Round Table Discussion

Monday 5 July 2021, 19.00-20.30

Sponsor:Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study, University of California, Berkeley
Organiser:Geoffrey Koziol, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator/Chair:Geoffrey Koziol, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract

Within medieval historiography, Scandinavia holds an odd position, usually being treated as a latecomer on the European stage or as a more politically 'primitive' region than the rest of Europe. In this round table discussion, we want to avoid tropes of primitivism and diffusion by focusing on specific aspects of medieval political organisation and comparing their manifestations in Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian countries, in particular drawing on recent scholarship on the role (and limits) of medieval states. Was there a Scandinavian Sonderweg, or were Scandinavian political forms and expressions just as diverse and dense as in the rest of Europe?

Participants include Justine Firnhaber-Baker (University of St Andrews), Wojtek Jezierski (Södertörn Universitet, Stockholm / Göteborgs Universitet), Hans Jacob Orning (Universitetet i Oslo), and Alice Taylor (King's College London).