Scandinavian

Scandinavian is a minor taught within the Department of German and Scandinavian.

Department of German and Scandinavian

Undergraduate minor

Nordic Identity and Scandinavian Culture

You might want to study Scandinavian language and culture to get in touch with your roots. Maybe your grandparents sang Nordic folk songs, baked delicious Danish pastries, or told tales about the old country. Maybe you’ve already traveled in Europe or want to learn about cultural differences and immerse yourself before traveling to Europe. You may want to build a solid future in global business.

The UO offers language instruction in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Learning another language fulfills the primary purpose of a university education: It will prepare you to reason, analyze, solve problems, and communicate in a world of widely differing cultures.

Approximately 20 million people’s mother tongue is a Scandinavian language, and notable Scandinavian literature spans a broad range from the beloved children’s stories of Hans Christian Andersen to the modern crime novels by Stieg Larsson.

The UO offers the only minor program in Scandinavian in the Oregon. Classes are discussion-based with engaging activities designed to involve and engross students, with both group and individual writing assignments.

Points of Interest

• Get a taste of music, art, philosophy, and literature while building your language skills through on-campus course work.
• Experience the magic of UO Study Abroad programs in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway or Sweden. Ski, take a dip in a frozen lake, research your ancestors, learn culture and idiom from native speakers—all while receiving UO credit.

Sample Courses

• First-Year Swedish produces language through speaking and writing, to comprehend it through listening, reading, and grammar exercises, to develop fluent use of known language, and to develop an understanding of Swedish culture.
• Emergence of Nordic Cultures and Society looks at the early history of the Nordic area from pre-Viking days to the mid-1800s, including Scandinavian and Finnish folklore, Shamanic traditions of polar peoples, folk art and music.
• Periods in Scandinavian Literature includes topics such as modern breakthrough and modernism in Scandinavian literature.
• Modernity and the Janus of Subjectivity: From Kierkegaard to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo examines the cultural change and the meaning of the self that occurs in Scandinavia from the French Revolution to the end of the 20th century by examining the reactions of artists, composers, writers, and filmmakers.

Interdisciplinary Opportunities

A minor in Scandinavian can enhance any course of study. Students have found it compatible with history, geography, business administration, philosophy, religious studies, linguistics, folklore, classics, economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, Russian, French, English, theater arts, art, biology, mathematics, humanities, music, and educational studies.

Hands-on Learning

Students in the Scandinavian minor are strongly encouraged to spend a year studying abroad. Currently students can study abroad in Denmark at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), or at the Copenhagen Business School; in Finland at the University of Tampere; in Iceland at the SIT program in Renewable Energy, Technology, and Resource Economics; in Norway at the University of Bergen or the University of Oslo; or in Sweden at Uppsala University.

Selected Faculty Work

Associate Professor Michael Stern’s research interests include Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, critical theory, theories of progress, and 19th century Scandinavian literature. Stern has taught courses on the medieval Icelandic Sagas and the literature of social protest, among others. One of Stern's eclectic mix of courses in entitled entitled "Samurai, Vikings, Gangsters, and Cowboys."

The research of Assistant Professor Gantt Gurley includes ancient and medieval song culture, the birth of the novel, the Wandering Jew, Long Romanticism, Old Norse literature, the lyrical mode, Hans Christian Andersen, and notions of religiosity in the Danish Golden Age. His forthcoming book Meïr Aaron Goldschmidt and the Poetics of Prose examines one of Denmark’s greatest nationalistic writers as first and foremost a Jewish artist.

Career Opportunities

You can use your minor in Scandinavian studies to pursue a career in college or secondary teaching, international business, diplomacy, government or foreign service, and translation and editorial work, among many other options. Scandinavian heritage permeates Western society, particularly in the areas of classical music, literature, science, philosophy, and theology. 

Contact Information

(541) 346-4051
(541) 346-4126 fax

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