Astrid Rasch
About
I'm Professor of Cultural Studies and Social Studies in English at the Department of Language and Literature. My research examines memory culture at the end of the British Empire with a particular focus on memoirs from Zimbabwe, Australia and the Caribbean, and post-imperial memory politics in contemporary Britain. I hold a master and a PhD in English from the University of Copenhagen. In addition, I have studied at Monash University, Melbourne and been a visiting doctoral fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. I am a co-chair of the Nordic regional group of the Memory Studies Association.
I teach the courses ENG1404 (Britain and the World after 1945), ENG2455 (Memory Politics After Empire), and ENG2501 (Africa in the Postcolony). In addition, I am happy to supervise master's theses within the areas of society and culture of the English-speaking world, postcolonial studies, imperial history, and modern literature, in particular life writing and postcolonial literature.
Professional interests
- Memory politics
- Decolonisation
- British, Australian, Caribbean and Zimbabwean history and society
- Autobiography
- Nostalgia
- Online memory culture
Research projects
- Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography, forthcoming monograph, Manchester University Press, 2025
- Co-organiser (with Tatek Abebe) research project: Collective for Interdisciplinary Studies of Sound and Text (2024-25)
- Leader of research project: Trondheim Analytica (2018-2022)
- Leader of research network: Literatures of Change: Culture and Politics in Southern Africa (2019-2023)
- Co-organiser of research network: Anglophone Political Cultures
- Leader of research network: Decolonial Research Group (2018-2020)
- Member of research project: The Embers of Empire (2013-2018)
- PhD fellow: Autobiography After Empire: Individual and Collective Memory in Dialogue (2013-2016)
Editorial work
- Editor of the anthology The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe (with Minna Niemi and Amanda Hammar, Brill, forthcoming 2025)
- Editor of the special issue on Writing Repression in Zimbabwe for Journal of Southern African Studies (with Minna Niemi and Jocelyn Alexander, 2021)
- Editor of the anthology Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain (with Stuart Ward, 2019)
- Editor of special issue on Life Writing After Empire for Life Writing (2016)
- Guest editor of Kvinden&Samfundet (Woman and Society) (2009)
Scholarly and professional work
I provide expert commentary on British and Zimbabwean affairs on Danish and Norwegian national television and radio.
Together with colleagues and students, I have helped set up platforms for Scandinavian students and researchers concerned about climate change. I have written op-eds on the narrative challenges of tackling climate change.
PhD students
Tóra Djurhuus: The Legacy of the Past in Brexit Britain (primary supervisor: Sara Dybris McQuaid). Defended 3 June 2022.
Kristine Graneng: Connecting migration and European integration: Discursive issue-linkages in EU referendums (primary supervisor: Pieter de Wilde). Defended 2 May 2024.
Anna Bil-Jaruzelska (secondary supervisors: Pieter de Wilde and Anamaria Dutceac Segesten): Emotion and Identity Politics on Social Media
Competencies
Research
My research examines memory culture at the end of the British Empire with a particular focus on Zimbabwe, Australia, the Caribbean, and Britain.
I am editor of the anthologies Life Writing After Empire (Routledge, 2017), Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain (with Stuart Ward, Bloomsbury, 2019) and a special issue of Journal of Southern African Studies entitled ‘Writing Repression’ (with Minna Johanna Niemi and Jocelyn Alexander, 2021, 47.5).
I headed the initiative Literatures of Change: Culture and Politics in Southern Africa, funded by the Nordic Research Councils through the NOS-HS programme. The research initiative has organised a series of workshops focused on culture and politics in Zimbabwe. Our most recent output is an anthology entitled The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe (edited by myself, Minna Johanna Niemi and Amanda Hammar) which is currently under review with Brill.
I have also been the PI of the interdisciplinary social media project Trondheim Analytica in which four PhD students have examined implications of social media for democratic engagement.
My recent publications appear in History & Memory, Journal of Postcolonial and Commonwealth Studies, Journal of Southern African Studies, and Life Writing.
I am currently finishing a book project on post-imperial autobiographies with the working title Autobiography After Empire: Individual and Cultural Memory in Dialogue (under review with Manchester University Press). The book compares autobiographies from Australia, the Anglophone Caribbean, Zimbabwe, and Britain written between the 1960s-2010s. It argues that authors write their personal memories in a dialogue with existing accounts of the colonial past, seeking to counter or corroborate culturally circulating narratives.
Literatures of Change: Culture and Politics in Southern Africa
The workshop series ‘Literatures of Change: Culture and Politics in Southern Africa’ is an initiative to foster a Nordic research environment on African culture and literature.
Trondheim Analytica
TRONDHEIM ANALYTICA (TA) seeks to address one of the most profound challenges for democracy in the 21st century: the social media revolution and its attendant problems of fake news, message targeting, and echo chambers.
Publications
2025
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2025)
Book presentation: Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography.
Other presentation
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2025)
Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography.
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
Academic monograph
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Hammar, Amanda;
Alexander, Jocelyn.
(2025)
Book launch: The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe.
Other presentation
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Hammar, Amanda.
(2025)
The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe.
Brill Academic Publishers
Brill Academic Publishers
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
2024
-
Graneng, Kristine;
Wilde, Pieter de;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2024)
Connecting migration and European integration: Discursive issue-linkages in EU referendums.
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
Doctoral dissertation
2023
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2023)
Exemplar empires: Battles over imperial memory in contemporary Britain.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
2022
-
Wilde, Pieter de;
Rasch, Astrid;
Bossetta, Michael.
(2022)
Analyzing Citizen Engagement With European Politics on Social Media.
Politics and Governance
Editorial
2021
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Alexander, Jocelyn.
(2021)
Reading Repression and Resistance in Zimbabwean Literature.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Editorial
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Subversion or Identity Work? Tracing the Reception of Zimbabwean Counter-Narrative Memoirs.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Life-Writing from the Margins in Zimbabwe: Versions and Subversions of Crisis, Oliver Nyambi, (review).
Biography
Book review
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Anxious Reading: Interrogating Selective Empathy in Trauma Memoirs.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies
Academic article
2020
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2020)
Increasing student preparation and participation through flipped classroom and other measures.
Læring om læring
Article in business/trade/industry journal
2019
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
“Keep the balance”: The Politics of Remembering Empire in Post-Colonial Britain.
Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies
Academic article
-
Ward, Stuart;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
Introduction: Greater Britain, Global Britain.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Ward, Stuart;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain.
Bloomsbury Academic
Bloomsbury Academic
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
2018
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2018)
Postcolonial Nostalgia: The Ambiguities of White Memoirs of Zimbabwe.
History and Memory
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2018)
The Family Connection: White Expatriate Memoirs of Zimbabwe.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Academic article
2017
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2017)
Life Writing After Empire.
Routledge
Routledge
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2017)
Review: How Empire Shaped Us, edited by Antoinette Burton and Dane Kennedy.
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
Book review
2016
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
'This Union-Jacked Time': Memories of Education as Post-Imperial Positioning.
Life Writing
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
Autobiography After Empire: Individual and Collective Memory in Dialogue.
Copenhagen University
Copenhagen University
Doctoral dissertation
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
Editorial: Life Writing After Empire.
Life Writing
Editorial
2015
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2015)
A Postcolonial Education: Using End of Empire Autobiographies to Introduce Postcolonial Studies.
European journal of life writing
Academic article
Journal publications
-
Wilde, Pieter de;
Rasch, Astrid;
Bossetta, Michael.
(2022)
Analyzing Citizen Engagement With European Politics on Social Media.
Politics and Governance
Editorial
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Alexander, Jocelyn.
(2021)
Reading Repression and Resistance in Zimbabwean Literature.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Editorial
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Subversion or Identity Work? Tracing the Reception of Zimbabwean Counter-Narrative Memoirs.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Life-Writing from the Margins in Zimbabwe: Versions and Subversions of Crisis, Oliver Nyambi, (review).
Biography
Book review
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2021)
Anxious Reading: Interrogating Selective Empathy in Trauma Memoirs.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2020)
Increasing student preparation and participation through flipped classroom and other measures.
Læring om læring
Article in business/trade/industry journal
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
“Keep the balance”: The Politics of Remembering Empire in Post-Colonial Britain.
Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2018)
Postcolonial Nostalgia: The Ambiguities of White Memoirs of Zimbabwe.
History and Memory
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2018)
The Family Connection: White Expatriate Memoirs of Zimbabwe.
Journal of Southern African Studies
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2017)
Review: How Empire Shaped Us, edited by Antoinette Burton and Dane Kennedy.
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
Book review
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
'This Union-Jacked Time': Memories of Education as Post-Imperial Positioning.
Life Writing
Academic article
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
Editorial: Life Writing After Empire.
Life Writing
Editorial
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2015)
A Postcolonial Education: Using End of Empire Autobiographies to Introduce Postcolonial Studies.
European journal of life writing
Academic article
Books
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2025)
Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography.
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
Academic monograph
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Hammar, Amanda.
(2025)
The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe.
Brill Academic Publishers
Brill Academic Publishers
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
-
Ward, Stuart;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain.
Bloomsbury Academic
Bloomsbury Academic
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2017)
Life Writing After Empire.
Routledge
Routledge
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
Part of book/report
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2023)
Exemplar empires: Battles over imperial memory in contemporary Britain.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Ward, Stuart;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2019)
Introduction: Greater Britain, Global Britain.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Report
-
Graneng, Kristine;
Wilde, Pieter de;
Rasch, Astrid.
(2024)
Connecting migration and European integration: Discursive issue-linkages in EU referendums.
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
Doctoral dissertation
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2016)
Autobiography After Empire: Individual and Collective Memory in Dialogue.
Copenhagen University
Copenhagen University
Doctoral dissertation
UTSTILLING
-
Rasch, Astrid.
(2025)
Book presentation: Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography.
Other presentation
-
Rasch, Astrid;
Niemi, Minna Johanna;
Hammar, Amanda;
Alexander, Jocelyn.
(2025)
Book launch: The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe.
Other presentation
Teaching
Courses
Outreach
2025
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2025) Studying post-imperial memory politics through autobiography: The case of anti-racist essay-memoirs. The Private Side of Politics , Oslo 2025-06-04 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid; Kennedy, Rosanne. (2025) Book launch: Intimate afterlives of empire: Memory and decolonisation in autobiography. Beyond Crises: Resilience and (In)stability , Prague 2025-07-14 - 2025-07-17
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2025) Who apologises to whom? Inter- and intra-state requests for colonial reparations. Beyond Crises: Resilience and (In)stability , Prague 2025-07-15 - 2025-07-17
2024
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2024) Deep Reading: Introducing Students to the Joy of Uninterrupted Reading. ISL-dag , NTNU 2024-05-29 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2024) Memory Politics After Empire: A work not yet in progress. Critical Uses of the Past in the Present , NTNU 2024-06-21 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2024) Anxious Reading: Interrogating Selective Empathy in Trauma Memoirs. Visceral Writing 2024-05-25 -
2022
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Lecture
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2022) The autobiographical example in black British essay-memoirs. Genres of political writing , University of Cambridge 2022-05-05 - 2022-05-06
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2022) Whose Great Betrayal? Strategies of Self-Defence in Ian Smith and Joshua Nkomo’s Political Memoirs. Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe , Gilleleje 2022-09-16 - 2022-09-18
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2022) #AbolishTheMonarchy - blir britene tvunget til å sørge?. NRK NRK [Radio] 2022-09-15
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2022) Kritiserer det britiske kongehuset: Det er mye følelser. VG VG [Journal] 2022-09-09
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2022) Etter Elizabeth, syndfloden? Storbritannias perfekte storm. NRK NRK [Internet] 2022-09-11
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2022) Experiences with co-editing. Erfaringer med medforfatterskap , NTNU 2022-09-30 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2022) Re-Embodying Mediated Memory: Countermemories of Race and Empire in Black Autobiographical Nonfiction. Explorations of Counter-Memory , Reykjavik 2022-10-13 - 2022-10-14
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LectureBoasson, Frode Lerum; Rasch, Astrid; Ingulstad, Mats. (2022) Men er det bra? Kritisk Panel vurderer de nominerte til NTNUs litteraturpris. Basta. Sakprosafestivalen i Trondheim , Trondheim 2022-11-11 - 2022-11-12
2021
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) (Struggling with) Interdisciplinary Collaboration. How to succeed with interdisciplinary research. Digital transformation webinar , NTNU 2021-05-05 - 2021-05-05
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) Trondheim Analytica: Demokratisk engasjement på sosiale medier. Muligheter og utfordringer – eller, en prosjektleders bekjennelser. Frokostseminar - DH-lab , NTNU 2021-09-14 -
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Lecture
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LectureBoasson, Frode Lerum; Rasch, Astrid; Ingulstad, Mats. (2021) Kan sakprosa redde verden? Litteraturhusets kritiske panel diskuterer nyere norsk klimasakprosa. Sakprosafestivalen , Litteraturhuset i Trondheim 2021-10-29 - 2021-10-29
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Programme participationRasch, Astrid. (2021) Literature and the Politics of the Past in Southern Africa: Petina Gappah and Elleke Boehmer in Conversation. Youtube Youtube [Internet] 2021-05-07
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) Becoming Postcolonial: Memory Dialogues in Post-Imperial Autobiography. Memory Studies Association Annual Conference , Warsawa 2021-07-05 - 2021-07-09
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) Avkolonisering av akademia. Avkolonisering av sørsamisk arkeologi og historie? 2021-04-21 - 2021-04-21
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) Becoming Postcolonial. American Comparative Literature Association's 2021 Annual Meeting 2021-04-08 - 2021-04-11
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) The people were speaking with my ‘voice’: Legitimating Narratives in Zimbabwean Political Memoir. Memory in Africa 2021-11-24 - 2021-11-25
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) Trondheim Analytica: Hva vi vet og ikke vet om demokratisk engasjement på sosiale medier. Møte i Ytringsfrihetskommisjonen , Scandic Nidelven, Trondheim 2021-10-21 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2021) The Politics of the Past: Exploring Pasts in Zimbabwe's Presents. The Politics of the Past: Exploring Pasts in Zimbabwe's Presents 2021-05-07 - 2021-05-09
2020
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2020) Teaching Memory Politics After Empire. Inaugural Symposium of the MSA Nordic , Copenhagen 2020-09-29 - 2020-09-30
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2020) I covered British politics and Brexit for the Danish National Broadcaster program Deadline three times in January 2020. Deadline, DR Deadline, DR [TV] 2020-01-31
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2020) Teaching Memory Politics After Empire. Claimed Pasts brown-bag seminar , University of Agder 2020-11-18 -
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LectureBoasson, Frode Lerum; Rasch, Astrid; Ingulstad, Mats Asklund. (2020) Men er det bra? Kritisk panel. Sakprosafestivalen i Trondheim , Trondheim 2020-10-31 - 2020-10-31
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2020) Digitale løsninger for økt studentaktivitet. Erfaringer fra høstens undervisning , NTNU 2020-12-08 -
2019
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2019) Keynote: Storied orders/ordered stories: memoir and power. Storytelling and Social Order , Oxford University 2019-03-14 -
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2019) The other audience of counter-narratives: Ambiguities in Zimbabwean anti-Mugabe memoirs. International Auto/Biography Association Europe Conference , Complutense University Madrid 2019-06-19 - 2019-06-21
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2019) Complexity made simple: Battles over imperial memory in contemporary Britain. Memory Studies Association Conference , Complutense University Madrid 2019-06-25 - 2019-06-29
2018
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LectureBoasson, Frode Lerum; Rasch, Astrid; Ingulstad, Mats Asklund. (2018) Men er det bra? Litteraturhuset i Trondheims kritiske panel diskuterer de nominerte til NTNUs litteraturpris: Marit Paasche - Hannah Ryggen, Morten Søberg - Eidsvold-Ekofisk, Dag Hoel - Fred er ei det beste, Maria Berg Reinertsen - Reisen til Bretton Woods. Fakta F. Sakprosafestivalen i Trondheim , Kunsthall Trondheim 2018-11-03 - 2018-11-03
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) Opening remarks: The Embers of Empire. The Break-Up of Greater Britain , Holckenhavn Slot, Nyborg 2018-07-01 - 2018-07-04
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) 'Keep the balance': The Politics of Remembering Empire in Post-Colonial Britain. After Empire? The contested histories of decolonisation, migration and race in modern Britain , University of Leeds 2018-12-13 - 2018-12-14
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) Complexity made simple - Battles over imperial memory in contemporary Britain. Bordering on Brexit , Gibraltar Garrison Library 2018-09-21 - 2018-09-23
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) Complexity made simple: Battles over imperial memory in contemporary Britain. Colonial Entanglements: Institutions, Memory, Resistance , NTNU 2018-09-12 - 2018-09-13
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Interview
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) Ansvarsmanual i klimaforandringenes tid. Møte for Studenter for Klimaet 2018-09-10 -
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2018) Bordering on Brexit: interview with Dr Astrid Rasch (NTNU) by Professor Richard Toye (Exeter). Youtube Youtube [Internet] 2018-09-22
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2018) I covered Donald Trump’s visit to the UK for the Danish national broadcaster TV2 News. TV2 News TV2 News [TV] 2018-07-13
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2018) Studying post-imperial memory through autobiography: challenges and opportunities. Transnational biographies , University of Copenhagen 2018-05-08 -
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2018) I covered the Zimbabwean elections in seven separate television appearances on the Danish national broadcaster TV2 News and TV2 main channel from 30 July to 3 August. TV2 News and TV2 TV2 News and TV2 [TV] 2018-07-30
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2018) Avkolonisering splitter mellom "inkluderende" og "destruktivt". Under Dusken Under Dusken [Journal] 2018-10-16
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InterviewRasch, Astrid. (2018) Vil forbedre demokratisk engasjement i sosiale medier. Nxtmedia Nxtmedia [Internet] 2018-10-09
2017
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2017) Replaced by Nothing: White Postcolonial Nostalgia. North American Conference on British Studies Annual Meeting , Denver, Colorado 2017-11-02 - 2017-11-05
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Academic lectureRasch, Astrid. (2017) The Political Positioning of Trauma: White Zimbabwean Family Memoirs. Second Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association , University of Copenhagen 2017-12-14 - 2017-12-16
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LectureRasch, Astrid. (2017) Ekspert på panel til litteraturfestivalen Fakta F. NTNUs litteraturpris : Kritikk, kåring og kunstnerisk , Litteraturhuset 2017-11-02 -