Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
The current main focus of my research is popular material culture centred on postwar Anglo-American youth and rock performer fashion and costume as a motivated statement situated within a broader political, social, aesthetic, ethnic and gendered context. Fashion is at once a power statement and a reflection of power. Previous areas of competence have included the reception of Ancient Egypt ('Egyptomania') and historiography of Egyptology, history of the theatre, 18th century intellectual history, counterfactual history, and historical mythography/mythographical history centered on the American frontier myth. I am also interested in superheroes and their significance in American society, for instance as witnessed in presidential rhetoric, as well as considering seriously the political things that comics have had to say. In addition, I am intrigued by the cultural heritage and image of the British Empire as expressed by film epics and post-war popular culture in the UK, such as rock/pop performance costumes and allusions to Victorian/Edwardian and contemporary British literature, society and history in the postmodern graphic novels of Alan Moore (V for Vendetta; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; From Hell). Questions pertaining to the historical role of popular culture in political and social life, and how the political and social have been reflected by and/or expressed in popular culture inform all my research. From 2011-2013, I was Reviews Editor of the international, peer-reviewed biannual 'Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style' (http://catwalkjournal.net/). I am presently member of the Editing Board of 'Catwalk.' To view a selective or a complete list of my publications, projects etc., go to: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5080-9698 http://saxo.ku.dk/ansatte/?id=169953&vis=medarbejder http://www.forskningsdatabasen.dk/Search.external?operation=search&search-query=au:%22Langkj%C3%A6r+Michael%20Alexander%22
I have taught or teach the following subjects in Danish and/or English (for International and ERASMUS scholars): - The History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt, c. 5000 BC - c. 300 AD (for historians). - Global and World history - History theory - History methodology (Historical source criticism) - Historiography - Intellectual History of the Scandinavian and the European Enlightenments - American history (all periods) - History of the British Empire and its Legacy - Danish history (1660 to the present) - History of the 1960s - History of the 1980s - Scandinavian Identities - History of Fashion and Style with special focus on Popular and Youth Culture. I have been supervisor for young scholars on the BA, MA and PhD level. As delegate at international conferences I have delivered presentations of my research papers on 'Rock Military Style,' gendered fashion, fashion and art, and related subjects, as well as the history of eighteenth-century Danish science. I have been course-coordinator (Danish: 'fagkoordinator) of the Global History course for BA-level students at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. I have been course-coordinator (Danish: 'fagkoordinator) of the Historiography course for BA-level students at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen.
I have given courses in Egyptology (History of Pharaonic Egypt; the reception of Ancient Egypt in the post-Renaissance West; Mika Waltari and his novel of Ancient Egypt "The Egyptian." I presently give courses in - Historiography - Danish History 1660 - present - American history 1492 - present (+ courses with special themes: The Frontier, Puritans; New York City's history) - History of the British Empire ca. 1600 - present (+ courses with special themes: Comparative history of the British and the American Empires).
68'ernes værdier har dannet baggrund for den værdikamp, som det borgerlige Danmark med statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) i spidsen proklamerede for nogle år siden. De fleste aktivister havde jo en utopi om et helt anderledes samfundssystem, end Fogh Rasmussen. Facit er den, at politisk var ungdomsoprøret en fiasko, men kulturelt var det en succes.
I forbindelse med seminaret "HISTORIE - Krig og Fred" holdt jeg foredraget "Krig og Fred i 1700-tallet." Foredraget omhandlede krigsførelsens taktik og strategi med fokus på Frederik 2. af Prøjsen, samt diplomati og neutralitet, med fokus på François de Callières, Hugo Grotius og Cornelius van Bynkershoek.
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I am Editorial Board Member of the international, double-blind peer-reviewed biannual journal Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style where I peer-review abstract and manuscript submissions and assist in the final proof-reading of complete issues of Catwalk prior to their publication.
I was Reviews Editor of the International, double-blind peer-reviewed, biannual journal Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style. In my capacity of Reviews Editor, I saw three issues of Catwalk (Vol. 1(1), September 2012; Vol 2(1), March 2013; Vol. 2(2), September 2013) through to publication.
På indbydelse af Studenterforeningen og med støtte fra Carlsberg Mindelegat afholdt jeg d. 8. juni Fredagstale-arrangementet med en præsentation af min igangværende forskning i emnet "Baroque, Bildung og Bibel i Karl Lagerfelds design og personlige stil - Fortolkning af en æstetik." Den tysk-fødte tøjdesigner og fotograf m.m. Karl Lagerfeld (f. 1933) er en af modebranchens mest markante og kontroversielle skikkelser. At trænge bagom Lagerfelds nøje konstruerede facade og paradoksfyldte selvfremstilling stiller os over for udfordringer. Lagerfelds store alsidighed giver os unikke muligheder for tværfaglig efterforskning indenfor almenhistorie, kunst-, litteratur-, og religionshistorie og kønsstudier. På den baggrund har jeg indkredset de tre termer: Barok, Bildung og Bibel. Mit igangværende studium er en nøje analyse og kritisk fortolkning af Lagerfelds æstetiske og intellektuelle særpræg, således også hans påvirkninger fra barok og rokoko, tilegnelse af Bildung og optagethed af bestemte katolske og jødiske "bibelske" temaer. Jeg diskuterer, hvordan en dynamisk sammenhæng mellem disse påvirkninger har motiveret Lagerfelds karakteristiske tilgang til både design og hans personlige stil.