Professor Rochelle Wright presents talk on an Iconic image of the Holocaust in Scandinavian film.

Savery Hall 138, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Dr. Rochelle Wright, Professor Emerita of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, returns to campus on May 7 as the Department’s Third Distinguished Alumni Lecturer. The title of her talk is: “A Photo’s Cinematic Afterlife: The Warsaw Ghetto Boy, Bergman’s Persona, and Rösler’s Mendel.”

Dr. Wright earned her Ph.D. at the University of Washington Scandinavian Department in 1975 and subsequently taught Scandinavian literature and film at the University of Illinois for more than three decades. Her publications include Danish Emigrant Ballads and Songs (1983); The Visible Wall: Jews and Other Ethnic Outsiders in Swedish Film (1998); the chapter “Literature Since 1950” in A History of Swedish Literature (1996); and numerous articles on both literary and cinematic topics, with a particular focus on the novels of Kerstin Ekman. She has also translated four Swedish novels into English.

“A Photo’s Cinematic Afterlife: The Warsaw Ghetto Boy, Bergman’s Persona, and Rösler’s Mendel”examines how two Scandinavian auteurs foreground an iconic image of the Holocaust in widely divergent contexts and to different ends.

Professor Wright’s visit is sponsored by the Barbro Osher Endowed Professorship of Swedish Studies and the Sverre Arestad Endowed Chair in Norwegian Studies.

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The Scandinavian Program at Brigham Young University welcomes the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study to Salt Lake City for its 102nd annual meeting to be held from 3-5 May in the Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown. More information is available at sass2012.byu.edu.

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In Raitt Hall, Room 114 at 4:00, see Sara Kärrholm’s talk on:

The Violated Body and the State
Scandinavian “Crime Queens” Who Paved the Way for Stieg Larsson

The spectacular success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium-trilogy has contributed to bringing men’s violence against women to attention, not least through Larsson’s heroine Lisbeth Salander. Her fame as a feminist role model has reached gigantic proportions. Such a figure is far from new, however, in Scandinavian and Swedish crime fiction. This talk explores several different takes on the feminist hero within Scandinavian crime fiction before Larsson. It also discusses female investigators and Salanders relationship to them.

Sara Kärrholm is Fulbright-Hildeman Fellow in Swedish at Harvard University.

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In Raitt Hall, room 314

LiterARTure: Reading Electronic Literature Closely through Comics Theory

“Born-digital” works of electronic literature (E-lit) are meant to be viewed on a computer, but unlike the books you read on your Kindle, this literature never saw a printed page. Such works differ widely in their specific characteristics, but they have a common tendency to incorporate the interplay between non-verbal images and written text.

Using examples of Scandinavian E-lit, I argue that “close” readings of electronic literature can not rely exclusively on strategies traditionally used by literary critics, which depend on analysis of the written text alone. Instead, I will show how comics theory, a field which has always concerned itself with both text and non-verbal images, can inform and expand our critical understanding of electronic literature.

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Don’t forget to apply for a Department Scholarship. More information is available on our Scholarships webpage. Contact uwscand@uw.edu if you have any questions.

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The Nordic Heritage Museum’s third annual Nordic Lights Film Festival, a cutting-edge cinematic festival offering an immersion into the world of hot Nordic films during the chilly winter season, is presented in partnership with Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).

Denmark: In a Better World
Finland: Moomins and the Comet Chase; Lapland Odyssey
Iceland: Summerland
Norway: Suddenly Sami; King of Devil’s Island
Sweden: Miss Kicki; When the Pepper Blossoms; Inte Panik; The Regretters
Plus: Nordic Shorts, and more!

Friday – Sunday, January 6 – 8, 2012

For more information about the films or to buy tickets, visit: www.SIFF.net

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All undergraduate students registered in our first and second year language courses as well as our general Scandinavian Studies courses are invited to learn more about our course offerings, study abroad programs, and meet the faculty in our department. Please join us on November 9th in the Walker Ames room in Kane Hall from 9:30 to 10:20 or from 10:30 to 11:20. Feel free to contact the Undergraduate Advisor, Ia Dubois or e-mail uwscand@uw.edu if you have any questions about this event.

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10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Mary Gates Hall (MGH)

Representatives from our university exchanges, affiliated study abroad programs, UW academic departments, and internship providers will be available to present hundreds of opportunities to study abroad. Staff from the UW Study Abroad Office, as well representatives from other UW student service offices will be available to answer questions about study abroad programs, funding and scholarship opportunities, and more. Workshops representing a variety of related topics will be presented throughout the day. More than 1400 UW students attend this fair every year to learn about the many opportunities to “Go Away!”

More information is available here.

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Thursday, June 2
314 Raitt
1:30 - 3:00pm

Lola Rogers is a graduate of the Masters program in Finnish language and literature at the University of Washington and has received continuing education at the FILI-Finnish Literature Exchange translation seminars and as a FILI translation intern. She has worked as a freelance literary translator full-time since 2007. Her translations have appeared in PEN America Journal, Words Without Borders, Books from Finland, and World Literature Today. Her translation of Sofi Oksanen’s novel Puhdistus (Purge) was published by Grove / Atlantic in 2010. At the moment, she is working on a translation of Riikka Pulkkinen’s 2010 novel Totta (True), to be published by Other Press.

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Daniel Alfredson, director of the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2010), will be visiting the UW campus on Wed. May 25th at 11:30 in SIG 134. Alfredson will speak to students in the course Crime Scenes: Investigating the Cinema (SCAND 190/GERMAN 190), co-taught by Andrew Nestingen (Scandinavian) and Eric Ames (Germanics). Alfredson is the director of some ten previous films and numerous television programs. Mr. Alfredson’s visit is made possible by the Embassy of Sweden.

Read more in this article from UW Today.

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The 101st Annual Meeting of The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study will take place in Chicago, April 28-30, 2011 at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza, located downtown Chicago, with a beautiful view of the city and the Chicago River. The group code for discount room rates is “ADT”.

North Park University and The Center for Scandinavian Studies will produce and plan the conference.

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Dr. Ia Dübois will be giving a lecture on Thursday, March 10th at the Nordic Heritage Museum.
Her research initially focused on issues of ethnic identity in Sweden and in Swedish literature. Dr. Dübois then changed the focus of her research from Scandinavian literature to a comparative study of sexuality in Scandinavia with the intent to find out if, and how, the Scandinavian countries differ in their perceptions of sexuality in society. More specifically, what made Sweden so progressive and liberal after the welfare state was established in 1933?

The Lecture begins at 7:00 p.m. and there is a suggested donation of $5 per person. More information can be found on the Nordic Heritage Museum Website.

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Tuesday November 23, 2010 2:30 - 4:00 pm
317 Thomson Hall
Sabrina Ramet, Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, and Senior Research Associate at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo

reecas@uw.edu

Myths of founding or of martyrdom can play important roles in legitimating states, their boundaries, or their dynasties, although there are differences between the uses to which myths of founding are typically put and the uses to which myths of martyrdom are put. In this lecture, Professor Ramet looks at the myths of Prince Lazar of Serbia, King Arthur of England, and King Olav Haraldsson of Norway, with passing references to the myth of King Istvan of Hungary, noting the political uses made of these myths. She also discusses some plausible alternative candidates for the role played by Prince Lazar in Serbia.

Sabrina P. Ramet is a professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, and a senior research associate at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. Born in London, England, she received her undergraduate degree in philosophy at Stanford University, her MA in international relations from the University of Arkansas, and her Ph.D. in political science at UCLA. She is the author of 12 scholarly books and editor or co-editor of 24 scholarly books, most recently of CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN POLITICS SINCE 1989, published by Cambridge University Press in spring 2010. She taught at the University of Washington from 1983 until 2001, when she moved to Norway to take up her present positions.

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Explore your options to spend an entire year or semester on exchange in locations such as Buenos Aires, Singapore, Queensland, Copenhagen, and New York City. International Programs and Exchanges and National Student Exchange have organized this exchange day event in Mary Gates Hall Commons on Thursday, November 18 from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m.

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Explore more than 500 study abroad opportunities ranging from direct exchanges to internships to UW faculty-led programs. Representatives from partner universities and study abroad programs will be available to talk with you from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Mary Gates Commons on Wednesday, October 27th, 2010. This event is hosted by IPE (The Office of International Programs & Exchanges).

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A celebration of life for Folke Nyberg, an emeritus professor of architecture and of urban design and planning, who died Aug. 15, will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, at the University of Washington Club.

Nyberg was a faculty member from 1969 to 1999, known as a strong advocate for affordable housing, public open space and neighborhood preservation.

Born in Sweden in 1934, Nyberg moved with his family to Seattle in 1947. His last several years at the UW, he held appointments in both Architecture and Scandinavian Studies.

Nyberg’s family requests that gifts in his memory be made to the Folke Nyberg Column 5 Editorship Endowment.

Credit card information or checks payable to the UW Foundation may be sent to UW Gift Processing, UW Tower Box 359505, Seattle, WA, 98195-9505. Gifts may also be made online here.

Link to article: http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=60873

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Please come to this panel discussion on Monday, October 11, at 7:00 p.m. in Kane Hall, Room 110. This event is sponsored by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Holst Foreign Policy Symposium, the University of Washington — University of Bergen Exchange Program, the Nordic Council, the Center for West European Studies, and the Department of Scandinavian Studies.

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The Department welcomes students back to campus on September 29th, 2010 for the upcoming Fall Quarter. Have a great summer!

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Echoes of Three Woodlands—Scandinavia and the Baltics in the Northwest and at UW is the title of an exhibit running from April 19 through June 14, 2010 in Suzzallo Library, room 102, on the University of Washington Seattle campus. The exhibit features photographs of Pacific Northwest Baltic and Scandinavian American community life past and present, choral music excerpts, folklore and other materials from the UW Libraries’ collections highlighting the affinities of environment, commerce and culture that have drawn these three regions together in many ways over the past century and a half.

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The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Seattle from April 22nd through April 24th, 2010. Registration will open in January 2010. More details can be found at the SASS/AABS Website.

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The 30-member Helsinki Academic Male Choir KYL from Aalto University of Helsinki, Finland, will tour the Pacific Northwest and California with a final stop in Washington D.C. The tour consists of a stop in Seattle on March 30th, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the HUB Auditorium at the University of Washington. For more information and to make reservations, please visit www.finnsnw.com/FFSC/KYL.htm.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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]

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