We have had a lot going on in the department since Christmas break! Let me fill you all in.
We had three wonderful J-term courses this year. Department Professor Emeritus Roger McKnight returned to teach a course on Hans Christian Andersen. The Department was thrilled to host Visiting Professor Hanna Outakoski from Umeå University in Sweden, who taught a course on the Sami. Professor Helena Karlsson taught the course “Stockholm and Berlin: The Northern European Metropolis.” Twelve students were enrolled in this course.
The yearlong, campus-wide Global Insight Program has been going well under the guiding hands of our Professors Moody and Karlsson. The program has been looking at the circumpolar region of the world each month through the lens of a different geographic area. This month, we have been looking at Greenland. The caf has been making special room for cuisine for the region of the month and there has also been a great yearlong film series highlighting movies from and about these areas. There has also been a wonderful, diverse series of on campus lectures including one last week entitled “The Arctic as a Canary in the Coal Mine: Circumpolar Change in a Warming World,” by Jason Smerdon (Storke-Doherty Lecturer, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University) and one this Thursday entitled “In the Wake of the Vikings” by Edi Thorstensson. Next month the focus will shift to northern Russian and in May we well look at northern Sweden. We hope to see you there!
Professors Karlsson and Moody are both teaching new special topics courses this semester. Professor Moody is teaching an upper-level seminar entitled “Picturing the North,” which examines the geographies, economies, histories, economies, peoples, and politics of this peripheral area of Scandinavia. Professor Karlsson is teaching an upper-level course on Swedish film, taught entirely in Swedish. The class has been watching and discussing films from throughout the decades and using them as a vehicle to discuss the variety of issues and changes that have occurred in Sweden.
Well, I’ll cut it off before I get carried away, but look for upcoming posts about our graduating seniors, updates on our wonderful courses, and upcoming campus events!