ARKIVISM 3.0
From the Archive, to the Classroom, and Back Again
ASTRA - NORTANA - DANA Unified Symposium 2026
Thursday, October 15 - Saturday, October 17 | University of Washington | Seattle
Welcome to the ASTRA/NORTANA/DANA unified symposium at the University of Washington on October 15-17, which explores how archives shape culture, memory, and citizenship and can be used as a powerful pedagogical tool to help students engage with language and culture. Authors, archivists, and fellow teachers from both sides of the Atlantic will present and lead workshops on why the archives matter more than ever and how we can use them in our teaching and research.
Keynote Speakers:
Helene Larsson Pousette | Curator, historian, former cultural attaché, and author of Arkivism: En handbok (2023)
Karl Magnus Johansson | Senior Archivist at the National Archives in Göteborg
Rebecca Boxler Ødegaard | Senior Researcher, National Library of Norway
REGISTRATION
Save the dates in your calendar and look for an email from your membership organization announcing registration very soon.
Not yet a member of ASTRA, NORTANA, or DANA? Join today!
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For colleagues who might be new to the idea of arkivism, here’s a bit of background. At its annual meeting in 2024, ASTRA highlighted the book Arkivism by Helene Larsson Pousette and Lina Thomsgård, which empowers everyday people to participate actively in changing history and the way history might be written in the future by drawing attention to the lives of people who have not (or not always) been considered properly historical. This happens in multiple ways. Arkivism first seeks to demystify archival work. While not shying away from addressing the violent potential of what can be cold, intimidating state institutions, the book importantly encourages us to think about the critical role that archives play in helping society to function. The book draws upon the experience of archivists, authors, journalists, and artists who use archives to do their work in inspiring ways. Taking the underrepresented history of women in Sweden as its central example, Arkivism offers practical tools and inspiration for non-specialists and specialists alike to unearth traces of the lives of individuals who weren’t always considered important enough to document, whether women, racialized minorities, immigrants, or members of the working class.
Importantly, Arkivism is equally devoted to ensuring that histories written in the future better reflect the diverse world we live in. Guided by the conviction that everyday lives should be documented, the second section of the book, titled “Du är historisk!” “YOU are historical!” lays out straightforward tools for archiving a loved one, a local organization, or yourself. Arkivism is a practice for anyone and everyone.
Put otherwise, Arkivism is part of ongoing work documenting contemporary life and revising histories in Scandinavia, alongside projects like Stockholms Kvinnohistoriska Museet and Black Archives Sweden.
ASTRA adopted Arkivism to explore how either section of the book might inspire new approaches to research and teaching with the potential to generate public-facing humanities research and foster connections between our institutions and broader communities. We also believe that arkivism has the potential to bolster active participation in democratic institutions, raise consciousness about the need for inclusive history writing for the future, and help our students and our language programs to understand that they too are historical and deserve to be preserved for the future, especially in the age of AI.
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This information is coming very soon!
Please look out for an email from your member organization or check back soon. -
This information is coming very soon!
Please look out for an email from your member organization or check back soon. -
This information is coming very soon!
Please look out for an email from your member organization or check back soon.
MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
ASTRA - Association of Swedish Teachers and Researchers in America
Merete Leonhardt-Lupa, president.
ASTRA is a non-profit organization for researchers and teachers involved in Swedish language, linguistics, literature, culture, and area studies. ASTRA promotes the study of Swedish, Sweden, and other Swedish speaking contexts at all levels, and works to facilitate cooperation between scholars engaged in these fields.
NORTANA - Norwegian Researchers and Teachers of North America
Kari Lie Dorer, President.
NORTANA strives to engage in all activities that will enhance Norwegian studies in North America, and which will prove to be of mutual benefit to teachers of Norwegian and the instructional program they serve. By way of example, these activities include the preparation and publication of textbooks, workbooks and related teaching materials; the sharing of information through newsletters and teaching materials catalogs; the acquisition of funds to finance conferences, workshops, and seminars that will encourage a spirit of cooperation and collegiality among the instructors of Norwegian studies.
DANA - Danish Academic Network of America
Claus Elholm Andersen, President.
DANA members are lecturers, professors, instructors, independent scholars, teaching assistants, graduate students and administrators of educational institutions in the US and Canada, who engage the Danish language and Danish subject matter in teaching and research in the humanities, social sciences, and cross-disciplinary studies.
University of Washington, Department of Scandinavian Studies
Department Chair - Marianne Stecher-Hansen
Symposium Chair(s) - Amanda Doxtater, Caroline Brekkan
Symposium Coordinator - Stacey Breitberg
The Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington was established in 1909 by a special act of the Washington State Legislature. During its history, the Department has grown from a one-person institution to comprise a teaching staff of twelve full-time faculty in Scandinavian and Baltic Studies. Adjunct faculty whose appointments are in other Departments make their expertise available in a variety of courses with considerable Scandinavian content. Affiliate faculty, likewise, occasionally teach and serve as valuable resources to our students. With a total enrollment of approximately 40,000 students at the University of Washington, the Department enrolls 1,600 undergraduates annually in its many courses.
The Scandinavian Department began offering an M.A. program in 1948 and has offered a Ph.D. program since 1967. Graduates from the Department have established careers in business, the professions and education. Graduate seminars are offered in Scandinavian literary genres, medieval literature, mythology, folklore, drama, film, politics, history, Old Icelandic and linguistics. On the undergraduate level, the Department offers majors in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Scandinavian Area Studies as well as minors in Baltic Studies, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, and Scandinavian Area Studies.
