Entrepreneur, Business Leader, Investor and Board Executive Katarina G. Bonde shares her insights into the corporate worlds of Sweden and the US as part of the Empowerment - Swedish Style: The Pippi Longstocking Effect, sponsored by the Swedish Institute in Stockholm. Her talk on campus will be from 12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m. in Room 310 at the BAEEC (Bank of America Executive Education Center) hosted by the Global Business Center. For more information about this event, please click here. [PDF]

Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 5:30-6:30 pm in the Viking/SVEA room at the Swedish Cultural Center. A reception follows. For more information about this event, please click here. [PDF]

The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies welcome papers, panels, and roundtable presentations for the first joint conference of Scandinavian and Baltic Studies in the United States.

The conference aims to highlight and foster academic inquiry that draws comparisons between Scandinavia (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Papers that examine stateless peoples and those left outside of the Scandinavian/Baltic approach, but sharing the same geographic space, are equally welcome. Papers and panels devoted to individual states are also welcome.

Contributions are encouraged from disciplines including (but not limited to): anthropology, architecture, communication, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, environment, ethnic relations, film studies, fine arts, gender studies, geography, history, international relations, law, linguistics, literature, memory, political science, psychology, public health, religion, sociology, tourism, and advancing Baltic and Scandinavian studies. Presentations are not to exceed 20 minutes in length.

Requirements: All presenters must be SASS members or AABS members in good standing. Send panel or paper proposals embedded in the body of an e-mail (no attachments) or via postal mail to the appropriate address below. The deadline for abstract submission is December 11, 2009.

The Swedish Club will be performing at the annual Lucia Celebration at the Swedish Cultural Center on Sunday, December 13th, from 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. To learn more about the Swedish Club, please visit their website: http://uwswedishclub.weebly.com

Our summer newsletter can be read on line by clicking here. Enjoy!

The Scan|Design Foundation sponsors UW graduate and advanced undergraduate students to study in Denmark, allowing students to earn UW credit for coursework taught in English at distinguished Danish educational institutions.

Standing with the President of the Scan|Design Foundation Mark Schleck, fellows for Fall 2009 include Nic Vondrak (Copenhagen Business School), Mona Johnston (Royal Danish Academy, Natalie Gulsrud (University of Copenhagen: Life Sciences), Thomas Godshalk (University of Copenhagen: Nordic, German and Comparative Literatures), Kimberly Cannady (University of Copenhagen: Musicology) and Elliott Schmitt (Aalborg University: Sustainable Energy Planning and Management).

The Swedish Women’s Educational Association held their inaugural Summer Dinner with Auction at the Vasa Park Ball Room in Bellevue. Part of the evening’s program was to begin fundraising for an endowed SWEA Scholarship Fund for the Department.

On May 18, Valdis Zatlers, President of the Republic of Latvia, came to the University of Washington to express his support for the UW Latvian Studies program, “one of the best in the world.” President Zatlers visited Christine Ingebritsen’s Scandinavian Politics class to give a lecture about Latvia’s role in the European Union and NATO.

Continue reading "Latvian President Visits" »

Helsinki University has published a profile of Andrew Nestingen, Associate Professor of Finnish in the Department.

Laconic humor, melodrama and the language of silence: What happens when A Clockwork Orange meets Hamlet? An American researcher encourages people to acquaint themselves with Finland’s number one film director.

On March 11, the Washington State Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 8643 to “honor the Department of Scandinavian Studies on its 100th anniversary for continuing to preserve and cultivate the Scandinavian and Baltic cultures not only in the state of Washington, but the entire United States of America.”

The resolution, sponsored by Senators Ken Jacobsen, Mary Margaret Haugen, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Karen Fraser, was passed on the centennial anniversary of the initial legislative bill which established the Department in 1909. Since then, the Department has grown to include 12 full-time faculty, 80 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate students.

Top photo back row: Kirstine Kastbjerg, Mark Safstrom, Terje Leiren, Senator Ken Jacobsen, Lotta Gavel Adams, Ia Dubois, Donna Miksys, Rimas Miksys. Front row: Andris Rogainis, Rennesa Osterberg, Mia Spangenberg, Peter Leonard. Bottom photo: Senator Ken Jacobsen