Lizette Graden | Lund University (original) (raw)
Papers by Lizette Graden
Boken ger inblick i Stiftelsens roll för svensk amerikansk mobilitet inom utbildning och forsknin... more Boken ger inblick i Stiftelsens roll för svensk amerikansk mobilitet inom utbildning och forskning, med start 1919
Journal of American Folklore, 2019
Professor barbro klein of Stockholm, Sweden, passed away in January 2018, at the age of 79. She i... more Professor barbro klein of Stockholm, Sweden, passed away in January 2018, at the age of 79. She is survived by her sons Adam, Fredrik, Jakob, and Joel, and their families; her brothers mats and ulf; and many colleagues and friends worldwide. on February 15, 2018, family and many friends and colleagues gathered at maria magdalena church in Stockholm to celebrate the life of barbro klein and to say farewell. Following the ceremony, there was a potluck reception at kulturfyren on Skeppsholmen that was organized by her family and held in the spirit of a barbro gettogether. As we filled three large tables with some of barbro’s favorites (karlsbaderbröd, kanelbullar, seven varieties of cookies, many varieties of cheese, savory pies, olives, coffee, tea, red and white wine), conversations emerged that recalled workshops, fieldwork sessions, lectures, seminars, conferences, projects, and trips, all of which were events at which barbro had been the center. As the late afternoon shifted into early evening, people took turns filling the room with musical performances, speeches, and greetings. The recalling of memories most often began with a phrase of connection, such as “when i first came to Stockholm from the uS, i was told ‘you must meet barbro klein,’” as karin becker shared with us. i didn’t give a speech at the reception that evening, but i have in common with karin and others that particular experience of connectivity. As a former student at bennington college in Vermont—from a family that spanned the Atlantic—and with work experience from the American Swedish institute and other museums, i came to the Department of ethnology at Stockholm university in 1992 with a desire to study folklore and material culture in the wake of migration. barbro blehr, mats hellspong, and Åke Daun all told me: “you must meet barbro klein.” barbro had returned from new york a few years earlier, after nearly 25 years of studying, teaching and raising her family in the united States. She earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 1961 to become a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Archaeology at indiana university in bloomington. She received her PhD in Folklore Studies and Anthropology in 1970 and taught at the university of california, berkeley; the university of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and upsala college, new Jersey; as well as at other institutions. At the time of her passing, she was Professor emerita of ethnology at Stockholm university and Deputy Principal emerita and Permanent Fellow emerita, Swedish collegium of Advanced Study in uppsala. She kept in close contact with American and international research, and she continued to nurture her transatlantic connections. She served on the board of the American Folklore Society and was a member of the royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy. barbro wrote extensively on oral narration, rituals, and other forms of expressive culture in multiethnic settings, primarily in the united States and northern europe. She also worked on methodological issues and moved across the fields of folkloristics, ethnology, anthropology, and heritage studies. in 2017, she was awarded the king’s medal for “significant contributions to Swedish and international scholarship and as an ethnologist.” Publications for which she was editor include Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change (coedited with mats Widbom, Abrams, 1994); Gatan är vår! Ritualer på offentliga platser (carlssons, 1995); and Narrating, Doing, Experiencing: Nordic Folkloristic Perspectives (coedited with Annikki kaivolabregenhøj and ulf Palmenfelt, Studia Fennica, 2006). Among her recent articles are “Women and the Formation of Swedish Folklife research” (Journal of American Folklore, 2013) and “cultural heritage, human rights, and reform ideologies: The case of Swedish Folklife research” (in Cultural Heritage in Transit: Intangible Rights as Human Rights, ed. Deborah kapchan, university of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). At the time of her passing, barbro had completed her longterm book project on her father as a storyteller. i had the privilege of knowing and working with barbro from 1992 and onward: as a student of ethnology; as a research colleague for exhibitions, including Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change in Santa Fe (1994) and
Indiana University Press eBooks, Dec 21, 2021
Ethnologia Fennica, Jun 8, 2023
Българска етнология, 2020
Journal of American Folklore, Jul 1, 2008
This study deals with the Swedish cultural heritage in the United States and aims to examine how ... more This study deals with the Swedish cultural heritage in the United States and aims to examine how and why individuals living in the U.S. select and affirm certain concepts and phenomena as particularly Swedish. The focus is on Lindsborg, Kansas, a town of some 3,000 inhabitants who identify themselves as Swedish Americans, Swedes, and non-Swedes, and on how they organize, prepare and enact parades in which they display notions of Swedishness to audiences of 10,000 visitors or more. These parades are enacted during the Svensk Hyllningsfest, an event which townspeople have arranged biennially since 1941 in honor of the Swedish settlers of Lindsborg and their descendants. The study is based on four periods of fieldwork, of which one (1997-1998) follows the planning, organization and the final enactment of the Hyllningsfest. The ethnographic fieldwork is discussed, especially ethical issues and the processes of converting Weld experiences into written texts. In addition, the study is based on newspaper reports and festival publicity material, some of which dates back to the 1910s. Thus the contemporary focus is given historical depth. Based on theories of events, performances, heritage making, and public memory, and touching upon the development of the heritage industry and small town economics, the study draws on the premise that repeated performances allow participants to negotiate, motivate and articulate issues that are important to them. In particular, the analyses highlight the relationship between heritage, commercialization and dedication, between heritage as ceremony and heritage as humor, and between heritage as choice and heritage as lineage. Today, Lindsborg prides itself on its voluntary heritage making, a perception that is part of the town leadership's strategy. The analyses show how organizers and other inhabitants communicate different visions of the town heritage through the Svensk Hyllningsfest Parade. While the organizers praise recognized stock images of "Swedishness," participants are more likely to express individual visions of things Swedish. By enacting parades that occur before the official event parade, some groups challenge the official parade, thereby adding complexity to the simplified image of Swedishness that the official organizers advocate. The contest between organizers and participants is a battle over the concept of heritage, and over the appropriateness of the professional heritage industry, including tourism and commercial event makers. Through the parade, Lindsborgians express deep values and existential issues at the same time as they focus on ideals linked to ethnic hierarchy and class, contesting simplified notions of heritage. The study illustrates how Sweden and Swedish America have developed in separate cultural directions. But it also demonstrates that the two are now moving closer together through collaboration in heritage tourism. While Lindsborg looks toward Sweden to renew its expressions of Swedishness, community leaders in Sweden show interest in Lindsborg's competence in managing cultural performance. This collaboration involves selected rural communities in Sweden with which Lindsborgians share values, friendships and commitments.
Heritage has always been an important vehicle through which the past has been mobilized in the pr... more Heritage has always been an important vehicle through which the past has been mobilized in the present in the nameof specifc cultural identities and communities. Or more specically, as Barbro Klein taught us, "heritage is phenomena in a group's past that are given high symbolic value and therefore, must be protected for the future" (Klein 2000:25). In what ways have contemporary political processes, neoliberal market forces, and identity politics of the 21st century affected understandings of Swedish heritage in American contexts? Has this changing context affected the manner in which people invoke heritage? This paper analyzes tensions that emerge at the nexus of vernacular expressions and institutional heritage management.
Historian David Lowenthal (1985) has pointed out the past is often perceived and represented as “... more Historian David Lowenthal (1985) has pointed out the past is often perceived and represented as “a foreign country” in which cultural heritage is implicitly understood to be bound to geographical territories and associated notions of what it implies to have roots, an identity, and a place in which to belong. This is the paradigmatic background against which so many heritage museums have been founded. As part of the heritage politics debate, folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has argued that heritage object are “made, not found, despite claims to the contrary” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:3). Her point is that there is no heritage object prior to its identification, evaluation, conservation, and celebration (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:149). However, we live in a world, which is more than ever before entwined with processes of mobility. It is a world in which some people move for the sake of work, love, and the dream of a better life, while too many others feel forced to move due to economic crises, poverty, religious conflicts, war, and political persecution. Heritage, it might be said is being shaken and stirred by processes of globalization that are increasingly difficult to ignore. Faced with the realization of this reality, museums of heritage increasingly find themselves challenged to rethink the work they do, and the way in which they speak about, represent, and exhibit heritage (Levitt 2015).This paper focuses on the manner in which two heritage sites (The Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm and American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis) in Sweden and Swedish America are working with and speaking about heritage - at times creating new forms of heritagelore, at other times building upon rather traditional notions of what “the heritage” under their auspices is and can be. Both sites were built as private homes at the turn of 20th century by people who were themselves migrants - as such their histories entwine processes of globalization, mobility and heritage. The paper analyzes the manner in which these two institutions are moving and mobilizing the concept of heritage. In so doing, it strives to illuminate the manner in which heritage might be understood in a trialectic framework of place, materiality and mobility. It closes by discussion how insights gained from the study of these two museums might be useful in facilitating the ability for ethnologists and folklorists to reposition contemporary heritagelore in a context of migration and mobility.Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998. Destination Culture: Museums, Tourism and Heritage. Berkeley: California University Press. Levitt, Peggy (2015) Artifacts and Allegiances. How museums put the nation and the world on display, Oakland: University of California Press.Lowenthal, David (2015 (1985). The past is a foreign country: revisited. Revised and updated edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressLowenthal, David (1996). Possessed by the Past. New York: Free PressKeywords. Historic Preservation, Performance, Museum management, Nordic, Place and Space.
In the last decade, museums that were established in the 20th century by immigrants from the five... more In the last decade, museums that were established in the 20th century by immigrants from the five Nordic countries have become increasingly concerned with broadening their audiences and more actively engaging their visitors. Efforts to do this have varied from offering traveling exhibitions produced in the Nordic countries, film programs, festivals, concert series, cocktail hours, culinary conferences, and sauna sessions to appeal to people who may not identify as Nordic or do not think of museums as places to visit. In part, these efforts stem from a growing need for museums to establish that they serve a public benefit, to provide demonstrable and measurable results of how their work supports the value of the wider society. These activities also result from an understanding among museum professionals that museums are critical to a civil society, should be socially responsible, create new and more reflexive narratives and promote principles for equity and excellence. Financial sustainability hinge upon the museums’ appeal to their constituency and stakeholders. As heritage is thought to provide the means of satisfying a wide variety of aspirations, interpretations of the concept of cultural heritage takes center stage. This paper investigates the significance attached to the word “heritage” as interpreted by different groups in the local Seattle community in the wake of the Nordic Heritage Museum’s efforts to move into a new facility and expand their constituency. How is the word “heritage” interpreted? What role is attributed to heritage when the museum aims to engage new cosmopolitan communities in a global economy? How do notions of contemporary Nordic culture (that are at play in the global ecumene) challenge and create new interpretations of Nordic Heritage?
Boken ger inblick i Stiftelsens roll för svensk amerikansk mobilitet inom utbildning och forsknin... more Boken ger inblick i Stiftelsens roll för svensk amerikansk mobilitet inom utbildning och forskning, med start 1919
Journal of American Folklore, 2019
Professor barbro klein of Stockholm, Sweden, passed away in January 2018, at the age of 79. She i... more Professor barbro klein of Stockholm, Sweden, passed away in January 2018, at the age of 79. She is survived by her sons Adam, Fredrik, Jakob, and Joel, and their families; her brothers mats and ulf; and many colleagues and friends worldwide. on February 15, 2018, family and many friends and colleagues gathered at maria magdalena church in Stockholm to celebrate the life of barbro klein and to say farewell. Following the ceremony, there was a potluck reception at kulturfyren on Skeppsholmen that was organized by her family and held in the spirit of a barbro gettogether. As we filled three large tables with some of barbro’s favorites (karlsbaderbröd, kanelbullar, seven varieties of cookies, many varieties of cheese, savory pies, olives, coffee, tea, red and white wine), conversations emerged that recalled workshops, fieldwork sessions, lectures, seminars, conferences, projects, and trips, all of which were events at which barbro had been the center. As the late afternoon shifted into early evening, people took turns filling the room with musical performances, speeches, and greetings. The recalling of memories most often began with a phrase of connection, such as “when i first came to Stockholm from the uS, i was told ‘you must meet barbro klein,’” as karin becker shared with us. i didn’t give a speech at the reception that evening, but i have in common with karin and others that particular experience of connectivity. As a former student at bennington college in Vermont—from a family that spanned the Atlantic—and with work experience from the American Swedish institute and other museums, i came to the Department of ethnology at Stockholm university in 1992 with a desire to study folklore and material culture in the wake of migration. barbro blehr, mats hellspong, and Åke Daun all told me: “you must meet barbro klein.” barbro had returned from new york a few years earlier, after nearly 25 years of studying, teaching and raising her family in the united States. She earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 1961 to become a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Archaeology at indiana university in bloomington. She received her PhD in Folklore Studies and Anthropology in 1970 and taught at the university of california, berkeley; the university of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and upsala college, new Jersey; as well as at other institutions. At the time of her passing, she was Professor emerita of ethnology at Stockholm university and Deputy Principal emerita and Permanent Fellow emerita, Swedish collegium of Advanced Study in uppsala. She kept in close contact with American and international research, and she continued to nurture her transatlantic connections. She served on the board of the American Folklore Society and was a member of the royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy. barbro wrote extensively on oral narration, rituals, and other forms of expressive culture in multiethnic settings, primarily in the united States and northern europe. She also worked on methodological issues and moved across the fields of folkloristics, ethnology, anthropology, and heritage studies. in 2017, she was awarded the king’s medal for “significant contributions to Swedish and international scholarship and as an ethnologist.” Publications for which she was editor include Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change (coedited with mats Widbom, Abrams, 1994); Gatan är vår! Ritualer på offentliga platser (carlssons, 1995); and Narrating, Doing, Experiencing: Nordic Folkloristic Perspectives (coedited with Annikki kaivolabregenhøj and ulf Palmenfelt, Studia Fennica, 2006). Among her recent articles are “Women and the Formation of Swedish Folklife research” (Journal of American Folklore, 2013) and “cultural heritage, human rights, and reform ideologies: The case of Swedish Folklife research” (in Cultural Heritage in Transit: Intangible Rights as Human Rights, ed. Deborah kapchan, university of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). At the time of her passing, barbro had completed her longterm book project on her father as a storyteller. i had the privilege of knowing and working with barbro from 1992 and onward: as a student of ethnology; as a research colleague for exhibitions, including Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change in Santa Fe (1994) and
Indiana University Press eBooks, Dec 21, 2021
Ethnologia Fennica, Jun 8, 2023
Българска етнология, 2020
Journal of American Folklore, Jul 1, 2008
This study deals with the Swedish cultural heritage in the United States and aims to examine how ... more This study deals with the Swedish cultural heritage in the United States and aims to examine how and why individuals living in the U.S. select and affirm certain concepts and phenomena as particularly Swedish. The focus is on Lindsborg, Kansas, a town of some 3,000 inhabitants who identify themselves as Swedish Americans, Swedes, and non-Swedes, and on how they organize, prepare and enact parades in which they display notions of Swedishness to audiences of 10,000 visitors or more. These parades are enacted during the Svensk Hyllningsfest, an event which townspeople have arranged biennially since 1941 in honor of the Swedish settlers of Lindsborg and their descendants. The study is based on four periods of fieldwork, of which one (1997-1998) follows the planning, organization and the final enactment of the Hyllningsfest. The ethnographic fieldwork is discussed, especially ethical issues and the processes of converting Weld experiences into written texts. In addition, the study is based on newspaper reports and festival publicity material, some of which dates back to the 1910s. Thus the contemporary focus is given historical depth. Based on theories of events, performances, heritage making, and public memory, and touching upon the development of the heritage industry and small town economics, the study draws on the premise that repeated performances allow participants to negotiate, motivate and articulate issues that are important to them. In particular, the analyses highlight the relationship between heritage, commercialization and dedication, between heritage as ceremony and heritage as humor, and between heritage as choice and heritage as lineage. Today, Lindsborg prides itself on its voluntary heritage making, a perception that is part of the town leadership's strategy. The analyses show how organizers and other inhabitants communicate different visions of the town heritage through the Svensk Hyllningsfest Parade. While the organizers praise recognized stock images of "Swedishness," participants are more likely to express individual visions of things Swedish. By enacting parades that occur before the official event parade, some groups challenge the official parade, thereby adding complexity to the simplified image of Swedishness that the official organizers advocate. The contest between organizers and participants is a battle over the concept of heritage, and over the appropriateness of the professional heritage industry, including tourism and commercial event makers. Through the parade, Lindsborgians express deep values and existential issues at the same time as they focus on ideals linked to ethnic hierarchy and class, contesting simplified notions of heritage. The study illustrates how Sweden and Swedish America have developed in separate cultural directions. But it also demonstrates that the two are now moving closer together through collaboration in heritage tourism. While Lindsborg looks toward Sweden to renew its expressions of Swedishness, community leaders in Sweden show interest in Lindsborg's competence in managing cultural performance. This collaboration involves selected rural communities in Sweden with which Lindsborgians share values, friendships and commitments.
Heritage has always been an important vehicle through which the past has been mobilized in the pr... more Heritage has always been an important vehicle through which the past has been mobilized in the present in the nameof specifc cultural identities and communities. Or more specically, as Barbro Klein taught us, "heritage is phenomena in a group's past that are given high symbolic value and therefore, must be protected for the future" (Klein 2000:25). In what ways have contemporary political processes, neoliberal market forces, and identity politics of the 21st century affected understandings of Swedish heritage in American contexts? Has this changing context affected the manner in which people invoke heritage? This paper analyzes tensions that emerge at the nexus of vernacular expressions and institutional heritage management.
Historian David Lowenthal (1985) has pointed out the past is often perceived and represented as “... more Historian David Lowenthal (1985) has pointed out the past is often perceived and represented as “a foreign country” in which cultural heritage is implicitly understood to be bound to geographical territories and associated notions of what it implies to have roots, an identity, and a place in which to belong. This is the paradigmatic background against which so many heritage museums have been founded. As part of the heritage politics debate, folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has argued that heritage object are “made, not found, despite claims to the contrary” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:3). Her point is that there is no heritage object prior to its identification, evaluation, conservation, and celebration (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:149). However, we live in a world, which is more than ever before entwined with processes of mobility. It is a world in which some people move for the sake of work, love, and the dream of a better life, while too many others feel forced to move due to economic crises, poverty, religious conflicts, war, and political persecution. Heritage, it might be said is being shaken and stirred by processes of globalization that are increasingly difficult to ignore. Faced with the realization of this reality, museums of heritage increasingly find themselves challenged to rethink the work they do, and the way in which they speak about, represent, and exhibit heritage (Levitt 2015).This paper focuses on the manner in which two heritage sites (The Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm and American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis) in Sweden and Swedish America are working with and speaking about heritage - at times creating new forms of heritagelore, at other times building upon rather traditional notions of what “the heritage” under their auspices is and can be. Both sites were built as private homes at the turn of 20th century by people who were themselves migrants - as such their histories entwine processes of globalization, mobility and heritage. The paper analyzes the manner in which these two institutions are moving and mobilizing the concept of heritage. In so doing, it strives to illuminate the manner in which heritage might be understood in a trialectic framework of place, materiality and mobility. It closes by discussion how insights gained from the study of these two museums might be useful in facilitating the ability for ethnologists and folklorists to reposition contemporary heritagelore in a context of migration and mobility.Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998. Destination Culture: Museums, Tourism and Heritage. Berkeley: California University Press. Levitt, Peggy (2015) Artifacts and Allegiances. How museums put the nation and the world on display, Oakland: University of California Press.Lowenthal, David (2015 (1985). The past is a foreign country: revisited. Revised and updated edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressLowenthal, David (1996). Possessed by the Past. New York: Free PressKeywords. Historic Preservation, Performance, Museum management, Nordic, Place and Space.
In the last decade, museums that were established in the 20th century by immigrants from the five... more In the last decade, museums that were established in the 20th century by immigrants from the five Nordic countries have become increasingly concerned with broadening their audiences and more actively engaging their visitors. Efforts to do this have varied from offering traveling exhibitions produced in the Nordic countries, film programs, festivals, concert series, cocktail hours, culinary conferences, and sauna sessions to appeal to people who may not identify as Nordic or do not think of museums as places to visit. In part, these efforts stem from a growing need for museums to establish that they serve a public benefit, to provide demonstrable and measurable results of how their work supports the value of the wider society. These activities also result from an understanding among museum professionals that museums are critical to a civil society, should be socially responsible, create new and more reflexive narratives and promote principles for equity and excellence. Financial sustainability hinge upon the museums’ appeal to their constituency and stakeholders. As heritage is thought to provide the means of satisfying a wide variety of aspirations, interpretations of the concept of cultural heritage takes center stage. This paper investigates the significance attached to the word “heritage” as interpreted by different groups in the local Seattle community in the wake of the Nordic Heritage Museum’s efforts to move into a new facility and expand their constituency. How is the word “heritage” interpreted? What role is attributed to heritage when the museum aims to engage new cosmopolitan communities in a global economy? How do notions of contemporary Nordic culture (that are at play in the global ecumene) challenge and create new interpretations of Nordic Heritage?