American Studies in Sweden: Navigating an Archipelagic Field

Authors

  • Jenny Bonnevier Örebro University
  • Adam Hjorthén Uppsala University
  • Christin Mays Uppsala University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v56i2.7374

Keywords:

Higher education, teaching, North American studies, area studies, Sweden

Abstract

This essay sets out to map the teaching of American studies in Sweden. Since American studies is not a degree-awarding disci-pline in Sweden, this is not a straightforward task. The first part of the essay discusses American studies as it looks at the only center of higher educa-tion in Sweden that identifies it as a subject, the Swedish Insti-tute for North American Studies at Uppsala University. In the second part we look at the field in a broader sense, identifying courses about North America currently available at Swedish universities, and surveying their subjects and topics. Together, the two parts outline the con-tours of a field of teaching that, we suggest, is best described as archipelagic. The essay con-cludes with a discussion of the possibilities and challenges for American studies teaching in Sweden and offers some thoughts and suggestions for the future, arguing for increased teacher and institutional coop-eration, and the need to estab-lish American studies as a de-gree-awarding discipline.

Author Biographies

Jenny Bonnevier, Örebro University

Jenny Bonnevier is Associate Professor of English at Örebro University. Her research focuses contemporary American popular culture, in particular speculative fiction, and feminist and critical posthumanist theory. She is the co-editor of Kinship in the Fiction of N.K. Jemisin: Relations of Power and Resistance (2023). She served as the President of the Swedish Association for American Studies 2012-2016 and 2020-2024.

Adam Hjorthén, Uppsala University

Adam Hjorthén is Associate Professor of History and Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the Swedish Institute for North American Studies, Uppsala University. He specializes in studies of U.S. cultural memory and Swedish-American relations, and is author of Cross-Border Commemorations: Celebrating Swedish Settlement in America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2018), and co-editor of Swedish-American Borderlands: New Histories of Transatlantic Relations (University of Minnesota Press, 2021).

Christin Mays, Uppsala University

Christin Mays holds a PhD in Sociology of Education from Uppsala University. Her dissertation investigated the historical development of international scholarship programs and their role in structuring scholarly exchanges between Sweden and the United States in the twentieth century. Mays is currently a research coordinator at the Swedish Institute for North American Studies (SINAS) at Uppsala University.

References

Cohen, Michael Mark, and Grace Wang. “Teach-ing the Introduction to American Studies Course: A Dialogue.” American Quarterly 68, no. 2 (2016): 347–54.

https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2016.0036.

Hjorthén, Adam. “Curriculum Development in American Studies: Interdisciplinarity, Stu-dent Progression, and the Swedish-American Paradox.” Högre Utbildning 11, no. 3 (2021): 76–87. https://doi.org/10.23865/hu.v11.2943.

Sze, Julie. “Introduction: Engaging Contradic-tions: Teaching and Pedagogy in American Studies.” American Quarterly 68, no. 2 (2016): 341–45. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2016.0031.

“Master’s Programme in English—American Literature and Culture.” Uppsala University. Accessed August 5, 2024.

https://www.uu.se/en/study/programme/masters-programme-english-american-literature-and-culture.

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Published

2024-12-12

How to Cite

Bonnevier, J., Hjorthén, A., & Mays, C. (2024). American Studies in Sweden: Navigating an Archipelagic Field. American Studies in Scandinavia, 56(2). https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v56i2.7374

Issue

Vol. 56 No. 2 (2024): Special Issue - Teaching American Studies in Scandinavia

Section

Articles

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