Paul and Reneta Madsen Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies
College of Letters & Science l Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic
Professor Andersen is a native Dane who came to Wisconsin in August 2017. He has been teaching in the field of Scandinavian Studies for more than 15 years at places like the University of Minnesota, UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Helsinki in Finland. He conducts research on Scandinavian culture, history, and literature. His current research focuses on the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard and his six-volume autobiography, My Struggle.
Unavailable in the 23-24 academic year.
Talks:
Hygge, Health, and Happiness
What is hygge? And how does it relate to happiness and health? In this talk, Professor Andersen will introduce the concept of hygge, explain how it relates to the Scandinavian way of life, and show what Americans can learn from it.
The Scandinavian Recipe for Happiness
Scandinavian consistently rank among the happiest people in the world. This talk will explore why that is. And what can we learn from the Scandinavian’s happiness?
Scandinavia Today
What are the main issues in contemporary Scandinavia? What challenges do the Scandinavian countries face in terms of the welfare state, immigration, and the EU. This talk will discuss some of the more controversial topics in current Scandinavia.
Scandinavian Literature - What Makes It Special?
Ibsen, Strindberg, Hans Christian Andersen, and Isak Dinesen. Scandinavian has produced dusins of high profiled authors for the past 200 years. What do all of these have in common? And how do the canonical writers of the past relate to the bestselling crime authors of today, as Stieg Larsson and Jussi Adler Olsen?