In 2024, the University of Copenhagen offers three IARU Summer Courses, that all provide critical new ways of thinking about societies past, present, and future. By joining a IARU Summer Course, you will have the chance to meet students from some of the best research universities in the world and learn in new, interdisciplinary ways. Below, you can read about the three courses: "Science as a Cultural Human Right", "Gender and Sexuality", and "Borderland".

Science as a Cultural Human Right

The right to science is a little-known human right. Nevertheless, the right of everyone to share in scientific advancements and their benefits seems more important than ever in the post-truth era. This course will take a multidisciplinary approach to the right to science and to cultural rights in general, exposing students to fields outside their respective core disciplines of study. The idea is to look at science and its role in politics and society at a 'post-truth' or 'alternative facts' moment in time when science is often reduced to a matter of opinions, and when scientific funding no longer comes from public, but from private funding bodies.

The course is taught by Helle Porsdam, Professor of Law and Humanities at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law (CIS), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. Porsdam also holds a UNESCO Chair in Cultural Rights. Guest lectures include Salona Lutchman, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town. 

Date (classes): 16 July - 25 July

Where: Copenhagen, Denmark

Level: MA

Application: 15 May to 3 June (First-come, first-served basis)

Gender and Sexuality: Pasts, Presents, and Futures

This course explores issues of gender and sexuality in the contemporary world with a special emphasis on LGBTQ+ issues, and asks: How has history formed the present that we find ourselves in, and how do we form the present that will become a future? We will explore this through reading, discussing, exploring the city, and visiting activist organizations in Copenhagen, as well as have international experts teaching us and discussing with us.

The course is taught by Peter Edelberg, Teaching Associate Professor at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. From 2019 through 2023 Edelberg was part of a Scandinavian research group, studying Scandinavian LGBT-history. 

Date (classes): 5 August - 14 August, 2024

Where: Copenhagen, Denmark

Level: BA

Borderland: Critical Approaches to Field Research in the Global South

Jointly developed and offered by UC-Berkeley and University of Copenhagen, this course is about the migration, mobilities and immobilities that have emerged as among the most pressing 21st century challenges, that cut across 11 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. In engaging migration, mobilities and immobility, we are interested in the different forms and facets of migration (internal, cross-border; regular and irregular), and of im/mobilities – e.g. social, political, economic), as well as intersectionalities among causes and consequences of migration and im/mobilities.

Jointly developed and offered by UC-Berkeley and University of Copenhagen, the course is taught by top researchers from both universities.

Below, you can watch a video from last years Borderland course.

Date: July 8 - August 2

Where: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Level: MA/BA

What is IARU?

The International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) is a network of eleven international research-intensive universities from nine countries across the globe.

The eleven members share similar values, a global vision, and a commitment to educating future world leaders. Central to these values is the importance of academic diversity and international collaboration as reflected in IARU's principles.

IARU Members

• Australian National University
• ETH Zurich
• National University of Singapore
• Peking University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Cambridge
• University of Cape Town
• University of Copenhagen
• University of Oxford
• The University of Tokyo
• Yale University