Swedish Language and Culture: Level ISemester Course

Swedish Language and Culture: Level I
Major Discipline(s)
Anthropology, Language
Type
Elective Course
Available
Fall/Spring semester
Credit(s)
3

The goal of this course is to ensure you do not feel linguistically isolated while studying in Sweden. You learn enough Swedish to understand what is going on around you in your daily life, while also becoming familiar with Swedish history and culture. The course includes topics on the burning issues of contemporary Sweden so that you can have interesting conversations with the locals and increase your ability to reflect on your cross-cultural experience living in Sweden.

Note: Courses will be offered at additional levels based on your previous academic background in the language.

Faculty

Janina Louise Gustafsson

DIS Stockholm Semester Faculty

Masters (Translation Studies, Stockholm University, 2008). B.A (Scandinavian languages with an historical profile, Stockholm University, 2008). Freelance translator/transcriber/private tutor, 2016-2023. Stockholms stad, substitute teacher, 2018-2023. Sprachcaffe Malta, teacher in English as a second language. 2018 NCH Nordics, translator and coordinator, 2015-2016. DIK (labour union for academics), webb editor/migrator, 2011-2012. European parliament in Luxembourg, paid intern at the Swedish translation department, 2010. Södertörns högskola, departmental secretary/administrator and translator, 2009-2010. With DIS since 2024.

Lena Norrman

DIS Stockholm Semester Faculty

Ph.D., Older Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 2006. Senior Lecturer in Swedish in the department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch at the University of Minnesota since 2005. The role of women in medieval Scandinavia is the focus of Dr. Norrman’s research, with special emphasis on the use of weaving as a means of communication. She is the author of Viking Women: Narrative Roles in Woven Tapestries (2008). She has also published articles on women, storytelling and weaving in Viking Age Scandinavia and Classical Greece. With DIS from 2018.

Staffan Bengtsson

DIS Stockholm Semester Faculty

Ph.D. in Aesthetics, Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University, 2004. Postdoctoral fellow at the School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University. Researcher at Swedish Academy and Department of Literature, Uppsala university, since 2011. Research focus: Swedish, German and French literature, Critical Thinking, Enlightenment and Romanticism. With DIS since 2020.

Djina Wilk

DIS Stockholm Semester Faculty

M.A. in Germanic Languages and Literature, Washington University of St. Louis, graduation year 2007. Also Swedish official teaching qualification (subject: languages) from Stockholm University and Stockholm Lärarhögskola, graduation year 2009. Current self-employed at Bee Swedish, a private language business,  since February 2016. Former Education Manager and also teacher in English at Komvux, Folkuniversitetet, Stockholm. Also member of the board at Folkuniversitetet Stockholm. Has been teaching Swedish as a foreign language since 2004, for example at Internationella Skolorna Düsseldorf, Germany and also Folkuniversitetet, Stockholm. With DIS since 2016.

Kim Bergqvist

DIS Stockholm Semester Faculty

PhD Candidate in History, Department of History, Stockholm University. MA (2010) and BA (2008) Stockholm University. Teaches medieval history at Stockholm University since 2012. Visiting Scholar to Columbia University (2016), Cornell University (2014), and the University of Navarra, Pamplona (2012–13). Publications have appeared in The Medieval Chronicle and Collegium Medievale. Areas of specialization: medieval Scandinavia; medieval Iberia; comparative history; medieval literature, genre and fiction; political culture; gender history; the history of emotions. With DIS since 2018.