Marianne Stecher-Hansen was the invited plenary lecture at the Fourth International Hans Christian Andersen Conference, University of Southern Denmark, Odense.

The lecture, “From Romantic to Modernist Meta-texts: Commemorating Andersen and the Self-Referential Text,” will be published by University of Southern Denmark Press in a collection of selected conference papers.

Associate Professor Christine Ingebritsen has been named acting dean and acting vice provost in the Office of Undergraduate Education. Ingebritsen, who was formerly associate dean of the office, has been involved in developing learning goals across the campus and serving as the point person for teaching academy programs.

To celebrate the 200th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875), Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington featured a special exhibition presenting the Danish author not only as a fairy tale writer but also as a great dramatist, novelist, poet, and travel writer who achieved fame during his life time. The exhibit consisted of a selection from the University’s Special Collections (the Elias Bredsdorff collection of Andersen’s work), including some rare nineteenth-century original editions, historical and contemporary illustrations of popular tales, foreign language translations, and photographic images of the author.

The exhibit was developed by Marianne Stecher-Hansen and Jan Henrik Krogh Nielsen.

2005 marks the 200 year anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. At a time when children’s stories were formal, moral and didactic, Hans Christian Andersen revolutionized the genre, giving an anarchic twist to traditional folklore and creating a remarkably large body of original stories that sprang directly from his imagination. From the exuberant early stories such as The Emperor’s New Clothes, though poignant masterpieces such as The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, to the darker, more subversive later tales written for adults, the stories are endlessly experimental, both humorous and irreverent, sorrowful and strange. Tina Nunnally’s recent translations capture the rawness and immediacy of Andersen’s style, for the first time enabling English readers to be as startled and amazed as his original readers were. Megan Sukys speaks with Tina Nunnally about translating the Andersen tales.

The UK newspapers The Guardian and New Statesman have given glowing reviews to a new translation of Hans Christian Andersen by Tiina Nunnally, an affiliate member of the Department’s faculty.

The Guardian calls Nunnally’s translation of Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (to be published in the USA in March 2005 by Viking Penguin) “wonderfully apt, managing to catch [Andersen’s] lurching, staccato style and his anarchic, amoral universe.” The New Statesman says her “wonderful new translations of Andersen are an invitation to open-ended, mind-engaging reading.”

Nunnally, who has translated books by Sigrid Undset, P.O. Enquist and Peter Høeg, is a former graduate student in the Department and has taught seminars for a number of years focusing on translation.

Jens Lund, a folklorist and Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department has been awarded the 2004 Benjamin A. Botkin Prize by the American Folklore Society. The Botkin Prize is awarded yearly to an individual for “outstanding achievement in public folklore.” Lund was awarded this prize “for his legacy of positively affecting the lives of thousands of everyday people through his work in documenting community tradition-bearers across our nation.” His colleagues have identified him as”a model for the essential work of the profession.”

The Eleventh Annual Baltic Studies Summer Institute offered intensive Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian language courses during summer 2004 on the UW campus. BALSSI also included English-language courses about Baltic history and culture, as well as rich cultural enhancement programs. Learn more about UW’s Baltic Studies Program.