July 16, 2009
Newsletter 2009
Our summer newsletter can be read on line by clicking here. Enjoy!
New Directions Series
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.
A&S Perspectives writes on the new Bachelor of Arts in Finnish offered by the department.
Visiting Lecturer Karoliina Kuisma and Visiting Fulbright TA Anna Rönkkö
The Textual Studies Program in the Department of Comparative Literature has granted Doctoral student and Norwegian TA Rennesa Osterberg a Textual Studies Research Award in support of her research on metafiction in contemporary Norwegian literature.
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
The Seattle Swedish Cultural Center held their 2009 Auction with the nautical theme “A Voyage Aboard the Swedish-American Line.” Part of the evening’s program was to begin fundraising for a Scholarship Fund for the Department.
The proposal by the Department of Scandinavian Studies to establish a BA degree in Finnish was approved by the State of Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board on December 17, 2008. Following an extensive review process taking more than two years, UW students can now major in Finnish language and literature along with long-standing majors in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Scandinavian Area Studies. Read More
Professor Christine Ingebritsen and Associate Professor Andrew Nestingen have published an Op-Ed piece in the Seattle Times explaining Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari’s contributions to conflict resolution worldwide. They argue his “convictions display broad-mindedness, honesty and tenacity.”
An article in University Week covers the Department’s 100-year history as part of both the University and the Seattle community.
The Seattle Times profiles a house designed by Peter Cohan, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department. Cohan also has an abiding interest in Scandinavian architecture and has taught in the Department’s Copenhagen Classroom in 2008. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study architecture in Sweden in 1986 and is the director of an 8-week travel study seminar to Scandinavia, which is offered every third summer.
2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari is an example of a ‘norm entrepreneur’ — one who exercises influence abroad through moral leadership, according to Professor Christine Ingebritsen’s 2006 study Scandinavia in World Politics.
Ingebritsen, who teaches courses on Scandinavia in World Affairs, Environmental Norms in International Politics and Modern Scandinavian Politics in the department, offers a sustained appraisal of Scandinavia’s foreign policy and role in the global economy in the post-Cold War period. In an era when good citizenship in the global community has become a diplomatic priority for many states, Scandinavia has both the legitimacy and the domestic political attributes to be an important international player.
Photo: Joi Ito