Lecture course on History Beyond Methodological Nationalism

This lecture course was offered by the Asymmetries-project at the University of Helsinki in Spring 2015

HISTORY BEYOND METHODOLOGICAL NATIONALISM
Target Group: MA and post-graduate studies, 5 study units
Spring semester 2015, period III, Jan 20 – Feb 19, 2015, at 14–16 PM
University Main Building (Fabianinkatu 33), Room 10
Language: English
Responsible course teacher:
University Lecturer (on research leave) Marja Jalava

COURSE OUTLINE
This course examines the transnational and cultural transfer approaches that have recently grown increasingly popular in historical research. In the era marked by intensified global interconnectedness, the nation-states with their contemporary borders are not anymore taken as natural, given units of analyses, and there is a growing interest in flows, linkages, and identities that cross or supersede other spatial units or the phenomena and dynamics within them.

The course provides an overview on the up-to-date debates on transnational analysis and cultural transfers. It also presents concrete cases of research where these methods have been used. Of special interest are a small-state perspective and asymmetrical relations which have often been neglected in a discussion concerning entanglements and transfers between dominant cultural regions of Europe.

The course consists of lectures by five lecturers with different disciplinary background. It will be asked, among other things, of how do cultural transfers and transnational approaches contribute to the rethinking of the national bias? How can they be applied in the embedding of various national histories with wider Nordic, European, and global contexts and what new perspectives do they open? Where do the limits of these approaches lie? Continue reading

Lecture course: Memory, identity and culture in Europe (MICE)

The lecture course MICE is one of the outcomes of the Asymmetries project. It reflects on Europe cultural and historical space, historiography and transnationalism. In the ethos of new and creative pedagogy, it develops problem-based learning to humanities and social sciences.

Lecture course on Memory, identity and culture in Europe (aka MICE) (Hyl 214A) (XAK271E/XAK278E/XAK350E), 5 op

Course teacher:
Emilia Palonen, PhD, Researcher at the Asymmetries in European Intellectual Space

This course will address European history and cultural politics, nationalism. The course is based on the course teachers ongoing work between history, cultural studies and politics, and the aim is to concertize a link between the dichotomous history of Europe. The course aims at both providing academic knowledge of canonical debates on memory, identity, culture and history in Europe, and transferable skills of knowledge-production, debate and problem-solving. Europe as an uneven and historical cultural space becomes concrete to the students through history, historiography and writings on European identity. Starting from two different challenges for Europe outlined by eminent historians, and their critical and reflective assessment, the participants launch an inquiry to the foundations of these ideas and the narratives on Europe they evoke. Europe appears as a transnational space, lived, memorized, historicised and idealized in different ways and at different levels. Continue reading