Date of Award

Summer 8-22-2025

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

First Committee Advisor

Anne Kelly Knowles

Second Committee Member

Joel Anderson

Third Committee Member

Mary T. Freeman

Additional Committee Members

Mark J. McLaughlin

Adam Hjorthén

Abstract

This project examines the impact of the development and growth of the scholarly field Scandinavian Studies on wider concepts of Scandinavian American (particularly Swedish American) cultural identity. The scope and scholarly output of the field, particularly from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States, provide useful material for understanding key parts of identity creation and maintenance for Scandinavian Americans. The project builds upon work done by Orm Øverland, Dag Blanck, and Adam Hjorthén to establish a methodological framework for the analysis of Scandinavian Studies’ output. This framework, based on a topic’s use for internal or external and popular or elite cultural influence, is used to demonstrate the cultural identity goals and intentions held by some of the most important scholars in the field. It is also used to explain why certain subjects were widely accepted as being ‘Scandinavian,’ even in the context of increasing Americanization and cultural assimilation by later-generation Scandinavian Americans.

Early figures in the development of the field were expressly concerned with influencing Scandinavian American notions of identity. This was directly tied to attempts to claim belonging in the United States, especially through the repeated emphasis of the historicity of the first European settlement in North America, the Vinland settlement. These early Scandinavian Studies scholars promoted this Norse Discovery Theory to elevate Scandinavian American importance in the larger American cultural story. Later Scandinavian Studies scholars diversified their research, but still often maintained a degree of cultural influence, and more importantly, intent to influence cultural identity.

The cultural identity influences that came out of the products and topics of Scandinavian Studies by the early and mid-twentieth century were important to not just the identity maintenance of Scandinavian Americans but to the fabric of white American culture as a whole. Themes and symbols like Vikings and Valkyries were part of a cultural mainstream that constantly negotiated with the past to define the present. Scholars have shown how these negotiations directly influence our lived experience, so understanding the contribution of Scandinavian Studies to those negotiations is necessary to help clarify that larger picture.

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