Join the Department of Scandinavian Studies this evening, Thursday, October 24, 2019, for the lecture “White Gods: Vikings in the Far-Right Imagination,” by Professor Benjamin Teitelbaum of the University of Colorado Boulder. The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place at 7:00 p.m. in 127 Confer Hall.
Abstract:
Medieval Vikings and today’s white nationalists may seem alike. Brutal and vicious, disorganized and uncivilized, white and male. And indeed, from the rise of race biology during the early 1900s, to Hitler’s WWII regime, to contemporary nationalist movements, those looking to promote the purity and supremacy of a white or Nordic race have turned to the Vikings for inspiration. But in his talk, Professor Benjamin Teitelbaum exposes the shifting nature, not only of understanding images of historic Scandinavians, but also white nationalists’ agendas and aesthetics. Tracing the growth and subsequent decline of celebrations of Vikings in white nationalism during recent years, Teitelbaum highlights the transforming image of Scandinavia from being a beacon of white identity to being one of liberal decline.
Bio:
Benjamin R. Teitelbaum earned his PhD at Brown University and is Assistant Professor of Musicology, International Affairs, and formerly Head of Nordic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Most of his research focuses on ideology and culture in contemporary radical nationalist and populist movements in Scandinavia. His first book, Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism, was published in 2017 by Oxford University Press, and his second book, “War for Eternity: Steve Bannon, Radical Traditionalism, and the Return of the Far Right” will be published in spring 2020 by HarperCollins and Penguin. His research has received awards from the Joukowsky Family Foundation, the Society of Ethnomusicology, and the International Studies Association. Teitelbaum’s writing has appeared in major European and American media outlets in addition to scholarly venues. He has authored op-eds in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Dagbladet, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic and has contributed as an expert for NPR, Newsweek, Swedish Radio, Norwegian Radio, the BBC, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Helsinge Sanomat, and Berlingske.