Sari Nauman

Sari Nauman is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre and a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, as well as a member of the Young Academy of Sweden. She currently holds a position as Senior Lecturer at the University of Gothenburg. Nauman is the recipient of several rewards, including the Birger Karlsson Science Award in 2023 and the Clio Award in 2018.

Nauman is an early modern historian with a background in political science and philosophy. Her work is characterized by its transdisciplinary approach, combining historical sources with social science theories, often from a transhistorical perspective. She explores concepts such as trust, security, and hospitality to understand how past communities and individuals managed situations of intense uncertainty.

At the RSC, Nauman will develop conceptual tools for refugee history in the project ‘”Refugee” and “IDP”: Challenging Concepts in Refugee History’. The results will feed into her book project on early modern IDPs. Her previous publications include the award-winning monograph Ordens kraft: Politiska eder i Sverige, 1520–1718 [The Force of Words: Political Oaths in Sweden, 1520–1718] (Nordic Academic Press 2017), as well as multiple edited volumes, articles and chapters in a wide range of publications.

Research at ODID

The project investigates what happens as current concepts on forced migration travel in history: what potential distortions do they produce, what potential gains do they promise? The project has two strands, one empirical and one theoretical. Empirically, the project uncovers the hidden history of early modern Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), analysing how they negotiated belonging and protection with recipient authorities and communities. A main case study of Baltic forced migration during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), within the Swedish Empire, works as a stepping-stone for comparisons with other migrations within empires in the early modern world. I juxtapose the narratives of these IDPs with that of concurrent refugees, interrogating the underpinnings of these positions in early modernity.

During my time at the RSC, I will pursue the theoretical strand of my project—examining the present definitions from a historical perspective—, benefitting from the RSC’s expert research environment. My research not only challenges existing historical narratives, which tend to solely describe early modern refuge as cross-border and religious in nature, but also provides valuable insights that can inform contemporary refugee and migration policies. At the RSC, I will explore connections between past and present, paving the way for future transdisciplinary research.