Winter Session 2024/25 Courses
NORD 334: Nordic Contemporary Fiction | SAmple Syllabus
Term 1 | in-person | M/W/F 11:00 – 12:00 | 3 credits
Nordic culture is everywhere from Ikea to Netflix, and part of the Nordic success lies in the stories they tell. In NORD 334 we are exploring some of the vast, contemporary literary output to figure out how humor and anxiety fit together, why death is such a common theme in Nordic literature, what ethics have to do with young adult fantasy and so much more.
NORD 337: Nordic Cinema | Sample Syllabus
Term 2 | in-person | M/W 14:00 – 15:30 | 3 credits
The aim of this course is to introduce students to (mostly) contemporary Scandinavian film and to discover the multifaceted aspects of Nordic cinematic cultures. Although the production from this region is often considered to rely on a very realistic (or even hyper-realistic) approach to film making and storytelling, it will become clear that there are some very unique directorial approaches which will broaden our expectations of what the Scandinavian cinematography has to offer. We will highlight such recognizable themes as social structures, gender equity, environmental concerns, and transnationalism as well as stylistic analyses of the individual works and the genres in general.
NORD 339: Norse mythology | syllabus
Term 2 | in-person | Tues/Thur 15:30 – 17:00 | 3 credits
NORD 339 covers the basic components and features of Old Norse Mythology, including its cosmology, its position in the larger Germanic and Indo-European mythologies, its problematic relationship with Christianity, and its role in 19th-centuey nationalism, 20th-century racism and 21st-century popular culture.
NORD 340: Sámi Histories and Cultures | syllabus
Term 2 | in-person | Tues/Thur 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
This course explores the everyday life, artistic expressions, and the political realities of Sámi people—the Indigenous people in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia—from Sámi perspectives. In particular, this course offers a counternarrative of settler colonial history that focuses on Nordic colonialisms and Sámi resilience, resistance, and revitalization. Further, the course integrates comparative Indigenous perspectives from the Pacific Northwest, in particular from the colonial entity currently known as British Columbia, in order to highlight comparative aspects of settler colonialism and Indigeneity in the Global North today. The course is constructed in such a way that it highlights aspects of Sámi and Indigenous folklife, the ways that colonization has worked to disrupt and dispossess Indigneous social, political, and cultural autonomy, and the ways Indigenous people have creatively rekindled traditional culture to take on new meanings in new contexts to advance a decolonial agenda. The first third of the course builds up a base knowledge of cultural literacy, surveying languages, subsistence economy, religious practices, and traditional arts. The middle part details the impacts, logics, and strategies for colonization of Sápmi. The final third looks at the innovative ways Sámi people have sustained, rekindled, and reconnected with their own cultural practices, from village to city, from Norden to North America.
NORD 341: Indigenous Activism | syllabus
Term 1 | in-person | Tues/Thur 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
Cross-listed with CENS 203. In the face of new and unprecedented environmental and economic challenges in the Arctic, Indigenous peoples have mounted resistance efforts both inside and outside their communities to retain sovereignty over their lands and ways of life. This course explores the neocolonialism of circumpolar regions, and looks at the ways that Indigenous peoples have engaged in resistance and revitalization through collective action and art. Meets the Place and Power requirement.
Student Spotlight Ashley Samsone
