Conference in Baku, 26-29 October 2011
Thor Heyerdahl and Azerbaijan
The conference will be arranged by Azerbaijan University of Languages and the University of Oslo. The two universities have an ongoing cooperation project, that developes a regional studies program on Scandinavia, with focus on Norway. Our institutions in Baku and Oslo would like to take advantage of the existing cooperation and arrange an academic conference where Heyerdahl’s theories regarding pre-viking contact will be presented and discussed by national and international scientists.
Heyerdahl and Azerbaijan
The fame of the explorer Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) is undisputable. Many a young girl or boy has read his books about Kon-Tiki, Ra and Tigris – dreaming about similar adventures. Heyerdahl’s activities – voyages, excavations – were based upon his theories. His theory on early connection between the Nordic countries and the southern part of Caucasus is widely known in Azerbaijan. The theory was based upon the Icelandic saga writer Snorre (around 1200 AD) and the arguments were taken from different fields, for example archeology and linguistics.
Arguably, Heyerdahl is the most famous Norwegian in Azerbaijan, and also very popular, for many reasons: he visited Azerbaijan no less than four times, during an epoch when not many people from western countries did go there. Moreover, he developed good relations to Azerbaijani leaders; he also played a part when Statoil was established in the country.
Aims
The conference aims at bringing together scholars from different fields of expertise in order to discuss the theories of Thor Heyerdahl – a field of common interest. Addressing an aspect of Heyerdahl’s work that has aroused a lot of positive interest in Azerbaijan but which also gave him critics in his homeland, the ambitions are to manage this in a professional manner and hopefully to come to some conclusions.
The seminar in addition aims at strengthening the cooperation between Scandinavia and Azerbaijan by shedding light on the relationship between our two regions in the past as well as the present. Scholars from Azerbaijan and Norway and other countries will be invited to the conference to argue academically and come out with findings related to Thor Heyerdahl’s theories. Special emphasis will be put on methodology and potentially diverging opinions between Azerbaijani and Norwegian scholars in this area.
The conference
- The conference will have two main parts:
academic discussion and popular lectures.
- There will be two conference languages:
Azerbaijani and English. All presentations will be interpreted, and the program
will be bilingual.
- Side events will be arranged: an exhibition, an
excursion to Gobustan, etc.
- It is planned to publish a (bilingual) book with
presentations from the conference.
Conference program
Contact information
In Baku:
Sevdagul Aliyeva: sevdagul@mail.ru
In Oslo: Vibeke Roggen: vibeke.roggen@ifikk.uio.no –
phone: (+47) 917 31 871
