John Andreas Olsen is a Defense Planner at NATO Headquarters, a distinguished member of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, and a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. He is also the editor of the Routledge Handbook of NATO (2024).  Drawing from his extensive experience and current role at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Olsen will shed light on NATO, Russia, and the war in Ukraine, offering insights into one of today’s most critical global challenges._________Venue: DIAS Auditorium (V24-501a-0)OPEN FOR ALL

This event is in DanishNordic Humanities Center og Danish Institute for Advanced Study inviterer til en boglancering og en paneldebat om videnskab og engagement.  I de senere år er forskernes rolle i samfundet blevet genstand for en ny slags opmærksomhed. Dansk forskning befinder sig i dag på en ideologisk kampplads i krydsfeltet mellem woke og anti-woke kampagner, mellem krav om øget samfundsrelevans og anklager om overdreven aktivisme, mellem mediers deklarering af eksperters synspunkter og forskeres understregning af deres videnskabeligt funderede ekspertise. Må forskere have holdninger til deres emne? Findes der noget, vi kan kalde objektiv og værdifri forskning? Hvor langt må politikere gå i styringen af videnskaben?  Med udgangspunkt i den nye bog Videnskab og Engagement: Forskning, politik og medier i det 21. århundrede, redigeret af Anders Engberg-Pedersen, Peter Harder og Martha Sif Karrebæk, inviterer vi til en diskussion af disse helt centrale udfordringer for både videnskaben og samfundet. Paneldeltagere: Stinus Lindgreen, MF, forskningsordfører, Radikale VenstreHanne Leth Andersen, rektor, RUCKaren Vallgårda, professor i historie, KU Med flere.. Debatten varer en time og et kvarter og derefter inviterer Nordic Humanities Center og Danish Institute for Advanced Study på kaffe og kage. Det er gratis at deltage i arrangementet, som foregår i DIAS’ auditoriet på Syddansk Universitet. På dagen vil det være muligt at købe bogen for 100 kr.

In a world of ever-increasing connectivity, talk of ‘globalism’ has become the default setting for academic research: we speak of the global Middle Ages, global modernism, the global South, and so on. And yet at the political level, the world is actually deglobalizing, with the hardening of borders and increasing emphasis on national priorities. National Epics, a project I am currently editing for OUP, takes the opportunity to examine the cultural mechanics of nationalism. Each of over one hundred contributors have been asked: what is the national epic of ‘your’ (assigned) nation? When was the choice made to recognize your key text in this way, how was it curricularized, and how well is this choice holding up today? In France, for example, it was made compulsory by Act of Parliament, in the late 19th century, for the Chanson de Roland to be studied in every French school; how, if at all, is such a text taught today in the multi-faith schools of Paris? ‘Epic’ is of course a weighted, westernized term, but there are equivalent terms elsewhere: the Mahabharata (with the Ramayana) has effectively been the ‘national epic’ of India for two millennia; the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o turned to epic form, with his The Perfect Nine, as recently as 2020. The presentation on 18 September will be relatively brief, hoping to generate broad-ranging discussion and working from the National Epics website. This is publicly accessible: just click on any nation that interests you for a 300-word chapter summary, plus suggestive image.About David WallaceDavid Wallace holds the Judith Rodin Chair of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a prominent literary historian who has broken out of the national paradigm in innovative ways. He has published widely on late medieval English literature, and his collaborative project which resulted in the two-volume Europe – A Literary History 1348-1418 (Oxford UP, 2016) is highly acclaimed. He is now editing a global literary history, National Epics, which focuses on national literatures in a large chronological and comparative frame – from Homer to the present day._____________Venue: The DIAS Auditorium (V24-501a-0)OPEN FOR ALL - NO REGISTRATION NEEDED.