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.

Carrie Danielson is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Folklife in the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a PhD in Musicology (Ethnomusicology) from Florida State University and conducts research in the areas of children’s music and dance cultures, music and migration, care theory, and applied ethnomusicology and public folklore. Her current projects focus on music making among young Syrian and Afghan refugees in Sweden, culturally inclusive pedagogies in Swedish kulturskolor, and Scandinavian-American youth cultures in the Upper Midwest.

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.

Sallie Anna Steiner Pisera, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. Her project, “Interwoven Roots and Routes: Somali and Scandinavian Women Crafting Transnational Community,” examines relationships between members of East African and Scandinavian diasporas living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Her focus is particularly on women’s lives and creative expressions in these transnational diasporas. A scholar of material culture and textile art, Dr. Pisera holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore from UW-Madison, where her graduate research explored the fiber traditions of diverse communities in the traditional district of Sunnfjord, Norway.

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 practices woodcarving, paints miniatures, and game masters fantasy role-playing games. He love beer and cheese. Schroeder develops and conducts surveys and interviews to improve the project.