Structure & Governance

Society Officers

Olivia Noble Gunn

President

University of Washington · 2025–2027

Olivia Noble Gunn is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Studies and the Sverre Arestad Endowed Chair in Norwegian Studies at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on Norwegian literature from the late nineteenth century to the present, with particular interests in performance, feminism, race, and queer theory. Her scholarship includes work on Henrik Ibsen and the intersections of literature, identity, and cultural history. She is also active in literary translation and interdisciplinary approaches to Scandinavian studies. As President of SASS, Gunn brings her commitment to inclusive scholarship, academic collaboration, and the continued development of Scandinavian studies in North America.

Natalie Van Deusen

Vice President

University of Alberta · 2025–2027

Natalie Van Deusen is Professor of Scandinavian Studies and holds the Henry Cabot and Linnea Lodge Professorship in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Alberta. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2012. Her research focuses on Old Norse and early modern Icelandic literature, with particular interests in paleography, hagiography, gender, and disability studies. She serves as editor-in-chief of Scandinavian-Canadian Studies and is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada. Her scholarship and professional service reflect a longstanding commitment to Scandinavian studies and international scholarly collaboration.

Scott A. Mellor

Financial Officer / Past President

University of Wisconsin–Madison · 2025–2027

Scott A. Mellor is a Teaching Professor of Nordic Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he has taught since 1999. His research interests include medieval Scandinavian literature, folklore, oral traditions, and the cultural history of the Nordic region. He is the author of Analyzing Ten Poems from the Poetic Edda and has conducted research on the Åland Islands. A former president of the Association of Swedish Teachers and Researchers in America (ASTRA), Mellor served as President of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study from 2023 to 2025. In 2025, he received the University of Wisconsin–Madison Chancellor's Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Kimberly La Palm

Executive Director

SASS / Augustana College

Kimberly La Palm serves as Executive Director of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study and Advancement Officer for the Swenson Swedish American Research Center at Augustana College. She holds a PhD and MA in Scandinavian Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BA in Theatre and Drama and Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has taught at UCLA, Augustana College, the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, and Viterbo University. Her professional experience spans higher education, academic administration, nonprofit leadership, and scholarly programming, with a particular commitment to supporting Scandinavian studies and fostering connections across the field.

Journal Editorial Leadership

Editorial leadership of Scandinavian Studies, the Society's scholarly journal.

Dean Krouk

Managing Editor, Scandinavian Studies

University of Wisconsin–Madison · 2023–2028

Dean Krouk is Professor of Nordic Studies and Director of Graduate Studies (Nordic) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on modern Norwegian literature, particularly the intersections of literature, political ideology, fascism, antifascism, and cultural memory. He is the author of Fascism and Modernist Literature in Norway (2017), which examines literary responses to Norwegian fascism and the Nazi occupation, and The Making of an Antifascist: Nordahl Grieg between the World Wars (2022). His teaching and scholarship also encompass literary modernism, comparative literature, and the drama of Henrik Ibsen.

Marianne Stecher-Hansen

Reviews Editor, Scandinavian Studies

University of Washington · 2023–2028

Marianne Stecher-Hansen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, where she holds the Georg and Nina Pedersen Endowed Professorship in Danish Studies. She earned her PhD in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on Danish and Scandinavian literature and culture, with particular interests in historiography, memory studies, postcolonialism, and the relationship between literature and history. Her publications include History Revisited: Fact and Fiction in Thorkild Hansen's Documentary Works and the edited volume Nordic War Stories: World War II as History, Fiction, Media and Memory. She has also published extensively on Danish literary history and Karen Blixen.

Executive Council

The elected and appointed representatives of the Society's principal disciplinary and professional constituencies.

History and Social Science

Saniya Ghanoui

Executive Council Representative

University of Texas at El Paso · 2023–2027

Saniya Lee Ghanoui is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso. A public and digital historian, her research examines gender and sexuality, medicine, media, and transatlantic exchanges between Sweden and the United States. Her book project, Translating Sex Culture, explores transnational sex education and U.S.–Swedish relations from the 1910s through the 1960s. She is also a podcast producer, documentary filmmaker, and co-creator of SourceLab, a digital publishing initiative.

Carrie Danielson

Executive Council Representative

Florida State University · 2024–2028

Carrie Danielson is a musicologist and ethnomusicologist affiliated with Florida State University, where she earned her PhD in 2021. Her research explores music and migration, feminist care ethics, public folklore, and children's music and dance cultures. Her projects have examined music-making among Syrian and Afghan refugee communities in Sweden, culturally inclusive music education in Swedish kulturskolor, and Scandinavian folk music and dance in the Upper Midwest. Her scholarly interests include community engagement, cultural inclusion, and the experiences of emerging scholars.

Joe Gonzalez

Executive Council Representative

California State University, Fullerton · 2025–2029

Joe Gonzalez is Professor of Liberal Studies at California State University, Fullerton, where he teaches interdisciplinary courses spanning the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. His research focuses on European cultural and intellectual history, particularly sixteenth-century Scandinavia. His scholarship examines the body, ritual and power, gender, material culture, food, and the history of medicine. He has published on royal ritual, funerary practices, humanist oratory at the court of the Vasa kings, and the relationship between art, memory, and history. He is a former president of the Renaissance Conference of Southern California and the Scandinavian History Society.

Christine Ekholst

Executive Council Representative

Uppsala University · 2026–2030

Christine Ekholst is Associate Professor of History at Uppsala University. She earned her PhD from Stockholm University in 2009, researching gender, crime, and punishment in medieval Sweden. Her subsequent academic appointments include postdoctoral work at Caltech and a visiting scholarship at UCLA. Her research examines sexuality in political propaganda, the body and disability in medieval Sweden, and questions of ethnic identity and national loyalty among Swedish immigrants in Canada during the First World War. Her scholarship brings together medieval history, gender studies, and transnational perspectives on migration.

Language and Literature

Mathias Nordvig

Executive Council Representative

University of Colorado Boulder · 2023–2027

Mathias Nordvig teaches Nordic and Arctic cultural studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He holds a PhD in Old Norse mythology, with expertise in Nordic languages, literature, religion, and cultural traditions. His research and publications explore Norse mythology and the Viking Age. He also hosts the Nordic Mythology Podcast and is the author of several books, including Volcanoes in Old Norse Mythology and Norse Mythology for Kids.

Verena Höfig

Executive Council Representative

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich · 2025–2029

Verena Höfig is a professor of Old Norse and Medieval Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014. Before joining LMU Munich, she held research and teaching appointments at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her scholarship examines the intersections of literature, material culture, and social history in Scandinavia, with particular interests in medieval Scandinavian culture and its later reception.

Benjamin Bigelow

Executive Council Representative

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities · 2025–2029

Benjamin Bigelow is Assistant Professor of German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research explores Scandinavian literature, film, cultural identity, race, and environmental studies. His project Scandinavian Racial Ecologies examines the relationship between conceptions of Nordic identity, racial belonging, and understandings of the natural environment. His work challenges traditional associations between Scandinavian identity and territory while emphasizing the diversity and complexity of contemporary Scandinavian societies. Through interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching, and community engagement, he seeks to broaden conversations about Scandinavian culture and representation.

Merrill Kaplan

Executive Council Representative

The Ohio State University · 2026–2030

Merrill Kaplan is Associate Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at The Ohio State University, where she directs the Scandinavian Program and has also served as Director of the interdisciplinary Center for Folklore Studies. A member of SASS for nearly three decades, she has served on several Society prize committees and helped draft its Code of Conduct. Her scholarship and teaching focus on Scandinavian folklore and literature, and her experience includes interdisciplinary program leadership and academic service.

Independent Scholar / Institution Representatives

Leslie Anderson

Executive Council Representative

Rollins Museum of Art · 2023–2027

Leslie Anderson is a museum curator affiliated with the Rollins Museum of Art and previously served as Chief Curator of the National Nordic Museum. A former Fulbright scholar in Denmark, she has organized exhibitions in collaboration with major Nordic cultural institutions. Her curatorial work includes commissioning FLÓÐ, an installation by Jónsi of Sigur Rós, in 2023. Her professional interests emphasize exhibitions, public engagement, international cultural exchange, and the presentation of Nordic art and culture to broad audiences.

Troy Wellington Smith

Executive Council Representative

Library of Congress · 2025–2029

Troy Wellington Smith is the Nordic Area Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, where he oversees collections, reference services, and outreach relating to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. He earned his PhD in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2023, with a dissertation titled Kierkegaard and the Aesthetics of the Book. His scholarly work includes a translation of Thomasine Gyllembourg's To Tidsaldre (Two Ages). A recipient of the 2020 Einar and Eva Lund Haugen Scholarship, he brings expertise in Nordic library collections, archives, and scholarly research resources to the SASS Executive Council.

Graduate Student Representatives

Joshua Lee

Executive Council Representative

University of California, Berkeley · 2026–2028

Joshua Lee is a PhD student in the Department of Scandinavian at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include Old Norse literature, Icelandic folklore, Old English, and the digital humanities. He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to Scandinavian studies and connections between the field and other academic disciplines. His priorities for graduate student representation include professional development, equitable access to opportunities and awards, and fostering an inclusive scholarly community.

Benjamin Wilson

Executive Council Representative

University of Wisconsin–Madison · 2026–2027

Benjamin Wilson is a PhD student in Scandinavian Studies, with a minor in Medieval Studies, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research interests include philology, Old Norse-Icelandic literature, and the sagas, particularly the representation of clothing and its relationship to systems of power. He has served as a representative of the Nordic Graduate Student Association and on its social committee. His academic service emphasizes building connections among graduate students and fostering a supportive scholarly community.

Committees

Select a committee to view its current membership and designated roles.

Governing Documents