My name is Hanne Bjerre Lassen. I come from Denmark and I am a new PhD-student at the Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies. I have a background in Comparative Literature, German Studies and Sustainable Heritage Management.

This PhD project lives in the borderland between Denmark and Kalaallit Nunaat. With The Greenlandic House in Aarhus as a lense I will examine the unsettling silence and sense of belonging in the Kalaallit-Danish Entanglement. I have been working in The Greenlandic House for the last 5 years and as an employee in that house, I got curious about and puzzled by the silence around colonialism in conversations between Kalaallit Nunaat and Denmark both in friendships and between colleagues but also in the Danish education system, on artistic scenes, in art galleries, and (very much) politically.

My work centres The Greenlandic House in Aarhus as an institution in the intersection of ‘Kalaallit-ness’ and ‘Danish-ness’, which in the current landscape is marked by a transition where established narratives and frameworks for understanding the interwoven histories of Rigsfællesskabet are being redefined. My experience and understanding of The Greenlandic House as an institution in this intersection is that it is increasingly called upon as a mediator and a site of critical reflection. However, the traditional approaches of the house are becoming less effective in a context shaped by colonial legacies, shifting power dynamics, and growing demands for decolonial critique and in my PhD-project I therefore aim to develop new vocabularies and practices in the Kalaallit-Danish borderland.

The title of the project is Spaces in Between and I will argue that The Greenlandic House as an institution serves as a BOTH-AND rather than a NEITHER-NOR platform and a “space in between” for us to rethink, reflect and reimagine heritage, identity and decoloniality within Rigsfællesskabet. 

Contact: 

Hanne Bjerre Lassen
Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies
Moesgård Allé 20, 4215, 032
8270 Højbjerg
habl@cas.au.dk