Contemporary cross-disciplinary perspectives on diversity

This is a subject area course (områdeemne) within the humanities and arts. The overall theme is citizenship and politics.

Norwegian society has become more socially and culturally diverse. What diversity entails and how we can build a sustainable society characterized by trust and belonging are therefore fundamental questions. The course will provide an introduction to diversity in a Norwegian context and beyond and explore how notions of diversity come into play in different arenas such as language, literature and ethics. The course will provide knowledge about various aspects of diversity, including ethnicity, race, gender and sexuality, and will study diversity as an historical and cultural phenomenon. Humanistic perspectives on equality and difference provide the basis for raising new issues and ways of exploring cultural and societal understandings. In this course, this is done through thematically organized project work.

Candidates who have completed this course will have knowledge of:

• central aspects of social and cultural diversity in a Norwegian context and beyond
• important concepts such as intersectionality, diversity, 'Norwegianness', equality and difference, and gender equality
• how the humanities can contribute to our understanding of diversity as a cultural phenomenon and an ideal

Candidates who have completed this course will have the skills to:

• define and use central concepts regarding diversity, 'Nowegianness', equality, and inequality, sameness and difference
• apply theoretical concepts and analytical tools to reflect on widespread ideas and presuppositions regarding ethnicity/nationality, gender, language and other ways of categorizing people and groups
• formulate a research question related to a given topic and answer it by taking part in a project

General competencies

Students who complete this course have developed cooperation skills through group project work.

The first half of the semester is based on lectures followed by a period of seminar training, where students work on a project in interdisciplinary groups. The project is presented at the end of the semester.

Compulsory activities:

• Project outline / project plan (group submission)
• Weekly logs during the project period (group submission)
• Presentation of the project (in groups)
• Seminar work is organized and distributed within individual groups. The equivalent of 80 % participation in project group work is required.

Compulsory activities during the seminar training are conducted in groups. In order to take the exam, approval of compulsory activities and the equivalent of 80% participation in group work is required. Compulsory activity is only valid in the semester the subject is taken and the following semester.

The course is taught in Norwegian or English.