Nicola Karcher is a historian and Associate Professor in Social Science at the Østfold University College, Norway, where she leads the research group PRIS (Politics, Religion, Ideology and Society in Education) and is member of the Research Steering Committee of her faculty. Since 2023, she is also a researcher at Uppsala University in the project "Inception: The Birth of Nordic Fascism". From 2013 to 2017, Karcher has been a researcher in the project "Democratic Institutions Facing Nazi Occupation: Norway in a Comparative Perspective" at the Norwegian Holocaust Center (HL-senteret), financed by the Norwegian Research Council. In 2016, she has been a visiting researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, and in 2022 a guest lecturer at the University of Valencia. From 2020 to 2022, she had been a steering board member of the National Network of Social Science in Education, Norway.
Karcher’s doctoral thesis in 2012 from the University of Oslo dealt with Norwegian-German fascist networks in the interwar period. Karcher has published articles and books in English, German and Norwegian on the history of fascism, occupation history, antisemitism and racism, particularly with respect to the Nordic countries. She is together with Oula Silvennoinen co-head of the NORFAS steering committee.
Academic interests
Research fields:
- Fascism and national socialism
- Interwar and occupation history
- Far-right movements, ideology and networks
- Antisemitism, völkisch movement and history of racism
- School and education history
- History didactics
Featured publications
- 2024 "The Apocalyptic Battle: Conspiracist Antisemitism in Norway during the German Occupation" (together with Kjetil B. Simonsen), Nordisk Judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.142223 - 2023 "Antisemitism without Jews: The Impact of Redemptive Antisemitism in Norway before the Nazi Occupation," (together with Kjetil Simonsen), Scandinavian Journal of History,
DOI: 10.1080/03468755.2023.228302 - 2022 "National Socialisms in Clinch: The Case of Norwegian National Socialists in Interwar Germany", in: Nordic Fascism: Fragments of an Entangled History, eds. Nicola Karcher and Markus Lundström, Abingdon: Routledge.
- 2020 "Navigating Troubled Waters: Collaboration and Resistance in State Institutions in Nazi-occupied Norway" (together with Øystein Hetland and Kjetil B. Simonsen), Scandinavian Journal of History. DOI: 10.1080/03468755.2020.1846075
- 2019 "A National Socialist School for Norway: Concepts of Nazification during the German Occupation", Paedagogica Historica. International Journal of the History of Education. DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2019.1675728
Books
- 2022 Nordic Fascism: Fragments of an Entangled History (eds. together with Markus Lundström), Abingdon: Routledge.
- 2018 Kampen om skolen: Nazifisering og lærernes motstand i det okkuperte Norge, Oslo: Dreyers forlag.
- 2012 Movements and Ideas of the Extreme Right in Europe: Positions and Continuities (eds. together with Anders Kjøstvedt), Frankfurt/M. et al: Peter Lang Publishing House.
- 2012 Zwischen Nationalsozialismus und nordischer Gesinnung: Eine Studie zu den rechtsgerichteten Verbindungen norwegischer-deutscher Milieus in der Zwischenkriegszeit, Universitetet of Oslo, PhD thesis.
Teaching
- SAM101: European and Norwegian history until 1914 + political science (seminar facilitator, autumn semester)
- SAM103: European and Norwegian history + political science from 1914 onwards (autumn semester)
- SAM104: History and international politics after 1945 + political and social science (spring semester)
- Pratical-pedagogical education (PPU)
Academic background
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PhD in Modern History from the University of Oslo with a thesis on Norwegian-German fascist networks in the interwar period (2012)
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Magistra artium in History, Philosophy and Political Science from Technical University and Humboldt University Berlin (2005)
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University Pedagogy (2014)
Academic positions
- 2007-2013 University of Oslo: PhD-candidate, researcher and senior lecturer
- 2013-2017 Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies: researcher
- Since 2018 Østfold University College: Associate Professor in Social Science
Featured cooperation
- Network for Nordic Fascism Studies (NORFAS), co-head of steering committee
NORFAS – Network For Nordic Fascism Studies - Norwegian Holocaust Center (HL-senteret)
- Jewish Museum Oslo
- Swedish Fascism Studies (SWEFAS)
- International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (COMFAS)