Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen

• Sundvall, Eirik Wig & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2026). ‘The lumber business’: the Nordic dimension of AFL-FTUC’s network and operations, 1944–57. Labor History. ISSN 0023-656X. p. 21–21. doi: 10.1080/0023656x.2026.2738385. Full text in Research Archive
• Høghøj, Mikkel & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2026). Introduction: Materiality and Nordic Welfare. Journal of Modern European History. ISSN 1611-8944. doi: 10.1177/16118944261441167. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This special issue explores and seeks to reinterpret Nordic welfare history through the lens of materiality. Moving beyond institutional and policy-centred narratives, the issue highlights how welfare ideals were shaped, negotiated and experienced through the built environment, infrastructures and everyday objects. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from urban and architectural history, conceptual history, and the history of experiences, the special issue demonstrates how materiality functioned as an active site where welfare discourses and practices intersected and where Nordic welfare states were made tangible in daily life. The articles of the special issue connect to three overarching research themes: the role of planning, infrastructure and architecture in forming welfare citizenship; the circulation of material representations that influenced domestic and international understandings of Nordic welfare; and the lived welfare state where citizens engaged with welfare through intimate and emotional encounters with materiality. Through case studies ranging from housing estates and subway systems to prams and baby boxes, the special issue adopts a multi-scalar perspective, revealing how materiality connected welfare processes across scales—from national planning regimes and transnational image circulation to the embodied, intimate encounters of everyday life.

• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2026). Pram Countries: Baby Carriages From Symbols of Good Motherhood to Gender Equal Parenting in the Nordic Countries. Journal of Modern European History. ISSN 1611-8944. doi: 10.1177/16118944261440005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article explores prams and strollers, also called baby carriages and buggies, as material objects and fabricated images in the Nordic region. Prams are frequently associated with a Nordic gender equality model, a development that this article argues is of recent vintage. For much of the late-19th and 20th centuries, prams in the Nordic countries were linked primarily with motherhood, despite shifting notions of what constituted childcare, gender roles and the welfare state. In tracing the development of prams, their usage and the narratives that surrounded them, this article examines prams’ evolution from highly gendered objects to avatars of Nordic exceptionality. Pram usage came to represent vital characteristics of a new Nordic model that developed around the turn of the millennium and which carried a reputation for equality between men and women, including in gender-neutral parenting. In following these developments, the article contends that the history of prams presents a useful perspective for exploring the material contestations and the impact of welfare states, as well as the Nordic model concept.

• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2025). Nordic financial cooperation: the Nordic Investment Bank. In Græger, Nina; Hemstad, Ruth; Nedergaard, Peter & Stadius, Peter (Ed.), Handbook of Nordic Cooperation. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035319725. p. 176–176. doi: 10.4337/9781035319725.00022. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary & Hellenes, Andreas Mørkved (2025). The northern way: transmission and operationalization of a Nordic model in Canada. Journal of Transatlantic Studies (JTS). ISSN 1479-4012. doi: 10.1057/s42738-025-00138-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Canada and the Nordic countries have historically been regarded as exemplary progressive models in both social and foreign policy, inspiring proclamations of an inherent transatlantic “northern” identity. This article disputes such arguments by surveying how ideas of Canadian-Nordic commonality have been historically and politically constructed in the period 1960 to 2020. Canadian interest in the Nordic region has proved variable during this period, affecting transatlantic relations and inspiring instances of political transfer, particularly in family policy. Overall, we identify some unique elements of Nordic images in Canada and illustrate the influence of transatlantic language communities in their spread and impact.

• Sundvall, Eirik Wig & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2025). Haakon Lie og arbeidernes Amerika. In Sandvik, Hilde (Eds.), Demokratiet i Amerika - skrekkeksempel eller ideal. Norske oppfatninger av USA gjennom 200 år.. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202868505. p. 265–291. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary; Hellenes, Andreas Mørkved; Hilson, Mary & Marklund, Carl (2022). Modelizing the Nordics: Transdiscursive Migrations of Nordic Models, c. 1965-2020. Scandinavian Journal of History. ISSN 0346-8755. doi: 10.1080/03468755.2022.2083225. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2022). Enthusiastic Proselytisers: Translating the Swedish Gender Policy Model in Cold War United States. Contemporary European History. ISSN 0960-7773. doi: 10.1017/S0960777321000400. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2021). ‘A cross between Batman and a public ear’ How the United States transformed the ombudsman. In Byrkjeflot, Haldor; Mjøset, Lars; Mordhorst, Mads & Petersen, Klaus (Ed.), The Making and Circulation of Nordic Models, Ideas and Images. Routledge. ISSN 9781003156925. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2018). Yellow-Blue Collars: American Labor and the Pursuit of Swedish Policy, 1961-1963. American Studies in Scandinavia. ISSN 0044-8060. doi: 10.22439/asca.v50i2.5777. Full text in Research Archive
• Dosdall, Henrik & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2017). Letting Lehman Go: Critique, Social Change, and the Demise of Lehman Brothers. Historical Social Research. ISSN 0172-6404. doi: 10.12759/hsr.42.2017.3.196-217. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2017). A Model of Social Security? The political usage of Scandinavia in Roosevelt’s New Deal. Scandinavian Journal of History. ISSN 0346-8755. doi: 10.1080/03468755.2017.1336598. Full text in Research Archive

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• Hilson, Mary; Marklund, Carl; Hellenes, Andreas Mørkved & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2026). Globalising the Nordic Model From exceptionalism to entanglement. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526184283. 248 p. doi: https:/manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526184283/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) frequently attract attention as examples of a 'Nordic model'. The meanings of the term vary, but especially since the global financial crisis of 2008-9 the Nordic countries have often been portrayed positively, as examples of economic dynamism, innovation and social equality. Studies of these images of the Nordic countries and their international circulations have opened new horizons for understanding the global influences upon the Nordic model. This volume explores how the Nordic model has been shaped by global entanglements, in exchange not only with Western Europe and North America, but also with the Global South. Drawing on selected case studies, the volume offers new perspectives on the meanings of the Nordic model and Nordic exceptionalism in a global context during the half century since c. 1970.

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• Hemstad, Ruth; Engh, Sunniva; Saxi, Håkon Lunde & Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2026). Nordisk samarbeid: Historiske erfaringer, kritisk samtid. doi: https:/www.hf.uio.no/iakh/forskning/aktuelt/arrangementer/konferanser/2026/norske-historiedager-2026.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Sesjon. Ordstyrer: Sunniva Engh (UiO/IAKH) Innlegg 1: Ruth Hemstad (NB/IAKH): Nordisk samarbeid og skandinavisme: En sammenfiltret og ambivalent historie Innlegg 2: Sunniva Engh (UiO/IAKH): Felles nordisk bistand: Vekst og fall 1960−1989 Innlegg 3: Håkon Lunde Saxi (Forsvarets høgskole): Nordisk forsvarssamarbeid: Makter Norden å stå sammen? Innlegg 4: Byron Z. Rom-Jensen (UiO/IAKH): Nordic financial cooperation: the Nordic Investment Bank

• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2022). Walter A. Jackson. Alva and Gunnar Myrdal in Sweden and America, 1898-1945: Unsparing Honesty. New York and London: Routledge, 2021. Swedish-American Historical Quarterly. ISSN 0730-028X. Full text in Research Archive
• Rom-Jensen, Byron Zachary (2016). Saving the American Farmer: The Impact of Danish Agricultural Practices on American Policy Direction. The Bridge. ISSN 0737-6278. Full text in Research Archive

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