Congratulations to all the new Human Security graduates from the 2021 cohort! This year’s graduation speech by Frederik Møller Christensen is included below.

Dear fellow graduates, faculty, family, and friends,

It is an honour to stand here today as we celebrate the completion of our Master’s program in Human Security at Aarhus University. As I look back on our time together, I am filled with gratitude for the experience we have shared, and it makes me very happy to see almost the entire cohort here today. 

The first day, when I met my Human Security cohort at Moesgaard, I immediately felt that I had picked the right master’s programme and I clearly remember cycling home after the first day with a big smile on my face – feeling overwhelmed by all the incredible people I had met and privileged to be at this unique master’s programme, situated at this beautiful old manor in the middle of the forest.

The Unique Cohort and the Unique Education

This cohort has been characterized by great diversity and strong social cohesion. Two things, that don’t always harmonize, but have done so during the last two years, both because the entire cohort has embraced each other’s differences and used the diversity to create even stronger friendships and also because our professor and coordinator Christian Gade has insisted on creating social affiliations throughout the education, by organizing barbecue evenings both at Moesgaard and privately, as well as inducing us to establish social, academic and coordination committees, where we as students have been responsible for making social and academic events and had the unique opportunity of influencing the master’s program through monthly meetings. These efforts have had a profound impact on our class and helped shape our study period into something unique and I think we should all give Christian Gade a big applause for insisting on the “cosy times” and on establishing a student democracy.

I keep mentioning the word unique. I do so, firstly because this education is the only one of its kind in the world and because the way it mixes natural science with political and cultural studies has given us unique knowledge. But also, unique, because Human Security has a very holistic approach that has always invited us to not only bring our brains to the classes but also our own independent thoughts, original reflections – and even our bodies, when we did gymnastics in Christian Gade’s classes and for Martjins workshop. Coming from a political science bachelor this was a very different way of working for me, but I quickly started liking it. This holistic approach to education was both challenging, fascinating and something that made us all bring ourselves more into play during the classes, which I believe strengthened the social bond between us and made us feel like we played an important role in creating this programme. Apart from that, the education also included some very memorable events such as our amazing weekend trip to Sandbjerg during our course in Tropical Ecosystem Management with the two Biology Henriks and the conflict mediation workshop with Christian Gade. Examples of alternative learning that both gave us more knowledge and more unique memories together.

The Unique Timing

This cohort was also unique due to the timing. In Denmark, the covid-isolation had just ended, and everyone was eager to meet new people, which was also financially backed by Aarhus University who gave us Corona restart money, which meant that our calendars were packed with social and academic events the first 6 months, which enhanced our social bonds. 

Also, during our master’s programme, multiple human insecurities have happened around the world, both politically, economically, environmentally and personally, making Human Security even more relevant and putting our learned knowledge into a broader perspective. The Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan, the global democratic erosions continued, massive protests emerged in Iran, Russia raged war upon Ukraine and huge climate insecurities occurred all over the world, such as the floodings of Turkey and the heatwaves in Europe. 

These topics were always included and discussed during our classes, especially by Christian Axboe and Christian Gade duo, who with each their unique teaching style made the lessons relevant and always inspiring.

We will probably – and unfortunately – not – be able to tackle all these challenges, but hopefully, politicians and employers are now more aware than ever, that Human Security is a very relevant education.

The Work Placements

Human Security has for most of us also included the project placement, that once again has shown the incredible diversity in our cohort. Here my fellow students have gained experiences with everything from fruit flies in mango orchards in Gambia, refugee camps in Greece, The italian disinformation ecosystem, the wild boars in Poland, conflict resolution in Uganda and Palestine, Humanitarian NGO projects in Denmark, EU jobs in Bruxelles, development work at embassies in Africa, environmental work in UNDP Kenya and as researchers in research centres in both Jordan, Bulgaria and – in my own case – Serbia, where I researched the democratic perceptions at the University of Belgrade. This reflects this cohort’s multitude of interests, but also our common adventurous spirits and our desire to make the world a better place, and I couldn’t think of a better group to have a beer with tonight, than my intelligent, inspiring, and adventurous fellow graduates.

And tonight, when we toast, we do not only celebrate the completion of our master’s thesis but we also celebrate the fact that this cohort reached unity in our diversity, because as Gandhi once said: “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”. And if we have been able to create unity across more than 13 different nationalities and 16 different bachelors, I am sure the rest of the world can do the same. And if not, they can hire us to help them!

Thank you!