Norwegian Life and Society is a lecture series that has been offered at the International Summer School for decades, says Dragana Kovacevic Bielicki, the coordinator of this year’s digitalized version.
This year, the International Summer School is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and as part of the celebration ISS has launched Norwegian Life and Society as an online lecture series. Lecturers are intentionally an assemblage of academics, artists and practitioners of all generations, who specialize in the topics they present.
Relevant and Accessible
This year’s version is designed specifically to mark the celebration of the 75th jubilee and it is available to a wider audience than ever, by being run online. Bielicki has invited guest lecturers for all the topics and she hosts each webinar. A team of the administrative staff in Oslo and Northfield ISS offices has worked to make sure that the audience can interact with lecturers live, ask questions and communicate to the ISS where they are joining from and what their connection to the ISS might be. There are no exams or readings this time around, which makes the lectures even more accessible to viewers, who are a very diverse group this year: students, alumni, current or former board members, partners such as St.Olaf College in the USA, former staff and even other summer school course leaders are tuning in.
But there is no connection to the ISS needed, the lecture series is open to everybody, and we also see some non-affiliated but interested participants that have heard about the lectures via different online forums related to Norway. Some alumni were students at the ISS as far back as 1958, says ISS-director Nita Kapoor.
In previous years, the ISS seminars entitled Norwegian Life and Society were open to all the ISS students and they ran during the summer, along with the other summer school courses.
They used to take place in the afternoons, twice a week in a large auditorium so that no matter what course you were taking you could come and join these lectures. ISS students could either simply audit the class or choose to take an exam for university credits in the end, says Bielicki. —It has always been a series of lectures connected to different topics, such as religion in Norway, politics, literature, film, pretty much anything relevant to learn about the Norwegian society for the students from all around the world.
Norway as Complexity
For this year’s students, the lecture series can be a way to connect to Norway even though they are located at home. They are free to join any lecture they find interesting, or specifically that may help them contextualize and expand on the content of their own course.
Since this is a special year for us, after the summer school has ended, we will continue offering these lectures once a month, up until the summer 2022. We want to also hear from the attendees about what other topics they want to learn about in the future, says Bielicki. —It is not important that the lectures connect to one another thematically. But we want the lecture series to represent different interesting topics from a very complex society.
The lectures so far have been covering topics such as the stave churches and early Christianity in Norway, national minorities, the history of ISS, skiing and its connection to the national identity, and Norway’s foreign policy and its Women, peace and security agenda. Still to come, the Norwegian philosopher Henrik Syse will speak about Norwegian values in light of the 22. July attacks in 2011. On August 24th, Jeff Lugowe will give a talk entitled A guide to the upcoming Norwegian Parliamentary elections. On September 28th, Hanna Andersen will give a talk on Democratization of Art in Norway. More lectures are currently in the planning stages.
I want to present both historical and contemporary topics, cheerful and less cheerful topics, says Bielicki. —I want viewers to gain insight on how great this society is but also that there are many things that are not so great, as in any society: Take for example the historical treatment of indigenous minorities and the current debates on immigration strongly influenced by racism and xenophobia.
10 Years Since Terrorist Attacks
Everyone in Norway remembers 22nd July 2011 when a Norwegian right wing extremist killed 77 people in Oslo and Ut?ya, the vast majority among them children and young adults active in the Norwegian Labor Party. On July 27th, Norwegian philosopher Henrik Syse will give a lecture titled “The Fragility of Values: Norwegian Values in light of the 22 July attacks”. Henrik Syse is professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and former member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize.
I am looking forward to partaking in the lecture series and to highlight the significance of the July 22nd event for Norwegian society, says Syse. —The special international composition of the ISS audience is a unique opportunity to discuss the event and its aftermath with people from a rich variety of perspectives.
The lecture will discuss the effect of the July 22nd terrorist attacks on Norwegian values, as lasting ideals that guide us when confronted with choices, doubt or crisis. Norwegian prime minister at the time Jens Stoltenberg highlighted democracy, openness and humanity. Radicalism and populism have emerged as challenges to an immediate public outcry by appealing to impatience, identity and fear in the aftermath of July 22nd. Syse will ask: Did our political institutions not work well enough? What was the role of civil society? What were the societal conditions that made July 22nd possible? And what can Norway do to move in a peaceful direction?
Chat and Q&A Make the Webinars Personal
A great thing about digitalization is that we are reaching people who are not able to come to Norway. The downside is that the webinar form does not allow us to see participants and hear them talk, but we can communicate with them via the Q&A function. The audience is highly involved, even though it looks like a conversation is only between those on the screen, says Bielicki.
Participants greet one another in the chat, posting messages from different localities all over the world, from North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. ISS alumni can see familiar faces such as Wojtek Lange and Michelle Fredrickson, who have been the longstanding residence managers, the so-called houseparents every summer at Blindern Studenterhjem.
People are posting “Hi from Argentina, Hi from Romania, hello from Seattle” and some can be surprised to learn that Wojtek whom they know as a housefather is also a scholar and an expert on Norwegian Stave Churches. The viewers have been very active in the chat function, which is great fun to read, says Bielicki.
In total, about 250 people have registered for the live webinars so far, and more have viewed the webinar recordings online. The lecture series is a way to reconnect with alumni, and create an alumni base that can be invited to future alumni events.
Not Too Late
The recording of the webinars are uploaded to the ISS website after they are aired live, so they will be available for years to come.