International Board

Dr. Claus Elholm Andersen is the Birgit Baldwin Chair and Paul and Renate Madsen Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is also the Head of Nordic and Associate Chair of Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic+. Recent publications include the monographs Knausgård and the Autofictional Novel (SUNY Press, 2023) and En dissonans i denne Verden. Læsninger I H.C. Andersens tidlige eventyr (Aarhus University Press, 2025). He has previous held positions at the University of Helsinki and the University of California, Los Angeles. He writes regularly for the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten.

ceandersen2@wisc.edu

Helena Březinová is Associate Professor of Nordic Studies at the Department of Germanic Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Her research focuses primarily on Hans Christian Andersen, Scandinavian Romanticism, the cultural movement of Scandinavianism, and the works of Johannes V. Jensen. Among her recent scholarly contributions is the monograph Slavíci, mořské víly a bolavé zuby: Pohádky H. Ch. Andersena mezi romantismem a modernitou (Nightingales, Mermaids and Toothaches: Andersen’s Fairy Tales between Romanticism and Modernity, 2018). The book was awarded the Zlatá stuha (Golden Ribbon) in 2019 in the category of Theory and Criticism of Children’s Literature. 

helena.Brezinova@ff.cuni.cz

Sylvain Briens är professor i nordisk litteratur vid Sorbonne i Paris. Han är utbildad civilingenjör vid Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble och Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm. Därefter studerade han nordiska språk vid Sorbonne. Avhandlingen, Ingénieurs lyriques (2003), handlar om teknisk innovation och svensk litterär modernism. Han har även en masterexamen i miljövetenskap vid Université Paris-Saclay, med inriktning på arktiska studier. Efter att ha arbetat som civilingenjör i telekommunikationsindustrin och FN (Genève) började han 2003 att undervisa i skandinavistik vid universitetet i Strasbourg. Sedan 2009 är han verskam vid Sorbonne. Hans nuvarande forskning fokuserar på blue humanities i det nordiska och arktiska kulturområdet. 

sylvain.briens@gmail.com

Massimo Ciaravolo är lektor i skandinaviska språk och litteratur vid universitetet Ca’ Foscari i Venedig och översättare. Han har skrivit om Hjalmar Söderberg, de finlandssvenska dagdrivarna, August Strindberg och flera andra moderna och samtida skandinaviska författare. Han har redigerat Storia delle letterature scandinave (2019) och hans senaste bok Libertà, gabbie, vie d’uscita (2022; Frihet, burar, utvägar) handlar om storstads- och modernitetsupplevelsen hos skandinaviska författare mot slutet av 1800-talet. En utkommande artikel handlar om Søren Kierkegaards roman Forførerens Dagbog som Köpenhamnsroman.

massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it

Amanda Doxtater is Associate Professor and Barbro Osher Endowed Chair of Swedish Studies in the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington (UW). A scholar and teacher in Swedish language and Scandinavian studies, her research focuses on Nordic literature, cinema, theater, and translation studies. Writing widely on Nordic Cinema, her work engages with melodrama, gender, queer historiography, childhood and the family in the Nordic welfare state; and issues of class, race, and ethnicity. Her first book, Visions and Victims: Art Melodrama in the Films of Carl Th. Dreyer (2024) illuminates key intersections between popular film melodrama and Scandinavian art-cinema. Her English-language translation of Karin Boye’s novel Kris (1934), published in 2020 by Norvik Press as Crisis, was runner-up for the Bernard Shaw Prize for translation in 2021 by the UK Society of Scholars. Her current monograph project, Orphaned Films and Archival Bodies: Performing Diaspora in the Nordic Heritage Museum Digital Film Collection, uses textual and performative videographic methods to examine the construction— and erasure—of histories, knowledge, and identities. 

The UW Department of Scandinavian Studies works to discover, preserve, and transmit fundamental knowledge about the languages, literature, history, politics, and cultures of the Nordic and Baltic countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Drawing on deep linguistic and cultural expertise, its faculty promotes interdisciplinary study in comparative and cross-cultural contexts to engage with the literary and cultural texts—plays, films, novels, television, poetry—of the rich archive of Nordic-Baltic culture.

doxtater@uw.edu 

Anders Ehlers Dam har siden 2015 været professor i dansk litteratur og kultur i europæisk kontekst ved Institut für Dänisch Europa-Universität Flensburg i Tyskland, hvor der blandt andet uddannes skole- og gymnasielærere til undervisning i dansk på tyske skoler i Schleswig-Holstein. Han studerede nordisk sprog og litteratur og filosofi ved Aarhus universitet og blev ph.d. derfra på en afhandling om vitalisme, udgivet af Aarhus Universitetsforlag i 2010 (Den vitalistiske strømning i dansk litteratur omkring år 1900). Før kaldet til Flensburg var han i to omgange postdoc ved NorS på Københavns Universitet og tildeltes i den forbindelse Det Frie Forskningsråds Ung Eliteforskerpris i 2007. Forskningsophold ved Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Stanford University og Colombia University. Han har især forsket i dansk og nordisk litteratur fra 1870 til i dag, ofte under inddragelse af kunsthistorie. Ud over vitalisme-afhandlingen og en række artikler tæller udgivelserne følgende antologier: Vadehavet i litteraturen (Forlaget Wunderbuch, under forberedelse), Angst i dansk litteratur (redigeret sm.m. Markus Floris Christensen, Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2023), Den stumme myte. Nedslag i efterkrigstidens kulturkritik (Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2020), Distancens patos (festskrift til Jan Rosiek, redigeret sm.m. Marianne Stidsen, U Press, 2017), Soldat, arbejder, anark. ErnstJüngers forfatterskab (redigeret sm.m. Adam Paulsen, Museum Tusculanum, 2017), J.P. Jacobsen og kunsten (redigeret sm.m. Gry Hedin, Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2016), Forandre for at bevare? – tanker om konservatisme (Gyldendal, 2003).

anders.dam@uni-flensburg.de

Søren Frank is Professor of Nordic literature at the University of Copenhagen. His research spans comparative literature, environmental humanities, and literary theory, with a particular focus on coastal and oceanic imaginaries, the Anthropocene, and narrative form. He is the author of A Poetic History of the Oceans (2022), a landmark study in the Blue Humanities, and Migration and Literature (2008), a widely cited contribution to transnational literary studies. Frank has published extensively on modern Nordic literature and is currently leading a research project on coastal literature in the Anthropocene. His work draws on a broad theoretical repertoire – from Bakhtin and Moretti to Mentz and DeLoughrey – to explore how literature mediates and figures ecological and planetary transformations. He is also co-editor of The Sea in Nordic Literature (forthcoming), a transdisciplinary volume that brings together literary scholarship and marine environmental thinking. Frank is a member of Academia Europaea and a former Senior Fellow at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

s.frank@hum.ku.dk

Jai-Ung Hong is Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, where he also directs the World Culture & Arts Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Theatre Studies from Stockholm University with a dissertation on Strindberg’s A Dream Play. His research combines Scandinavian literature, theatre, and cultural studies, with a focus on aesthetics, reception, and cultural transfer. His works address Scandinavian modernism, postdramatic theatre, and intercultural dialogue. Recent publications discuss Jon Fosse’s dramaturgy, narrative temporality in Trilogien, Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glas, and the reception of Han Kang in Sweden. He has also written on cultural policy, theatre exchange between Europe and Korea, and the history of Scandinavian arts. His books and articles have contributed to comparative study of Nordic and Korean literature and theatre.

At HUFS, Hong has played a central role in developing Scandinavian Studies in Korea through teaching, curriculum design, and international collaboration. His current projects focus on three themes: (1) reception and translation of Scandinavian literature in Korea; (2) translation studies extending into Korean studies, exemplified by his article From Translation Studies to Korean Studies through a Paratextual Analysis of Bandi’s Kobal (Acta Koreana, 2022); and (3) theatre and adaptation, including performance-based readings of Fosse, Strindberg and Ibsen.

Through his scholarship and institutional leadership, Hong has strengthened Scandinavian Studies in East Asia, fostered Nordic-Korean academic dialogue, and promoted international cooperation. His participation in the CSS International Board reflects his commitment to advancing Scandinavian Studies in a global context.

juhong@hufs.ac.kr

Ulla Kallenbach, PhD is Professor and Programme Director of Theatre Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway, and served as president of Nordic Theatre Scholars 2021-2025. Her research focuses on the cultural history of imagination and the dynamics of artistic exchange.

Kallenbach’s monograph The Theatre of Imagining – A Cultural History of Imagination in the Mind and on the Stage (Palgrave Macmillan 2018) was the first comprehensive study of imagination in the context of theatre, dramaturgy and spectatorship.

She currently directs the research project Artistic Exchanges: The Royal Danish Theatre and Europe (2021-). The project develops state-of-the-art digital infrastructures to trace transnational artistic networks and studies performative representations of Europe through the Royal Danish Theatre’s archive. Kallenbach has also been piloting the development of digital tools for analysing drama, including the first digital study of Ludvig Holberg’s comedies.

Theatre Studies at the University of Bergen has a strong focus on Scandinavian drama and theatre history as well as on contemporary dance and performance. Ongoing research projects in the department include studies of Jon Fosse’s theatre, cultural exchange in Norwegian contemporary dance, and Norwegian theatre criticism.

ulla.kallenbach@uib.no

Hanna Korsberg is a distinguished academic in theatre research, serving as a Professor at the University of Helsinki since 2008. Her work primarily investigates the interplay between theatre and politics in Finland, explored in two monographs. In addition to her books, she has published numerous articles on theatre history, historiography, performance, and cultural diplomacy. Her research also includes Scandinavian studies, focusing on theatrical exchanges between Finland and Sweden, which illuminate the cultural dynamics and influences shared between the two nations.

Korsberg has been actively involved with the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) since 2001, participating in the Historiography Working Group and serving on the executive committee from 2007 to 2015. She was Vice President from 2015 to 2019, showcasing her commitment to advancing international theatre research.

Her expertise is recognized through advisory roles with prominent journals such as Contemporary Theatre Review and Nordic Theatre Studies. Additionally, Korsberg is a member of the Teachers’ Academy at the University of Helsinki, where she has held various leadership positions, including heading the Department of Philosophy, History, and Art Studies. Her contributions reflect a strong dedication to both teaching and research in the field of theatre.

hanna.korsberg@helsinki.fi

alan.macniven@ed.ac.uk

Clemens Räthel is professor for Modern Scandinavian Literatures at the University of Greifswald. Previously, he worked as associate professor at the University of Bergen and held a post-doc position at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In his research he focuses on Scandinavian theatre, opera and literature from the 19th century to today. He also looks at queer perspectives on welfare-state-narrations, contemporary opera architecture and Jewish-Scandinavian relations. Clemens Räthel is speaker of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) and Co-Director of the annual festival Nordischer Klang.

clemens.raethel@uni-greifswald.de

Sylwia Izabela Schab is a philologist specializing in Danish studies and an Associate Professor of Scandinavian Literatures in the Department of Scandinavian Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Her research interests include Danish and Polish travel writing, postcolonial perspectives in Danish literature, and Danish migration literature. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and collective volumes. In 2018, she authored the monograph Palimpsest Polski. Reprezentacje Polski i Polaków w duńskich relacjach podróżniczych [Polish Palimpsest: Representations of Poland and Poles in Danish Travelogues], which examines Danish travel writing on Poland. Her current projects concern representations of Scandinavia and the reception of Danish literature in Poland, as well as the figure of the witch in Scandinavian literature and culture. She is co-editor of the academic journal Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia and serves on the board of the International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS). She has also contributed to the Baltic University Programme (Uppsala University) as assistant to the mentor of Area Studies courses on the Baltic Sea region. Furthermore, she is an active member of the international research network “New Geographies for Scandinavian Studies,” which promotes interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to the field. 

In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Schab is active as a literary translator and is a member of the Polish Literary Translators’ Association. She worked at the Danish Cultural Institute and co-founded the festival Pora na Skandynawię in Poznań, devoted to Nordic literatures, cultures, and film. In 2023, she published the bestselling volume Dania. Tu mieszka spokój [Denmark: A Land of Peace]. She also contributes as an expert on Denmark to Polish media. 

sylwias@amu.edu.pl

Anita Soós is Assistant Professor at the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She completed her degree in German, Russian Language and Literature, and Scandinavian Studies in 1996. She continued with doctoral studies in Scandinavian Literature and earned her PhD with a dissertation on Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of irony. Her major research interest concerns modern Danish literature, with a particular emphasis on Scandinavian Romanticism, and Danish fantastic literature from the 19th and 20th centuries with a special focus on Karen Blixen. She is interested in cultural transfer and reception studies, as well as translation theory and its practical application. Following up on her earlier research on pseudonymity in Kierkegaard’s writing she is particularly engaged with questions of self-presentation and self-narration. She was an active member of the research network New Geographies in Scandinavian Studies (2019–2024), which explored how Scandinavian Studies and Scandinavia’s position have been reshaped by geopolitical changes in Europe since the Cold War. 

Anita Soós is also an active literary translator, having translated several works from Danish into Hungarian, including works by Søren Kierkegaard, novels by Kim Leine, Ida Jessen, Kirsten Thorup, and Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen etc. She also draws on her experience as a literary translator in her teaching, leading university projects on literary translation.

soos.anita@btk.blte.hu

Ieva Steponavičiūtė Aleksiejūnienė is a literary scholar and Associate Professor at the Centre for Scandinavian Studies at Vilnius University, Lithuania, where she teaches in the BA programme in Scandinavian Studies and the MA programme Languages and Cultures of the Nordic and Baltic Sea Region, which she helped to initiate. She has established her academic profile as a Karen Blixen scholar, having published a number of scholarly articles in the field and the monograph Text at Play. The Ludic Aspect in Karen Blixen’s Writings (2011). She has also published on a range of other Scandinavian writers and cultural figures, and in recent years, her work has focused particularly on transnational Scandinavian–Lithuanian cultural memory. She served as principal investigator for the research project Lithuanian Exile in Iceland: Explorations of Teodoras Bieliackinas’s (1907–1947) Creative Legacy (2018–2021), contributed to the collective monograph Denmark and Lithuania through 100 Years of Bilateral Relations: From Neighbours to Allies (ed. by N. B. Poulsen and H. Brask, 2021), and co-edited and contributed to the anthologies Memory in Scandinavian Cultures: Mediating History, Identity, and Place (Scandinavian Studies 96 (1), 2024) and Memory and Remembrance in Scandinavian Cultures (Scandinavistica Vilnensis 17 (1–3), 2024).

Ieva served as Head of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in Vilnius from 2018 to 2025 and is editor-in-chief of the academic series Scandinavistica Vilnensis. She is a board member of the International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS), served as its President from 2018 to 2021, and was the main organiser of the IASS international conference Memory Culture in Scandinavian Studies, held in Vilnius in 2021. For several years, she represented IASS and was a voting member on the Committee of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM). She serves as an expert in the humanities for the Research Council of Lithuania.

She also participated in the international research network “New Geographies for Scandinavian Studies,” funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, which continues in new constellations and spin-offs. In addition, she is actively involved in promoting Scandinavian culture in Lithuania by interviewing and translating Scandinavian artists and by serving as a moderator and co-organiser of cultural events. More information about her publications and activities can be found on her ORCID profile.

ieva.steponaviciute@flf.vu.lt

Jakob Sougaard-Nielsen is Professor of Scandinavian and Comparative Literature at University College London. Before taking up his first position at UCL, he was Danish visiting lecturer at University of Washington and received his PhD from Aarhus University. He has published widely on nineteenth-century American and Nordic literatures with a particular interest in book history, authorship theory, and intermedial studies. He has published books and anthologies on world literature, Scandinavian crime fiction, the translation of small-nation literatures, Borealism, and the Introduction to Nordic Cultures (UCL Press 2020).

In 1918, University College London became the first university in the UK to offer Scandinavian Studies. Today, we teach and research the languages, literature, history and visual culture of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden from the medieval period to the present day. We offer a wide range of programmes in the history and culture of the Nordic region, including intensive language training ab initio. Our research spans an array of subjects related to the Nordic world, from Scandinavian crime fiction to the music of Sibelius, from film and media studies to Viking poetry. We are home to Norvik Press, specialising in Nordic literature and culture, and to the Viking Society for Northern Research, the world's foremost learned society in the field of medieval Scandinavian studies, founded in London in 1892. Our research encompasses the languages, literatures, cultures and histories of all the countries of the Nordic region. We approach these in ways that are both multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary; that are both national but also comparative and inter-cultural; and that are synchronic but also diachronic, encompassing the period stretching from the Viking Middle Ages to the present day.

j.stougaard-nielsen@ucl.ac.uk