Pigs were central to the Danish agricultural transformation during the 19th century. Their numbers increased significantly as Danish farmers shifted production from grain to processed animal exports such as butter and bacon. These changes have been widely studied from the point of view of the farmers, but relatively little is known about their significance for pig lives. Inspired by recent developments in animal history, this project explores pig breeding, rearing, feeding, housing and slaughter during the key period of agricultural transition before 1914.
The project aims to develop theoretical and methodological approaches for studying pig lives and deaths, while also collecting the empirical source material necessary for such a study.
The project is active from 1/2/2026 – 31/12/2027 and is funded by AUFF
For information about the project, contact Professor Mary Hilson
Since the twelfth century, the entire region east of the Elbe River has been shaped by the so-called “deutsche Ostsiedlung”—a comprehensive process of colonization and settlement that wrought drastic changes in demographics, culture, and language. By 1200, theoretically peaceful missions to convert the non-Christians peoples of northeastern Europe had begun to adopt the explicitly violent ideologies and practices of crusading. This merging of conversion with conquest opened the way for secular Scandinavian and German armies as well as ecclesiastical crusading institutions to assume leading roles in the occupation and colonization of the Baltic regions of Prussia and Livonia—areas that, today, approximate the Polish voivodship Warmia-Masuria and the Russian oblast Kaliningrad on the one hand (Prussia), and Latvia and Lithuania on the other (Livonia). Foremost among the latter group was the Teutonic Order, a quasi-monastic German crusading institution with roots in the Holy Land. Over the course of the thirteenth century, the Teutonic Order subjected Prussia to its state-like administrative structures, ruling until the Reformation. A regional branch of the Order governed Livonia, while Estonia likewise came under the governance of the Order in 1346 after nearly 150 years as a Danish duchy.
In each of these cases, forced Christianization was followed by political domination and the establishment of German-speaking elites, especially in the towns. Baltic and Slavic languages, religions, and customs faded or disappeared entirely. While the earliest settlement processes had initially led to mostly peaceful processes of acculturation, forced Christianization and the establishment of centralized administrative apparatuses sparked intense and recurrent conflict with native populations. Christian colonizers cited this resistance as the legitimate grounds for oppressive forms of governance. Consequently, the gap between Slavic-speaking groups and the German-speaking immigrant elite widened. It is within this context of invasion, settlement, and upheaval that the new elites implemented the category of “Undeutsche” as a mechanism of social stratification that remained in place well into the Early Modern period. To be labeled “Undeutsche” entailed the denial of significant social and economic privileges, such as inclusion in guilds and trade networks. The term thus constitutes an especially significant focal point from which to analyze medieval ontologies of difference and exclusion.
The medieval settlement of the Baltic casts a long shadow onto the present day. It is impossible to disentangle modern questions of national identity and cultural heritage from the legacy of the Teutonic Order and its colonial projects. The societies created by these events were at the heart of both World Wars, in which first imperial then national socialist Germany sought to reclaim and even expand beyond medieval territories. Fierce scholarly debates arose first in the postwar period and then again in the 1990s about the character of the settlement process, the nature of “German”-dominated societies and administrations, and the modern repercussions of medieval historical processes. Commissions of West German and Polish medievalists contributed during the 1980s to processes of reconciliation and peace by discussing how each country’s respective schoolbooks should present the Teutonic Order. To this day, the German state rejects some claims for restitution of medieval cultural artifacts and archival materials stolen during Nazi occupation.
The “Undeutsche” project approaches this transnational history with the overarching aim to bring new perspectives to old questions about the distinctively heterogeneous society that formed in the crucible of Christianization, colonization, and conflict. The history of the region has never been discussed with the help of contemporary postcolonial and race-critical theories and terminology, even though it presents a significant example of the development of categories of social exclusion based on ethnicity as well as of the contemporary repercussions, namely, the development of anti-Slavic racism. The proposed study will offer a detailed overview of the medieval sources from the late 12th until the mid-16th century in the light of contemporary theoretical frameworks and thereby provide an important puzzle piece for subsequent projects with more geographically comprehensive studies of medieval racism and colonialism.
Thus, the project asks to what extent the category called “Undeutsche” was based on religion, language, culture or other factors? Was it a racist category? Was it hereditary, and thus signifying a genealogical and biological “essence”? And which were the mechanisms of exclusion, the social practices connected to this category? A particular focus for all of these is the question of religion – the forced or voluntary adoption of Christianity, Crusading propaganda, and religious hybridity as a form of resistance. These questions do not only relate to categories employed in medieval sources but also to the highly political research history on “Ostsiedlung” from the nineteenth century onwards.
Project goals
The project is funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond.
Images:
The killing of pagan Prussians depicted on a column capital in Marienburg (Malbork), Poland (Photo: Patrick Meehan).
A letter from 1417 by Livonian officials to the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order regarding, among other things, a question about “Undeutsche” (Photo: Patrick Meehan).
Members:
PI: Cordelia Heß [https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/cordelia-he%C3%9F/]
Postdoc: Patrick Nash Meehan [https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/patrick-nash-meehan/]
Research Assistant: Erik Wolf [https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/e.wolf%40cas.au.dk/]
Activities:
Publication: Patrick Meehan, “Indigenous Resistance, Possession, and Power in Later Medieval Prussia, c. 1260–1330,” Journal of Medieval History, November 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2025.2577913 (Open Access).
Conference paper: Patrick Meehan, “The Call of the Wild? Forests, Hunting, and the Culture of Exoticism in Fourteenth-Century Prussia,” Second Medieval Hunting Meeting, Lisbon, 23 October 2025.
Conference paper: Cordelia Heß, “Die ‘Undeutschen’ in postkolonialer Perspektive von der Christianisierung bis zu den spätmittelalterlichen städtischen Bestimmungen.” Recht und Religion im Baltikum aus historischer Perspektive, Heidelberg, 26 September 2025.
Conference paper: Erik Wolf, “Multiethnic Societies at the 'Baltic Frontier' before the 12th Century.” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 8 July 2025.
Conference paper: Patrick Meehan, “Fishing in the Wilderness: Managing Aquatic Resources in the Late Medieval Baltic,” American Society for Environmental History – Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, 10 April 2025.
Online connectivity permeates the lives of contemporary children. Nonetheless, the history of childhood and the World Wide Web (the Web) has not been studied—a lacuna which mirrors the wider absence of the Web in contemporary history despite its invention more than 30 years ago.
WEB CHILD combines the history of childhood and the Web to investigate how the emergence of the Web as a new interactive and connected medium with little adult oversight impacted childhood at the turn of the millennium (c. 1995-2005). To study the Web’s wide-ranging influence, three countries have been selected for comparison: the United States, Denmark, and South Korea. These were all digital pioneers, but had very different cultures of childhood.
WEB CHILD project runs from 1 April 2025 to 30 March 2030 with Associate Professor Helle Strandgaard Jensen as PI
Read more about the project https://cas.au.dk/en/erc-webchild
Germany’s occupation of much of continental Europe in 1939-40 forced monarchs, politicians, political activists, intellectuals and experts to flee their home countries and relocate to safe havens such as London and Stockholm. The exile communities that emerged here came to conduct a particular, new improvised form of wartime politics that became central to the formation of the post-war European order.
This research project aims to explore the particular Danish wartime experience of exile politics. Denmark’s relative proximity to neutral Sweden meant that Danish exile politics took on a distinct form with relatively porous borders between home and exile and a comparatively high degree of mobility where Danish politicians, military and intelligence personnel and resistance fighters circulated between Copenhagen, Stockholm and London as well as a number of smaller Swedish and British cities.
It is the aim of this research project to produce the first exhaustive mapping of the Danish ‘exile ecosystem’ and to explore and analyze the new kinds of politics and political conflicts that were created by the German military occupation and the displacement of important sections of the Danish political and military elites. Drawing inspiration from, among other things, the practice turn in IR and the history of emotions, we are particularly interested in how exile played out on a day-to-day basis and to understand the social and emotional world that the exiled Danes inhabited.
The project is financed by The Independent Research Fund Denmark | Culture and Communication (Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond | Kultur og Kommunikation).
Researchers:
Karen Gram Skjoldager
Jacob Vrist Nielsen
Troels Solgaard Andersen
Read more on the webpage
The DFF-financed research project "Slingrer ned ad Vestergade: Musico-emotional styles in Aarhus during the long 1970s" runs from 2024 to 2026.
Postdoc Silke Holmqvist is employed for the full period while Professors Bertel Nygaard and Morten Michelsen contribute at regular intervals. Stud. mag. Mette Marie Dissing Seerup is employed as a research assistant.
The project suggests and develops musico-emotional styles as a historical category. It explores the intense proliferation of emotional practices in Western pop and rock music culture during the ‘long 1970s’ as they emerged in particular, localized forms in and around the music venues of Aarhus, Denmark’s ‘second city’.
The project stands out from previous studies by analysing not just the music as such, nor merely discourses of music and/or emotion. Rather, it emphasises the ways socio-culturally shaped spaces (streets, buildings, interiors etc), rhythms (in musical practices, everyday life and the disruptions of social norms) and bodily practices (dancing, kissing, fighting etc.) merged in historical experiences of musico-emotional styles. At the same time, the project explores the ways musico-emotional styles negotiated social norms. Drawing on categories of musicking and emotional styles, the project intervenes in the history of emotions and music studies.
Read detailed project description.
Projektet Afmagt.dk vil forene humanistiske forskere, interesseorganisationer og politiske beslutningstagere i en fælles udredning af den oplevede afmagt i Danmark. I overensstemmelse med VELUX FONDENS 2030-strategi vil projektet kvalificere den demokratiske samtale om og med de grupper, der oplever at være ramt af afmagt og skabe mere bæredygtige forandringer i fremtiden - for dem og for samfundet som helhed.
En hurtig overflyvning af Danmark anno 2024 synes at indikere, at følelsen af afmagt spreder sig på alle niveauer og blandt forskellige grupperinger og samfundslag – og det i en sådan grad, at det tenderer en regulær krise for demokratiet og det tillidsbaserede velfærdssamfund. Det er denne problemstilling, dette projekt vil stille skarpt på.
Projektet er inspireret af ”Magtudredningen 2.0” (nedsat af Folketinget til perioden 2023-2028) og dens tematisering af magtens former og udøvelse i Danmark. Som supplement til Magtudredningens fokus på det politisk-institutionelle system, vil dette projekt udvide fokus med mere humanistiske og kulturelle perspektiver ved at studere, diskutere, teoretisere og afhjælpe oplevelser af afmagt, som de kommer til udtryk i forskellige former, manifestationer og dynamikker på tværs af segmenter og sfærer i det danske samfund.
Projektet forankres på Institut for Kultur og Samfund, Aarhus Universitet, men inddrager forskere fra hele Faculty of Arts. Det understøtter målet om at skabe et 'humanistisk laboratorium', hvor forskerne kan inspirere hinanden på tværs af fagområder. De deltagende forskere er udvalgt for at sikre, at projektet som helhed belyser afmagtens topografi gennem tre hovedtemaer: "Krop & eksistens", "Socialitet & relationer" og "Politik & historie".
Projektet vil løbende åbne sig mod offentligheden gennem en bred vifte af formidlings- og debatarrangementer samt en bogserie på 15 bind, der udkommer fra 2026 på Informations Forlag. Ambitionen er at gøre viden tilgængelig for et bredt publikum og sætte afmagt på dagsordenen i den danske offentlighed.
Læs mere på projektets hjemmeside
Voices of the People er et digitaliserings- og transkriberingsprojekt, der har til formål at gøre enevældens supplikprotokoller (1699-1799) tilgængelige og søgbare. Dette muliggør bl.a. systematiske, digitale analyser af det omfattende tekstkorpus på omtrent 200.000 sider. Supplikprotokollernes indhold spænder bredt og et vigtigt delmål med projektets tilgængeliggørelse er derfor at belyse værdien af supplikprotokollerne som kilde til at forstå flere aspekter af 1700-tallets historie på tværs af alle samfundslag
The dream of bureaucracy is a life made easy by regulation and efficiency.
Yet we find ourselves surrounded by glitchy online portals, an exhausting mass of usernames and passwords, and electorates that seethe with anti-bureaucratic resentment (“Drain the Washington Swamp” or “blasted Brussels Eurocrats”).
Some ideologues have suggested we turn to medieval Scandinavia for a model of a bureaucracy-free society, particularly the so-called stateless society of the Icelandic Commonwealth (930-1262). Certainly, Viking enthusiasts and historians of state formation alike have operated from the not unreasonable position that the state was historically weak in medieval Scandinavia compared to, say, Angevin England or Capetian France. But history shows that when Scandinavian kingdoms had weak states, there was still plenty of bureaucracy generated by the private sphere. Indeed, medieval Scandinavians were as seduced yet aggravated by bureaucracy as us (albeit in different ways).
The project exposes this neglected history, and its implications for the theory and praxis of administration today. From the Kafkaesque in Icelandic sagas to Late Medieval Danish Peasants destroying paperwork, the Scandinavian past has surprising lessons for the study of bureaucracy.
Principal Investigator: Richard Cole
http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/richardcole@cas.au.dk
Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Pete Sandberg
http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/petesandberg@cas.au.dk
I 2023-25 skal Søborg Sø i Nordsjælland genskabes efter at have været tørlagt i over 200 år. Det giver en mulighed for gennem ny forskning at formidle et område, der er kendt for sine mange historiske kulturlevn.
Naturgenopretning af Søborg Sø - Naturstyrelsen
Deltagere i projektet: Vivian Etting https://natmus.dk/eksperter/vivian-etting/ (PI), Bjørn Poulsen http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/hisbp@hum.au.dk (deltager), m.fl.
Projektperiode: 1. januar 2020 til 31. december 2025. Projektet er støttet af Kulturministeriets Forskningspulje, 2019.
The development of the atomic bomb dramatically changed Danish territorial defense during the Cold War. National survival and the preservation of state sovereignty became a vital goal. An extensive system of civil defense was established, containing shelters, emergency hospitals, depots, refugee accommodation, and control centers. This civil defence infrastructure was a practical attempt to protect civilians from an anticipated World War 3 as well as a tangible manifestation of nuclear fear. Danish authorities aimed to provide shelters for all citizens, The goals of national civil defense were ambitious, but we do not know if the goal was realised, let alone how shelters were received in and impacted on local environments. Today. Cold War sites have become cultural heritage, but concern for public safety has returned due to the war in Ukraine and the reversal of military policy in Europe. With the return of nuclear anxiety, it is timely to ask: what lessons can be learned from earlier decades when the fear of nuclear confrontation shaped everyday life?
This project aims to suggest new ways of thinking about the local impact of the Cold War and advance state of the art Cold War history by conducting a study of civil defence built structures in Aarhus. We combine computerised tools and methods such as distant reading and agent-based modeling with close analysis of historical sources to examine how many shelters were built, when, where and why, how the shelters shaped urban space as well as testing the shelter system in a simulated emergency situation. MELICA creates a publicly accessible, enriched digital archive that facilitates future research and teaching and makes a highly pertinent topic of science available to the public.
The project will pursue the open science (OS) agenda, aiming to a) FAIRify and openly publish the project data b) use open source tools, c) build reproducible workflows; and d) embrace open access publication.
The project is funded by Augustinus Fonden and runs 2024-2026.
Researchers:
Adéla Sobotkova
Rosanna Farbøl
Read more on the Webpage
