The Fulbright Commission in Stockholm, Sweden, recently announced that Gustavus Adolphus College is one of two institutions in the nation that will receive a Hildeman Grant for the 2011-12 academic year. The other institution selected was Harvard University.
The Hildeman Grant provides funding for a Swedish scholar to travel to the United States and teach at an institution for one semester in a selected field. The Hildeman Grant was established to commemorate Nils-Gustav Hildeman, Swedish diplomat and former Fulbright board member, and is designed to promote Scandinavian area studies in the U.S. The scholar, who has yet to be selected, will teach an upper-level course on “Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia,” during the fall semester of 2011. The scholar will also hold a public lecture and engage in campus life in other ways.
“We are tremendously excited about this timely opportunity to have a Swedish scholar on campus for a semester,” said Helena Karlsson, chair of the Gustavus Department of Scandinavian Studies. “We anticipate that it will benefit not only our department, but the community of Gustavus as a whole.”
The presence of the Hildeman Fellow will coincide with the year-long celebration of the College’s sesquicentennial. Several events during the year will be related to Sweden to build on the College’s Swedish heritage and reaffirm it in a contemporary context.
The Department of Scandinavian Studies at Gustavus was created in 1972 and currently has three faculty members, one of whom has a joint appointment with the Department of History. The department has a unique position in the United States as a signature program with a strong foundation and tradition of interdisciplinarity. The department offers a three-year curriculum in the Swedish language, as well as courses in English focusing on Nordic history and cultural studies, including politics, literature, and film. Every semester, approximately 80-100 students are enrolled in courses offered by the department.
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