Olivia Larson

Job title: 
Graduate Student
Bio/CV: 

B.A in Psychology, B.A in Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Olivia is a PhD student in the Department of Scandinavian at UC Berkeley. During her undergraduate studies at UW-Madison, she focused on Nynorsk literature and was the Lead Program Coordinator of the Norden House in the International Learning Community. Her current research interests center around Norwegian polar exploration, particularly explorers’ implementation of indigenous Inuit and Sámi knowledge on their expeditions, and how this knowledge allowed Norwegian explorers to succeed in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some of Olivia’s other academic interests include depictions of cold landscapes in film, Norwegian folklore, and the linguistic shifts from Old Norse to Middle Norwegian. She was awarded the FLAS scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year. Apart from her studies, Olivia loves hiking and being outdoors, as well as knitting, reading, and woodcarving.