New Directions Series
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
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 deadline for abstract submission is December 11, 2009.
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]
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]
Fairmont Olympic Hotel – Spanish Ballroom
6:00 pm Reception • 7:30 pm Dinner and Program
All proceeds from this event will help create the Centennial Fund for Excellence in Nordic and Baltic Studies.
RSVP
Please RSVP for the Gala by September 14, 2009 by emailing scandgala@u.washington.edu or calling 206-616-4473.
Ceremonial planting of a grove of eight oak trees in honor of the Nordic and Baltic countries, live music, exhibits, poster-presentations by current graduate students, refreshments.
The eight trees, symbolizing the eight countries studied in the Scandinavian Department, will be planted around the oldest footpath on campus, between Parrington Hall and William H. Gates Hall.
You can support the Nordic-Baltic Centennial Oak Grove with your donation.
This event is part of a year-long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Department. Free to the public.
The University of Washington, College of Arts & Sciences, The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, The Consulate General of Iceland in New York, The Trade Council of Iceland, The Fisheries Association of Iceland and Icelandic® USA, Inc., request the pleasure of your company at the University of Washington at the Hogness Auditorium, Room A420, from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, September 10th, 2009.
Moderator:
Ph.D. Christine Ingebritsen, Professor of Political Science, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, College of Arts & Sciences.
Presenters:
Dr. Sigurgeir Thorgeirsson, Permanent Secretary, The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture. Dr. Thorgeirsson will present the Icelandic government’s fisheries policies. Mr. Daniel A. Murphy Jr., Executive Vice President, Icelandic® USA, Inc. Mr. Murphy will discuss Iceland’s project to document and communicate responsible fisheries and plans to certify the Icelandic fisheries.
Panel Discussion:
Dr. Sigurgeir Thorgeirsson, Permanent Secretary, The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture. Mr. Daniel A. Murphy Jr., Executive Vice President, Icelandic® USA, Inc. Mr. Hlynur Gudjonsson, Consul and Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Iceland in New York.
Please RSVP to:
blax@mfa.is
The Department is offering two courses this summer:
Term A: Sexuality in Scandinavia (SCAND 367) taught by Dr. Ia Dubois
Term B: Introduction to Folklore (SCAND 230) taught by Dr. Guntis Smidchens
The Department will hold its Graduation Ceremony on June 12th in honor of matriculating Undergraduate and Graduate Students. Students who have not yet received their invitation and tickets should contact the Department Office for further details.
The Spirit of Place
Johnson 102
Lene Tranberg is the principal partner of Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, one of the most influential architecture firms practicing in Denmark today. Her office produces exemplary work at several scales, from lighting design to building in the urban context of Copenhagen and other Danish cities. Recent work includes a student dormitory for Copenhagen University (Tietgenkollegiet), the Copenhagen Business School (“Kilen”) in Fredericksberg, and the Playhouse for the Royal Danish Theater located at Nyhavn. These buildings have received numerous prizes in Scandinavia and Europe including a prestigious RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architecture) Award for the Playhouse this past June.
Nordic Heritage Museum
The 2000s saw a burst of literary creativity in Sweden, as young authors—many of them second-generation immigrants—began writing their own stories, set in a diversifying society where citizens with many different ethnic backgrounds were making claims to full-fledged Swedish identity. Doctoral candidate Peter Leonard will will explore the imaginative fiction of Khemiri, Wenger, and Bakhtiari for hints of a new, “post-ethnic” Nordic identity in this talk as part of the Museum’s Wallenberg Lecture Series.
Latvia and the EU
HUB 108
The Department is honored to announce that the President of the Republic of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers, will visit the UW campus on Monday, May 18. President Zatlers will speak on “Latvia and the EU” in HUB Room 108, from 11:30am - 12:20 pm. During his visit, President Zatlers will also meet with University officials, members of the Department and Baltic Studies students. The public is invited.
The Department will be sponsoring a 17th of May Concert featuring the Hellvik Male Chorus from Norway and the Ladies Chorus of Seattle in a concert of choral music.
Saturday, May 16, 7:30 pm
Kane Hall 130
Free Admission
Pre-Dissertation Colloquium with Kirstine Kastbjerg
Raitt 314
Danish Gothic has gone unexamined despite canonical writers’ frequent and consistent use of Gothic conventions, renegotiated for a Danish context. Gothic conventions of evil, decay, fragmentation, perverse desire, supernatural spectacles, and sensory disorientation represent an onslaught of destructive forces, threatening to demolish the modern subject as it emerges in Romanticism. Ingemann, Andersen, Blixen and Høeg engage with nineteenth-century Danish discourses of identity and self formation, using the excesses of Gothic surface mechanisms, theatrical effects and cheap thrills to articulate ideas about the production of identity that ties into the Gothic aesthetic and ontology of the present day.
Toward a Walkable Seattle: Drawing on International Examples
Architecture 147
Danish architect Helle Søholt will present a series of recommendations for improving the pedestrian experience within Seattle. Drawing from experience in cities around the globe, Ms. Søholt will illustrate the relationships between urban walkability and vibrant public life.
Helle Søholt is a founding partner at Gehl Architects, a firm renowned for its influence on urban life and public space. Gehl Architects’ unique methodology uses empirical survey and mapping methods to measure the human experience of urban space, and applies these lessons to their urban design solutions. Ms. Søholt has extensive experience consulting on international urban design projects. She has taught both Urban Design Theory and Studio Work, and is a frequent lecturer and keynote speaker. She received a MA in Architecture and Urban Design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark as well as a MArch from the University of Washington.
Advisory Board member, Friend, Alumna
Margit Weingarten was born in Trondheim, Norway, and graduated from the UW in Art History. Margit established the Dr. Werner and Margit Weingarten Endowed Fund for Norwegian Studies and was a charter member of the Advisory Board.
Monday, April 20, 2pm
The Smith Room
Suzzallo Library
University of Washington Campus
The Dance of Life: Edvard Munch and his life
Communications 202
The film “The Dance of Life” follows Edvard Munch through his life and focuses on the most significant events. This film shows how his life directly influenced his art and paintings, and how he developed into one of the most influential and important artists of his century.
Since the film opened it has been sold to a number of TV-channels all over the world. It was nominated for the Norwegian Amanda and won a prize in the film festival of Bratislava in1998. It was also chosen to represent Norway in the Film festival of Montreal in 2003 as a part of a Nordic film program.
This lecture will explore the way in which the film is telling the story of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Is there such a thing as a Nordic film story? – A singularly Nordic way to tell a story?
Using clips from the film the lecture looks at both the script and the visuals and how the director chooses to portray the life of the painter and how his life translated into his art.
Criminalizing the Johns to Protect Victims of Prostitution:
Meet the Architect of Sweden’s Controversial Sex Law to Discuss its Consequences and Effects
Women’s University Club
Co-sponsored by the Center for Women and Democracy. Registration and dinner reservation required online.
Margareta Winberg is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, Secretary of Labor and Minister of Gender Equality Policies. Her lecture is part of Empowerment — Swedish Style: The Pippi Longstocking Effect, sponsored by the Swedish Institute in Stockholm and SAS Seattle.
Why Men and Women are More Equal in Sweden:
Proactive Policies in Swedish Legislation and Society
Smith 120
Margareta Winberg is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, Secretary of Labor and Minister of Gender Equality Policies. Her lecture is part of Empowerment — Swedish Style: The Pippi Longstocking Effect, sponsored by the Swedish Institute in Stockholm and SAS Seattle.
Katharsis for Two-Year Olds: From Aristotle to the Puppet Theatre Tittut
Thompson 125
Do very small children really enjoy and benefit from live theatre performance? Does a 2-year old get anything out of seeing, e.g., Little Tiger and Little Bear? Stockholm’s Puppet Theatre Tittut thinks so—and they have 30 years experience to prove it. Sweden’s forward-looking culture policy recognizes the central role played by art and literature in the development of very young children. Find out in what special way theatre benefits its youngest audience members and how you can help enrich the lives of the children in your world.
Anne-Charlotte Harvey is Professor Emerita of Theatre at San Diego State University and an acclaimed singer, actress, and translator.
Norwegians in Hollywood
Parrington Hall Commons (3rd floor)
Arne Lunde (Assistant Professor of Scandinavian and Film, UCLA) provides an overview history of Norwegians in Hollywood cinema during the classic studio era. The talk will focus on the hyperwhite star persona of Sonia Henie at 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as on the lesser-known stars such as Greta Nissen and Sigrid Gurie. This illustrated lecture will also discuss how Norwegians have been represented on the American screen. Subjects include WWII-era films such as Casablanca and The Moon is Down, postwar family films like I Remember Mama, and the screen persona of Norwegian-Canadian character actor John Qualen, Hollywood’s quintessential “squarehead.”
Alternative Conceptions of Body and Gender in 19th-century Finnish Magic Narratives
Communications 202
Laura Stark is Professor of Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä.
Scholars in archaeology, folklore studies and the history of religions have suggested that concepts and mentalities existing in Scandinavia and Finland during the Iron Age and Medieval period show large-scale similarities, even if specific expressions of these mentalities differed from culture to culture. In the interior of Finland, verbal and ritual traditions containing many layers of premodern mentality survived until the 20th century, which can be explained in part by the fact that some regions of the Finnish-Karelian culture area were not influenced by Christianity until the 14th-16th centuries. The longevity of the older worldview means that folklorists have been able to contribute to discussions regarding the mental world of the pre-Christian and Medieval Scandinavian eras.
Saints and Politics in the Kalmar Union Period
Communications 202
Tracey Sands is a Ph.D. graduate of the Department and a former faculty member of the University of Colorado Department of German and Slavic.
The era of the Kalmar Union, which united all of the Nordic kingdoms and their possessions under the rule of a single monarch from the end of the fourteenth century into the 1520s, was certainly one of the most contentious periods in Nordic history. Although there is a good deal of material to document the major political events of the period, there is relatively little documentation of the thinking of individuals, even of those who played important roles in these events. To a great extent, this may arise out of the fact that medieval Scandinavians were not in the habit of keeping journals, nor of writing personal letters that outlined their political philosophies and the motivations for the actions that they took. While textual sources, not least in the form of rhymed chronicles, certainly exist, they are more likely to reflect propaganda concerns than to provide insight into the thinking of individuals. It is Sands’ contention, however, that in spite of the relative lack of textual sources, other kinds of sources exist that provide us, often in surprising ways, with a window into the concerns, affiliations, and alliances of high-ranking individuals, and in some cases, of institutions (such as cathedral chapters) at particular points in time. One such approach, which in itself requires working with a wide range of different sources, is to examine the medieval cult of the saints.
Consul Erik D. Laursen and the Nordic Heritage Museum invite members of the Seattle community to meet a twenty-member delegation of Danish legislators from the Regions Capital.
The delegation is visiting the Seattle area to study regional development, technology transfer and commercialization.
Guests will have an opportunity meet and mingle with the visiting legislators at the reception.
Following the reception guests will be treated to a catered dinner and presentations from Marianne Stecher-Hansen, Professor of Danish Studies at the University of Washington and Consul Erik D. Laursen, KGL Dansk Konsulat. Stecher-Hansen will deliver a lecture “Nordic Connections in the Pacific Northwest” and Consul Laursen will present “Cultural Comparisons: Examples from the US and Denmark”.
Since 1948, students in the Scandinavian Department have performed a Luciatåg (Lucia procession) to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. Join us this year for a special Lucia Concert on Friday, December 5th at 2:30 PM in room 108 in the Husky Union Building (HUB) on campus. This event is free and open to the public. Coffee and refreshments will be served following the concert. The event is being sponsored by the Scandinavian Department and the UW Swedish Club.
This year, the concert will feature an impressive 43-voice choir of students from Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola in Jönköping, Sweden, as well as the members of the UW Swedish Club who will perform the Luciatåg. All students interested in participating in the Luciatåg should contact Swedish Club president, Sarah McConkey.
A note on the tradition: Lucia celebrations are held in many places in Scandinavia on Dec. 13th, Lucia’s saint day. The tradition of a girl wearing a crown of candles on her head is full of symbolism, most notedly the theme of the return of light at the darkest time of winter (Dec. 13th was the winter solstice on the old Julian calendar).
Staging Migration and Post-National Identities:
The Performance of Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Europe
Iranian-Swedish playwright and director Farnaz Arbabi discusses the performance of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in contemporary Europe with members of Lotta Gavel-Adams’ Drama seminar.
In the past couple of years her work has awakened political and cultural debate and secured some of Sweden’s most prestigious theater awards. In her 2006 adaption of the literary classic The Emigrants, she recasts Vilhelm Moberg’s epic of 19th-century immigration to America as a narrative of today’s immigration to Sweden. Her production of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s play Invasion! (2006) deals with questions of ethnicity and identity among first-generation young people whose parents immigrated to Sweden.
In 2007, she produced Normal for Camp X theatre in Copenhagen, a devised work about sexuality and sexual identity among teenagers. This year, she directed the musical Hedwig and The Angry Inch for Stockholm City Theatre. In her talk, Arbabi will show filmed clips from her productions and discuss recurring themes in her work: identity, ethnicity, gender, and alienation among minority groups in contemporary Europe.
The Power of Scandinavia
Although Scandinavia may not be highly visible in world politics, the region has a quiet influence on global society. This lecture will highlight some of Scandinavia’s noteworthy contributions, such as institutionalizing “sustainable development” as a global practice; defining the possibilities for poverty elimination through generous and consistent aid to the poor; and awarding a prestigious prize for peace, a legacy of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the Department will participate in The Centennial Series: Beyond the American Point of View with a lecture by Professor Christine Ingebritsen.
A century ago, the young University of Washington was growing and reaching out to the world, not only with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held on campus in 1909, but also with two new academic departments: Scandinavian Languages and Department of Oriental History, Literature, and Institutions.
Those two departments, each with a single faculty member in 1909, have since expanded and transformed to become four College of Arts & Sciences departments: Scandinavian Studies, Asian Languages and Literature, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. The Centennial Lecture Series highlights these departments with presentations and panel discussions featuring the UW’s renowned faculty.
All four celebrate their centennial anniversary in 2009. Register for this free event, which will be held in from 7-9pm on November 12th in Kane 120.
Architecture Hall 147
Bicycle Transportation in Portland: A Tale of Three Cities
Roger Geller
Bicycle Coordinator, City of Portland
There’s More to Walking Than Walking: Design for Copenhagen’s Public Realm
Louise Grassov, MAA
Associate, Gehl Architects - Copenhagen, Denmark
Walkable Design for a Sustainable Dockside Green
Jim Huffman, MAIBC, LEED A.P.
Associate Principal, Busby Perkins + Will - Vancouver, Canada
Discussion Moderator:
Anne Vernez Moudon, Dr. es Sc.
Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington
This panel is part of Global Green: Sustainable Planning and Design in the Pacific Northwest and Denmark.
The Tsar’s Dwarf
Danish author Peter Fogtdal comes to Seattle to talk about his new book The Tsar’s Dwarf, which has been translated into English by affiliate faculty member Tiina Nunnally. Søerine, a female dwarf from Denmark, is given as a gift to the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great, during his visit to Copenhagen. Søerine travels to St. Petersburg where she becomes a jester at the Tsar’s functions. She enjoys her new life and falls in love with the Tsar’s favorite dwarf, but disaster strikes in the shape of a priest who wants to “save” her.
Fogtdal speaks in Jan Krogh Nielsen’s class on Scandinavian Literature.
The Animal Style in Viking Art and Imagination
Nancy L. Wicker
Professor of Art History
The University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS
Wicker teaches several medieval courses, including Viking Art and Archaeology. She received her Ph.D. in interdisciplinary art history, archeology, and Old Norse language and literature at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Wicker has co-edited two books and has published on Scandinavian jewelry, animal-style art, female infanticide during the Viking Age, runic literacy, and gendered approaches to art and archaeology.
Movie Showing and Lecture
Christiania: Our Heart is in Your Hands tells the story of the “free state” of Christiania, a 36-year-old anarchist squatter community occupying an abandoned military base in the heart of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
After the movie showing there will be a question and answer session with the movie’s producers Richard Jackman and Robert Lawson. The Q and A session will be led by Marianne Stecher-Hansen.
More Information: Nordic Heritage Museum
Conversation on the Environment: Denmark and the Pacific Northwest
Svend Auken, former Danish Minister on the Environment
The Royal Danish Guards Association - Pacific Northwest & UW Dept. of Scandinavian Studies present:
A Royal Birthday Celebration
honoring
Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
Saturday April 19, 2008
Hosted bar from 6:00 p.m.
Dinner at 7:00 p.m.
Dancing until 11:30 p.m.
Black Tie Optional
Scandinavian Studies - Norway, America, and Life’s Vocations
Kjetil Flatin
2008 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer
Sverre Arestad Professorship Distinguished Lecture
Kjetil Flatin (Ph.D., 1971) has been chosen the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer by the Department of Scandinavian Studies. Dr. Flatin, who lives in Oslo, Norway, will visit the campus for several days in early March, 2008, and give the Distinguished Alumni Lecture on Monday, March 10.
Flatin earned his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1971 with a dissertation on the short stories of Norwegian writer Johan Borgen. It was the first Ph.D. formally granted by the Department of Scandinavian Studies since the establishment of its doctoral program in 1967.
The Architecture of Private Life: Strindberg’s The Roofing Ceremony and the Modernist Novel
Anna Westerståhl Stenport is assistant professor of Swedish and Director of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Her publications include studies of August Strindberg, Swedish cinema, and Swedish popular fiction.
The Sami in Norway: Cultural and Political Revitalization, 1970-2000
Bård Berg
Visiting Fulbright Professor (University of Tromsø)
From a Cold War to a Cold Peace. Time for a Revival of Disarmament?
The Department of Scandinavian Studies and the Alumni Association were honored to welcome Swedish diplomat Dr. Hans Blix to campus for a guest lecture on October 18th. Now you can view Blix’s speech, From a Cold War to a Cold Peace. Time for a Revival of Disarmament? online in streaming and downloadable video. Blix underscores the impact of our current political climate on world affairs and feature his insight and expertise regarding instituting change via weapons control.
Born in 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden, Dr. Blix’s career has largely been in politics and public service. From January 2000 until June 2003, he was appointed Executive Chairman of the United Nations Mentoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq by the UN Secretary-General. In early 2004, Dr. Blix chaired the independent international Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. He has received several honorary doctorates, is the recipient of many decorations and awards, and has written numerous books on international and constitutional law and articles relating to energy and the problems of the spread of nuclear weapons.
Prize-winning Swedish author Heidi von Born visited the Department of Scadinavian Studies and Ia Dübois’ second-year Swedish class on May 11th, giving an overview of books recently published in Sweden.
Is the Swede Human? Radical Individualism in the Land of Social Solidarity
In this talk, Trägårdh & Berggren will discuss their book “Är svensken människa?” which claims that the supposedly socialist Swedes are, in fact, individualists in extremis. At the heart of the Swedish social contract lies a deeply rooted conception, what the authors call “a Swedish theory of love,” according to which authentic love and friendship is only possible between individuals who are independent and equal. This moral logic, joining the ideal of independence to those of economic equality and social solidarity, has been institutionalized in modern Sweden through the radical alliance between the individual and the state, which the authors term “statist individualism.”
Middleton has been the Director of the Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs in the European Bureau at the Department of State since September 2006. Prior to that, she served in Helsinki, Prague, and Tallinn. She will make two presentations in the Department on February 15, 2007 entitled: “A View from the State Department” and “The Best of Friends: US-Baltic relations today.
Sweden’s Desperate Hunt for Diversity
Marjaneh Bakhtiari
Author and Critic
From the courtyards of multiracial housing projects to the backseats of immigrant-driven taxis, never have Swedish journalists been more eager to depict their nation’s new demographic reality. But what assumptions about religion, culture and language lie hidden behind this newfound obsession with multiculturalism?
Bakhtiari’s debut novel, Kalla det vad van du vill (Call It Whatever You Like), chronicles the lives of two Malmö families, Irandoust and Sundén, who meet when their two teenagers begin dating. In scenes alternately absurd and touching, Bakhtiari shines the spotlight on both “new” and “old” Swedes alike.
Swedish-language radio journalism by Bakhtiari:• Critique of “Mohammeds Taxi”, a TV program about integration
• Analysis of state radio’s outreach efforts in Rosengård
Sweden and Europe and the Era of Globalization: How are Europe and Sweden Performing?
Gunnar Lund
Swedish Ambassador to the United States
Ambassador Lund will speak in Christine Ingebritsen’s International Political Economy course.
Coercive Diplomacy: Theory and Practice
Peter Viggo Jakobsen
Visiting Scholar, MIT; Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Kristin Bakke, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science, will serve as discussant.
Current Challenges and Future Prospects in the Arctic
Olav Orheim
Senior Advisor for the Ministry of Environment, Norway
During the Cold War, the Arctic was a stable area of little or no multilateral cooperation. The demise of the Soviet Union and the rise of oil prices have changed the dynamics considerably. The Arctic is now a major oil and gas province (USGS estimates that 25% of the global total of oil is in the Arctic). It is also a little-disturbed area, now undergoing faster climate change than the rest of the world. Orheim's talk will examine the new opportunities and challenges for industry and nation states posed by the Arctic region.
The Evolution of the Modern State
Steinmo (University of Colorado, Boulder) examines the ways Sweden, Germany, Japan and the US have responded and adapted to the pressures of globalization, demographic change and the decline of public trust. He also introduces insights drawn from evolutionary theory and suggest that there is much to gain from this approach to improve our understandings of political and institutional change. This talk will focus on the case of Sweden.
New Music by UW Student Cónan Mclemore
Three Poems of Vesaas, a sonata for flute & piano commissioned by Ed Egerdahl for the 25th anniversary of the Scandinavian Language Institute and based on three poems of Tarjei Vesaas: Vårlukten, Slik Var Den Draumen, and Gjennom Nakne Greiner.
Concertino for Alto Saxophone (a musical re-telling of Helge Kjellin’s Swedish fairy tale Leap the Elk and Little Princess Cottongrass.
Brechemin Auditorium (Music 128)
Ecological Man and the Laponia World Heritage Site
Hugh Beach is Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Cultural Anthropology & Ethnology, Uppsala University, Sweden. His extensive body of research includes: Saami (Lapp) and Circumpolar Studies, Pastoralism, Minority Politics, the Social Effects of the Chernobyl Disaster, the “Politics of Ecology” (Global Environmentalism and Indigenous Rights). Sponsored by Program on the Environment and the Department of Anthropology
Lunacy, Political Arrogance, and Nationalism: Eighteenth Century Scandinavian Music in a Nutshell
Bertil van Boer is a musicologist, composer, conductor and violinist. Van Boer (Western Washington University, Bellingham) specializes in Scandinavian music of the 18th century. His own compositions have been performed in Austria, Sweden, US, Nicaragua and served as conductor with the Opera Kansas.
Leading researchers from Seattle and Sweden will present state-of-the-art studies & promising new developments for children and adolescents with diabetes.
Bell Harbor International Conference Center
2211 Alaskan Way Seattle, WA 98121
Draumkvedet - The Dreamsong of Olaf Åsteson
Lecture and discussion at the Nordic Heritage Museum with Katherine Hanson (Affiliate Associate Professor) exploring the content and history of this medieval Norwegian literary treasure. Nancy Quensé will accompany with story and Beth Kollé with harp. This free presentation will also feature a preview of the performance of Draumkvedet scheduled for January 6, 2006 at Town Hall Downstairs.
On Cultural Mythologies of Vilnius
Tomas Venclova (Slavic Languages & Literatures, Yale) is the author of many books and essays on literature. He will discuss Lithuanian Vilnius, Polish Wilno, and Jewish Vilne.
Cross-Dressing: Concepts of Gender and Self in the Films of Ingmar Bergman
Marilyn Johns Blackwell, Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Director of Swedish at Ohio State University, earned her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1976. She is the author of three books on Swedish literature and film (Gender and Representation in the Films of Ingmar Bergman [1997], Persona: The Transcendent Image [1986], and C.J.L. Almqvist and Romantic Irony [1983]), and she is the editor of Structures of Influence: A Comparative Approach to August Strindberg [1981]. In addition to her books, Dr. Blackwell has published widely in North American and Scandinavian journals on Strindberg, Ibsen, Bergman, Vesaas and Dinesen. A distinguished literary scholar and popular teacher, she regularly teaches courses on the films of Ingmar Bergman and Scandinavian literary topics. The Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington is proud to welcome Dr. Marilyn Johns Blackwell back to the UW campus as the first distinguished alumni lecturer.
Great Voices of Norwegian Literature
In celebration of Norway’s centennial, Marianne Stecher-Hansen lectured on Knut Hamsun and Tiina Nunnally lectured on Sigrid Undset at the Smithsonian on an evening dedicated to Great Voices of Norwegian Literature.
The Saami Today: Cultural and Resource Rights
In celebration of Norway’s Centennial, the Smithsonian Associates, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Norsemen’s Federation (Pacific Northwest Chapter), and the Department of Scandinavian Studies invite you to attend a special free event with Ánde Somby, native Saami and Professor of Law at the University of Tromsø, Norway.
‘Our old fatherland’s independence and freedom at stake’:
Norwegian-Americans and the Dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian Union, 1905
Odd S. Lovoll is Professor of History at the University of Oslo, Norway and Professor Emeritus at St. Olaf College. He earned his doctorate in U.S. History, specializing in immigration history, at the University of Minnesota. He has served on the faculty of St. Olaf College since 1971 and has been publications editor for the Norwegian-American Historical Association since 1980. In 1992 he was appointed to fill the King Olav V Chair in Scandinavian-American Studies.
Since 1995 he has held an appointment as Professor II in History at the University of Oslo and teaches there in the fall semester. His published works include A Folk Epic; The Bygdelag in America (1975); The Promise of America: A History of the Norwegian-American People (1984); A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (1988); and The Promise Fulfilled: A Portrait of Norwegian Americans Today (1998), in addition to a large number of articles dealing with Scandinavian-American topics. In 1986 Lovoll was decorated by H.M. King Olav V with the Knight’s Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit and in 1989 he was invited to occupy a seat in the history section of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Cinematic Counter-Globalization in a Small-Nation Context
In Small Nation, Global Cinema, Hjort argues that the emergence of the New Danish Cinema in the course of the ’90s can be traced to various strategies of counter-globalization aimed at thwarting the workings of what Miller et al. refer to as ‘Global Hollywood.’ She suggests the successful globalization of the New Danish Cinema hinges on, among others, a strategy of counter-globalization rooted in what Greg Urban calls ‘meta-culture.’ The Dogma 95 movement, devised by filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, is a clear instance of this strategy.
This lecture examines more closely the meta-cultural strategy (which involves framing specific cinematic works in terms of manifestos or rules) so as to draw attention to the crucial role that key individuals (rather than State-driven initiatives) can play in processes of counter-globalization. Hjort argues that individuals make a difference when they self-consciously refuse the more than likely possibility of ultimate success in what Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook call ‘winner-take-all-markets’ in order instead to generate the dynamics of a gift culture that effectively transforms, and thereby psychologically expands, the small-nation context. In an effort to refine and substantiate this view, Hjort looks closely at Lars von Trier’s most recent attention-grabbing project, the collaborative experiment with veteran filmmaker Jørgen Leth, entitled The Five Obstructions (De fem benspænd, 2003).
Hjort is Professor of Intercultural Studies at Aalborg University and a Visiting Research Associate at Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Program.
The University of Latvia after European Union Enlargement
Professor Ivars Lacis has served as Rector of the University of Latvia since 2000. His lecture will address the academic, administrative and financial challenges faced by the University of Latvia after that country’s accession to the European Union in May of 2004.Lacis has served as Advisor of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia; a Member of the Senate of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, and the Latvian National Committee of UNESCO. He is an Officer of the Legion of Honour of France.
Prof. Lacis has been a researcher and faculty member at the University of Latvia since 1969. He is currently also Head of the Laboratory of Optical Materials at the Institute of Solid State Physics. His research and multiple
publications are in the fields of Optometry and Vision Science, Crystal Growth, and Glass Structure. He has taught courses in Semiconductor Microelectronics, Technology of Integrated Circuits, Solid State Chemistry, Experimental Physics, Optometry, and Physiological Optics, and is Director of Bachelor and Master Study Programs in Optometry.
Eighteenth-Century Stockholm in American English
Paul Norlen, Ph.D.
Affiliate Assistant Professor
Regarding Some Problems Translating Ernst Brunner’s First-Person Novel about Carl Michael Bellman.
Svalbard var deres verden: Personlige beretninger fra kvinner på Svalbard
Ingrid Urberg (University of Alberta - Augstana) lectures in Norwegian on some of the long-standing myths about gender and Svalbard, and points out how the narratives she has collected challenge these myths.
Runeberg’s Golden Theme: “The Swan”
Professor Nummi’s lecture focuses on “The Swan,” a key poem in Johan Ludvig Runeberg’s (1804-1877) first collection of poetry, Dikter I (1830). The lecture situates the poem in its specific cultural context— the birth of the Finnish nation. Runeberg was Finland’s first promising poet and his “Dikter I” the first important collection of lyrical poetry after 1809. In that year, Finland passed from Sweden to the Russian Empire and the tsar declared the new autonomous grand duchy “a nation among nations.” The analysis of the poem focuses on themes of transition in literary ideas, and on the role of the poet in founding a poetic tradition.
Northern Europe: From the Cold War to Cooperation
Matti Anttonen, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C.,asks: What has made Northern Europe the most dynamic region in post-cold-war Europe? What role did enlargement of the EU and NATO play? How do EU-Russia relations develop during the period? Is the Russian economic model sustainable and will Russian energy help to cut energy prices in the US? Is the Scandinavian model truly facing a crisis? What role does Finland play in all this? Lecture to be followed by Q & A and discussion.
Matti Anttonen served as Deputy Director General of the Eastern Division of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2001. He has also served as Director for Russian Affairs at the Ministry. In the early period of Finland’s EU-membership, Anttonen was responsible for EU-Russia relations and Russia-related trade policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1991 to 1994, he dealt with trade policy questions at the Finnish Permanent Representation in Geneva. From 1987 to 1991, he was posted at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow.
New Realism in Scandinavian Film and Television: A Response to New Digital Media and 3-D Spatiality
In 1995, Danish director Lars von Trier initiated the Dogma-95 manifesto along with Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh Jacobsen and Kristian Levring. The four directors each made a film following the Ten Commandments of Dogma’s “Vow of Chastity,” which proscribes artificial light and sound, postproduction image alteration, as well as many other devices used to “mask” or alter reality and strengthen film’s illusion. Since 1995, thirty-five films have been produced around the world according to the Dogma program. The international press has interpreted Dogma as a protest against the digital mega-productions of Hollywood. What is rarely noted about Dogma’s aspirations towards a new realism is that it also includes an ambition to influence the senses of the audience, rather than to present only a “hand-held” version of everydayness, a phenomenological reading of the world in the style of Italian Neorealism or the French New Wave.
The films of Dogma-95, and especially von Trier’s contribution, as well as his other 1990s films, present a realist expressionism that seems to attack the audience. Aesthetic values are pushed towards the realm of ethics. This lecture proposes a new reading of this new realism, focusing on von Trier’s creation of a perceptible space between screen and audience in The Idiots (1998), spatial multiplicity in Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000), and a mix of theatre space and computer-simulated space in Dogville (2003).
Nature and the Authorities as Artistic Material
Lars Vilks
Sculptor and Professor of Art Theory, Bergen National Academy of the Arts
Article on Vilks (in Swedish):
Lars Vilks om sparandets konst
Svenska Dagbladet
September 8 2004
Part of Modern Vikings
Going Baroque: August Strindberg on Science and the Visual Arts
August Strindberg is regarded as a founding father of modern drama. In the groundbreaking plays To Damascus, A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata he develops an innovative dream-poetics that had a profoundly influenced later writers and directors. Paradoxically, the radical modernism evident in these plays and other writings is built on archaic and anti-modern premises. In the 1890s, Strindberg abandoned fiction and began experiments in chemistry, alchemy, photography, and optics, seeking to develop an interdisciplinary total science. This work is arguably a conscious attempt to reject the scientific paradigm for a regression to archaic, medieval and baroque ideas about God, nature, man and his place in the universe. In this talk, Balbierz (Jagiellonian University in Krakow) reconstructs Strindberg’s scientific theories and show how he uses modern media such as photography to create an aesthetics that is both modernist and neo-baroque.
Pathways to Peace: Norway’s approach to democracy and development
The Wang Center for International Programs at Pacific Lutheran University presents a public forum on the Norwegian approach to achieving world peace through conflict resolution, economic development and relieving global poverty. Press Release [PDF]
Photography by Eva Sköld Westerlind on view at the Nordic Heritage Museum Dec 2 2004 through Jan 2 2005
Born in Nyköping, Sweden, Westerlind currently lives and works in Kirkland. A graduate of the Photographic Center NW, her work has been published in numerous journals and magazines.
Underwritten by the Scandinavian Initiative for the Pacific Northwest, Western Canada,
and Alaska.
Photo from the series Solitary Traveler
The Belligerent Gaze: Witnessing at War
Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg is an Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at UW. He has published books on Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake (1999) and on Beckett’s Ontic Space (2001), as well as articles on literary theory, the ontology of fiction, and the European avant-garde. He is currently working on a large-scale study of the relation between politics, aesthetics, violence, and democracy in the twentieth century, ranging from Italian Futurism to the war in the former Yugoslavia and contemporary forms of terrorism.
Intersubjective Literary Interpretation: Donald Davidson, Triangulation, and the Role of the Author
A Colloquium with Jan Sjåvik.
Using Donald Davidson’s holistic epistemology as his point of departure, Sjåvik tries to show that authorial intention should again be allowed to play a role in the interpretation of literary works. Davidson’s concept of triangulation is at the core of the argument. When two or more persons together are confronted with an object in a common world, Davidsonian triangulation makes it possible to avoid the kind of skepticism that often undermines attempts at objective interpretation. Sjåvik suggests that intersubjective literary interpretation, which entails that reader and author together arrive at a common perception of the meaning of the work, should replace skeptical approaches to literature. Two examples drawn from the works of Arne Garborg are used as illustrations of this line of thinking.
Mikael Niemi will discuss his best-selling novel Popularmusik från Vittula, recently translated into English.
Kids, Trolls, and the Environment in the Picture Book World of Elsa Beskow
Part of Modern Vikings: The Scandinavian Initiative for Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and Western canada, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers
Sense Studies and Madsen’s Genspejlet
Kerstin Bergman, Ph.D. (Lund University, Sweden)
Studying Myself in the United States - Studying the United States in Myself
The University of Washington has an active Faculty Exchange Program with the University of Bergen in Norway, where Dr. Øverland is Professor of American Studies. He is shown here with Christine Ingebritsen, Associate Professor of Scandinavian, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Chair of the Bergen Exchange Committee.
Nurturing the Natural: Children and the Environment in the Nordic Picture Books
An exhibition at Pacific Lutheran University and The University of Washington. Curated by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York.
Sept 15 to Oct 29:
Scandinavian Cultural Center
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma
Nov 3 to Dec 30:
Suzzallo Library
University of Washington, Seattle
Part of Modern Vikings: The Scandinavian Initiative for Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and Western canada, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers
Image: Anna Höglund Hjälp!, skrek trädet (Help!, shrieked the tree), 1991
The UW Norwegian Club marches in Ballard as part of the annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade.
America - Scandinavia: Cultural Differences and Cultural Similarities
Steinar Bryn (Professor & Cultural Philosopher, Nansen Humanistic Academy, Lillehammer) earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota,Twin Cities, in 1993. A Visiting Professor this Spring at Pacific Lutheran University, Bryn is a Professor at the Nansen Humanistic Academy in Norway where is is Project Director for the Nansen Network, a conflict resolution project, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, running 10 Nansen Dialogue Centers in the former Yugoslavia. With a degree in American Studies, Bryn has a unique perspective on the cultural communication between the United States and Scandinavia, especially Norway.
His lecture looks at the perceptions held by Americans and Srcandinavians and challenges general assumptions about “Americanization.”
Einar Jarmund
Architect, Oslo, Norway
The College of Architecture and Urgan Planning Lecture Series
Co-Sponsored by The Department of Scandinavian Studies and the Valle Scandinavian Exchange Program
The Art of Writing Posthumous Papers:
The Great Earthquake of Søren Kierkegaard Revisited
Poul Behrendt (University of Copenhagen, Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley) speaks on his current book project on Kierkegaard. Professor Kim Andersen of WSU has been invited to serve as the respondent to the lecture.
