The Nordic Humanities Centre put polarisation on the agenda at Folkemødet 2026 through debates and workshops that offered the audience new perspectives on hate speech and conspiracy theories. The researchers demonstrated how humanities research can help us understand and mitigate the conflicts that are increasingly characterising public debate.
The humanities are crucial to our ability to understand and address society’s major challenges. The Nordic Humanities Center is now launching a series of short, incisive, and timely books that bring humanities-based knowledge into public debate in order to nuance, strengthen, and challenge the public debate. The series is aptly titled “Udfordringer.”
What happens to democracy when language becomes toxic and threatening? What are some examples in Denmark and the Nordics of disagreement turning into outright hostility? And can news media do more to build bridges in society? These are some of the fundamental questions that a new group of fellows at the Nordic Humanities Centre will be working on in 2026.
On Thursday 15 January, the Nordic Humanities Center hosted a well-attended conference entitled "In the Shadow of War: Denmark, the Nordics and the return of geopolitics". It took place in the Parliament Hall at Christiansborg and gathered 170 people.