Established in 1992 through a gift from the Norwegian government and the Kenneth O. Bjork Endowment Fund, the King Olav V Chair in Scandinavian-American Studies was created to ensure the continued study of Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American history at St. Olaf College. The holder of the chair also serves on the board of the Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA) whose archives are located on the St. Olaf campus. Odd S. Lovoll, professor emeritus of history and Norwegian, was the first holder of this chair (1992–2001), followed by Todd Nichol, professor emeritus of history (2001–2017). Margaret Hayford O’Leary, professor of Norwegian, held the chair from September 2017 until her death in June 2018, and was followed by Dan Dressen, Associate Provost and professor of music (2018–2021).
Current Chair:
Kari Lie Dorer, Professor of Norwegian, is chair of the Norwegian and German departments and director of the Nordic Studies program. She specializes in the scholarship of teaching, foreign language instruction, curriculum development, the use of technology with language learning, Sámi studies and Nordic film.
Kari completed her Ph.D. studies at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Germanic Studies with an emphasis in Applied Linguistics and a minor emphasis in Scandinavian Languages. Kari received her M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction of Second Languages and Cultures from the University of Minnesota and her B.A. in Scandinavian Studies, History, and Political Science from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. After spending ten years as a villager at Skogfjorden, the Norwegian language village located in Bemidji, MN, she attended eight study abroad programs, seven of which were in Norway. Previously, she has taught Norwegian at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas at Austin.