God jul og godt nyttår!
Dear friends, students, alumni, and supporters of UW Norwegian,
Greetings from the Norwegian program! This year, graduate students Lianna Torres and Ethan Bjelland Hagberg are teaching first and second year Norwegian, respectively. Lianna expresses amazement at the progress students make during their first year: “Some of the best moments are when they’re laughing and communicating in Norwegian during games or diving into authentic language and culture through children’s television.” Ethan shares that the second-year Norwegian students are excelling at spoken Norwegian through a series of debates. The Halloween debate, for example, was between varulver (werewolves) and vampyrer (vampires): Which supernatural creature has it better? “As the holidays approach,” Ethan writes, “we'll mark the season with presentations about Norwegian pop culture, recipes, and traditions during jul and vintertiden.”
This fall, Associate Professor Olivia Gunn is teaching an advanced Norwegian language course on the history of the family, using television, podcasts, and literature. She also has a group of forty undergraduates in “Scandinavian Women Writers,” which she teaches using the theme “women on men.” These amazing students show up more than ready to discuss literary representations of masculinity in novels and memoirs by Nella Larsen, Cora Sandel, Tove Jansson, Tove Ditlevsen, and more. In the new year, Olivia is looking forward to completing her first year as president of SASS and traveling to Zurich in June to attend the International Ibsen Conference.
During spring 2026, the department will host Norwegian Sámi language teacher, Inger Anne Gaup, who will teach a course on North Sámi, supported by a Norwegian Visiting Lecturer Fellowship from the American Scandinavian Foundation.
As always, we look forward to connecting with our friends and supporters in the community. As you make your year-end gifts, please consider a gift to the Friends of Scandinavian Languages & Literature Fund found at the link below. Your support allows us to continue serving students and growing Norwegian studies in the United States.
Vi ønsker dere alle sammen en riktig god jul og en koselig vintertid!
The Norwegian Program at UW