2021 Danish American Heritage Society Conference
Traditions and Transitions: Ways of Being Danish
May 5-9, 2021 (Thursday-Sunday)
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The Danish American Heritage Society is pleased to announce and invites you to attend our next international conference on May 5-9, 2021 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington. This conference is being held in conjunction with the 111th annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.
The organizing theme of our conference is “Traditions and Transitions: Ways of Being Danish,” which we hope will provide ample scope for exploring the identities and experiences of Danes and Danish Americans past and present. We also invite the submission of proposals for papers and presentations on topics related to this theme, which may include (but are not limited to):
Individual presenters wishing to submit a proposal for a paper or presentation of 20 minutes should send their name, email address, paper title, abstract (maximum 300 words), and a short biography of the speaker (maximum 150 words) to dahs2021conference@gmail.com by October 1, 2020.
Although cultures may seem to be fixed, they are always in transition, navigating between tried and true traditions and new opportunities and innovations. Even the potato, which seems today to be a quintessential part of Danish food culture, was a novel import in the 17th century that seemed both foreign and somewhat suspect. Cultural heritage is the product of many generations’ attempts to hold on to practices and beliefs that give meaning to their identities as members of a national, linguistic, or ethnic group, while also dealing with the changes and challenges that they inevitably encounter. People in transit, particularly those who leave their homelands for prolonged periods of time, are also in a state of “in-betweenness,” trying to preserve their cultural traditions while adapting to their new environments. In so doing, they negotiate both a past that is receding and a future that can only be imagined.
The organizing theme of our conference is “Traditions and Transitions: Ways of Being Danish,” which we hope will provide ample scope for exploring the identities and experiences of Danes and Danish Americans past and present. We also invite the submission of proposals for papers and presentations on topics related to this theme, which may include (but are not limited to):
- The role of religious, educational, and/or artistic institutions, such as Danish folk high schools, in shaping and preserving Danish traditions
- Literary, artistic, cinematic, and/or musical depictions of individual and social transitions
- Culinary and handicraft traditions of Danes and Danish Americans
- Political and economic transitions, such as the 1917 sale of the Virgin Islands or joining the European Union, that inspired new traditions and challenged old ones
- Linguistic shifts in Danish and English related to people in transit
- Translation into and out of Danish and its dialects
- Past and present migrations into, within, and out of Denmark
Individual presenters wishing to submit a proposal for a paper or presentation of 20 minutes should send their name, email address, paper title, abstract (maximum 300 words), and a short biography of the speaker (maximum 150 words) to dahs2021conference@gmail.com by October 1, 2020.
Although cultures may seem to be fixed, they are always in transition, navigating between tried and true traditions and new opportunities and innovations. Even the potato, which seems today to be a quintessential part of Danish food culture, was a novel import in the 17th century that seemed both foreign and somewhat suspect. Cultural heritage is the product of many generations’ attempts to hold on to practices and beliefs that give meaning to their identities as members of a national, linguistic, or ethnic group, while also dealing with the changes and challenges that they inevitably encounter. People in transit, particularly those who leave their homelands for prolonged periods of time, are also in a state of “in-betweenness,” trying to preserve their cultural traditions while adapting to their new environments. In so doing, they negotiate both a past that is receding and a future that can only be imagined.
Conference Committee for the 2021 DAHS Conference - Traditions and Transitions: Ways of Being Danish:
- Lynette Rasmussen (Honorary Danish Consul, Des Moines, Iowa)
- Linda Steffensen (Editor of Den Danske Pioneer, Chicago, Illinois)
- Julie K. Allen (Professor, College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)
If you have questions or comments, please fill out and submit one of the following contact forms.
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2017 DAHS Conference. Photo by David Hendee
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2017 DAHS Conference. Photo by David Hendee
2017 DAHS Conference. Photo by David Hendee
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2017 DAHS Conference. Photo by David Hendee
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