Viking Magazine - September 2014 - 15

Scandinavian Studies
L
for the real world
U.S. colleges and universities are revamping their programs to meet students' 21st century interests.
BY DENISE LOGELAND
uther College in Decorah, Iowa, one of the first colleges
started by Norwegian immigrants in the United States,
completely overhauled
its Norwegian program and
offered it as a brand-new
Nordic Studies curriculum
last fall.
Why the big change at a
school whose Norwegian
roots go back to 1861?
" We're finding that
students have a much
different outlook now, " says
Laurie Iudin-Nelson, who
leads the Nordic program
and Luther's Department of
Modern Languages. " They
want to do things with
international studies and
global issues: environmental
issues, sustainability and peace studies. "
The Norwegian language is still at the heart of Luther's
Anna Burke and Peter Storvick from Luther College designed
independent study courses on Norwegian knitting.
program. But last January, Iudin-Nelson led a study abroad
trip " on peace and reconciliation dialogue in Norway and
the Balkans. We worked with
the Nansen Center for Peace
and Dialogue in Lillehammer
and also went to BosniaHerzegovina
and Croatia, "
she says. Another Luther
group went to Sweden to
study Islam in Europe. A third
looked at renewable energy in
Norway and Germany.
Traditional Scandinavian
language and literature
programs on U.S. campuses
are changing. They're adding
more real-world topics and
taking in the whole Nordic
region and sometimes its
neighbors. For students, it
means there are more and richer ways to tap into their
Norwegian heritage or what's happening in Norway today.
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle's extensive Baltic language and culture courses are unique
among Scandinavian studies programs in the United States. Terje
Leiren, who holds an endowed chair in Norwegian studies, could
tell you why including the Baltic region makes sense historically.
He teaches a popular course on the
Vikings, who traveled east as well
as west.
But Leiren also sees present-day
issues that motivate students to look
at the whole region and not just a
single country.
" Water resources is an area
that we're seeing students very
interested in. Petroleum, of course,
and energy, " he adds. And as the
Arctic thaws, the region is " of
interest to students in fields like
geography or some of the sciences. "
So, tucked in among courses on Ibsen and Strindberg
are others such as " Eco-Capitalism, " a look at responses to
environmental issues across cultures. And even students
majoring in other fields are encouraged to use the Nordic
region as a lens on their studies.
The Valle Scholarships program, for
example, supports the exchange
of Nordic, Baltic and U.S. graduate
students in civil and environmental
engineering, architecture and
urban planning.
Languages taught
Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Norwegian, Swedish;
Icelandic taught periodically
sonsofnorway.com VIKING SEPTEMBER 2014 15
PHOTO (OPPOSITE) BY ALTRENDO TRAVEL. PHOTOS THIS PAGE (TOP) BY KARI GRØNNINGSÆTER, (BOTTOM) COURTESY OF DEN NORSKE KLUBBEN

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Viking Magazine - September 2014

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