I learned to think in my own way

[Translate to English:] Julie Rokkjær Birch — Julie Rokkjær Birch has a cand.mag. in Scandinavian languages and literature and art history (2008) and is currently director of the open-air museum Den Gamle By. She has also served as director of Museum Jorn in Silkeborg and the Women’s Museum in Aarhus, which changed its name to KØN during her tenure there. She also sits on a number of boards and writes about culture for national media outlets. Photo: Mathilde Bech, Den Gamle By.

14 January 2026 by Ida Hammerich Nielson

What is your favourite memory from your student days at Aarhus University?

I have no idea, really. There are lots. But my time as editor-in-chief of the university paper Delfinen is definitely up there: Those long nights of editing and designing the paper and drinking beers at random parties in Stakladen or Unibaren along the way – ah, I felt so lucky. Speaking like a real old-timer, I love waxing nostalgic about reading the philosopher Martin Heidegger in German when I studied the philosophy of science in my first year on the Scandinavian studies programme. I don’t think they do that any more. But I’m glad I got to, that’s for sure. Because you HAVE to read Heidegger in German, of course. I remember that I felt like I was being taken seriously, and that the subject was taken seriously. And you had to live up to that. That sure was cool. And hard...Sein und Zeit...

Who was your favourite teacher and why?

I think I had a lot, actually. My thesis supervisor on the Scandinavian studies programme, Professor Henrik Skov Nielsen, was quite highbrow and abstruse and cool for someone like me, and I think I was given the space and support to cultivate something original inside myself. And I remember someone like Hans Jørgen Frederiksen at the art history programme: there aren’t many people out there who can draw a crowd to a three-hour lecture on Byzantine art. It was just wonderful to sit there and drink it all in.

What advice do you wish you had been given as a student?

I suppose I’m a bit lucky, in that I was good at following my gut back then – or stupid enough to – I mean that the advice I give students today is actually the principle I followed myself. And at the risk of making myself a little unpopular, it’s this: My advice is to read all the stuff that’s not on your syllabus. I used the syllabus as kind of a guideline, a direction to follow, but I didn’t read everything on it – far from it. But I skimmed the material and got the gist of it. And I also went to all the lectures I possibly could – including outside my own subject – and read all kinds of other things. This taught me to think in a way that was my own, and that was playful and creative. I did have one flop with a mediocre exam grade, where I suppose I may have been thinking a little too far outside the syllabus box for the examiner’s taste, but I don’t regret it. I still actually use the patterns of thought that emerged in connection with that exam to this day. But actually my grades were generally pretty good (not that you should care so much about grades – that was another piece of good advice).

What is the most important thing you learned from your time at AU?

To discover, use and believe in my own unique patterns of thought.

What are your current interests?

Right now my major preoccupations are the current geopolitical situation, technological developments and the media and information crisis. Democracy is facing a serious threat, and I’m grappling with how I as the director of a museum can fill my role in society in the best possible way. I believe that we museums, with our trustworthy knowledge, collections and community-building spaces, can contribute to creating a society in which everyone has a genuine, fair opportunity to think critically and make informed decisions. This is why it feels deeply meaningful to me to run a museum such as Den Gamle By: a national museum and a home for collective identity.