Course Syllabus

 

Course Description

About the course
The Danish Language & Culture course at DIS is your ideal entry point for living and studying abroad in Denmark. This focused section introduces you to Danish culture through photographic activities in class, as well as contemporary and historical work by Danish photographers.

The course examines key Danish photographers and major photographic genres, including portraiture, street photography, documentary photography, urban and landscape photography, and contemporary art photography. We also explore how Danish photographers’ perspectives and visual choices shape representations of Denmark and Danish society. Through close reading of classic texts in photographic theory, we investigate the potential of the photographic image and use the camera as a tool for exploring and interpreting the Danish reality that surrounds us – examining how key cultural and social phenomena such as the welfare state, youth culture, trust, hygge, sustainability, multiethnic Denmark, and Copenhagen as a modern metropolis become visible through everyday life, public space, and visual representation.

At the same time, the course offers a functional approach to Danish language learning. Language learning focuses on spoken, everyday Danish, reading and listening comprehension, as well as basic grammar, allowing you to interact in simple and practical ways in your local surroundings. This functional approach is reflected in classroom interactions, hands-on exercises, and experiential learning through Field Studies in Copenhagen and the surrounding area.

Learning Objectives

• Acquire knowledge and understanding of Danish culture and society
• Ability to speak, read, and understand Danish on a basic level
• Develop a sense of belonging
• Use the camera as a tool to explore and interpret Danish society
• Become familiar with Danish photographers and analyze their work with attention to style, context, and meaning
• Create and present a coherent photo series with captions and reflections

 

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Engaged Participation	30%
Photographic Assignments (1-4)	35%
Online Worksheets*	10%
Oral Exam	25 %
Total	100 %

 

*Online Worksheets are part of the final grading and can be accessed in the "Danish at DIS" Canvas course. Please see Guidelines and assessment criteria for worksheets.

Faculty

Frank Sebastian Hansen holds an MA in Danish and Philosophy from the University of Copenhagen. He is a writer, photographer, and educator, and he trained as a photographer at Fatamorgana – the Danish School of Art Photography. From 2021 to 2025, he served as Assistant Professor of Instruction in Danish and Scandinavian Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been with DIS since 2025.

 

Field Studies

We have three Field Studies in this class. The purpose of the Field Studies is to use Copenhagen as our extended DIS classroom. During the first, we will visit Wilson Saplana Gallery at Vesterbrogade 6C to see an exhibition by the Greenlandic photographer Inuuteq Storch. Afterwards, we will take the metro to Nuuks Plads and walk to the photobook publisher Disko Bay, where we will meet its founder, Stinus Duch, at 2:00 p.m. (Address: Hørsholmsgade 24, ground floor, 2200 Copenhagen N).

After our visit, we will meet at Absalon at 5:30 p.m. and have dinner with the Copenhageners. (Address: Sønder Boulevard 73, 1720 Copenhagen V).

During the second Field Study, we will visit a Danish gymnasium (Rødovre Gymnasium) and speak with some of the students.

Field Study 1: 2. September (1pm-5pm) – Wilson Saplana Gallery  - at 2pm, visit at the photobook publisher Disko Bay.

Field Study 2: 28. October (8.30 am-12.30 pm) - Visit to Rødovre Gymnasium.

Evening Field Study / Cultural Event: 2. September – Dinner at Absalon’s Church, 5:45 pm – 7.30 pm

Guest Lecturers

The course also includes guest lecturers, including Christian Bretton-Meyer from the artist collective AKASSEN.

Approach to Teaching and Expectations of the Students

The teaching style of this class is interactive. You are expected to actively participate in class discussions, to have done the readings, submitted the ongoing photo assignments and other homework, and come to class with notes, questions and relevant observations.

Learning a language is hard work and requires a lot of commitment. The ambition is to create a classroom culture in which everyone feels at ease trying to pronounce the unfamiliar Danish sounds and words.

Engaged participation is an integrated part of class and will be a large part of the course evaluation. Participating in class discussion requires a high level of preparation and a voluntary contribution of knowledge and ideas. In addition, when speaking Danish or discussing the connection between language and culture it is important to meet the level of preparation required to be an active participant.

Evaluation

Through the semester there will be different worksheets, presentations and photo assignments that will be graded and will be part of the overall evaluation of your work and participation in class.

Besides presence, the participation grade (30%) includes daily level of preparation, interest in class discussions, field studies and the use of Danish language in class and small video/text/ photo uploads.

Furthermore, the photographic component consists of four different assignments:

Assignment 1 (5%): A Portrait of a Stranger

Assignment 2 (10%): – Photo Essay – Reflections on Danish Youth Culture.

Assignment 3 (10%) (Midterm): Photo Essay – Reflections on Danish Trust, Hygge or The Law of Jante.

Assignment 4 (15%): Final Project – Photo Essay and Academic Reflections

• Online Worksheets are part of the final grading and can be accessed in the "Danish at DIS" Canvas course. Please see Guidelines and assessment criteria for worksheets.

 

DIS Accommodations Statement 

Your learning experience in this class is important to me.  If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support academicsupport@dis.dk

Ordbogen.com

DIS has a subscription to Ordbogen, a Danish-English/English-Danish online dictionary. Go to http://www.ordbogen.com/Links to an external site. and follow the instructions you will receive by email from Ordbogen.com.

Required readings

Textbook: Danish at DIS - A Sense of Belonging

Badger, Gerry. “Face-to-Face.” In The Genius of Photography: How Photography Has Changed Our Lives. London: Quadrille Publishing, 2007.

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Hill and Wang, 1981. (Excerpts).

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books, 1972. (Excerpts).

Booth, Michael: The Almost Nearly Perfect People, Jonathan Cape, 2014 (Excerpts)

Cartier-Bresson, Henri. The Decisive Moment. Simon & Schuster, 2023. (Excerpts).

Cornell, Lauren. “Self-Portraiture in the First-Person Age.” Aperture, 2015. 

Clement, Krass: “The Picture from Within”, Politiken, 2001.

Gehl, Jan. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Island Press, 2011. (Excerpts).

Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. “Who Is Speaking Thus? Some Questions about Documentary Photography.” In Photography at the Dock: Essays on Photographic History, University of Minnesota Press, 1991.

Jenkins, Richard. “Everyday Social Democracy.” In Being Danish: Paradoxes of Identity in Everyday Life. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2012.

Jespersen, Knud J. V. “The Danish Model of the Welfare State.” In A History of Denmark. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Kærgård, Niels. “Social Cohesion and the Transformation from Ethnic to Multicultural Society: The Case of Denmark.” Ethnicities 10, no. 4, 2010.

Howarth, Sophie, and Stephen McLaren, eds. Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. (Excerpts).

Partanen, Anu. The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2016. (Excerpts)

Partanen, Anu: How Children Achieve, Harper, 2017

Saunders, Bernie: What we can learn from Denmark. Huff Post, 2013. 

Shore, Stephen. The Nature of Photographs: A Primer. Phaidon Press, 2007. (Excerpts).

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. (Excerpts).

Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard. Trust. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2018. (Excerpts).

Linnet, Jeppe Trolle. “Money Can’t Buy Me Hygge: Danish Middle-Class Consumption, Egalitarianism, and the Sanctity of Inner Space.” Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology 55, no. 2 (2011): 

Movie: Thomas Vinterberg: Another Round (2020)

Online Sources

Kids Gone Wild: Documentary produced by Journeyman Pictures, a leading independent supplier of award winning stories. The Danish School Where Children Play With Knives

Video: Nicolai Howalt – What We Become – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Ovd9-czTI

Video: Jacob A. Riis – How the Other Half Lives - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqpQzyK96uk 

Video: Jacob Holdt – A message of Love – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-pnGip0f8U&t=2765s

Video: Jacob Holdt – On Saying Yes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzC4c72P1ro&t=147s

Video: Jacob Aue Sobol – My work is about what we have in common – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWiK9cNi9mM

Video: Innuteq Storch – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx5sVb5GdCQ

Video: Krass Clement: The Photograph Always holds to layers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh5VmAAfglA

Video: Astrid Kruse Jensen - Trying to Understand What has Happened –  https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/astrid-kruse-jensentrying-to-understand-what-has-happened

Video – Trine Søndergaard - Exploring Emptiness from Within – https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/trine-sondergaard-exploring-emptiness-within