My next book…

It’s mid-April and things are coming along with sabbatical projects. With four print book projects and two online projects, my sabbatical plan was admittedly a bit over the top. This week I sent one book draft off to a religious scholar for feedback (No...

I’m a Mocko Mama!

A Mocko jumbie (also spelled Moko jumbi) is a stilt walker or dancer. Like many traditions in the Caribbean, its origin stems from West Africa and developed differently throughout the region. In the Virgin Islands, Mocko jumbies are a vibrant piece of local culture,...

Getting settled

We have now been in living on the island of St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands for just over two months, and will be here for at least another nine months for my research sabbatical. During our time so far, we’ve explored the island as a family. But most of...

Godt i gang Summer 2020

This summer, a group of four St. Olaf students were given the opportunity to work with Kari Lie Dorer, Nancy Aarsvold, and Jenna Coughlin as Curriculum Digitalization Assistants to help with their development of online Norwegian resources for students and teachers....

Oslo Interim Internship Program 2020

Today is the last day of the 2020 Oslo Interim Internship Reflection Seminar. I’ve had a great group of students who have been eager to dive into life in Oslo and in their internship experience.  Here they each are to tell about their unique experiences! Carl...

Diversifying Intermediate Norwegian Language Curriculum

Summary: This summer our department proposed and carried out a project entitled “Diversifying Intermediate Norwegian Language Curriculum Workshop”. We gathered eleven instructors of Norwegian in the US, Canada and Norway for two weeks of curriculum development and...

Oslo Internship Reflection Seminar (Student post)

I present to you, the 2019 Oslo Internship Reflection Seminar Students. If you would like to read more about this program, read this post. Andrew Jeon ‘21 Majors: Computer Science, Economics Concentration: Nordic Studies Internship: Kandu (Norsk Data Ungdom) Kandu is...
Oslo Internship Reflection Seminar

Oslo Internship Reflection Seminar

When I became department chair three and a half years ago, I spent significant time reflecting on areas our department had not yet fully explored or developed. I also spent time examining how we might align these to St. Olaf College’s Strategic Plan, specifically in...

Interim Study

This interim, I had the pleasure of teaching a Directed Undergraduate Research (DUR) course for linguistics. It was an intensive 1 month of researching how students in NOR 111 (first semester Norwegian). Working together with me were 5 students, all Linguistics...

Nordic Language Instruction in the US

The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) released a comprehensive study this month entitled Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2013.  Their first paragraph summarizes the project well: SINCE...