Susan Lindholm

Civil Society Without Boundaries: Nordic Humanitarianism Facing the Biafra Crisis (financed by the Swedish Research Council, VR)

This project sheds new light on the Biafra Crisis (1967–70), a turning point in twentieth century history that transformed civil societies in the Global North, especially in the humanitarian sector. We seek to understand how this emergency called forth public engagement and a new humanitarian system in the Nordic countries based on an expanding globally oriented civil society, closely entangled with the media, and in arm’s-length interaction with the state.

The project pays special attention to different types of interaction, interrelated discourses, and varieties of meaning-making ethics across societal sectors and borders. We draw on postcolonial, intersectional, and altruism theories while applying historical methods to analyse largely unexplored archival sources (church aid organisations, Red Cross, foreign ministries) and media (press, TV) on Biafran distress and relief efforts in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Three carefully timed work packages examine the relevant aid agencies, the media, and the interaction of civil society and governments. Although the Biafra Crisis has been a trending topic in international research, this project is first to systematically examine the high-profile Nordic participation in this relief effort. This is all the more significant as the Biafra Crisis is a formative moment in the history of the Nordic aid sector, raising fundamental ethical issues that continue to be relevant to global civil society today.

An entangled history of the Kulturnation: the German schools in Stockholm and Helsinki 1933-1995 (financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, ÖSS)

This project seeks to understand the process through which Germany has reemerged as a highly regarded Kulturnation, after having been discredited due to its association with the NS-regime after World War II. In order to do so, it traces continuities and discontinuities in, and between debates surrounding the German schools in Stockholm and Helsinki between 1933-1995. These debates are seen as specifically interesting, as they are located at the intersection of politics and education, and as the Nordic countries played a central role in the racial and gendered imagination of the NS regime. By discussing the negotiation of Germanness through a transnational lens, this project takes into account that these negotiations refer to a number of different Germanies (NS-, East-, West-, and reunited Germany). The theoretical framework used to analyze personal files, protocols, letters, and newspaper articles combines an entangled history approach with an intersectional discourse analysis. The project among others contributes to knowledge on continuities and discontinuities concerning the intersection of nationalism and education in the 20th century. Such knowledge is important today, as education is increasingly politicized in the framework of transnational organizations such as the OECD and the EU. It is also important as heated political debates across Europe concerning multiculturalism and democracy force us to reconsider and revisit the connection between education and nationalism.

An article on the NS-led German school in Stockholm was published in 2022.

Hip Hop

My PhD thesis Remembering Chile. An entangled history of Hip-hop in-between Chile and Sweden focused on the intersection of Hip-hop culture and the Chilean diaspora in Sweden after 1973. Since then, I have written peer review articles on Hip hop Practice as Identity and Memory Work in and In-between Chile and Sweden, the work of Chilean artist Ana Tijoux, as well as multiculturalism and narratives of belonging. At present, I am working as an editor with the upcoming anthology "Nordic Noise: Hip Hop, Culture, and Community in Northern Europe" which introduces the research field of Nordic Hip-Hop Studies to an international audience. The anthology will be published in 2024 by Routledge.