Dag Blanck

Professor at Department of English; The Swedish Institute for North American Studies

Telephone:
+46 70 148 02 17
E-mail:
dag.blanck@engelska.uu.se
Visiting address:
Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3 L
Postal address:
Box 527
751 20 Uppsala

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Short presentation

I am Senior Professor of North American Studies at Uppsala University. Trained as an historian, I work in American immigration history and on trans-national relations between Sweden and the U.S. I have taught courses in American history, politics, race and ethnicity, and serve as a frequent commentator on the U.S. in Swedish media. I share my time between SINAS and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

Biography

Since 1985 I have shared my time between Sweden and the U.S. My base in Sweden is Uppsala University, where I am Senior Professor of North American Studies. Between 2012-2025, I served as Director of SINAS. I have an affiliation with the Department of History in Uppsala where I supervise on the advanced undergraduate, masters’ and doctoral levels. In the U.S. I serve as Director of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, a national archives, library, and research institute for the study of Swedish migration to North America. For close to three decades I served as the co-director of Augustana College’s Summer School in Sweden (ASSIS).

My research interests include American immigration and ethnic history, with special emphasis on Swedish migration to North America; transnational cultural influences, with special emphasis on the relationship between Sweden and the U.S., and the nature and dynamics of multicultural societies. I have written, edited and co-edited over a dozen books and written some sixty articles. My current research focuses on the trans-Atlantic Swedish-American cultural and social relationships since 1850.

I have taught courses on American history, politics, race and ethnicity, Swedish-American relations, as well as on Swedish history and language.

My undergraduate degrees are from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois (B.A., Phi Beta Kappa) and Stockholm University (fil. kand), and my graduate training is from Uppsala University (Ph.D. 1997, docent 2005). I have spent study and research periods at University of Minnesota and Stanford University.

I currently serve on the boards of the Swedish Fulbright Commission, American Friends of Uppsala University, and the Swedish-American Historical Society. I am the past President of Nordic Association for American Studies. Examples of other assignments include chairing Uppsala University’s Committee on Ethnic and Social Diversity and being a project leader in Uppsala University’s research program Democracy and Higher Education. Since 1987, I have arranged some twenty academic conferences and symposia in the U.S. and Sweden.

I am a member of Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala (the Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala) and Kungl. Vetenskapsamhället i Uppsala (the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Uppsala). I have received the Carl Sandburg Medal from the Swedish-American Historical Society (2016), the Torgny Segerstedt Medal from Uppsala University (2024), Stora Historiepriset (The Great History Prize) in 2025, and the Charlotta medal from the Swedish Emigrant Institute, Växjö (2025).

Dag Blanck

Publications

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