Welcome to the Department of Scandinavian at UC Berkeley!
The languages, literatures, and cultures of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) are the focus of teaching and research in the department. The interdisciplinary curriculum ranges from topics in Viking and Medieval Scandinavian history and literature to the influential cultural contributions of the successful Nordic societies of more contemporary times. Instructors regularly teach beginning and intermediate classes in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish as well as reading and grammar classes in Old Norse at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students in the undergraduate major choose a concentration in medieval studies or in one of the modern language areas while also working in comparative and interdisciplinary ways with other cultural materials from the region. Graduate students pursuing the Ph.D. train to become comparative Scandinavianists while also developing depth and expertise in a more specific scholarly field.
The faculty in the department pursue research in a variety of fields including literary studies, philology, folklore, media and film studies, theater history, art history, archaeology, and architectural history. The interdisciplinary curiosity of the faculty sets the tone for our students, who are encouraged to explore widely and creatively within the intellectual field of Scandinavian Studies.
How to find us: The main staff office for ISSA, the administrative cluster overseeing the Department of Scandinavian, is in 6303 Dwinelle Hall in the heart of the UC Berkeley campus. The staff offices can be found on Level F of the faculty office wing in the northwest corner of the building. All of the faculty offices and the department’s seminar room can be found in the eastern hallway of that same Level F, in the rooms numbered from 6404 to 6416.
Language Program
The Nordic languages are all spoken in what most people refer to as “Scandinavia.” The Nordic countries have much in common – when they make the world news they are found among the top five in almost any survey – the happiest countries, the countries with least corruption, most livable cities, the highest levels of income equality, of gender equality, of common tax-covered lifelong educational opportunities, great speakers of English as their L2, getting the best grades (OECD), working on reversing the effects of climate change and high participation in political democratic processes.
The Nordic countries are focusing on internationalization in their higher education and there are many opportunities for undergraduate study abroad, research exchanges and studying at one of their universities – often for free or for minimal tuition.
We offer language instruction in five Nordic languages (Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål variant), Icelandic, Finnish and Swedish) – of which Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are sub-grouped as “Neighbor Languages” – a unique linguistic situation that functions such that knowing one makes you able to communicate with speakers of the other two languages.
Our mission is to foster knowledge of the languages in all five areas of the ACTFL Standards – communication, culture(s), connections, comparisons and communities.
Most of languages are offered in a sequence of four semesters – with the beginning language courses starting in Fall Semesters.