Course The Journey of Ideas: Transnational Perspectives on Political Culture and Networks, 1815–1850

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ECTS: 2

Course leader: Mikkel Thorup

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Arts

Course fee: 0.00 DKK

Status: Course is open for application

Semester: Spring 2025

Application deadline: 11/05/2025

Cancellation deadline: 11/05/2025

Course type: Online education

Start date: 27/05/2025

Administrator: Andreas Mølgaard Laursen

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Please contact the course administrator at amla@au.dk. Registrations and cancellation are only possible through the course administrator.

Course description

How do ideas shape political and social change, and how do they travel across borders? This interdisciplinary PhD course focuses on the period 1815–1850 and explores the formation of transnational political networks and the emergence of democratic cultures. The participants will discuss and investigate how political actors and movements through different media during this era influenced each other across national and regional boundaries. We will be reading and discussing a wide array of texts and movements from different nationalities active in this era. 

Special attention will be given to

  • The role of intellectual networks plays in innovating political discourse
  • The circulation of ideas about democracy, rights, and governance between Europe, the Americas, and the Mediterranean.
  • The inclusion and exclusion of marginalized groups—such as women, enslaved people, and the propertyless—in the political cultures of the time.

Aim

  • The aim is for the participants to understand how ideas migrant over national borders and inspire each other. The participants will get a keen insight into how ideas are created from below, and in how to investigate ideas and texts, not of an academic origin.
  • The participants will also be able to trace political connections between different spheres of European languages and thus understand European ideas in a global context.

Target group/Participants

  • The course is open to PhD students from the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the transnational history of ideas, political cultures, and media during the early 19th century. The focus on 1815–1850 offers a targeted framework while encouraging participants to connect the course’s themes to their own research.

Language 

  • English

Form

  • The course combines lectures, source-based workshops, and participant-led discussions. It emphasizes interaction and application of historical perspectives to diverse research fields.

ECTS-credits

  • 2

Lecturers

  • Nicolai von Eggers Mariegaard 

Preperation

  • Participants are expected to have read the curriculum before the course. They are also encouraged to prepare a short description of how their own research relates to the course themes.

Venue 

  • 27 May 2025. 10.00-16.00: Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7 , 8000 Aarhus C. Building 1465, room 130
  • 28 May 2025. 10.00-16.00: Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7 , 8000 Aarhus C. Building 1465, room 130

Course dates:

  • 27 May 2025 10:00 - 16:00
  • 28 May 2025 10:00 - 16:00