The second Nordic Translation Conference will take place on 4, 5, and 6 April 2013 at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England.

Please send proposals (250-400 words) for workshops by 1 June 2012 and for conference papers by 15 August 2012 to B.J. Epstein and Gudrun Rawoens by e-mail at conference@nordictranslation.net or by regular mail to:

B.J. Epstein
School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park,
Norwich, England
NR4 7TJ

Along with the proposal, please include a brief biographical note. For ease of communication, English should be the primary conference language.

Christine Ingebritsen, Professor within the Department of Scandinavian Studies & Jackson School of International Studies, will speak in a panel discussion on the Greek Financial Crisis.

Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 4 P.M. in Savery Hall room 260

“In the Wake of the Terrorist Attacks: Teaching Social and Political Values in Norway after July 22.”

Thursday, May 31, 2012, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
The Commons (Room 308) Parrington Hall
University of Washington

Dr. Kjetil Børhaug
Associate Professor
Department of Administration & Organizational Science
University of Bergen, Norway

Kjetil Børhaug has published extensively on issues of the relationship between school curricula and political and democratic legitimacy in Norway. Dr. Børhaug examines how the educational system can be seen as a reflection of dominant ways of thinking about the political, economic and legal order and how it legitimizes the existing political order, especially in times of national stress, such as the terrorist attacks of July 22, 2011.

There is a general consensus within the social sciences that the Scandinavian welfare state represents a political and cultural paradigm that is unparalleled in certain respects. Many political controversies have revolved around the model, but it has also been negotiated with much fervor in postwar Scandinavian fiction. Lasse Horne Kjældgaard’s lecture, “The Poetics of the Scandinavian Welfare State” will address the literary energies unleashed by the Scandinavian welfare state model in Danish fiction written during the so-called “golden age of welfare,” from 1950 to 1980.

Monday, May 21st
Kane Hall Walker Ames Room 225, 4-5 p.m.
Guests are invited to attend a reception immediately after the lecture in the same room.

Lasse Horne Kjældgaard (born 1974) is the newly appointed director for the prestigious Danish Society for Language and Literature in Copenhagen and Professor of Danish literature at the University of Copenhagen. He serves as literary reviewer for the daily Politiken and is editor of the periodical Kritik. Most recent book publications include: Tolerance - eller hvordan man lærer at leve med dem, man hader (with Thomas Bredsdorff, 2008), Sjælen efter døden: Guldalderens moderne gennembrud (2007) and textual critical editions of Karen Blixen, Den afrikanske Farm (2007) and Syv fantastiske Fortællinger (2012).

April 29th, 2012 was the 27th Annual Nordic Heritage Museum Northern Lights Auktion. This auktion helps raise funds for operation expenses of the Museum. Several representatives of the department attended including six of our very own Graduate Students.

from left to right: Kimberly Kraft, Katja Shaye, Anna Rühl, Anna Peltomäki, Timothy Warburton, and Evan Wright

Do you want to attend the Small States Summer School at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik? The program starts on Sunday, June 17th and runs through Sunday, July 1st. For more information, please contact Professor Christine Ingebritsen.

The end of 2011 marked the end of the UW’s Finnish Program’s fundraising campaign. In the Tetri Challenge, Mr. Eero Tetri had promised to match all donations made to the program by the end of the year, up to $50,000.

We are proud to announce the $50,000 mark was hit - an amazing $62,000 was donated to the UW Finnish Program. Suurkiitokset, and a heartfelt thank you to all individuals and organizations that supported our important cause. With Mr. Tetri’s match, an additional $50,000, the program is well on its way to a steadier footing. We were happy to receive donations from both in and out of state, thus highlighting the value seen in the program both locally and nationally. A celebration will be organized later this spring. Thank you all!

Lecturer Aija Elg receiving Mr. Eero Tetri’s donation of $50,000 to the Finnish program in January.

Patricia L. Conroy, Associate Professor Emerita, passed away peacefully on Sunday, March 4, surrounded by close friends and family. She was 70 years old. Born in 1941 in Dayton, Ohio, Pat was raised in New Jersey. Intending to study medicine, she enrolled at Rutgers University where she was introduced to Icelandic literature. Following graduation in 1963, she took her small savings and bought a ticket to Reykjavik. There she found a job as a laboratory technologist and spent her spare time studying Modern and Old Icelandic languages, Icelandic literature, phonetics and semantics. In the summer of 1965, Pat studied Danish at the Folk High School in Rødding, Southern Jutland, before spending the academic year at the University of Copenhagen.

In 1966 she was admitted to the graduate school in Scandinavian studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned the M.A. degree in Danish linguistics in 1968 and, following a summer in the Faroe Islands, she began work on her Ph.D. focusing on Faroese ballads. Before completing her dissertation, Conroy accepted a position at the University of Washington as Acting Assistant Professor in 1972. With the completion of her dissertation in 1974, “Faroese Ballads and Oral-Formulaic Composition,” she was promoted to Assistant Professor. Subsequently promoted to Associate Professor in 1980, Conroy taught courses ranging from medieval literature and Scandinavian mythology to linguistics and Hans Christian Andersen. In 1977 she edited Ballads and Ballad Research, an anthology of selected papers from the International Conference on Nordic and Anglo-American Ballad Research. With her colleague Sven H. Rossel, she co-edited Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen (1980) and The Diaries of Hans Christian Andersen (1990), both published by the University of Washington Press. She had been working on a study of the ballad tradition of the Faroe Islands at the time of her death.

Professor Conroy was an active member of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, the International Congress on Medieval Studies and the Modern Language Association. She was a dedicated teacher and devoted mentor to her students and a valued colleague to the other members of the faculty.

Dr. Guntis Smidchens, Assistant Professor of Baltic Studies, was awarded the ORDER OF THE CROSS OF TERRA MARIANA-4th Class, on February 23 in Tartu, Estonia, by Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, for “special service to the Republic of Estonia.” Smidchens was notified of the award on February 1 and flew to Estonia with his family to receive the honor.

Smidchens is the co-founder of the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington where he has been a faculty member since 1994. The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana is given as a decoration to non-Estonians who have rendered special services to the Republic of Estonia. Under the leadership of Professor Smidchens, the Baltic Studies Program has become a jewel among the international programs at the University of Washington.

The Baltic-American communities join the members of the Department of Scandinavian Studies in congratulating Professor Smidchens for this distinguished honor and accomplishment.

For the second year in a row the consortium of Norwegian colleges in the mid-west have welcomed a University of Washington student to join a weekend of engagement, speeches, discussions around the ideas, norms and principles of the Nobel Peace Prize. When Norway awards the prize each year all eyes are on Oslo, and many world leaders and global organizations are carefully considered in a highly competitive process coordinated by a team of Norwegians. For students in Norwegian studies, this event provides a rare opportunity to interact with previous winners of the prize and consider which themes are gaining greater emphasis (sustainability, poverty, human rights) in recent years. We are honored to be sending Maren Anderson Johnson to Augsburg College, sponsored by a gift to the Department of Scandinavian Studies administered by Chair, Jan Sjavik. Maren specializes in Norwegian national identity formation, she speaks and educates students in Norwegian, and is seeking a career in the field of Scandinavian Studies. A special thanks to Maureen Reed and Frankie Schackelford who were instrumental in including the University of Washington among a distinguished group of Norwegian colleges and allowing us to participate in this event, March 1-3, 2012 in Minneapolis.

Maren’s essay can be read here (pdf).

Attend the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, March 1-4, 2012 in Minneapolis

Students are invited to submit a ten page essay to Professor Ingebritsen documenting the importance of the Nobel Peace Prize to Norway’s global role by January 15th. If your essay is selected, you will be invited to attend the 24th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum.

Attention peacemakers: The 24th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum will take place in Minneapolis on March 1-4, 2012. The Nobel Peace Prize Forum is a unique civic learning experience that brings Nobel Laureates, civic leaders, and scholars together with students and other citizens. As the Norwegian Nobel Institute’s only such program or academic affiliation outside of Norway, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum has a special mission: to inspire peacemaking by celebrating the work of Nobel Peace Prize winners. The event is open to the public and people of all ages are encouraged to attend. The Forum is coordinated by Augsburg College and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

The 2012 theme is “the price of peace.” More event information will be available over the next few months, but a number of dynamic speakers have already committed to speaking including:

F.W. de Klerk, former President of South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Sakumzi (“Saki”) Macozoma, business leader and former Member of the South African Parliament

Please visit the Forum Event page for more information.

Heather Short, a doctoral student in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, has been named the “Nadia Christensen Scholar in Nordic Studies” for 2011-2012. The award was made in recognition of Ms. Short’s outstanding academic performance and scholarly promise as judged by the department faculty.

Heather’s research centers on the connection between tradition and identity, and specifically how traditions inform and shape identity in contemporary society. Her current research is focused on two Norwegian clothing traditions: the folk-costume (bunad) and hand-knit clothing. The bunad is heavily steeped in tradition and a high degree of authenticity must be established for a variant to be recognized. While the folk costume is a piece of Norwegian nostalgia, it continues to be popular and worn by large numbers of people during 17. mai festivities, at Christmas, and other special occasions. Knitting patterns, on the other hand, while also traditional in nature, are not constrained by the same stringent claims of authenticity which characterizes the bunad tradition. Both types of clothing, however, continue to function as markers of Norwegian identity in contemporary society. In addition to the original, traditional patterns, both the bunad and knitting motifs have been used as inspiration for designers and continue to undergo processes of reinterpretation and evolution. Heather’s dissertation research will investigate the historical development of these two traditions, and explore their significance today by engaging with the discourses of identity in Norway as well as present results of field work among the crafts-people who are involved with both traditions.

The Nadia Christensen Endowment for Excellence in Nordic Studies was established through a generous gift from the Hognander Family Foundation of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in honor of Dr. Nadia Christensen, a doctoral graduate in Comparative Literature with an emphasis on Scandinavian languages and literature at the University of Washington. The purpose of the endowment is to recognize and reward outstanding academic performance and/or scholarship by an advanced graduate student in the Department of Scandinavian Studies.

Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer (1931 - ) won the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2011 today.

The Swedish Academy praised Tranströmer’s work for its “condensed, translucent images” through which “he gives us fresh access to reality.”

Dr. Ia Dubois, who teaches the Graduate Seminar on Nordic Poetry at the University of Washington, will speak this afternoon on NPR.

Autumn Quarter 2011 SCAND 427/GWSS 429
Scandinavian and Baltic Women Writers in English Translation
Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30- 3:20 in SAV 138
Instructor: Prof. Lotta Gavel Adams - lotta@uw.edu
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 9:30 – 10:20 in Raitt 305 Z

Course Content
This course will explore issues of power and gender, sexuality and nature in the works of Scandinavian and Baltic women writers from the 1890s to the present. We will examine how the position for women has evolved during the past 120 years from the advent of the Industrial Age in Scandinavia, when women did not have the right to vote, to the 21st century when women have gained control of almost half of the political power. We will examine how the literary texts by Scandinavian women writers reflect theses changes and how feminist issues and themes have developed – and remained the same – during the past 120 years.
We will look at the phenomenon of the powerful woman in a patriarchal world by applying Bourdieu’s microtheories of social power. We will also focus on is the role of nature and the environment in the fiction by these women writers. In recent decades, when the global warming has emerged as a serious threat to our earth, women writers have increasingly felt provoked to weave in environmental issues into their writing.

Learning Outcomes
1. to gain knowledge of the literary trends and feminist “waves” in the works of Scandinavian women writers, and to understand the works in their historical, social, and economic contexts,
2. to learn critical approaches to analysis and aesthetic responses to works of literature,
3. to improve skills for interpreting and writing about literature.

Required Reading
Books:
Lagerlöf, Selma. Gösta Berlings Saga (1893 / 2009)
Undset, Sigrid. Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath. (1920 / 1997)
Martinson, Moa. Women and Appletrees. (1933 / 1985)
Blixen, Karen. “Babette’s Feast” in Anecdotes of Destiny (1958)
Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalia’s Daughters (1977 / 1985)
Wassmo, Herbjorg. Dina’s Book. (1989 / 1994)
Sinisalo, Johanna. Troll: A Love Story. (2000 / 2003)
Oksanen, Sofi. Purge. (2008 / 2010)