People

Marcus Cederström earned his B.A. from the University of Oregon in Sports Business, History, and Scandinavian Studies and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He works in the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic as the community curator of Nordic-American folklore for the “Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest” project. Cederström teaches Nordic-American folklore courses, conducts fieldwork with Nordic-Americans throughout the Upper Midwest, and works with Nathan Gibson and Anna Rue to create public programming supporting Scandinavian folk arts.

Nathan Gibson is the Audio-Visual Preservation Archivist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s General Library System. He holds a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University. He is an affiliate of the German, Nordic, and Slavic department, a Morgride Fellow (working to build equitable, mutually-beneficial campus-community partnerships), runs the audio preservation studio at the Mills Music Library, and works with Anna Rue and Marcus Cederström on the “Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest” project.

Anna Rue is Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and works on the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest Project. She holds an M.A. in American Studies from the UMass-Boston and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore from UW-Madison. Rue teaches courses relating to folklore fieldwork and methodology, public folklore, and Scandinavian American and Upper Midwestern cultures. In addition, she works with Cederström and Gibson on the collaborative project “Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest” and researches topics relating to Norwegian-American communities, traditions, and identities in the region.

J.M. Schroeder is a former enlisted US Marine. He earned a BA in Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington in 2006 and a PhD. in Scandinavian Studies, Folklore at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2016. He has worked as a Swedish language instructor and director of the Scandinavian Cultural Center at PLU in Tacoma, WA. He conducted an outreach evaluation survey for the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest before taking the role of Community Curator of Upper Midwestern Folklore. He specializes in Swedish ballad studies, folk arts, surveys and evaluation work, and spending time with folk artists.

Chrissy Widmayer is a scholar of community connections. She has a PhD in Folklore Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Her dissertation research explored how communities create connections and relationships using foodways and storytelling. Her postdoctoral research will build on the four years she spent directing an award-winning initiative called “Community Powered” at Wisconsin Humanities (currently on pause due to federal funding cuts) that put the tools of history, culture, and storytelling in the hands of Wisconsinites through training and educational programming. Chrissy’s hopes to help Nordic American communities in the Upper Midwest build capacity to collect their own folklore and produce dynamic public programming around those traditions. Chrissy is also a co-founder of WiseFolk Productions and content creator for Folkwise.