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Welcome to the website of the research group for contemporary history at University of Southern Denmark

Our focus is on the history of contemporary states and societies – or, broadly speaking, historical developments from the late-nineteenth century until today. Our research is internationally leading in the history of the Nordic model of society, with interests also in Europe and the rest of the world.

We excel in the broad fields of political, social, cultural, and economic history and strongly believe in methodological pluralism. Hence, we represent a diverse set of approaches from conceptual, comparative, and transnational histories to digital analysis and Citizen Science. Whatever works! We strongly believe in the importance cross-disciplinarity, as reflected by our affiliation with the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies and the Danish Institute of Advanced Study.

Our research covers a broad range of topics. Key areas are the historical development and effects of welfare states, market economies, and state-society relations. More specifically, we work on the history of the Nordic welfare state model, Nordic capitalism, family and gender history, migration and refugees, public health history, war and its impact on society, business history, Cold War history, the history of democracy, and political parties and systems.

We are an ambitious and internationally-minded research group with strong Nordic and international networks and cooperation partners. We continuously host several externally funded research projects, guest researchers, and other research activities. We engage with society in multiple ways. We take pride in offering a haven for individual and collective research excellence.

We strongly believe that research thrive from cooperation and discussion. Consequently, we emphasize the importance of creating and maintaining a sound and constructive research environment based on pluralism, academic freedom, curiosity, and the commitment that research should be fun.