This edited volume tells the story of three Scandinavian women missionaries who dedicated their lives to helping Armenian women and children. They became eyewitnesses to the 1915 Armenian genocide and continued to work among Armenian refugees during the ensuing decades in Lebanon, Syria, Greece and Soviet Armenia. On the basis of these women's transnational lives and narratives, the book explores humanitarian aid to Armenians from a Scandinavian angle, biographical sources, perspectives and methods serving as points of departure. It also investigates the transnational, religious and gendered dimensions of relief work. The importance and the dilemmas of small-scale translocal projects and humanitarian networks are examined; so are religious motivations and missionary practices in humanitarianism as well as the complex role played by women as victims and agents in wars, encompassing their vulnerability and their 'caring power'.
By:
Svante Lundgren,
Maria Småberg
Imprint: Lund University Press,Sweden
Country of Publication: Sweden
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 521g
ISBN: 9789198994162
ISBN 10: 9198994166
Series: Lund University Press
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 23 June 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Prologue: The film that became a book Svante Lundgren 1 Transnational lives and narratives – points of departure Maria Småberg 2 The Armenophile movement and Nordic women missionaries Svante Lundgren 3 ‘Not just to give them food and clothing, but also to give them something for their souls’: Bodil Biørn and the Armenians, 1905 – 34 Inger Marie Okkenhaug 4 The various faces of compassion, or ‘what we have done out of love for our Lord cannot have been in vain’: Alma Johansson and the Armenians, 1901 – 41 Maria Småberg 5 ‘Only one road is open – the road upwards’: Maria Jacobsen and the Armenian people, 1907 – 60 Kate Royster Epilogue Svante Lundgren and Maria Småberg Timeline Appendix ‘We would learn to fly …’ Memories from a childhood in the Birds’ Nest Elizabeth Melikian -- .
Svante Lundgren is a researcher at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University. Maria Smberg is a researcher in history and senior lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at Lund University.
