Conferences

This one-day symposium will bring three leading historians from Sweden to discuss how neutral Sweden dealt with the war, the question of Jewish refugees and the memory of the war, and repercussions of the Holocaust in Sweden up to the present time. We will also welcome Göran Rosenberg to discuss his book A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz as well as representatives from the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C.

Co-sponsorship for the event brings together the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, the Scandinavian Studies program, and the Center for the Study of Judaism and Jewish Culture. Financial support comes from several campus entities as well as the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities. 

Schedule of Events

All events are free and open to the public. Events are located in Olin Auditorium, 733 35th Street, Rock Island, Illinois. Street parking is available, along with visitor parking in Lot E (map). 

Saturday, October 26

10:00am–12:15pm | Lectures 

• Dr. Lars M. Andersson, Uppsala University
  • Sweden and World War II: An Overview

• Dr. Karin Kvist Geverts, National Library of Sweden
  • The Question of Jewish Refugees in Sweden

• Dr. Ulf Zander, Lund University
  • The Memory of the Holocaust in Sweden

12:15pm–2:00pm | Lunch

• Lunch is on your own. For your convenience, you may wish to dine at the Gerber Center Dining Room, located on the 5th floor of the Gerber Center for Student Life on campus. 

2:00pm–3:00pm | Göran Rosenberg on his book A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz

• Göran Rosenberg, eminent Swedish author and public intellectual, will discuss his award-winning and deeply moving book A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz which chronicles his family’s history in the Holocaust and as refugees in Sweden. Published in 2012, it has since been translated into 9 languages. Watch a 25-minute interview with Rosenberg about his book.

3:00pm–3:30pm | Coffee break 

• Coffee and refreshments will be served. 

3:30pm–4:30pm | Panel discussion with all participants 

• Rosenberg will join the morning’s speakers for a panel discussion on the larger questions of how we deal with difficult pasts and on the contemporary situation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Sweden and Europe. 

4:30pm | Concluding remarks

• Dr. Thomas Tredway, President Emeritus Augustana College

Also join us for a pre-symposium film screening

Thursday, October 24
4:00pm | Screening of Harbour of Hope

• This 76-minute remarkable film is about Jewish survivors arriving from the concentration camps in Malmö, Sweden after the war. Original footage is combined with narration from the survivors themselves. Watch the film trailer. 

This conference examined the relationship between Indians and Immigrants. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of European immigrants migrated to North America. But for centuries these lands had been home to several different Indian nations. Very rarely does this fact enter into descriptions of European, Scandinavian and Swedish settlements. But it is not just immigrants who seemed oblivious to the existence of some of their neighbors. Immigrants are rarely part of accounts of Indian experiences, whether they are tribal histories or interpretations of relations with colonists. When immigrants enter into the picture, most often they are lumped together as "white settlers." This separation of histories has resulted in an important gap in our understanding of points of intersections, contact, and conflict between immigrants and Indians. Presenters included leading scholars in the fields of Indian and immigration history from the United States and Sweden. The opening address also served as the 2013 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture and was given by Gunlög Fur, Professor at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The title of her talk was Indians and Immigrants - Entangled Histories.

October 4-5, 2013
Augustana College

Gunlög Fur
Linnaeus University, Sweden
2013 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History
Indians and Immigrants: Entangled Histories

Karen Kupperman
New York University, New York
Naturalizing Scandinavians and Indians in the late 19th Century Midwest

Karen V. Hansen
Brandeis University
From Strangers to Wary Neighbors: Land Taking on the Spirit Lake Dakota Indian Reservation

Betty Bergland
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Historical Trauma, Separate Worlds, and Competing Narratives: Dakota Exiles and Norwegian Immigrants in the Wake of War, Expulsion and Treaty Abrogation, 1862/63

Adam Hjorthén
Stockholm University, Sweden
Traveling in the Footsteps of Settler Colonialism: How Modern Sweden Co-Produced the Vanishing Indian 

Larry Scott
Augustana College
Nordenskiöld, Natives, and the Mesa Verde

Mattie Harper
University of California, Santa Cruz
Writing French African Indians into Minnesota's Immigration History

Vivian Delgado
Bemidji State University 
Foreigners in Our Own Land

Jane Simonsen
Augustana College
Intimacy and Exchange: Native American and Portrait Photography

Stephen Warren
Augustana College
Commentary

Claes H. Jacobson
Stockholm, Sweden
John Anderson and Swedish Immigrant Photographers in the 19th century North America        
 

The Swenson Center gratefully acknowledges financial assistance for this conference from:
American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York
Linnaeus University Center for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Växjö, Sweden
Swedish Council of America, Minneapolis 
* The conference/exhibit was in a partnership with the Native American Coalition of the Quad Cities and Augustana College Art Museum.

This conference dedicated to modern Swedish film was presented by the Scandinavian Department and the Swenson Center at Augustana College. Five films by Swedish directors were screened in the week leading up to the symposium. The films shown were: Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick), Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (God afton, Herr Wallenberg), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor), Together (Tillsammans) and Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in). The conference concluded with a one-day symposium with participants from Sweden and the United States where the films were discussed. The symposium participants were: Leif Furhammar, professor emeritus of film studies at the University of Stockholm, Maaret Koskinen, professor of film studies at the University of Stockholm, Rochelle Wright, professor emerita at the University of Illinois, Kjell Hilding, digital production manager in the Department of Art History and Visual Arts at Occidental College, and Larry Scott, professor of Scandinavian at Augustana College.

October 11-16, 2010
Augustana College

Maaret Koskinen
Professor, University of Stockholm
Discussed the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor)

Leif Furhammar
Professor Emeritus, University of Stockholm 
Discussed the film Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick)

Rochelle Wright
Professor Emerita, University of Illinois
Discussed the film Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)

Kjell Hilding
Digital production manager in the Department of Art History and Visual Arts, Occidental College
Discussed the film Together (Tillsammans)

Larry Scott
Professor, Augustana College
Discussed the film Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (God afton, Herr Wallenberg)

Generous financial support was provided by: Swedish Council of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, The American Scandinavian Foundation, New York, New York, American Scandinavian Association at Augustana, Rock Island, Illinois and Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.

This conference examined the relationship between Swedish and Norwegian immigrants in the United States. The ways immigrant and ethnic groups related to and interacted with each other is a central dimension of American immigration history. Among the Scandinavians, there were numerous contacts and close interactions between Swedes and Norwegians. They were often neighbors, had similar occupations, married each other, cooperated and developed comparable—but not identical—religious, cultural and ethnic traditions. The relationship was not always harmonious; there were also friction and competition. Presenters came from the United States, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The opening address, which also served as the 2007 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in immigration history was given by Thomas Tredway, President Emeritus of Augustana College. The title of his presentation was “Pinching Pennies in the Provinces: The Mid-Century Finances of an Immigrant College.” The conference formed the basis for the book Norwegians and Swedes in the United States: Friends and Neighbors, edited by Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck and published by Minnesota Historical Society Press of St. Paul MN.  

October 19-20, 2007
Augustana College

Thomas Tredway
President Emeritus, Augustana College
2007 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History
Pinching Pennies in the Provinces: The Mid-Century Finances of an Immigrant College

H. Arnold Barton
Southern Illinois University
Norwegians and Swedes in America: Some Comparisons

Odd Lovoll
St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
Preserving a Cultural Heritage across Boundaries: A Comparative Perspective on Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt and Nordmanns-Forbundet

Terje Leiren
University of Washington, Seattle
Best Man and Best Friends: Marcus Thrane and Ernst Skarstedt

Jørn Brøndal
University of Southern Denmark, Odense
We are Norwegians and Swedes now, not Scandinavians?: The Impact of Norwegian Independence on Scandinavian-American Politics in the Midwest

Mark Granquist
Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
The Sociological Factor is not to be Underestimated: Swedes, Norwegians and American Lutheran Merger Negotiations, 1920-1960

Ingeborg Kongslien
University of Oslo
Freedom, Identity, and Double Perspectives: Representations of the Migrant Experience in Vilhelm Moberg's and O.E. Rølvaag's Novels

Philip Anderson
North Park University, Chicago
A Scandinavian Enclave on Lake Superior's North Shore: Settlement Patterns and Community Building among Norwegians, Swedes, and Swede-Finns in Hovland, Minnesota, 1888-1932

Byron Nordstrom
Gustavus Adolphus College
Swedes and Norwegians in Willmar, Minnesota in the Early 20th Century

Ann Legried
University of Central Missouri
Friends and Neighbors: Orphans and Orphan Asylums in Nordic America

Concluding Remarks: Larry Scott, Augustana College and Dag Blanck, Augustana College

Generous financial support was provided by: Swedish Council of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This conference examined Swedish immigrant letters from a variety of perspectives, with some comparisons to Norwegian letters. Presenters explored what the letters tell us about social, religious, political and cultural dimensions of Swedish immigrant life in North America. They also addressed ways in which the immigrants related to events in both the new and the old countries, as well as ways in which they served to maintain contacts with friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. Paper presenters came from the United States, Canada, and Sweden, and the keynote address, which also served as the Ander Lecture in immigration history, was given by Professor Werner Sollors of Harvard University.

Papers from the conference were published in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, April and July 2005. 

October 15-16, 2004
Augustana College

Werner Sollors
Harvard University
Keynote address and 2004 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History
Gustaf Jarlson's "America letters" and the Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves

Orm Øverland
University of Bergen
Reading Letters - Reading People - Reading History

Jennifer Attebery
Idaho State University
Peasant Letters Revisited: The Immigrant Letter from a Folklorist's Perspective

Ulf Jonas Björk
Indiana University
Perhaps there is someone who wants to know how we live: "Public" Immigrant Letters in Swedish-American Newspapers

Britt Liljewall
Göteborg University
Emigration, Literacy, and Networks:  Forty Letters from Sweden to Rockford, Illinois, 1853-1876

Solveig Zempel
St. Olaf College
"My book I have neglected you sorely": Reading the Kravik-Lokensgaard Diaries

Joy Lintelman
Concordia College
Between the Mundane and the Memorable: The Letters of Single and Married Swedish Immigrant Women

Eva St. Jean
University of Victoria, Canada
"Letters from the Promised Land": The Ambiguous Radicalization of a Swedish Immigrant, 1928-1934

Maria Erling
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
The Connections Correspondence Made: How Letters Contributed to the Formation of the Augustana Synod

Concluding remarks
Byron Nordstrom
Gustavus Adolphus College

Generous financial support was provided by Swedish Council of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Augustana Historical Society, Rock Island, Illinois.

This conference examined contemporary aspects of Swedish immigration to the U.S. and what it means to be Swedish or Swedish-American in America today. Scholars from both Sweden and the U.S. discussed questions such as the characteristics of the contemporary Swedish-American community; who the Swedish-Americans are today, socially, religiously, politically and culturally; why Swedes had moved to the U.S. during the past half century and who they were; and the connections, if any, that exist between recent Swedish immigrants to the U.S. and the descendants of the mass immigration a century or more ago. The keynote address, which also served as the Ander lecture in immigration history, was given by Professor Barbro Klein of Uppsala University.

November 2-3, 2001 
Augustana College

Barbro Klein
Uppsala University
Keynote Address and the 2001 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History

Odd Lovoll
St. Olaf College
Norwegian Americans Today: The Promise Fulfilled?

Lizette Gradén
University of Stockholm
Let's fry them Swedes: Floats that Never Materialize and the Shaping of Historical Process in Little Sweden, U.S.A.

Steven Schnell
Northwest Missouri State University
The Invention of Tradition in Little Sweden, U.S.A.: Tourism and Identity in Lindsborg, Kansas

Jack Young
Southern Illinois University
Memory, Identity, and Local History in Bishop Hill, Illinois

Dan Lundberg
Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm, Sweden
Half of Them Thought It Was Terrible: Attitudes Towards Revival and Renewal in Swedish Folk Music

Jennifer Eastman Attebery
Idaho State University
Being Swedish-American for Midsommar at New Sweden, Idaho

Concluding Remarks: H. Arnold Barton, Southern Illinois University

Generous financial support was provided by: Augustana Historical Society, Rock Island, Illinois and Swedish Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

This conference focused on an important dimension of the relationship between Sweden and the United States in the twentieth century: the exchange of ideas. It examined ways in which ideas have migrated between the two countries, how they were perceived and received, how they were transformed, and how they influenced the respective countries. Paper presenters came from the United States and Sweden, and the keynote address, which also served as the Ander lecture in immigration history, was given by Professor H. Arnold Barton of Southern Illinois University. The papers from the conference were published in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July and October 1999.

October 9-10, 1998
Augustana College Campus

H. Arnold Barton
Southern Illinois University
Keynote Address and the 1998 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History
Crossings and Recrossings: America and Sweden in the Twentieth Century

Walter Jackson
North Carolina State University
Gunnar Myrdal's Social Democratic Critique of American Racial Inequality, 1938-1963

John Logue
Kent State University
The Swedish Model and American Social Science

Erik Åsard
Uppsala University
The Limits of Americanization in Swedish Politics

Larry E. Scott
Augustana College
Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman: The Comic Muse?

Rolf Lundén
Uppsala University
Influence or Inspiration? Resonances of American Authors in Swedish Literature

Rochelle Wright
University of Illinois
From Strindberg to Ekman: Swedish Literature and the American Audience

Michelle Facos
Indiana University
The Dawning of 'Northern Light': An Exhibition and Its Influence

Jonas Björk
Indiana University
From Nick Carter to Perry Mason: A Historical Perspective on the American Media Presence in Sweden

Per Nordahl
Umeå University
'Very, Very Welcome Home Mr. Swanson...' Transatlantic Diffusion of Ideas and Attitudes through Swedish-American Returnees

Generous financial support was provided by: Swedish Council of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Swedish Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1996 the 150th anniversary of the beginnings of Swedish immigration to the United States was celebrated in both Sweden and the United States. The Swenson Center sponsored or co-sponsored two conferences.

The first, "O Pioneers! Swedes on the American Frontier" was held on the Augustana campus in Rock Island in April, and focused on the early phase of Swedish immigration to the United States. Scholars from the United States and Sweden presented papers, and the keynote address, which also served as the Ander lecture in immigration history, was given by professor Kathleen Conzen of the University of Chicago. The papers from "O Pioneers!" were published in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, October 1998.

The second conference, “Swedes in the Twin Cities” was held in St. Paul, Minnesota in September and dealt with the history of Swedish immigration to the Twin Cities. Co-arranged with the Minnesota Historical Society, the Swedish-American Historical Society, and the American-Swedish Institute, the conference included presentations by two dozen scholars from the U.S. and Sweden on a variety of aspects of Swedish immigrant life in the Twin Cities. The conference formed the basis for the book Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and Minnesota's Urban Frontier, edited by Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck and published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press of St. Paul, Minnesota and Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis in Uppsala in 2001.

April 26-28, 1996
Augustana College and Bishop Hill, Illinois

Kathleen Neils Conzen
University of Chicago
Keynote Address and 1996 O. Fritiof Ander Lecture in Immigration History
Pioneering as an Immigrant Process in the Nineteenth Century American West 

Hans Norman
Uppsala University
From Nerike to Wisconsin. Emigration of Baptists, their Settlements and Congregations from 1868 to the 1920s

Kevin Proescholdt
Minneapolis
Iowa's First Two Swedish Settlements: New Sweden and Swede Point

Ann Legreid
Central Missouri State University
Plats, Deeds, and Odd-Numbered Sections: A case Study of Community Building Along the Burlington West

Larry E. Scott
Augustana College
Swedish-American Culture in Texas

Roger McKnight
Gustavus Adolphus College
Vilhelm Moberg and the Minnesota Frontier

Jennifer Eastman Attebery
Idaho State University
Being Swedish-American in the Intermountain West: The Experiences of Immigrants to Idaho

Philip Anderson
North Park College and Theological Seminary
Religious Diversity on the Swedish Frontier in Kansas

Nils William Olsson
Swedish American Genealogist
Registered Swedish Voters in Chicago, 1888

Vicky Oliver
Swenson Center
Swedish Settlements in Western Illinois

Carolyn R. Anderson
Minnesota Historical Society
Bishop Hill: Mysteries, Myths and Meanings

Generous financial support was provided by: Mrs. Lyal Swenson, Rock Island, Illinois, American Scandinavian Association at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, Augustana Historical Society, Rock Island, Illinois and Swedish Council of America,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 

The Swenson Center's 1992 conference focused on the educational experiences of Scandinavian immigrant groups in North America. Scholars from the United States and Canada discussed the role and significance of education for Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Icelanders in North America. The keynote address, which also served as the Ander lecture in immigration history, was given by Professor M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Ottawa. The papers presented at the conference are included in Philip J. Anderson, Dag Blanck, and Peter Kivisto, eds., Scandinavian Immigrants and Education in North America (Chicago: Swedish-American Historical Society, 1995).

April 24-25, 1992
Augustana College

Philip J. Anderson
North Park Seminary
Education and Identity Formation Among Swedish-American Missions Friends: The Case of Ansgar College, 1873-1884

Christopher Hale
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Cultural and Educational Expressions of the Icelandic Community in Canada

John Christianson
Luther College
Shaping the Culture of an Immigrant College Town: Decorah, Iowa

Michael Karni
Editor, Finnish-Americana
From Political Right to Left: The Spectrum of Finnish Educational Practice in the United States

M. Mark Stolarik
University of Ottawa, Canada
Immigration and Education: Some Ethnic Comparisons

Anita Olson Gustafson
North Park College
Swedish Immigrants and the Public School System in Chicago

Bruce Larson
Mankato State University
Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American Governors of Minnesota and Education

Peter Kivisto
Augustana College
Second Generation Finns and the Public Schools: A Community Study, 1930-1940

Larry E. Scott
Augustana College
Passing the Torch: Scandinavian Studies and American Universities

Rudolf Jensen
Grand View College
The Role of the Danish Children's Schools in Danish Communities: Language and Cultural Maintenance

H. Arnold Barton
Southern Illinois University
Swedish Visitors' Views of Swedish American Education

Dag Blanck
Augustana College
Teaching Swedes in America to be Swedish: Educational Endeavors in the Augustana Synod

Kermit Westerberg
Augustana College
In Public and Private: The Dialogue of Libraries, Immigrants and Society

Art Lee 
Bemidji State University
A Proper Scandinavian Education: The Academy Movement among Norwegian-Americans at the Turn of the Century

Generous financial support was provided by: Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, New York, New York, Augustana Historical Society, Rock Island, Illinois, American Scandinavian Association at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois and Augustana Humanities Fund, Rock Island, Illinois

In 1988, together with the Swedish-American Historical Society, the Swenson Center sponsored a major conference on Swedish-American life in Chicago, the "capital of Swedish America." Held on the campus of North Park College in Chicago, it attracted some twenty scholars from the U.S. and Sweden, and dealt with the complex and varied experience of Swedish immigrants in the Windy City. Most of the presentations at the conference are included in Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck, eds., Swedish-American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1850-1930 (Urbana, Illinois and Uppsala: University of Illinois Press and Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1992).

In 1987, the Swenson Center arranged a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of immigration historian Marcus Lee Hansen's influential lecture at Augustana College on the role of generations for immigration history (Hansen's famous dictum being "What the sons seek to forget, the grandsons seek to remember"). The conference attracted a number of leading American and Canadian scholars in immigration history and ethnic studies, including John Higham and Nathan Glazer. The essays in the book American Immigrants and Their Generations: Studies and Commentaries on the Hansen Thesis after Fifty Years (edited by Peter Kivisto and Dag Blanck and published by the University of Illinois Press in 1990) originated in this conference.