Administration & Faculty

Our Team

Administration – U.S.

Ken Wagner

Ken Wagner

Founder & Executive Director

Education: Ph.D. in Sociology, in 1982 from the University of Pittsburgh

As Executive Director, I oversee all aspects of our Program both in the U.S. and in Stockholm. I started The Swedish Program while I was a professor at Hamilton College in 1987. I first went to Stockholm in 1984 to do research on workplace democracy at Swedish companies, such as Volvo, Ericsson, Saab, and Electrolux.

I sincerely believe that studying abroad is a transformative experience. Our students are fortunate to study in a country that practices the values of global citizenship: tolerance, diversity, solidarity, and international understanding.

My hobbies include golf, gardening, and food. I am an avid Red Sox, Celtics and Buffalo Bills fan (I’m from Buffalo so I had no choice).

Alison Gluck

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Alison Gluck

Program Administrator

I’m responsible for all work related to the acceptance of students, program bookkeeping, coordinating all communication with our staff in Stockholm regarding acceptance, housing, arrivals, and any other issues that may arise. I also assist in the recruitment of our students.

Prior to working for the Program, I owned and operated a child daycare for fifteen years. I have obtained an Associate Degree in Office Technology and a Bachelor Degree in Communications.

I enjoy family time, skiing, exercising, soccer, vacationing, and just relaxing by the poolside in the summer months.

Élen Rhoades Kidd

Élen Rhoades Kidd

Coordinator for Admissions and Alumni Relations

I was a Program student in the spring of 2002 and have been in love with Sweden ever since! I started working for the Program in 2006.

Much of my job is traveling to colleges and universities around the country and speaking with students about studying with us in Stockholm. One of the best parts of my job is not only getting students excited about The Swedish Program, but also traveling to Stockholm to help our newest students get acclimated to life in Sweden. I also work in Alumni Relations and really enjoy being in touch with our former students – it is incredibly rewarding to hear how a semester or year with The Swedish Program has made such an impact on so many lives!

I graduated from Grinnell College with a degree in Psychology in 2003. After two years working in a Montessori school in the Twin Cities, I found my way back to Sweden to study massage for one year. I currently reside in Minneapolis with my husband, two sons, our dog, Riggins, and our cat, Huckleberry.

My hobbies include almost anything involving the outdoors – camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, soccer, running, biking, and cross-country skiing. In 2008, I completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail – one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life! I love reading, marathon-ing TV series with my husband, and listening to music, especially old-time and bluegrass, and am a novice banjo player.

Our Team

Administration – Stockholm

Carina Kamb Deiaco

Carina Kamb Deiaco

Head of Administration

I have been with the program since 1989, except for the five years I lived in Luxembourg. I was initially our Housing Coordinator responsible for finding our host families.
I then became Program Coordinator organizing most Program functions and activities. I was also responsible for finding our apartments. I am now Head of Administration. In this role, I am responsible for all Program administrative and organizational work except for the academic side of the Program.
I really enjoy my job, especially working with our students. Every student has his or her own little quirk. It is fun meeting many different personalities. And, of course, I find it very rewarding helping our students adjust to a new culture and the Swedish way of doing things.
In terms of interests and hobbies, I enjoy family activities, traveling, yoga, and wine. I also am good at sports, especially throwing the axe!! You must join us for our Gotland trip to see for yourself!

Caitlin Hawley

Caitlin Hawley

Program Manager

My goal is to help students get the most out of their experience in Stockholm. I am responsible for student health and safety, digital communications, and local partnerships including our internship and host family programs. I also help advise students on the non-academic aspects of their study abroad experience.
I’m originally from Milwaukee, WI, where I earned my master’s degree in Sociology. I moved to Stockholm in 2012 and joined The Swedish Program in 2016. In my free time, I enjoy reading, the visual arts, and hiking with my dog.

Jonas Brodin

jonas

Jonas Brodin

Director of Studies and Instructor

I study how the built environment molds relations of power. This happens in many different ways: in how the space itself is configured—for example, with walls that separate one group from another—as well as in how the space is monitored or how resources or people are distributed within the space. My current project uses the specific case of roads to look at the relationship between built space and power.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSES
Crime and Punishment in Sweden and the U.S.; Health Care in Sweden and the U.S.; Comparative Public Policy: The Swedish Model in the 21st Century; Comparative Public Policy: Sweden and the EU; Migration Policy and Politics; The Theory and History of Radical Politics.

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Maryland, 2004
B.A., Political Science, University of Hawaii, 1997

FUN FACTS
I enjoy hiking and camping, and generally spending time in the great outdoors. And since I feel more at home in water than on land, I also try to spend as much time as I can in water—primarily swimming, but also kayaking, fishing, and doing other watersports. I once got second place in a completely rigged sports/trivia/beauty pageant competition for a variety show on British television.

Our Team

Faculty – Stockholm

Peder Fallenius

Peder Fallenius

Instructor, Senioruniversitetet

Twentieth century architecture has been my main research interest ever since I wrote my thesis and it still is. I have a special interest in the new building types of this period.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSE
History of Modern Scandinavian Art and Architecture

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Art History, Uppsala University, 2003

FUN FACTS
I have a great passion for music resulting in an ever-expanding record collection and a longing to revisit the jazz clubs of Downtown Manhattan.

Malin Nauwerck

Malin Nauwerck

Instructor

My research and teaching interests include sociology of literature, world literature, popular fiction, and comics.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSES
Swedish Crime Fiction, Writing Sweden

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Comparative Literature, Uppsala University, 2018

FUN FACTS
Alongside my work in academia, I’m also a literary critic and editor. When I’m not working, I enjoy travelling, lindyhop dancing, cooking, mushroom hunting, fishing trips, and, whenever there is a championship going on, watching figure skating on television.

Nicklas Neuman

Nicklas Neuman

Instructor

My research interests are several, but all can be placed under the umbrella of the sociology of food. I am interested in consumption, especially related to health and climate change, gendered divisions of housework, gastronomy, food and national identity and the social science of eating behavior.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSES
Sociology of Food in Sweden

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Food Studies, Uppsala University, 2016

FUN FACTS
I am a hardcore Pearl Jam fan and have been so since my late teens.

Pehr-Johan Norbäck

Pehr-Johan Norbäck

Senior Researcher, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IfN)

My earlier research focused on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Later work has focused entrepreneurship, involving how venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and incumbent firms interact in the innovation market. This research has tried to answer questions such as: Why do small firms do more breakthrough inventions than established firms? Why do small entrepreneurs with high-quality inventions sell their inventions to incumbents rather than enter the market?

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSE
The Economics of European Integration

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Economics, Stockholm University, 1998

FUN FACTS
I play badminton and innebandy (floorball). I have played guitar for over 40 years and can do most styles: blues, funk, rock – even some jazz! And, I love teaching my course: it gives me an excuse to go on Youtube to watch Brexitiers and Remainers clash in the British Parliament under the always so colorful speaker John Bercow (for a sample: youtube.com/watch?v=Edt-V4rvIYs).

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
“Has the Swedish Business Sector Become More Entrepreneurial than the U.S. Business Sector?” (with Fredrik Heyman, Lars Persson and Fredrik Andersson), Research Policy, forthcoming.
“Stock Market Impact of Cross-Border Acquisitions in Emerging Markets” (with Lars Persson). North American Journal of Economics and Finance, forthcoming.
“Employment Protection and FDI Revisited: New Evidence from Micro Data” (with Per Skedinger and Jing-Lin Duanmu). World Economy, forthcoming.
”A Non-Technical Introduction to Economic aspects of International Investment Agreements” (with Henrik Horn). American Review of International Arbitration, forthcoming.
”The Turnaround of the Swedish Economy: Lessons from Large Business Sector reforms” (with Fredrik Heyman and Lars Persson). World Bank Research Observer, forthcoming.
”Foreign Direct Investment, Source Country Heterogeneity and Management Practices” (with Rickard Hammarberg and Fredrik Heyman). Economica. Vol. 86, No. 342, April 2019.
”Threatening to Buy: Private Equity Buyouts and Antitrust Policy” (with Lars Persson and Joacim Tåg). Economics Letters 164 (March): 31–34, 2018.
”Does the Debt Tax Shield Distort Ownership Efficiency?” (with Lars Persson and Joacim Tåg). International Review of Economics and Finance, 54(Mars), 299–310, 2018.
”Who Creates Jobs and Who Creates Productivity? Small versus Large versus Young versus Old” (with Fredrik Heyman and Lars Persson). Economics Letters, 164 (March), 50–57, 2018.

Camilla Sveréus

Camilla Sveréus

Language Instructor

Languages are my passion. My other great passion is traveling and getting to know other cultures, which has led me to study and work several times in Spain, work a year in France, and go backpacking in Asia and Latin America. I have taught Swedish as a foreign language since 2011 at quite a few different places, including the universities of Stockholm, Uppsala, and Lille in northern France. I have also done some freelance work editing texts and creating Swedish subtitles for English language TV shows. But teaching is what I like best, because I love my language and enjoy helping others discover it. Also, my students always teach me a lot as well: about their cultures, and about the Swedish language by means of tricky questions!

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSES
Swedish Language 1, 2 and Advanced

EDUCATION
B.A., Language Program (Swedish, Spanish, French and General Linguistics), Uppsala University, 2013

FUN FACTS
In my free time I like singing, dancing, spending time in nature, cooking and eating. I do get hungry a lot (you will see me with a banana between classes). This is somewhat problematic when I go traveling – as is my terrible sense of direction. Please don’t ask me how to get anywhere (unless it is to practice your Swedish)!

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
I am currently writing a textbook for the beginner’s class which will be made to suit the Swedish Program students’ interests and needs.

Elena Paltseva

Elena Paltseva

Assistant Professor, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics

Visiting Professor, New Economic School (Moscow, Russia)

My main research interests are political economics and applied microeconomics. I am also interested in resource and energy economics, in particular, from the political economics perspective.  My recent work includes empirical investigation on the relationship between resource rents and political rent capture in different institutional environments, as well as empirical studies on the energy security issues with a particular focus on the EU-Russia relationship.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSE
Energy and Environmental Economics

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, 2006
Visiting Graduate Student, Economics, Princeton University, 2003–2004
M.A., New Economic School (Russia), 1998
M.Sc., Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Moscow State University (Russia), 1996

FUN FACTS
Besides economics, I enjoy dancing (mostly salsa, but also some argentine tango, etc.), art, and good company.

Hellen Vergoossen

Hellen Vergoossen

Instructor

I am currently working on my PhD thesis on the influence of gender-neutral language on person perception. More specifically, I’m interested in how gender-neutral language influences the way we perceive and remember others and whether it affects the stereotypes we associate with them. I am interested in language from a psychological perspective; the way we use language, how language affects the stereotypes we have, and whether language could be a tool to help reduce inequalities in society.

I am also interested in the processes underlying the way we experience language and am for example involved in a study using eye-tracking to catch a glimpse of the processes at work when reading texts with gender-neutral language.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSES
Language, Cognition, and Social Behavior; The Psychology of Sex and Gender

EDUCATION
Ph.D. student, Psychology, Stockholm University (in progress)
M.A., Psychology, Stockholm University, 2015

FUN FACTS
I am very passionate about reading (very broadly, both fiction and non-fiction), enjoy playing tabletop games, and I also mountainbike and geocache in my free time.

Maja Wall

Maja Wall

Instructor

My field of interest is within social psychology and I am involved in research on physicians’ health, where my focus has been to look at harassment and inequality at work and how such experiences may affect health.

Alongside my research, I have a background in statistics and quantitative research at Stockholm University. This is a part of my job that I really enjoy! Not everyone finds statistics easy, and my motto is that no one will leave for the day without having learned at least one new thing.

I find every group of students unique and the group dynamics that develop during a semester can be fascinating, especially to a social psychologist such as myself.

SWEDISH PROGRAM COURSE
The Psychology of Sex and Gender

EDUCATION
Ph.D. student, Dept. Neurobiology, Care Science and Society, Karolinska Institutet (in progress)
MSc., Psychology, Stockholm University, 2014
B.A., Psychology, Stockholm University, 2012

FUN FACTS
I always enjoy a day outside, preferably with my running shoes on. In case of bad weather, I enjoy a good book or a magazine on interior design. Also, with a partner from Chile, I am currently dedicating much free time to learn Spanish.