Scandinavian studies

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Scandinavian studiesis an interdisciplinaryacademic fieldofarea studies, mainly in theUnited StatesandGermany, that primarily focuses on theScandinavian languages(also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining toScandinaviaand Scandinavian language and culture in the otherNordic countries. While Scandinavia is defined asDenmark,NorwayandSweden, the termScandinavianin an ethnic, cultural and linguistic sense is often used synonymously with North Germanic and also refers to the peoples and languages of theFaroe IslandsandIceland; furthermore a minority inFinlandare ethnically Scandinavian andspeak Swedishnatively.

Scandinavian studies does not exist as a separate field within Scandinavia or the Nordic countries themselves, as its scope would be considered far too broad to be treated meaningfully within a single discipline. The closest related field in Scandinavia would be the more narrow discipline ofNordic linguistics, which coversNorth Germanic languages. A major focus of Scandinavian studies is the teaching ofScandinavian languages, especially the three large languagesDanish,NorwegianandSwedish.

Scandinavian studies principally focuses on Danish, Norwegian and Swedishphilology, especiallylinguistics,historyandcultural studies. Denmark, Norway and Sweden form Scandinavia according to the definition prevalent in Scandinavia itself and their majority peoples are Scandinavians in the ethnic sense who speak Scandinavian languages in the linguistic sense. Scandinavian studies usually also covers Icelandic and Faroese philology, and philology as it relates to the Swedish minority in Finland. The field is also home to research related to the Scandinaviandiasporaas well as regions affected by Scandinaviancolonialism.

In German-speaking Europe Scandinavian studies (Skandinavistik) tends to be defined as a subfield of Germanic languages, and covering Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and less commonly Faroese and Icelandic languages as well as accompanying literature and culture.^[1]Nonetheless, some departments, most notably the institute (Nordeuropa-Institut) at theHumboldt University of BerlinandUniversity of Mainzexpand this to include coverage of the greater Nordic region, including courses in variously Finnish (Berlin,^[2]Mainz,^[3]) Estonian (Vienna;^[4]formerly Mainz,^[5]now only available for study as an optional component ofFinnish studies(Fennistik) at some other universities), Latvian (Mainz^[6])) and Lithuanian (Mainz^[7]), Vienna^[8]) language and culture.

Universities offering education and performing research in Scandinavian studies are located throughoutNorth Americaand in parts ofEurope.Learned societieswithin the field include theSociety for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study(SASS) with its quarterlyjournalScandinavian Studies, theInternational Association of Scandinavian Studies(IASS), and theAssociation for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada(AASSC).

Departments of Scandinavian studies in the United States are found at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, theUniversity of Washington, and theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.University College Londonand theUniversity of Edinburghare home to the only extant full departments of Scandinavian studies in the UK, while other institutions, such as theUniversity of Aberdeen, have specialized research institutions for Scandinavian Studies.

At some universities in the United States Scandinavian studies is placed in the same department as Baltic studies, although the Baltic states, their cultures and languages are as unrelated to Scandinavia and Scandinavian languages as they are to English.^[9][10]In contrast, Baltic studies is commonly grouped together with Slavic or Eastern European studies at Scandinavian universities such as theUniversity of Oslo, and is regarded as completely unrelated to Scandinavian studies.^[11]

• Brigham Young College of Humanities, Scandinavian Studies,Brigham Young University
• Fachverband Skandinavistik, Germany
• Kompetenznetzwerk Skandinavistik, Germany