This fall the Department of Scandinavian Studies welcomes back Associate Professor and incoming Department Chair Dr. Ursula Lindqvist after her year-long sabbatical. She joins her colleagues Associate Professor Dr. Kjerstin Moody and Associate Professor Dr. Glenn Kranking after their sabbatical time away. Our amazing Visiting Instructor David Jessup begins his fourth year teaching in the Department. It feels good to have everyone back together again — included among this “everyone” — at the heart and center of it — are our students! Our returning majors and minors have been up to wonderful work on campus and beyond. Please keep your eyes peeled for updates about them as well as updates about Department alumni to regularly appear here over the course of this academic year.
The Department has a full semester planned. On Monday, we were happy to welcome the Swedish Ambassador to the U.S. Karin Olofsdotter to campus. In the morning she presented a talk to the campus community on “Sweden Today,” which was followed by a fika with Gustavus students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the local community. A feature on the Ambassdor’s visit was published in the Mankato Free Press.
Other events for the fall include:
-Saturday, October 5th, Professor Kranking will host the Department’s annual Homecoming student and alumni BBQ
-Thursday, October 25th, Dr. Stephen Mitchell, Robert S. and Ilse Friend Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore at Harvard University, will present a lecture on his current research, 7:00-8:30 p.m., 101 Beck Hall
-Thursday, December 13th, the Department will host the annual Yuletide Breakfast from 8:00-10:00 a.m. in the Campus Center.
Course-wise Professors Lindqvist and Moody are each teaching a First Term Seminar for incoming Gustavus students on the Nordic Folk and Fairy Tale as well as classes in intermediate and advanced Swedish. Professor Kranking is teaching an FTS on Nordic Explorers and his course Scandinavia Since 1800. Three sections of introductory Swedish are again being taught; with more than 70 students enrolled in the study of the Swedish language, our Department continues to teach more students Swedish than any other academic program at colleges and universities where the language is taught in the U.S.
We wish you a wonderful fall semester and hope to see you soon!
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