Migration and Memory:
Norwegian-American Dimensions
NAHA-Norway Seminar IX
(NAHA = The Norwegian-American Historical Association)
Department of the Humanities and Cultural Studies
Telemark University College
3800 Bø i Telemark
June 21–23, 2006
Keynote speakers:
Professor Elliott R. Barkan
Barkan is professor emeritus at the History Department, California State University, in San Bernardino, where he taught such courses as “Ethnic Minorities in American History” and “Asian-American Experience.” He has published and edited several studies of American immigrant history, including And Still They Come (1996) and A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America’s Multicultural Heritage (1999). He has just completed a history of immigration to the American West (Indiana University Press). A Fulbright Scholar in Norway (1992–93), Barkan is currently the President of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2003–2006).
Professor Patricia Hampl
Hampl is the author of A Romantic Education (1981), Spillville (1987), Virgin Time (1992) and I Could Tell You Stories (1999), as well as other books of prose and poetry. She teaches at the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. She is the recipient of numerous scholarships and literary awards, most recently a distinguished achievement award from The Western Literature Association (2001). In 1995 she received a Fulbright fellowship to the Czech Republic.
Professor Orm Øverland
Øverland is professor emeritus from the English Department, the University of Bergen, where he taught American Literature since 1970. Two of his best known works in the field of Americans immigrant studies are The Western Home: A Literary History of Norwegian America (1996) and Immigrant Minds, American Identities (2000). He has also assisted in the publication of several volumes of America letters (in Norwegian). Overland is a distinguished scholar in American Studies in Norway.
Wednesday, June 21
10:00 a.m – 11:30 a.m.
Registration in the Entrance Hall of Telemark University College
12:00
Opening of the Conference
Auditorium 5-115
Øyvind T. Gulliksen (for the Oranizing Committee)
Dina Tolfsby (President of NAHA-Norway)
Todd W. Nichol (Editor, NAHA, St. Olaf College)
Welcome to the college: Peter Fjågesund (Coordinator of the English Studies Program)
Greetings from scholars from Finland, Denmark, and Sweden.
1:00 p.m.
Patricia Hampl
“On Migration and Memory”
Opening lecture, Auditorium 5-115
2:00 p.m.
Coffee break
2:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Session A: Maps and Immigrant Memories
Auditorium 5-115. Chair:
Todd Nichol
“Mapping Norwegian America”
Ann Marie Legreid
“Maps and Memory in the Norwegian-American Experience”
Amanda Peterson
“Reconstructing the Koshkonong settlement”
5:00 p.m.
Dinner
Dinner Talk by Patricia Hampl
7:30 p.m.
Concert in the Old Stone Church in Bø:
Music related to emigration from Norway
Thursday June 22.
9:00 a.m.
Morning lecture. Chair:
Elliott R. Barkan
‘Where Have all the Norwegians Gone?’:
Norwegian-Americans in the Pacific Northwest”
10:00 a.m. Coffee break
10:30 a.m.–12:00 noon
Session B: Immigrant Diaries, Journals and Letters
Auditorium 5-116. Chair:
Anne Marie Vangsnes
“An Imaginary Meeting Point: The Role of Religion in Norwegian Immigrant Letters”
Esther Ruud Stradling
“From Letters and Journals to Biography: Constructing the Life of Ole Ruud, Pioneer of the Washington Territory”
Torun Berntsen
"Diversity through Memories: Elizabeth Koren’s Diary, 1853–1855"
10:30 a.m.–12:00 noon
Session C: Immigrant Memories and Family History
Auditorium 5-117. Chair:
Deb Nelson Gourley
“The Astri Herbrandsdatter 1812 Trunk: A Search for Family Roots and Cultural Identity”
Llewellyn H. Linde
“Dr. Herman Linde: Norwegian-American Humorist during the Great Depression”
Joy K. Lintelman“Teaching From Inside and Outside the Box: Norwegian Immigration and Lars Martin Nilsen Askeland”
12:00
Conference lunch (2nd. Floor)
1:00– 2:30 p.m.
Session D: Church and Culture among Immigrants
Auditorium 5-116. Chair:
Kristin Kavli Adriansen
“Sister Elisabeth Fedde: A Light of Hope to Sick and Needy Immigrants in New York City”
Andreas Aarflot
“Recruiting Pastors for Norwegian-American Lutheran Churches”
Ole Jone Eide
“Construction of Memory and Pioneer Emigration: Supplementary Contributions from a Norwegian Parish.”
1:00– 2:30 p.m.
Session E: Memories of Immigrant History
Auditorium 5-117. Chair:
Marvin G. Slind
“The Dissolution of Sweden-Norway: The View from Decorah, Iowa, in 1905”
Charles H. Russell
“Wilhelm Waerenskjold’s backstory and cause for emigration”
Karl Jakob Skarstein
“The Belmont Massacre of 1862: A Norwegian Settlement in the Heart of Indian Country”
2:30 p.m.
Coffee break
3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Session F: Travel Accounts and Immigrant Art
Auditorium 5-116. Chair:
Linda L. Hunt
“Locked Memories: The Silencing of Helga Estby's Audacious Walk Across Victorian America”
Jane Kemp
“Norwegian-American Art in the Luther College Collection: Torkjel Landsverk and Company”
Betty Bergland
“Orabel Thortvedt’s Buffalo River Manuscripts: Re-imagining the Telemarkings in the Red River Valley”
3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Session G: Immigrant Novels and Monuments
Auditorium 5-117. Chair:
Kristin A. Risley
“‘The Home Field’: The Heg Monuments as Sacred Space and Civil War Commemoration”
Ingeborg Kongslien
“Narratives of Cultural Encounters and Identity Formation in Texts by O.E. Rølvaag: A Comparison to Contemporary Norwegian Multicultural Writers”
Solveig Zempel
“The Rise of Jonas Olsen and the Language of Johannes B. Wist: A Translator’s Nightmare?”
6:00. p.m.
Conference Dinner
Friday June 23
9:00 a.m.
Morning lecture. Auditorium 5-115. Chair:
Orm Øverland
“Recovering Memories of the Migration: NAHA and the Making of a Collection of Immigrant Letters in the Present Norwegian National Archives, 1923-1929”
10.00 a.m. Coffee break
10:30 a.m-12:00 noon
Session H: Norsk-amerikansk kultur- og kirkehistorie
Auditorium 5-116. Seminarleder:
Kari G. Førre
“ ‘Hvordan kan dette bli en velsignelse når presten lyver og legger løgn på løgn?’: En konflikt i St. Pauli norsk evangelisk-lutherske menighet i Minneapolis i 1890-årene.”
Bjørn Sandvik
“Norskamerikansk innflytelse på kirkelivet i Norge: Et forsømt forskningsfelt.”
Nils Olav Østrem
“ ‘Memory’ og kultur som perspektiv på migrasjonshistoria. Om ei ny utvandringsbok.”
10:30a.m.-12:00 noon
Session I: Stories of Growing Up and Visions of the Midwest
Auditorium 5-117. Chair:
Lori Ann Lahlum
“Growing Up in Norwegian America: A Preliminary Study of Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood”
Ingrid Urberg
“Childhood Memories of Norway and the Construction of Identity:The Norwegian Immigrant Experience in Alberta”
Cynthia Elyce Rubin
“Postmarked the American Dream: O. S. Leeland’s South Dakota Vision”
12:00
Conference Lunch (2nd floor)
1:00 p.m.
General Assembly of NAHA-Norway. Chair: Dina Tolfsby
Business Meeting, Debate, Elections.
Preceded by:
May Lunde
“An Illustrated Presentation of the History of NAHA-Norway”
Dispersal and farewells (by 3:00 p.m.) |