Academic interests
- Early modern history
- Social history and gender history
- Global connections
- Digital humanities, methodology and the theory of history
Courses taught
Background
Hanne Østhus (PhD, European University Institute, 2013) is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Oslo. Previously, she has worked at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim), the University of Bonn and Sogn og Fjordane University College (Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane).
Tags:
Early Modern History,
The History of Work,
Denmark-Norway,
Enslavement,
Global history
Publications
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Heinsen, Johan; Vilhelmsson, Vilhelm & Østhus, Hanne
(2023).
Labour and coercion in the Nordic region in the early modern period: connections, ambiguities, practices.
Scandinavian Journal of History.
ISSN 0346-8755.
48(5).
doi:
10.1080/03468755.2023.2218848.
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This introduction discusses the constitutive role played by various practices of coercion within a range of labour relations across the Nordic region in the early modern period. In recent years a growing body of international literature has worked to re-conceptualize histories of labour coercion. Current trends in global labour history have emphasized the interrelational nature of labour regimes, eschewing traditional boundaries of free and unfree labour, productive and unproductive labour, wage labour and unpaid labour, and focused rather on the entangled history of labour and coercion in its various guises. Based on a critical discussion of the teleological frameworks and essentialized analytical categories that have largely characterized the historiography of labour in many of the Nordic countries, we argue for shifting the focus of attention to study the actual practices of labour and coercion in order to establish a more inclusive, contextual and historicized historiography of Nordic labour.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2023).
The Servant, The Law and the State: Servant Law in Denmark-Norway, c. 1600-1800.
In Whittle, Jane & Lambrecth, Thijs (Ed.),
Labour Laws in Preindustrial Europe. The Coercion and Regulation of Wage Labour, c. 1350-1850.
Boydell & Brewer.
ISSN 9781783277681.
p. 124–143.
doi:
10.2307/jj.9192211.12.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2023).
The case of Adam Jacobsen. Enslavement in eighteenth-century Norway.
Scandinavian Journal of History.
ISSN 0346-8755.
48(5).
doi:
10.1080/03468755.2023.2229834.
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The article explores the life of Adam Jacobsen, an enslaved man who was trafficked from the Danish West Indies to the small town of Arendal in southern Norway sometime around 1780. By using the micro-spatial perspective the article aims to investigate how Jacobsen and others who were trafficked from America, Africa and Asia to Europe were understood within the broader processes of marketization and racialization that occurred with the development of the Atlantic slave trade. The article examines how these processes were given a localized expression through investigations of different ‘sites’: the geographical places of St. Croix and, primarily, Arendal, and the institutional sites of the household and the interrogation room. In St. Croix, Jacobsen lived in a society constructed around plantation slavery. In Arendal, he was a working member of his owner’s household residing with local servants and a local family, but he was also singled out and often racialized. Jacobsen’s life story, then, demonstrates how colonial slavery extended into Europe in a way that not only concerned capital and goods but also trafficking of people.
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Andersen, Nina Trige; Kristjánsdóttir, Ragnheiður; Neunsinger, Silke; Pesonen, Pete; Vilhelmsson, Vilhelm & Østhus, Hanne
(2023).
Longer, broader, deeper, and more personal–the renewal of labour history in the Nordic countries.
Scandinavian Economic History Review.
ISSN 0358-5522.
doi:
10.1080/03585522.2023.2193193.
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This article deals with the recent developments of labour history in and about the Nordic countries. We identify patterns, problems and possibilities in these recent developments in the field – roughly within the last two decades. Our main source of analysis is the research presented and exchanged in the Nordic labour history journals, the Nordic Labour History Network, the labour history associations, the archives and libraries. We relate current trends to developments in European and Global labour history. We claim that the revival and expansion of Nordic labour history must also be understood through its exchange with labour history outside the Nordic sphere and with other disciplines and research fields. The expansion of the field occurred through increased attention and sensitivity to the specificities of various forms of labour, the lived lives of those who work, the places in which work takes place, the various ways in which workers form collective practices and structures, and how they understand themselves in relation to as well as within and outside the parties and institutions that organise and claim to represent workers and labour interests.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2018).
Were all servants women? Reflections on the use of gender in research on domestic service.
In Overud, Johanne & Nyström, Daniel (Ed.),
Gender, History, Futures, Report from the XI Nordic Women's and Gender History Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, August 19-21, 2015.
SKOGH. Sveriges kvinno- och genushistoriker.
ISSN 9789176018484.
p. 103–111.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2018).
Slaver og ikke-europeiske tjenestefolk i Danmark og Norge på 1700- og begynnelsen av 1800-tallet.
Arbeiderhistorie.
ISSN 0801-7778.
22(1),
p. 33–47.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2017).
Tvunget til tjeneste? Tjenesteplikten i Danmark-Norge på 1700-tallet og begynnelsen av 1800-tallet.
Arbetarhistoria.
ISSN 0281-7446.
163.64(3-4),
p. 26–31.
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Østhus, Hanne & Spring, Ulrike
(2016).
Digging into Downstairs: Exhibiting Domestic Service.
Museum and Society (M&S).
14(3),
p. 431–445.
doi:
10.29311/mas.v14i3.655.
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This article is a case study of a newly opened exhibition at one of the most significant lieux de mémoire in Norway, the historic house museum Eidsvoll House. Eidsvoll House has, since 1814, played a key role in Norwegian stateand nation-building narratives and continues to do so today. The article explores the tenacity of national narratives by investigating the role museums play in contemporary nation-building processes. It particularly looks at attempts to integrate domestic servants into this dominant and controlling narrative, and investigates the complex relationship between social history, national narratives and museum communication strategies. It problematizes the exhibition strategy, popular at historic houses, of recreating the past at a specific juncture of time and argues that such an approach might help to reaffirm social hierarchies. On a more general level, the article aims to contribute to a productive exchange between academic and museum approaches to history
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Østhus, Hanne
(2026).
Knowing how to labour on the on the other side of the world. The case of eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2025).
Niklas Freisleben Lund. I ambivalent kamp”.
Arbetarhistoria.
ISSN 0281-7446.
195-196(3-4),
p. 88–89.
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Østhus, Hanne & Konglund, Christian
(2025).
Historier som endret verden: Danmark-Norges kolonier, og kampen om toll.
[Radio].
Gjenklang.
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Konglund, Christian & Østhus, Hanne
(2025).
Historier som endret verden: Den transatlantiske slavehandelen.
[Radio].
Gjenklang.
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Østhus, Hanne & Frydenlund, Bård
(2025).
Eidsvoll House - Investigating Servants' Lives at Norway's National Monument.
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Østhus, Hanne & Christensen, Lene
(2025).
Koloniale blindsoner. Slavehandelen er en del av norsk sjøfartshistorie.
[Journal].
Museum. Tidsskrift for kritikk, ideer og debatt.
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Østhus, Hanne & Konglund, Christian
(2025).
Historier som endret verden: Slaveriets historie. Fra Mesopotamia til antikkens Hellas.
[Radio].
Gjenklang.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2024).
Martin Andersson. Från trälar till tjänstefolk: Legofolk i Sverige 1250-1600.
Scandia: Tidsskrift för historisk forskning.
ISSN 0036-5483.
90(1),
p. 129–131.
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Østhus, Hanne & Nina, Kristiansen
(2024).
Vilhelmine og Adam Jacobsen var slaver i Norge.
[Internet].
Forskning.no.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2024).
Hairdressing at Home. How Hairdressing in the Household became a Problem in Eighteenth-Century Denmark-Norway.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2024).
Martin Andersson, Från trålar till tjänstefolk. Legofolk i Sverige 1250-1600.
Scandia: Tidsskrift för historisk forskning.
ISSN 0036-5483.
90(1),
p. 129–131.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2021).
Stockholms tjenestefolk. Paul Borenberg: Tjänstefolk. Vardagsliv i underordning. Stockholm 1600-1635.
Historisk tidskrift (Sverige).
ISSN 0345-469X.
141(2),
p. 311–316.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2021).
Slaves and servants in Eighteenth-Century Denmark-Norway. Trafficked people in European households.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2020).
Alessandro Stanziani: Labor on the Fringes of Empire. Voice, Exit and the Law.
Sehepunkte.
20(11).
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Østhus, Hanne
(2020).
Free or slave in Europe? Denmark-Norway in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2019).
Slavery and service in the household. The example of non-European servants and slaves in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2018).
Uses of the Past: How Terms and Notions from the Middle Ages Were Used in Eighteenth Century Debates on Freedom.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2018).
Perspectives from free/unfree labour and gender history. The example of service and slavery in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2018).
Forced into farm service? Compulsory service in Norway in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2017).
It's the economy, stupid! Undervisningsspill om trelasthandelen.
Historikeren.
ISSN 1891-6600.
p. 11–13.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2017).
Living with your employer. Domestic service and coercion in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2017).
Slaves and servants. Domestics transported from the colonies to Denmark-Norway in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2015).
Are servants always women? Reflections on the use of "gender" in research on domestic service.
Full text in Research Archive
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Østhus, Hanne
(2014).
Blogg: To tjenere, et overfall og en svensk-norsk konflikt i Christiania i 1815.
www.historieblogg.no.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2012).
“The Authority of the Mistress- Mistress-servant relations in Copenhagen and Christiania in the late eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century”.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2011).
“Working youth in the eighteenth-century. Apprentices and apprenticeship in Copenhagen and Christiania".
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Østhus, Hanne
(2011).
“Maria Ågren: Domestic Secrets. Women & Property in Sweden, 1600-1857”.
European Review of History.
ISSN 1350-7486.
18(5-6),
p. 869–871.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2008).
“Arbeid, underordning og selvstendighet. Livet som tjener i 1700-tallets Christiania”.
Byminner.
ISSN 0007-7631.
p. 16–24.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2008).
“‘Hun formente sig lige goed, med dem hun tiente.’ Arbeidsrettssaker på 1700-tallet”.
Fortid.
ISSN 1504-1913.
p. 34–38.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2008).
“Konflikt i husholdet. Arbeidsrettssaker på 1700-tallet”.
Arkivmagasinet.
ISSN 0801-5449.
p. 28–31.
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Sandvik, Pål Thonstad; Østhus, Hanne & Andresen, Jacob Nordin
(2023).
Dansk-norsk misjon i Trøndelag: En analyse av skildringer om misjonen overfor sørsamene i Trondhjems amt 1706–1731.
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet.
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I denne masteroppgaven analyserer jeg skildringene skrevet av aktører knyttet til misjonen overfor samene i Trondhjems amt tidlig på 1700-tallet. Problemstillingen for oppgaven er Hvordan ble misjonen overfor samene i Trondhjems amt skildret av aktører knyttet til misjonsvirksomheten i perioden 1706-1731? Jeg undersøker følgende tema: strategiene for misjonen, samenes reaksjoner på misjonen, forhold mellom samer og nordmenn, og brennevinshandel. Aktørene som har skrevet kildematerialet var enten knyttet til geistligheten eller misjonskollegiet, noe beskrivelsene bærer preg av. Det var uenighet om hvordan misjonen skulle utøves. Dette gjorde at konflikter mellom misjonærene og norsk geistlighet oppstod. Dette påvirket misjonens politikk, samt aktørenes beskrivelser av geistligheten. Det hadde også påvirkning på hvordan misjonærene ønsket å organisere misjonen. Skildringene av støttespillere og motstandere ble også påvirket av konfliktene. Flere av aktørene mente at den kristne praktiseringen til samene måtte reformeres. Det ble stilt forventninger om at ritualer knyttet til samisk religion skulle avvikles. Det førte til ulike reaksjoner på misjonen i samiske miljø, noe som vises i kildene. Der beskrives både de som holdt seg nøytrale, de misjonærene slet må å omvende, og samene misjonærene mente støttet dem. Nordmenns forhold til samene ble skildret negativt. Presteskapet ble kritisert for å ikke ha oversikt over samene i prestegjeldene sine. Aktørene skildret derfor prestene som likegyldige til samenes forhold til kristendom. Det var noen unntak, men de gjennomgående beskrivelsene var ikke positive. Lokale nordmenn i Trondhjems amt ble også negativ skildret for å økonomisk utnytte samene. Aktørene mente også at nordmenn forsøkte å sabotere misjonen. Misjonærenes skildringer av brennevinshandel var også negative. De beskrev innvirkning brennevin hadde på samenes religiøse og sosiale liv. På grunn av de påståtte innvirkningene på samenes religiøse tilbedelse ble handelen sett som et hinder for misjonen. Derfor ønsket misjonærene å forby salg av brennevin til samene.
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Østhus, Hanne
(2013).
Contested authority. Master and servant in Copenhagen and Christiania, 1750-1850.
European University Institute.
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Published
Aug. 7, 2024 2:15 PM
- Last modified
Jan. 22, 2026 6:24 PM