About Julianne Rydberg
Motherhood is personal. It is also historical, cultural and political.
Julianne Rydberg is a Norwegian historian, educator, teacher and independent motherhood studies scholar.
Her work brings together history, pedagogy, motherhood studies, matrescence research, cultural analysis and care ethics to help mothers, professionals and organisations understand motherhood with more language, context and depth.
Book JulianneA field of knowledge, not only a private experience.
Julianne Rydberg works with motherhood as both a lived, embodied and relational experience, and as a historical, cultural, political and social institution.
She is interested in the gap between what mothers are expected to be, what mothers actually live, and how societies organise, idealise and depend on maternal care.
Her work offers a way to study motherhood without reducing it to private feeling, individual choice or natural instinct. Instead, she places maternal experience inside its wider context: history, culture, policy, education, care, gender, family life and professional practice.
Background
Professional and academic background
Julianneā€™s academic background spans history, pedagogy, didactics, curriculum theory and educational policy.
She has studied and worked within fields that examine how knowledge is produced, taught, organised and passed on, and how social norms become embedded in institutions, language and everyday life.
Her education includes a MA in history, University of Oslo, 2017.Ā
Her academic and professional work has included research in history didactics and how historical coinscousness can be developed to prevent racism, anti semitism and discrimination in kids.Ā
For many years, Julianne has worked as an educator, lecturer, teacher and public communicator. She has developed educational programmes, taught diverse audiences and translated complex ideas into clear, usable knowledge.
Her authority in the field comes from historical training, educational expertise, research, teaching and long-term work with motherhood, matrescence, maternal norms, care, history and culture.
The questions
Why she began working with motherhood
Julianne began working with motherhood because she saw how often maternal life was treated as either private emotion or practical advice.Ā
Again and again, mothers were offered solutions for behaviour, sleep, feeding, work-life balance or self-care, while the deeper questions remained underexamined.
After having survived severe postpartum depression after the birth of her first child in 2019, it became a mission to work towards a society where motherhood is being taken seriously.Ā
Why do so many mothers feel they are failing?
Where do maternal ideals come from?
How have expectations of mothers changed over time?
How do culture, class, gender, policy and professional systems shape maternal experience?
What happens when we understand motherhood not only as identity, but as work, care, transition, relationship and social structure?
These questions led Julianne into motherhood studies and matrescence research, where maternal experience is studied with the seriousness it deserves.
Julianne is also a mother of two. That lived perspective informs her sensitivity to the subject, but she does not present motherhood itself as automatic expertise. Her work is grounded in scholarship, education, historical analysis and sustained professional practice.
Method
Interdisciplinary approach
Julianneā€™s work is interdisciplinary by design.
She connects history with motherhood studies to show that maternal ideals are not timeless. They are made, repeated, challenged and changed.
She draws on matrescence research to give language to the physical, psychological, social and relational transition into motherhood.
She uses pedagogy and didactics to design learning experiences that are structured, accessible and intellectually rigorous.
She brings in cultural analysis to examine the stories, images, norms and expectations that shape how motherhood is understood.
She engages care ethics to ask what societies value, what they overlook, and how dependency, responsibility and relational life can be taken seriously.
She works with professional practice to help those who meet mothers in healthcare, education, social services, organisations and community settings understand the cultural and emotional terrain mothers are navigating.
The result is work that is academic without being inaccessible, personal without being confessional, and practical without becoming simplistic.
Teaching
Experience teaching mothers and professionals
Julianne has taught mothers, professionals and interdisciplinary audiences about motherhood, matrescence, maternal norms, care, history and culture.
Her teaching has included lectures, workshops, courses, educational resources and public communication for [organisation], [institution], [professional audience], and [community or programme].
She has collaborated with organisations to develop educational programmes that help participants understand motherhood beyond individual experience.
For mothers, her work offers language, perspective and relief from the idea that every difficulty is a personal failure.
For professionals, her work offers context for the expectations, contradictions and pressures that shape maternal life.
For organisations, her work supports more thoughtful conversations about care, gender, family, work, health, education and social responsibility.
Julianneā€™s teaching style is clear, structured and reflective. She creates space for complexity without losing direction.
Context
Nordic perspective
Julianne works from a Nordic context, where motherhood is shaped by both strong welfare ideals and persistent maternal expectations.
The Nordic countries are often described through the language of equality, parental leave, public childcare and social trust. These systems matter deeply.
But even in societies with more public support, mothers continue to carry cultural, emotional and organisational responsibilities that are not always visible.
Julianneā€™s Nordic perspective allows her to examine both support and pressure at the same time.
She is interested in what welfare systems make possible, what they still leave unresolved, and how ideals of the good mother, the equal parent, the productive worker and the responsible citizen intersect.
Her work speaks to Nordic audiences while also connecting to international conversations in motherhood studies, matrescence, care ethics, gender studies, education and cultural history.
Mission
Wider mission
Julianneā€™s wider mission is to make motherhood more visible as a field of knowledge.
Motherhood is often everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It is central to families, economies, institutions and cultural life, yet it is frequently treated as natural, private or self-evident.
Julianne works to change that.
For mothers
She wants mothers to have better language for what they live.
For professionals and organisations
She wants professionals to have deeper frameworks for what they encounter.
She wants organisations to understand care as more than a personal resource.
For public conversation
She wants public conversations about motherhood to become more historically informed, socially aware and intellectually honest.
Her work invites people to ask better questions about maternal life, care, responsibility, identity and social change.
Academic without being inaccessible, personal without being confessional, and practical without becoming simplistic.
Invitation
Work with Julianne
Julianne is available for lectures, workshops, teaching, educational programme development, public conversations, writing, consultancy and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Book her for a talk on motherhood, matrescence, maternal norms, care, history or culture.
Study with her through courses, workshops or educational programmes.
Collaborate with her on projects that need historical depth, pedagogical structure and a nuanced understanding of maternal life.
For bookings, collaborations or media enquiries, contact [email address] or visit [booking link].
