Scandinavian studies principally focuses on Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
philology, especially
linguistics,
history and
cultural studies. Denmark, Norway and Sweden form Scandinavia according to the definition prevalent in Scandinavia itself and their majority peoples are Scandinavians in the ethnic sense who speak Scandinavian languages in the linguistic sense. Scandinavian studies usually also covers Icelandic and Faroese philology, and philology as it relates to the Swedish minority in Finland. The field is also home to research related to the
Scandinavian diaspora as well as regions affected by Scandinavian
colonialism. In German-speaking Europe Scandinavian studies (
Skandinavistik) tends to be defined as a subfield of Germanic languages, and covering Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and less commonly Faroese and Icelandic languages as well as accompanying literature and culture. Nonetheless, some departments, most notably the institute (
Nordeuropa-Institut) at the
Humboldt University of Berlin and
University of Mainz expand this to include coverage of the greater Nordic region, including courses in variously Finnish (Berlin, Mainz,) Estonian (Vienna; formerly Mainz, now only available for study as an optional component of
Finnish studies (
Fennistik) at some other universities), Latvian (Mainz)) and Lithuanian (Mainz), Vienna) language and culture. Universities offering education and performing research in Scandinavian studies are located throughout
North America and in parts of
Europe.
Learned societies within the field include the
Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) with its quarterly
journal Scandinavian Studies, the
International Association of Scandinavian Studies (IASS), and the
Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada (AASSC). Departments of Scandinavian Studies in the United States are located at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. The University of Wisconsin - Madison's program began in 1875 and is the oldest program in the United States. It is the "Nordic" unit within the German, Nordic, and Slavic (GNS+) department and includes scholars of Scandinavia and the other Nordic countries. In the UK, University College London and the University of Edinburgh host the only remaining full departments of Scandinavian Studies. Other institutions, like the University of Aberdeen, have specialized research centers dedicated to Scandinavian Studies At some universities in the United States Scandinavian studies is placed in the same department as Baltic studies, although the Baltic states, their cultures and languages are even less related to Scandinavia and Scandinavian languages than the latter are to English, a
West Germanic language. In contrast, Baltic studies is commonly grouped together with Slavic or Eastern European studies at Scandinavian universities such as the
University of Oslo, and is regarded as completely unrelated to Scandinavian studies. ==References==