By Kirstin Ohrt, Department of Art & Archaeology
As they pedaled to the northernmost tip of Denmark—where the Baltic and North Seas visibly collide—students in HUM 424 / ART 424 / PHI 423 “The Modern Breakthrough in Scandinavia” encountered a visceral grounding for ideas they had been tracing across philosophy, art, and history throughout the spring 2026 semester. The nearby fishing village of Skagen was the site of a transformative moment in Scandinavian modernism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There, a prolific artists’ colony broke with rigid neoclassical traditions in the visual arts, contributing to the period known as the Modern Breakthrough—an era of intersecting innovations that also reshaped philosophy, science, and social politics.
Co-taught by Department of Art & Archaeology Professor Bridget Alsdorf and Department of Philosophy Professor Hans Halvorson, the course examines this extraordinary moment in the history of ideas, when diverse disciplines informed and transformed one another. A course trip to Denmark, supported by a Magic Grant from the Humanities Council, allowed students to encounter the Modern Breakthrough where it unfolded—rooted in the landscape, and from within the culture that shaped it.
Read the full story on the Department of Art & Archaeology website.
