Scandinavian Studies Award entries due May 20

The Scandinavian Studies Student Award is up to $500 for an outstanding paper or project on a Scandinavian-related theme, given annually.

The award recognizes excellent undergraduate research and creative scholarship and is open to students from any discipline, whose work has engaged with Sweden, the Nordic region or its related cultures (the Nordic region includes Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sápmi, Svalbard, and Sweden).

Submissions may be within the natural sciences, social sciences or humanities, and range from fieldwork completed in the Nordic region, to culture and literary studies, music, and the arts. The topic may have a broad scope, as long as it includes a comparative perspective that significantly anchors it in the Nordic region.

Students should consult with faculty to prepare a professional version of their paper or project. First-time applicants may submit work from any point in their college career. Returning applicants will be limited to work completed since May of the previous academic year. Co-authored submissions will be considered as long as both authors are Augustana students.

Submissions should be emailed to Dr. Mark Safstrom by noon, May 20, 2022. Award recipients will be notified by early June. 

Submissions should include:

• Cover page with student’s name, paper or project title, the name of the course to which this was originally submitted and the term, and the instructor’s name.

• A letter by the student explaining why the paper fits the parameters of the award and meets one or more of the overall goals of the Wallenberg Grant (see below). Students should share some personal reflections on the motivation for why they chose this topic, what they learned, and describe how they revised the project since its initial submission for a course.

• A brief letter of endorsement by a faculty member. The faculty member should explain the context in which the paper or project was completed, endorse the value of the work and explain why it represents the very best work from among peers in the same course or major program, and include relevant notes about the revision process that went into the final submission for this award.

Past recipients and their paper topics:

Anna Tegge: "Sweden's Successful Securitization by Means of Social Integration"
Amanda Schar: "The Swedish Welfare State and Women: Is Sweden the Feminist Society the United States Imagines?"
Alina Lundholm: "A.T. Lundholm: His Life and Work in Historical Context, 1875-1969"
Ainslie Lounsbury: "Marching Straight in Sweden: The Parade of A Queer Swedish Utopia or False Hope?"
Rebecca Garbe: "Passing Down the Rolling Pin: Lefse, Memory, and a Norwegian-American Identity"
Meghan Carr: "Under Pressure: The Norwegian-American Assimilation" 
Bailey Aasen: "Peregrine Falcons in the Arctic: A Look into Long-Distance Migratory Patterns"

Entries will be evaluated by the Wallenberg Grant Committee, which includes Jennifer Burnham, David Crowe, Lisa Huntsha, Adam Kaul and Mark Safstrom. This award was established through a grant from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation. 
 
Goals of the Wallenberg Foundation Grant for Scandinavian Studies: 

Strengthen the future of scholarly inquiry into Swedish and Scandinavian Studies at Augustana College, ensuring that these studies continue as a vibrant part of the overall academic landscape at liberal arts colleges in the United States; 

Allow Augustana College to help serious faculty, staff, and students to make sustained and important contributions to this academic area and promote a vibrant, modern approach to the study of Sweden and the Nordic region; 

Make Scandinavian Studies relevant to today’s students and challenge them to explore a culture other than their own, as well as relate this experience to their overall undergraduate education. This includes forging and strengthening strategic partnerships with Swedish and Scandinavian educational institutions; 

Encourage interdisciplinary activity across the campus by promoting one or more of the following areas of scholarly inquiry and artistic production:  
- The Migration of Persons and Ideas 
- Modernity in Swedish and Nordic Societies 
- Literature and the Arts 
- Language Acquisition and Intercultural Competence.