Challenging Nordic Innocence – UiS podkast

About Challenging Nordic Innocence – UiS podkast

This podcast series questions the idealized notion of the Nordic region as characterized by egalitarianism, environmentalism, and a benevolent welfare state through interviews with researchers and activists on social, environmental, and spatial justice. It’s a collaboration between the University of Stavanger’s Social and Spatial Justice research group and Copenhagen University’s Centre for Sustainable Futures.

Publisher

Universitetet i Stavanger

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Jan 2024

Latest episode

24 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   24 Jun 2026

   Mental Oil Spills in Norway’s Oil Capital

   Oil is everywhere in Stavanger—highly visible, and yet also out of sight. In this episode of Challenging Nordic Innocence, we’re joined by Bjørk Tørnqvist to talk about “mental oil spills” and the petro-hegemonies shaping Norway’s oil capital. Drawing on participatory Les mer ... (https://nettop.guru/wordpress/mental-oil-spills-in-norways-oil-capital/)

2. 

   13 Apr 2026

   Carbon Capture and the Political Capture of Nature in Iceland

   In this episode, we speak with anthropologist Cody Skahan about carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Iceland and the Nordic region. Drawing on fieldwork with environmental activists, scientists, and local communities, Cody explores how climate technologies like CCS are reshaping Les mer ... (https://nettop.guru/wordpress/carbon-capture-and-the-political-capture-of-nature-in-iceland/)

3. 

   6 Jan 2026

   Racial Capitalism, Temporal Dispossession, and the Politics of Asylum in Sweden

   What happens when we think of the Nordic welfare state not only as a protector of rights and social welfare, but also as a site of dispossession? In this episode of Challenging Nordic Innocence, we talk with Sarah Philipson Isaac about her PhD dissertation Temporal dispossession: the politics of asylum and the remaking of racial capitalism in and beyond the borders of the Swedish welfare state from 2024. Sarah unpacks how Sweden’s migration bureaucracy weaponizes time—accelerating, freezing, and fragmenting asylum seekers’ lives—and in doing so exposes the racialized logics underpinning  the welfare state. From the shift to temporary residence permits to the production of hyper-exploitable labor, this conversation explores the temporal violence of the asylum system in Sweden and asks what futures are foreclosed when rights become conditional? Sarah Philipson Isaac holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Gothenburg. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics, working on a project that investigates labour exploitation in the Swedish construction industry, with a particular focus on how an increasingly restrictive migration regime shapes work conditions. Links to some of Sarah’s publications: Philipson Isaac, S. (2025). The Expanding Carceral Geography of Sweden and Counter-politics of Care. South Atlantic Quarterly, 124(1), 214–221. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-11557881 (https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-11557881) Philipson Isaac, S. (2025). Unpacking State Production of Temporal Dispossession: The Intersections of Labour, Asylum and Informalization in Sweden. Critical Sociology, 51(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241242098 (https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241242098) Philipson Isaac, S. (2022). Temporal dispossession through migration bureaucracy: On waiting within the asylum process in Sweden. European Journal of Social Work, 25(6), 945–956. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2022.2077317 (https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2022.2077317) Philipson Isaac, S. (2024). Temporal dispossession: The politics of asylum and the remaking of racial capitalism in and beyond the borders of the Swedish welfare state. University of Gothenburg. https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/80383 (https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/80383) Links to literature mentioned in the interview: Anderson, B. (2019). New directions in migration studies: Towards methodological de-nationalism. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/ (https://doi.org/10.1186/) s40878-019-0140-8 Ansems de Vries, L., & Welander, M. (2016). Refugees, displacement, and the European ‘politics of exhaustion’. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/mediterranean-journeys-in-hope/leonie-ansems-de-vries-marta-welander/refugees-displacement-and-europ (https://www.opendemocracy.net/mediterranean-journeys-in-hope/leonie-ansems-de-vries-marta-welander/refugees-displacement-and-europ) Cabot, H., & Ramsay, G. (2021). Deexceptionalizing Displacement: An Introduction. Humanity, 12(3), 14. Castles, S. (2004). Why migration policies fail. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(2), 205227. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000177306 (https://doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000177306) Danewid, I. (2023). Resisting Racial Capitalism: An Antipolitical Theory of Refusal. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009127707 (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009127707) Fanon, F. (1966). The wretched of the earth. Grove Press. Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white masks. Grove Press. Gilmore, R. W. (2022). Abolition geography: essays towards liberation. Verso. Khosravi, S. (2019).

4. 

   1 Dec 2025

   Afro Nordic Feminism – Theorising from our lives

   Afro Nordic Feminism is an emerging Black feminist project that centers on the experiences, knowledge, communities, and social justice organizing of people of African descent living in the Nordic Region. In this episode we discuss the approach with Oda-Kange Midtvåge Diallo, a Fulani, Norwegian and Danish postdoctoral researcher and facilitator of ‘black study’—a non-disciplinary, collaborative, embodied mode of knowledge creation among Black diaspora Europeans. Drawing on her co-written book chapter with Rahwa Yohaness ‘Theorising from our lives: A Black Nordic feminist approach,’ the conversation explores how Afro Nordic feminism engages with activism, collective organization and academia. We also discuss the politics and ethics of knowledge production, as well as issues with US cultural imperialism in a Nordic context. CONTENT NOTE: During the episode, host Sebastian introduces a discussion on the politics of abolishing whiteness as a racial category within anti-fascist movements. This represents the host’s independent theoretical engagement and is not derived from Diallo’s work or the book chapter under discussion. Links: Join Oda-Kange and her colleagues in black study in Amsterdam at the Black Feminist Summer School 2026: @black_feminist_summer on Instagram or website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1z2lwP7g9_B4hJv2lBpmaTEwtMFXEjiyd6FQjtP7plWo/edit (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1z2lwP7g9_B4hJv2lBpmaTEwtMFXEjiyd6FQjtP7plWo/edit) Visit the open source Toward Refusal Archive: https://towardrefusal.com/ (https://towardrefusal.com/) Literature for further reading: Acharya, Maya, & Muasya, Gabriella I. (2023). Sensible Ruptures: Towards Embodied and Relational Ways of Knowing. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 36(2), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.138090 (https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.138090) DCN x Marronage (2020). Vil vil mere end at overleve: Opgør med en antisort verden. Egen udgivelse. Diallo, Oda-Kange Midtvåge. (2023). Joining in black study. Knowledge creation and black feminist critique alongside African-Norwegian youth. Doctoral dissertation. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/handle/11250/3104885 (https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/handle/11250/3104885) Diallo, Oda-Kange Midtvåge; Friborg, Nico Miskow. (2021) Subverting the white cis gaze: Toward a pedagogy of discomfort, accountability and care in the anthropology classroom. Teaching Anthropology, 10(4): 17-35. https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v10i4.622 (https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v10i4.622) Hunter, Elizabeth. (2021). Diasporiske perspektiver på racialiseringens kolonialitet i Danmark. Periskop 25 (2021): Sorthed.https://doi.org/10.7146/periskop.v2021i25.128472 (https://doi.org/10.7146/periskop.v2021i25.128472) Kollektiv Omsorg: Kelekay, Jasmine; Diallo, Oda-Kange Midtvåge; Sawyer, Lena. (2025). Notes on collective care as black feminist praxis within, outside, and against the academic industrial machine. Social Sciences & Humanities Open. Volume 12, 2025, 101873 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101873 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101873) Kollektiv Omsorg: Diallo, Oda-Kange Midtvåge; Kelekay, Jasmine; Sawyer, Lena; Abdullahi, Maimuna. (2023) Writing Letters as Counter-Archiving: An Afro-Nordic Feminist Care Practice. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 22(1):180–203. https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-10220546 (https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-10220546) The River & Fire Collective; Barnett-Naghshineh, Olivia; Pattathu, Antony; Diallo, Oda-Kange Midtvåge; Friborg, Nico Miskow; Hammana, Zouhair; van den Berg, Lisette; Camufingo,

5. 

   29 Sept 2025

   Normandsdalen: Art, Power and Materials in 18th Century Denmark-Norway

   Over the period 1764–84, King Frederik V established a sculpture park at Fredensborg Palace North of Copenhagen, with 70 statues of Norwegian, Sámi and Faroese people. In this episode, we speak with Professor Mathias Danbolt, art historian and lead researcher of the research project Moving Monuments: The Material Life of Sculpture from the Danish Colonial Era and Co-curator of the exhibition Nordmandsdalen: Art, Power and Materials in 18th Century Denmark, to examine how 18th-century sculptural representations of “ordinary people” from Norway, Sápmi, and the Faroe Islands were mobilized within Danish-Norwegian absolutist monarchical ideology. Far from innocent ethnographic portraits or “authentic” representations of the “common” people, the figures of Normandsdalen reveal complex entanglements of extractivism, colonialism, and aesthetic power. Through Danbolt’s critical lens, we explore how these sculptures functioned as tools of imperial representation, and what their legacy means for contemporary debates on art, cultural memory and Nordic exceptionalism. Links:Mathias Danbolt research profile: https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/mathias-danbolt (https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/mathias-danbolt) Links to research projects: * Moving Monuments: The Material Life of Sculpture from the Danish Colonial Era: https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/moving-monuments/ (https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/moving-monuments/) * NorWhite: How Norway Made the World Whiter: https://www.tio2project.com/norwhite (https://www.tio2project.com/norwhite) Link to book (In Norwegian): https://fagbokforlaget.no/produkt/9788245059342-nordmandsdalen (https://fagbokforlaget.no/produkt/9788245059342-nordmandsdalen) Link to KODE Bergen art exhibition: https://www.kodebergen.no/hva-skjer/utstillinger/nordmandsdalen (https://www.kodebergen.no/hva-skjer/utstillinger/nordmandsdalen) Transkripsjon av episoden (pdf, åpnes i nytt vindu) (https://podcast.uis.no/media/Challenging_Nordic_Innocence/Normandsdalen_tr.pdf)

6. 

   11 Sept 2025

   Dissolving the Pill: Imagining the Birth Control Pill in Contemporary Denmark

   In this episode we are joined by Anne Nørkjær Bang –  a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark. This summer, Bang defended her dissertation titled “Dissolving the Pill: Imagining the Birth Control Pill in Contemporary Denmark” which interrogate the social, cultural, political, and scientific contexts surrounding the birth control pill. Through a Feminist Cultural Studies of Technoscience approach, Bang convincingly challenges otherwise settled narratives of the birth control pill as the symbol of feminist emancipation, an isolated entity free from relations, or a pharmaceutical achievement by displaying historical and contemporary controversies of the pill. The episode has a bit technical issues in the beginning, but does not disrupt the general conversation. Anne Nørkjær Bang is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Southern Denmark, Department of Culture and Language. She is part of the research project Endocrine Economies : The Cultural Politics of Sex Hormones, which inquires into how hormones emerge as troubling technologies and societal solutions in the context of the Danish welfare state. While Anne’s dissertation engages specifically with the birth control pill, she has also published on birth control injections in the context of 1980’s-90’s Kalaallit Nunaat and Denmark and on endocrine disrupting chemicals and their problematization in Danish politics. Anne’s work is broadly situated within feminist cultural studies of technoscience, drawing connections between the medical and environmental humanities and various strands of justice thinking. Research profile: https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/annenb (https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/annenb) Episode transcript (https://podcast.uis.no/media/Challenging_Nordic_Innocence/dissolving_the_pill.pdf)

7. 

   10 Jun 2025

   Colonial architecture in Greenland and the material politics of time

   Dr. Tone Huse examines the Danish state's attempts to modernize Greenland through colonial architecture and urban planning, focusing on Indigenous resistance to forced relocation and assimilation in this interview.

8. 

   16 Dec 2024

   Chemical Pollution and Shadow Places in the Danish Welfare State

   UiS podkast host Anders Riel Müller and guests Signe Skjoldborg Breighel and Sebastian Lundsteen explore the intersection of environmental justice and chemical pollution in the Danish welfare state, revealing the dark side of Nordic innocence.

9. 

   22 Nov 2024

   Mining, Green Steel and the Comfort of Alignment with extractivism in the Swedish North

   UiS podkast host speaks with Georgia De Leeuw about her research on mining, green steel, and the comfort of alignment with extractivism in the Swedish North, revealing the complexities of indigenous rights and environmental impact.

10. 

    29 Aug 2024

    Spiralprogrammet i Kalaallit Nunaat som kolonialt folkemord/The IUD Program in Kalaallit Nunaat as Colonial Genocide

    Dansk Beskrivelse I denne episode har vi besøg af forskerne Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Josefine Lee Stage og Victoria Pihl Sørensen, som i skrivende stund er i gang med en artikkel om den såkaldte spiralkampagne i Kalaallit Nunaat (Grønland) fra 1960erne og 1970erne . Det er ikke uden grund, at man i Kalaallit Nunaat omtaler dette som et folkemord begået af den danske kolonimagt. I episoden diskuterer Naja, Josefine og Victoria den danske kolonimagts motivation og ideologi som lå til grund for kampagnen og hvorfor kampagnen, som først blev bredt offentlig kendt i 2022 er blevet modtaget med så stor overraskelse, for kampagnen var velkendt og på ingen måde hemmeligholdt. Hvad siger det om dansk selvforståelse, om den danske stats syn på Kalaallit Nunaats oprindelige befolkning, om velfærdsstaten og ikke mindst om behovet for en ny dekolonial historieskrivning baseret på kalaallit erfaringer og viden? English Summary In this episode, we are joined by researchers Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Josefine Lee Stage and Victoria Pihl Sørensen, who are currently writing an article about the so-called IUD campaign in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) from the 1960s and 1970s. It is not without reason that Kalaallit Nunaat refers to this as a genocide committed by the Danish colonial power. In the episode, Naja, Josefine and Victoria discuss the Danish colonial power’s motivation and ideology behind the campaign and why the campaign, which only became widely publicised in 2022, was received with so much surprise, as the campaign was well known and in no way secretive. What does it say about Danish self-understanding, the Danish state’s view of Kalaallit Nunaat’s indigenous population, the welfare state and, not least, the need for a new decolonial history based on Kalaallit experiences and knowledge? Lenker: Link til Dansk transkribering (https://podcast.uis.no/media/Challenging_Nordic_Innocence/Nordic_innocence_4_transkribt_DK.pdf) Link to English transcript (available soon) Link to Naja Dyrendom Graugaard profile: https://najagraugaard.academia.edu/ (https://najagraugaard.academia.edu/)Link to Josephine Lee Stage profile: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/jlstage%40edu.au.dk (https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/jlstage%40edu.au.dk)Link to Victoria Pihl Sørensen profile: https://pma.cornell.edu/victoria-sorensen (https://pma.cornell.edu/victoria-sorensen) Articles (Open Access): Graugaard, N. D., & Ambrosius Høgfeldt, A. (2023). The silenced genocide : Why the Danish intrauterine device (IUD) enforcement in Kalaallit Nunaat calls for an intersectional decolonial analysis. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 36(2), 162–167. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.137309 (https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.137309) Graugaard, N. D., Pihl, V. S., Stage, J. L. (forthcoming). Colonial Reproductive Coercion and Control in Kalaallit Nunaat – The Overlooked Role of Racism in Denmark’s IUD Program. Special issue on ‘Race, racialization, and reproduction in the Nordic context, NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research. Sørensen, V. E. P. (2023). “In Women’s Hands”: Feminism, Eugenics and Race in Interwar Denmark. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 36(2), 46–62. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.132611 (https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v36i2.132611)

11. 

    4 Mar 2024

    The Danish “ghetto law” and the racist and capitalist attack on Denmark’s General Non-profit Housing Sector

    In this episode we have with us Jean Thierry and Tobias Gregory from the organisation “Almen Modstand” which was formed in response to the 2018 so-called ghetto law that put strict requirements on the Danish General Housing sector. There are Les mer ... (https://nettop.guru/wordpress/the-danish-ghetto-law-and-the-racist-and-capitalist-attack-on-denmarks-general-non-profit-housing-sector/)

12. 

    12 Feb 2024

    Green Colonialism – Wind farms and the Sámì struggles against the Norwegian State

    In this episode, we are joined by Aili Keskitalo from Amnesty International and former president of the Sámì Parliament in Norway and PhD fellow at the University of Stavanger Cecilie Larsen to talk about green colonialism and the South Sámì Les mer ... (https://nettop.guru/wordpress/green-colonialism-wind-farms-and-the-sami-struggles-against-the-norwegian-state/)

13. 

    8 Jan 2024

    Introduction to the Concept of Justice

    This episode introduces several themes surrounding justice. In this first attempt, we have gathered the brilliant scholars Liv Sunnercrantz and Andy Lautrup to discuss environmental justice, social justice, and spatial justice in the Nordic Region. We think about the relationship Les mer ... (https://nettop.guru/wordpress/introduction-to-the-concept-of-justice/)

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