Scandimania at UNU-GEST
In March, UNU-GEST project manager Thomas Brorsen Smidt met up with students from the University of North Dakota to talk to them about the GEST programme as well as Icelandic society and its relationship with gender equality. The course is taught by Melissa Gjellstad at the Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures at the University of North Dakota and is affectionately entitled “Scandimania.” Students come from a broad array of different fields, such as health sciences, political science, and…aviation. “Scandimania” is a short-term, faculty-led study abroad course intended to introduce students to the contemporary life of some Northern Europeans and three Nordic capital cities (and Malmö!). The course provides a combination of student learning on campus before departure, in off-campus environments in four Nordic states during spring break, and again back on campus in a post-trip reflection. Specifically for “Scandimania 2019”, students will explore 21st century being and belonging in Nordic spaces in Reykjavik, Iceland; Oslo, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Lund and Malmö, Sweden. Pre-departure study and on-site fieldwork will investigate entangled encounters around immigration and inclusion, Nordic Noir and crime fiction, city planning and design, energy and indigenous rights, and gender equality.