Research trip to the United States Virgin Islands: Scandinavia and the Black Atlantic

The field trip to the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John) forms part of my research for a book project: a study of the present state of the legacy and remembrance of Scandinavian colonialism in West Africa and the Caribbean. The trip’s first purpose is to sketch the impact and commemoration of Danish colonialism and slavery in the Virgin Islands, the former Danish West Indies, today. A second purpose is to hear the perspectives of local experts on a range of topics that will be covered by my book, such as imaginations of a “lost paradise” and local resistance against such nostalgia, competing narratives of the abolishment of slavery, and issues of race and racism connected to representations of slavery.