CV

Academic positions

• Since 2024Professor of History, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
• 2016–2023Associate Professor of History, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
• 2013–2016Assistant Professor of History, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
• 2013Postdoctoral Fellow, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen

Degrees

• 2012PhD in History, University of Copenhagen
• 2006MA in History, University of Copenhagen

Grants, distinctions & awards

• 2023Research Grant with Professor Klaus Petersen, The A.P. Møller Foundation, Nordic Humanities Center – DKK 8,130,000
• 2021Monograph Stipend, The Carlsberg Foundation – DKK 727,706
• 2020Semper Ardens Grant (co-PI) with Professor Mette Birkedal Bruun, The Carlsberg Foundation – DKK 6,127,258
• 2017Sapere Aude Starting Grant (PI), Independent Research Fund Denmark – DKK 5,888,001
• 2016Einar Hansen’s Research Prize for Outstanding Humanistic Research – DKK 150,000
• 2013Sapere Aude Young Elite Researcher Grant, Independent Research Fund Denmark – DKK 1,000,843
• 2013Postdoc Grant, Independent Research Fund Denmark – DKK 1,951,289
• 2010EliteForsk Travel Award, Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation – DKK 300,000
• 2007Individual PhD Scholarship, Independent Research Fund Denmark – DKK 1,550,000

Research stays abroad

• 2016Department of Scandinavian, University of California, Berkeley
• 2012History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
• 2009Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai; archival research and fieldwork in Tamil Nadu
• 2008Department of History, New York University
• 2006–2007Graduate studies, Department of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research, New York
• 2005Fieldwork at former mission stations, South India
• 2003–2004Exchange year, Department of History, UCLA

Academic leadership

• 2020Chairperson, The Young Academy, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
• 2021Vice Chairperson, The Young Academy, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
• 2018–2023Elected Member, The Young Academy, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
• 2019–2023Elected Member of the Executive Board, Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY)

Boards & review panels

• 2025–Advisory Board, The Danish Family Revolution: Experiences and Institutions, University of Southern Denmark
• 2025–2029Advisory Board, Skin Health: New Biocultural Zones of Contact, University of Copenhagen
• 2021–2024Advisory Board, The Cultural History of AIDS in Denmark (CHAD), University of Copenhagen
• 2023Review Panel, Academy of Finland, Grant Application Review in History
• 2022–2023Chair, Prize Committee, Fass-Sandin Article Prize

Editorial boards

• Since 2020Studies in the History of Childhood and Youth, Routledge
• Since 2017History of Childhood Series, Palgrave Macmillan
• Since 2013Scientific Board, TEMP – Tidsskrift for Historie

Supervision

• 2025–2028Sebastian Vang Jensen, PhD: “Towards a Global Regime: The League of Nations Attempts to Establish a Universal Framework for Understanding and Combating Sex Trafficking”
• 2024–2027Idunn Victoria Rostøl, PhD (secondary supervisor), University of Oslo: Norwegian mission among the Romani people of Norway
• 2022–2027Amalie Olga Lyngsted, PhD: “Alone in the World: Emotional Relations of Children in Foster Care, 1897–1921”
• 2020–2024Katrine Rønsig Larsen, PhD: “Unveiling the Emotions of Family Violence: A Historical Analysis”
• 2018–2022Dr. Martina Koegeler-Abdi, Postdoc: “Family Secrecy and the German Occupation of Denmark”
• 2018–2021Marie Meier, PhD: “The Concealment of Mental Maladies: Mental Illness between the Family and the State”
• 2016–2020Cecilie Bjerre, PhD (secondary supervisor), SDU: “Når staten bliver far og mor”
• 2010–2026More than 60 MA theses

Professional training

• 2023–2024UCPH Forward, Talent Program for Excellence in Research
• 2021–2022Science Communication Course, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
• 2021Research Ethics, PhD Supervision Course, University of Copenhagen
• 2018Leading Research, Leadership Course, University of Copenhagen
• 2015University Teaching Course, University of Copenhagen

Monographs

1. Karen Vallgårda (2027). Divorce in Denmark. Emotional Echoes of Relational Rupture since the Nineteenth Century. Oxford University Press (in press, forthcoming March 2027).
2. Karen Vallgårda (2027). Følelsesekkoer. Copenhagen: Gads Forlag / Nord Academic (forthcoming). A book for a broad public readership.
3. Karen Vallgårda (2021). Skilsmisser. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
4. Karen Vallgårda (2014). Imperial Childhoods and Christian Mission: Education and Emotions in South India and Denmark. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Edited volumes & special issues

1. Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Karen Vallgårda & Kristin Celello (eds.) (2025). Emotional Histories of Relational Rupture. Special issue of Gender & History, vol. 37 (2).
2. Karen Vallgårda, Martina Koegeler-Abdi & Caroline Nyvang (eds.) (2022). The Politics of Family Secrecy. Special issue of Journal of Family History, vol. 47 (3).
3. Karen Vallgårda, Niels Arne Sørensen, Caroline Nyvang & Signe Nipper Nielsen (eds.) (2018). Forbudte, farlige og frastødende følelser. Special issue of temp – tidsskrift for historie, vol. 8 (16).
4. Claire McLisky, Daniel Midena & Karen Vallgårda (eds.) (2015). Emotions and Christian Missions: Historical Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Peer-reviewed articles

1. Karen Vallgårda (2026). Dealing with the Historical Invisibility of Sexualized Violence in Marriage: Ethical and Methodological Reflections. History Workshop Journal (preprint).
2. Niels Nyegaard, Caroline Nyvang, Martina Koegeler-Abdi, Marie Meier & Karen Vallgårda (2026). Ethics in history: introducing conceptual tools for research practices. Rethinking History (preprint).
3. Katrine Rønsig Larsen & Karen Vallgårda (2025). Historicizing Emotional Experiences of Family Violence. Journal of Women’s History, vol. 37 (4), 58–79.
4. Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Karen Vallgårda & Kristin Celello (2025). Emotional Histories of Relational Rupture. Gender & History, vol. 37 (2), 457–461.
5. Stephanie Olsen, Kristine Alexander, Susan Miller, Ville Vuolanto, Simon Sleight, Mischa Honeck, Sarah Emily Duff & Karen Vallgårda (2024). A Critical Conversation on Agency. Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, vol. 17 (2), 169–187.
6. Karen Vallgårda (2022). Introduction: The History and Politics of Family Secrecy. Journal of Family History, vol. 47 (3), 239–247.
7. Marie Meier & Karen Vallgårda (2022). The Family as a Locus of Illness. Journal of Family History, vol. 47 (3), 299–316.
8. Karen Vallgårda & Katrine Rønsig Larsen (2021). Emotional Echoes: Young People, Divorce, and the Public Media, c. 1960–2000. Journal of Social History, vol. 55 (1), 226–253.
9. Karen Vallgårda (2020). Ugly Intimacies and State Power: Separation Processes in Late Nineteenth-century Denmark. Gender & History, vol. 33 (1), 111–128.
10. Karen Vallgårda (2018). Forbudte, farlige og frastødende følelser. temp – tidsskrift for historie, vol. 8 (16), 5–15.
11. Karen Vallgårda & Caroline Nyvang (2018). Lykkeimperativet i folkeskolen. Tidsskrift for professionsstudier, vol. 14 (27), 16–21.
12. Caroline Nyvang & Karen Vallgårda (2018). Sorg som opposition. temp – tidsskrift for historie, vol. 8 (16), 59–80.
13. Karen Vallgårda (2017). Divorce, Bureaucracy, and Emotional Frontiers: Marital Dissolution in Late Nineteenth Century Copenhagen. Journal of Family History, vol. 42 (1), 81–95.
14. Karen Vallgårda & Cecilie Bjerre (2016). Childhood, Divorce, and Emotions: Danish Custody and Visitation Rights Battles in the 1920s. Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, vol. 9 (3), 470–488.
15. Karen Vallgårda (2016). Were Christian Missionaries Colonizers? Reorienting the Debate and Exploring New Research Trajectories. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, vol. 18 (6), 865–886.
16. Karen Vallgårda (2015). Tying Children to God With Love: Danish Mission, Childhood, and Emotions in Colonial South India. Journal of Religious History, vol. 39 (4), 595–613.
17. Karen Vallgårda (2015). Affekt, følelser og rum – historiefaglige perspektiver. temp – tidsskrift for historie, vol. 5 (10), 175–183.
18. Karen Vallgårda (2014). Can the Subaltern Woman Run? Gender, Race and Agency in Colonial Missionary Texts. Scandinavian Journal of History, vol. 39 (4), 472–486.
19. Karen Vallgårda (2013). Følelseshistorie – teoretiske brudflader og udfordringer. Kulturstudier, vol. 4 (2), 87–113.
20. Karen Vallgårda (2011). Adam’s Escape: Children and the Discordant Nature of Colonial Conversions. Childhood, vol. 18 (3), 298–315.
21. Karen Vallgårda (2009). Acquiring Heathen Children: Of Gentle Coercion and Parental Authority in the Late Nineteenth Century South Arcot. Review of Development and Change, vol. XIV (1–2), 87–108.
22. Karen Vallgårda (2009). Mellem frivillighed og tvang: Danske missionærers indgreb i indisk forældremyndighed i 1860’erne og 1870’erne. Tidsskrift for Historie, 22–31.
23. Karen Vallgårda (2008). Omvendte omvendelser: Om to danske missionærers møde med Indien i den første halvdel af det 20. århundrede. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 108 (2), 389–426.
24. Karen Vallgårda (2006). Continual Conversions: Narratives by Henrik Pontoppidan and Johannes Jørgensen. Scandinavian Studies, vol. 78 (3), 303–332.
25. Karen Vallgårda (2005). På kanten af kønnet: Om Vilhelmine Møller og køn til forhandling. Fortid og Nutid, 3–24.

Book & encyclopedia chapters

1. Karen Vallgårda (2027). Age. In Katie Barclay & Sharon Crozier-De Rosa (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Emotions, Oxford University Press (in press).
2. Karen Vallgårda (2026). Gendered Histories of Emotion. In Amanda Capern (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women’s and Gender History, Oxford University Press.
3. Karen Vallgårda (2024). Fortiden i nutiden: Om de etisk-politiske dimensioner af historisk forskning. In Anders Engberg, Peter Harder & Martha Sif Karrebæk (eds.), Kritisk Engagement og Videnskabelighed, Copenhagen: KDVS, 78–96.
4. Karen Vallgårda (2023). Familien, ret og vrang. In Søren Thorlak Madsen (ed.), Fynboerne: Kunsten frem for alt!, Odense: Kunstmuseum Brandts, 72–81.
5. Karen Vallgårda (2023). Emotions. In Simon Sleight & Kristine Alexander (eds.), A Cultural History of Youth in the Modern Age, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 105–126.
6. Karen Vallgårda (2023). Family, Childhood and Emotions. In Peter Stearns & Katie Barclay (eds.), The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World, London: Routledge, 267–280.
7. Karen Vallgårda (2022). Følelse. In Amalie Langballe et al. (eds.), ORD, Copenhagen: Politikens Forlag, 86–87.
8. Karen Vallgårda (2022). Sobre a história e a política da família, da infância e das emoções. In Heloísa Helena Pimenta Rocha & Pablo Toro-Blanco (eds.), Educação, infância, juventude e emoções em perspectiva histórica, CNPq, 304–329.
9. Karen Vallgårda & Stephanie Olsen (2022). Historicizing Emotional Development. In Daniel Dukes, Andrea Samson & Eric Walle (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Emotional Development, Oxford University Press, 146–156.
10. Stephanie Olsen & Karen Vallgårda (2022). Emotional Frontiers. In Daniel Dukes, Andrea Samson & Eric Walle (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Emotional Development, Oxford University Press, 437–445.
11. Karen Vallgårda & Henrik Dimke (2020). Forord. Årsskrift 2020, Det Unge Akademi, 3–4.
12. Karen Vallgårda (2020). Gammel erotik og usynliggjort vold. In Casper Andersen et al. (eds.), Tanker i lockdown, Det Unge Akademi, 118–123.
13. Karen Vallgårda (2018). Tro ikke, at du føler det samme som din bedstemor. In Pia Friis Laneth & Jytte Hilsen (eds.), Takt og tone til tiden, Frederiksberg: Frydenlund Forlag, 162–169.
14. Karen Vallgårda (2017). Følelsernes foranderlighed / The Mutability of Emotions. In Gertrud Oelsner & Anna Schram Vejlby (eds.), Fra den bedste side: Portræt og følsomhed i guldalderen, Copenhagen: Den Hirschsprungske Samling, 63–73 / 120–125.
15. Karen Vallgårda, Kristine Alexander & Stephanie Olsen (2015). Emotions and the Global Politics of Childhood. In Stephanie Olsen (ed.), Childhood, Youth & Emotions in Modern History, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 12–34.
16. Claire McLisky & Karen Vallgårda (2015). Introduction: Faith Through Feeling. In Claire McLisky, Daniel Midena & Karen Vallgårda (eds.), Emotions and Christian Missions: Historical Perspectives, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–21.
17. Karen Vallgårda (2014). Producing Difference: Childhood, Parenting, and Mission in Late Colonial South India. In Esther Fihl & A. R. Venkatachalapathy (eds.), Tranquebar and Beyond: Grappling Across Cultural Borders in South India, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 379–401.

Review articles

1. Karen Vallgårda (2022). Karl Peder Pedersen: Poul og kærligheden. En kontrærseksuels bekendelser. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 121 (2), 569–572.
2. Karen Vallgårda (2019). Book Review: Ottoman Children and Youth during World War I. TRAFO – Blog for Transnational Research.
3. Karen Vallgårda (2019). Nordic Childhoods 1700–1960: From Folk Beliefs to Pippi Longstocking. Childhood in the Past, vol. 21 (1), 53–54.
4. Karen Vallgårda (2017). Følelsernes revolution. Arbejderhistorie, vol. 17, 204–206.
5. Karen Vallgårda (2017). Bonnie Clementsson: Förbjudna förbindelser. Föreställningar kring incest och incestförbud i Sverige 1680–1940. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 116 (2), 557–559.
6. Karen Vallgårda (2016). Hugo Nordland: Känslor i Krig. Sensibilitet och emotionella strategier bland svenska officerare 1788–1814. Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 116 (1), 254–256.
7. Karen Vallgårda (2015). Learning How to Feel: Children’s Literature and Emotional Socialization, 1870–1970. Historia y Memoria de la Educación, vol. 1 (2), 409–412.
8. Karen Vallgårda (2014). The Intricate Politics of Intimacy. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, vol. 22 (3), 243–246.
9. Karen Vallgårda (2009). At fortælle en god historie med et budskab. 1066: Tidsskrift for historie, 26–32.
10. Karen Vallgårda (2006). Kristne helte: Anmeldelse af ‘Det begyndte i København’. 1066: Tidsskrift for historie, 42–43.

Educational material

1. Karen Vallgårda (2021). Skilsmissens århundrede. danmarkshistorien.dk, Aarhus University.
2. Caroline Nyvang & Karen Vallgårda (2019). Aprilsnar. Gyldendal Undervisning.
3. Karen Vallgårda (2018). Dem og os – kategoriseringer af mennesker. Gyldendal Undervisning.
4. Karen Vallgårda (2018). Historiens værktøjskasse: Følelseshistorie. Gyldendal Undervisning.