Bernadotteprogrammet instiftades av fem av de kungliga akademierna år 2016 med anledningen av Hans Maj:t Konungens 70-årsdag. Syftet är att erbjuda mentorstödda fördjupningar och utvecklingsmöjligheter för forskare och yngre konstnärliga utövare inom akademiernas intresseområden. Förutom Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur ingår Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna (Konstakademien), Kungl. Musikaliska akademien, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien och Svenska Akademien i samarbetet.
Nedan följer en sammanfattning, på engelska, av de båda stipendiaternas forskningsprojekt:
Beñat Elortza: From Svíþjóð to Svecia: Sweden’s State-Building Process from a European and Pan-Scandinavian Perspective, c. 1200-1280
The chief aim of Beñat Elortza’s
research project will be to consider the processes of state-building and
military transformation in Sweden during the thirteenth century from a
Scandinavian and European perspective. By building on the comparative methodology
of his doctoral thesis, Beñat’s project will examine the Europeanisation of the Swedish medieval proto-state as part of a
wider Scandinavian phenomenon. To this end, particular importance will be given
to changes in the legal, societal and political spheres, as well as to the
military expeditions launched by the Swedish Crown against the Finnish,
Estonian and Russian polities. Beñat Elortza will be doing his research
at the Department of History, University of Gothenburg.
Caitlin Ellis: New Perspectives on Viking Activity and Cultural Interactions
This project focuses on Scandinavian or ‘viking’ activity abroad. he ‘Viking Age’ will be viewed during the project from different angles, yet linked by the common themes of connectivity, royal authority, religious affairs, cultural contacts, and, in particular, the relations between the Scandinavian mainland and Scandinavian settlements. It will begin with two case studies about Scandinavian interactions in Britain and Ireland, on the conversion and saints’ cults of the Norse earldom of Orkney and on the naval expeditions of Scandinavian royals. Finally, the project will ‘zoom out’ to a broader overall article about Viking expansion viewed through the lens of the ‘Global Middle Ages’. Caitlin Ellis will be doing her research at the Department of History at Stockholm University.