Copyright

Håkon Aamot Caspersen; Jon Røyne Kyllingstad

Published On

2026-03-02

Page Range

pp. 1–28

Language

  • English

Print Length

28 pages

Historicizing IQ Testing in Norway: Introduction

  • Håkon Aamot Caspersen (author)
  • Jon Røyne Kyllingstad (author)
Chapter of: Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present(pp. 1–28)
This introduction provides an entry point to historicizing IQ tests and testing in Norway. It introduces key concepts and debates dealt with in the volume, such as the nature of an IQ-test, IQ-testing and their different roles in society. It provides an initial overview an analytical grounding for the rest of the volume’s contributions – that are all joined around the development of IQ-testing in Norway and beyond.

Contributors

Håkon Aamot Caspersen

(author)
Postdoctoral research fellow at University of Oslo

Håkon Caspersen is a social anthropologist with a PhD from the University of St Andrews and currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the project Historicizing Intelligence at the Museum of University History/Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.

Jon Røyne Kyllingstad

(author)
Associate professor and Research project leader at University of Oslo

Jon Røyne Kyllingstad is a historian and associate professor at the University of Oslo, Museum of University History/Museum of Cultural History, where he is the leader of the research project Historicizing Intelligence, which this book is based upon. He is a specialist in the history of science and the history of academic institutions with a focus on Norway. He was previously head conservator at the Norwegian Museum of Technology. His last book Rase: en vitenskapshistorie [Race: a history of a science] sums up two decades of work on changing ideas about race, ethnicity and the nation, within physical anthropology, genetics, and humanities disciplines such as archaeology and history in Norway. Similar topics were also addressed in Measuring the Master Race, published by Open Book Publishers in 2014.