THE LONGBOAT NEWSLETTER FOR ASF FELLOWS—1911-2016 2013—2015 —JOAN PERLMAN, ÞINGVELLIR, ICELAND Dear Past & Present ASF Fellows, 2013 marked the 101st year of the American – Scan- All of us at ASF are tremendously proud of our Fellowship dinavian Foundation’s Fellowship and Grant Program. and Grant Program and of our Fellows, past and present. In the first year of the program, seven scholars (three We invite you to keep in close touch and share all perti- Americans, two Norwegians, and two Swedes) received nent career updates with us and your fellow Fellows. a total of $1,900 in funding for study abroad. In 2013- 14, sixty-five individuals (twenty-five Americans, two Danes, two Finns, ten Icelanders, nineteen Norwegians, Sincerely, and seven Swedes) received over $675,000. So we can safely say that as it enters its second century, the ASF Fellowship and Grant Program is alive and well. Edward P. Gallagher In this issue of Longboat, it is possible to see the great ASF President diversity of disciplines and projects represented by our Fellows as well as the institutions with which they are affiliated. It is also possible to see here a brief sampling of the ongoing accomplishments of past Fellows. PG 2 PG 3 PG 5 PG 6 RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS AN ASF FELLOW REPORTS ASF VISITING LECTURERS ASF TRANSLATION PRIZE BY ASF FELLOWS RECIPIENTS 2 RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS promoted to Full Professor at the University of Illinois at BY ASF FELLOWS Urbana-Champaign. MILLE GULDBECK, US TO DENMARK, 1991 & 2006—Ms. Guldbeck had a solo exhibition at Nelimarkka Museum, Finland and was one of 12 artists accepted from the entire Midwest region for the South Bend Museum of Art’s Biennial 28. ROGER GREENWALD, 1984 & 1990 FELLOW TO NORWAY, 1991 FELLOW TO —STEPHEN HILYARD, MOUNTAIN I SWEDEN & 1996 ASF TRANSLATION 1ST PRIZE WINNER—Mr. Green- STEPHEN HILYARD, US TO ICELAND, 2007 & 2012 US TO NORWAY, 2012— wald published his second book of poems, Slow Mountain Mr. Hilyard presented an extensive exhibition of his work, Train. He also won the Harold Morton Landon Translation including the entire “Rapture of the Deep” series, “Water- award for Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar fall”, and two pieces from “King Wave,” at The Minnesota Harding. North in the World: Selected Poems of Rolf Marine Art Museum. He also had an exhibition entitled The Jacobsen: A Bilingual Edition, translated and edited by Mr. New Sublime at Phoenix Gallery in Brighton UK. Greenwald, has been issued in paperback by the University of Chicago Press. BRANDON BOOR, US TO FINLAND, 2013—Mr. Boor presented his paper entitled “Crawling-Induced Resuspension of Settled SIMEN JOHAN, US TO ICELAND, 2009—Mr. Johan had a solo Floor Dust” at the Indoor Air 2014 Conference in Hong exhibition co-presented by Bethel University, St Paul and Kong, where he received a Best Student Paper Award. Minneapolis Institute of Art. SIRPA SALENIUS, FINLAND TO US, 2001—Ms. Salenius had her ERIC AHO, US TO FINLAND, 1993 & US TO NORWAY, 2003—Mr. Aho book entitled Rose Elizabeth Cleveland: First Lady and had an exhibition entitled Wilderness Studio at DC Moore Literary Scholar published by Palgrave Macmillan. Gallery, NYC and another exhibition entitled Ice Cuts at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. CINDY MARI IMAI, US TO ICELAND, 2012—Ms. Imai published her article “Associations between Infant Feeding Practice Prior to Six Months and Body Mass Index at Six Years of Age” in Nutrients — Open Access Human Nutrition Journal. LESLIE ANDERSON-PERKINS, US TO DENMARK, 2012—Ms. Ander- son-Perkins published an article entitled “The Forgotten —ALIX W. HENRY Pendant of Christian August Lorentzen’s Model School at the Academy” in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, an ALIX W. HENRY, US TO DENMARK & FINLAND, 2013—Ms. Henry online journal. presented her paper “Learning from Functionalist Nordic WALKER WELLS, US TO SWEDEN, 2012 Mr. Wells published an Houses towards Passive, Active, Adaptable and Prefab- — article entitled “Sweden, the Green Giant” in Planning ricated Homes” at the 7PHN Sustainable Cities and Magazine. Buildings Conference in Denmark. TENLEY BANIK, US TO ICELAND, 2008 & 2014—Ms. Banik published ROBERT DELL, 1999 US TO ICELAND, 1999—Mr. Dell had his an article entitled ”Magma–ice–sediment interactions collected works “Robert Dell papers, 1985-1999” added to and the origin of lava/hyaloclastite sequences in the Síða The Smithsonian as a permanent archive. formation, South Iceland” in the Bulletin of Volcanology. BRENDAN FAEGRE, US TO NORWAY, 2010—Mr. Faegre had one JOAN PERLMAN, US TO ICELAND, 2013 Ms. Perlamn had works of his compositions performed at the Cabrillo Festival of — included in the exhibition IN DIRECT LIGHT at the Nan Rae Contemporary Music and the Lake George Music Festival. Gallery at Woodbury University. New York Youth Symphony has also commissioned a new work from him. MIMMI FULMER, US TO FINLAND, 2009—Ms. Fulmer published the first volume of her Nordic song anthology, “Midnight Sun”, MARION BELANGER, US TO ICELAND, 2006—Haverford College in which includes songs in Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Pennsylvania hosted Ms. Belanger’s exhibition Rift/Fault. A Danish from the classical, traditional, and sacred repertoire. book entitled Rift/Fault will be published by Radius Books. Volumes 2 and 3 will be released in 2016. ANNA STENPORT , US TO SWEDEN, 2009—Ms. Stenport was 3 1919, it has been committed to a progressive curriculum, ASF FELLOWS REPORT stressing cosmopolitanism rather than nationalism, and a free and democratic way of conducting academic THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH AND research - rather than one of censorship or suppression. THE DEMOCRATIC TRADITION—BY BENJAMIN ASK It is this committment which led to the founders breach POPP-MADSEN with Columbia University during the First World War. From In Denmark we often pride ourselves on our democratic 1933 on, The New School was renamed University in Exile tradition. We have one of the highest electoral turnouts as many German and French Jews were brought from a in national and local elections; and parents and other war-torn, anti-Semitic Europe to teach at The New School, stakeholders, often govern schools, daycare centers, and which resulted in a unique combination of American and civil societal organizations. Furthermore, the political European democratic thought. In short, The New School debate often centers on different ways of linking —at least for me—stood in both theory and praxis as the ‘Danishness’ to a certain democratic way of life: if you can ultimate advocate for the democratic ideal. prove that your way of defining ‘Danishness’ has certain Having spent a year at The New School with the impressive democratic content, your argument will often be seen as support of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, to well founded. which I am truly grateful, I must admit that I am extremely and positively surprised by the school’s intellectual environment, its commitment to urgent political issues, and its conviction that democratic thought has something significant to tell us about the problems we face today. Even though I cannot claim to have solved the paradox —BENJAMIN ASK POPP-MADSEN between democratic pride and the lack of participation and interest in politics that I outlined earlier, my studies But, at the same time, the political parties are continuously at The New School have certainly provided me with losing members, people are less engaged in NGOs; a useful insight into the questions surrounding democratic profound lack of interest in politics and disgust with engagement. politicians is spreading. First of all, democracy is not limited to the possibility of This is not only a Danish phenomenon. I take it to be a voting every four years, and participation in the selection general diagnosis of the democratic culture of most of one’s leaders. It is also the ability to govern directly. Western societies. The political scientist Robert Putnam This was characteristic of a revolutionary 19th-century has, for example, analyzed the lack of political and civic America, when people, through town-hall meetings, engagement in America. For Putnam, American democratic conventions, and extensive public debate, to a large degree culture—which has always been characterized by an governed themselves by a means of direct democratic extraordinary level of public participation since it was institutions. One explanation for today’s lack of political first assessed by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in engagement and distrust in politicians is that when America—has lost its vitality. The political act has lost ordinary people lose the possibility of self-rule, when the its intrinsic worth, and the importance of a personal distance from everyday problems to political decisions commitment to civil society has lost its obviousness. becomes too vast, politics is regarded as something our Instead—and this applies to Denmark and most European representatives do and not something we all do. When countries as well—people live their lives in private, behind the political system does not regard the opinion and the privet hedge. participation of ordinary people as valuable, democracy is To understand this paradox—the pride in our democratic seen as burdensome and difficult and politics as dirty and traditions and our aspirations to spread this type of technical. government to other countries (Denmark was a part of Returning to Denmark, I take with me the conviction that the coalition of the willing in both Iraq and Afghanistan) in order to give back democracy its true meaning—that is on the one hand, and the lack of participation in and government by the people—we have to divide the political commitment to these democratic traditions on the space into smaller, more equal communities that allow other—I went to study democratic theory at The New for more direct political participation.