Courses 2019-2020

This course provides a general overview of important aspects of provision, management, and economic and political importance of energy resources and their environmental implications. More specifically, the course will address market interactions, pricing and regulation in oil, gas, coal and electricity markets. In this discussion, we will also cover most recent developments in the energy field, such as fracking revolution in oil and gas, as well as touch upon the issues of energy security. We will proceed to address the environmental aspects of energy, talk of renewable energy, emissions and emission trading, and discuss the prospects of green energy transition. To add a broader economic perspective, we will also look into the impact of energy resources, and natural resources in general, on economic and institutional development.

Instructor: Elena Paltseva
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics, two courses in microeconomics, and one course in calculus. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.

After a brief introduction with the history of the European Union and its main institutions, we start with the microeconomics of European Integration and examine the effects of moving towards a Europe outlined in the Treaty of Rome (1957) with free flows of goods and services, capital and people. We then turn to the macro-economics of European integration and examine monetary integration and the adoption of the Euro outlined in the Maastricht Treaty (1991). The course will give you the tools to understand various issues discussed in today’s European Union (EU): Brexit, Euro-crises, rising populism- and nationalistic parties, migration crises, security threats, refugee crises, the future of the EURO-zone and the EU.

Instructor: Pehr-Johan Norbäck
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics, two courses in microeconomics, and one course in calculus. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.

This direct enrollment course provides an introduction to financial economics. The focus of this course is to learn about optimal financial decision making and pricing assets. The topics to be studied include arbitrage, risk and return, optimal portfolio choice, capital asset pricing model, market efficiency, and financial derivatives.

Instructor: Marcus Opp
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics, two courses in microeconomics, one course in statistics, and a GPA of at least 3.3 in prior economics courses. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 10 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

Economists study the behavior of individuals, firms, and aggregates. Economic models provide ways to think about how agents act. Data allows us to quantify these relationships and test competing models against each other. This direct enrollment course provides a link between economic theory and observations from the real world. In doing so we cover a number of commonly used empirical methods. The focus will be on the practical applications of these methods and interpretation of the results.

Instructor: Erik Lindqvist
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in microeconomics, two courses in macroeconomics, one introductory course in statistics, and a GPA of at least 3.3 in prior economics courses. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first five Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

International Economics is the study of commercial transactions that take place between countries. This direct enrollment course provides an introduction to international trade. In the first part of the course, we address the question “Why do countries trade?” One answer is that countries differ in their technologies or in their resources and specialize in the things that they do relatively well. We study the Ricardian model, where trade is driven by differences in labor productivity across countries, and the Heckscher-Ohlin model, where trade is driven by differences in resources across countries. In both models, comparative advantage considerations determine the pattern of trade, that is, which goods each country exports. The Heckscher-Ohlin model has the additional interesting property that trade always generates winners and losers.

In the second part of the course, we address the question “Why do countries restrict trade?” We study the most commonly used ways of restricting international trade: tariffs on imported goods, import quotas and export subsidies. For each form of government intervention, we solve for the equilibrium effects, who gains, who loses and by how much. Then we turn to the debate about free trade versus protectionism and present the main arguments on both sides: why countries should adopt free trade and why countries should protect industries from foreign competition. Finally, we discuss the politics underlying trade policy and why trade policy has changed over time.

Instructor: Paul Segerstrom
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in microeconomics, two courses in macroeconomics, one course in calculus, and a GPA of at least 3.3 in prior economics courses. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 12 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

In the middle decades of the 20th century, Sweden was often held up as a positive anomaly, proof that it was possible to have both robust economic growth and a strong welfare state. Today, talk of the Swedish Model has faded, even as Sweden’s economy and welfare state have continued to evolve. The question we will investigate in this course is whether the Swedish Model can survive in the 21st century in the face of economic restructuring, welfare state retrenchment, a changing electorate, and pressure from the EU and beyond. This investigation will begin by looking at the historical background that allowed the Swedish Model to emerge, and then proceed to a thorough examination of the rise and fall of that welfare state, and finally analyze the future prospects of the welfare state. Along the way, students will gain familiarity with the structure, mechanics, and major players in the Swedish political system, as well as how Swedish politics compare to both Sweden’s immediate and more distant European neighbors, the role of labor unions and other social movements, Sweden’s role in the larger international system, and the challenges faced by Sweden in a changing world.

Instructor: Jonas Brodin
Credit: This course is typically given credit by sociology, political science, and history departments.

The past few years have seen a powerful resurgence of both nationalism and populism. The goal of this course is to understand why that resurgence is happening and what it means for the future of democratic politics. The course will trace the historical origins and theoretical underpinnings of both nationalism and populism, as well as looking at recent examples of what can happen at the intersection of populist politics and ethnic nationalism – e.g., Yugoslavia and Rwanda – before moving on to examining the current wave of nationalist populism across the globe, from Brexit and the 2016 election in the US to the rise of nationalist populist leaders in countries as diverse as Hungary, India, the Philippines, and Brazil. Because the recent resurgence of nationalism and populism is almost exclusively a right-wing phenomenon, the course will give particular focus to the rise of the radical right, but will also look at contemporary left-wing populism as well as past left-wing populist movements to help shed light on the present. The course takes an explicitly multidisciplinary approach, using economic, cultural, historical, and political perspectives to explain the nationalism and populist comeback – investigating, among other things, the role of social media, the global rise in economic inequality and its underlying causes, and the slow-motion collapse of the postwar system of international governing institutions. Nationalism and populism are not new phenomena, and this course aims to help students situate them in a larger context in order to better understand their current resurgence.

Instructor: Jonas Brodin
Credit: This course is typically given credit by international relations, political science, and history departments.

Psychological well-being, work-life balance, and happiness are all frequently addressed topics in contemporary society, although they take on different meanings in different cultures. In this course, we will examine theories in social psychology, as well as gender theory, to analyze what social conditions promote mental health and mental illness. This focus will be framed by a theoretical perspective that looks at how mental health is affected by gender identity.

Specific themes to be addressed include work-related health problems stemming from sexual harassment. Health and wellness issues will also be examined in relation to personal challenges around definitions of success and identity – growing up, in school, and at work. We will also look at how gender affects well-being in sports, medicine, and physiology. Work-life balance will also be examined from a mental health and gender perspective. The over-arching goal of the course is to understand how gender interacts with health issues and have students reflect upon how theories on gender psychology can help them understand their own personal experiences. Special attention will be given to highlighting how the aforementioned issues are viewed in Sweden in comparison to the US.

Instructor: Maja Wall and Hellen Vergoossen
Credit: This course is typically given credit by psychology departments.
Prerequisite: One course in psychology.

In this course, we will focus on human behavior at work and in other organizational settings. Specific topics to be examined include motivation and job satisfaction; stress and employee health; challenges and benefits of group decision-making; status and power; values, culture, and leadership; and organizational change. The course consists of three modules: I. The person and the situation: feelings, values, and goals of an individual and how are they influenced by the social environment; II. Groups and leaders: cooperation, judgment, effectiveness of teamwork, and reasons why we need leaders; and III. Stability and change in the organization: climate, culture, organizational processes, and how to initiate change.

Instructor: Aleksandra Bujacz
Credit: This course is typically given credit by psychology departments.
Prerequisite: One course in psychology.

This course is an examination of the cultural history of modern Scandinavia with a unique focus on art and architecture. We will look at how cultural forces such as religion, geography, and views of community and nature have shaped the ways in which Swedes have created urban space and other images of their society, i.e., art. The class will incorporate visits to Stockholm’s well-known museums into the structure and methodology of the course.

Instructor: Peder Fallenius
Credit: This course is typically given credit by art history departments.

This direct enrollment course is taught at the Swedish Film Institute. The course provides an overview of the role of the moving image in Swedish culture and society during the last 100 years, a period when moving image culture became increasingly more important. Swedish film and television culture is presented in relation to international trends and developments. Various approaches are considered, including the analysis of formal concerns combined with different socio-cultural perspectives as well as entertainment genres and avant-garde experiments. Industrial practice and film analysis are discussed with a focus on individual artists. Attention is also paid to case studies dealing with questions of criticism and reception.

Instructor: Joel Frykholm
Credit: This course is typically given credit by film and English departments.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 14 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

Swedish Language 1

Study of the Swedish language for beginners. The course contains the following: pronunciation, reading and listening comprehension, descriptive grammar, semantics, written and oral practice. The emphasis will be on communicative and conversational skills, listening comprehension and pronunciation. The content is based on the course literature as well as authentic texts, songs, games, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Swedish Language 2

Study of the Swedish language for students with a background in Swedish. The aim is to raise the student’s level of oral and written proficiency in Swedish and the course is adjusted to the individual student’s language skills and needs. The course contains the following: pronunciation, reading and listening comprehension, descriptive grammar, semantics, written and oral practice. The content is based on the course literature as well as authentic texts, songs, games, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Swedish Language, Advanced

Study of the Swedish language for students with a strong background in Swedish. The aim is to raise the student’s level of oral and/or written proficiency in Swedish and the course is adjusted to the individual student’s language skills and needs. The content is based on the course literature as well as novels, articles, poems, songs, movies, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Instructor: Camilla Sveréus

The purpose of the course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the tradition of Swedish crime fiction, and to stimulate interest and critical reflection on this subject. A selection of acclaimed Swedish crime novels is the main material of the course, but the students will also get acquainted with famous film adaptations in the genre, as well as critical analyses of important works and discussions of the genre in the book market. The course takes its starting point in the influential author-duo of Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, creators of emblematic character Martin Beck. The works of Sjöwall & Wahlöö can be seen as the incitement to the way many Swedish authors use crime fiction as a genre where societal problems and political issues can be highlighted. The genre of Swedish crime fiction will be discussed from several points of view, but special attention will be directed towards the relationships of literature to society (e.g. issues concerning class, gender, and how Sweden as a nation is (re)presented in these texts).

Instructor: Malin Nauwerck
Credit: This course is typically given credit by English and comparative literature departments.

This course provides a general overview of important aspects of provision, management, and economic and political importance of energy resources and their environmental implications. More specifically, the course will address market interactions, pricing and regulation in oil, gas, coal and electricity markets. In this discussion, we will also cover most recent developments in the energy field, such as fracking revolution in oil and gas, as well as touch upon the issues of energy security. We will proceed to address the environmental aspects of energy, talk of renewable energy, emissions and emission trading, and discuss the prospects of green energy transition. To add a broader economic perspective, we will also look into the impact of energy resources, and natural resources in general, on economic and institutional development.

Instructor: Elena Paltseva
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics, two courses in microeconomics, and one course in calculus. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.

After a brief introduction with the history of the European Union and its main institutions, we start with the microeconomics of European Integration and examine the effects of moving towards a Europe outlined in the Treaty of Rome (1957) with free flows of goods and services, capital and people. We then turn to the macro-economics of European integration and examine monetary integration and the adoption of the Euro outlined in the Maastricht Treaty (1991). The course will give you the tools to understand various issues discussed in today’s European Union (EU): Brexit, Euro-crises, rising populism- and nationalistic parties, migration crises, security threats, refugee crises, the future of the EURO-zone and the EU.

Instructor: Pehr-Johan Norbäck
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics, two courses in microeconomics, and one course in calculus. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.

The purpose of this direct enrollment course is to provide an introduction to the role of institutions in economic development and structural change. It is structured around three themes: institutional theory, the nature of structural change and the role of institutions in generating the outcomes observed. Each theme is developed over the course of three lectures, followed by a compulsory small group seminar.

The first theme focuses on institutional theories and theoretical frameworks designed to account for the existence and impact of institutional variation. The second introduces the notions of economic development and structural change. Finally, using empirical examples, the third theme discusses the role of institutions in these developments. Instances of ex ante and ex post institutional change are identified, as are cases of institutional variation, complementarities and competition. The interaction and tension between developments at different scales – global, national, sub-national – are identified. Examples from Sweden, Europe and Asia are used.

Instructor: Örjan Sjöberg
Credit: This 300-level course is typically given credit by economics departments.
Prerequisites: Two courses in macroeconomics (including growth theory), two courses in microeconomics, one course in international economics, one course in calculus, and a GPA of at least 3.3 in prior economics courses. Students lacking one of these prerequisites in economics may be able to enroll with permission from the Executive Director. We recognize that courses at your home institution may be organized and titled differently but cover the same content suggested by our prerequisites. If you need help determining whether your prior coursework fulfills our prerequisites, please contact us at info@swedishprogram.org.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first eight Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

During the Cold War, the existence of a trans-Atlantic civilization was more or less given – no one questioned that the countries of Western Europe had more in common with the countries of North American than with their immediate neighbors behind the Iron Curtain. In the past several years, however, there has arisen a small cottage industry devoted to puncturing the post-Marshall Plan consensus. In other words, we are now told that Europe and America not only do not form a common civilization, but that they are fundamentally, irretrievably different.

This course will evaluate these competing claims, investigating the similarities and differences between Europe and American from the perspective of public policy. The course will be divided into three major sections. The first section, This is Europe, is an overview of the European Union and its most important policy areas and challenges. The second section, Farewell to the Welfare State?, is an oveview of the past, present, and future of the European-style strong welfare state, with a focus on developments in Sweden. The final section, Multiculturalism and its Discontents, is a discussion of Europe’s, and in particular Sweden’s, perhaps greatest challenge: how to deal with a rapidly diversifying population and the resulting conflict between competing sets of values.

Instructor: Jonas Brodin
Credit: This course is typically given credit by sociology, political science, and history departments.

Health care systems are embedded in economic, political, and social structures and reflect a country’s cultural values. This class will look at the historical development of health care systems in Sweden and the U.S., medical education, and the type of institutional settings in which health care is provided. We will also look at the role of the health care consumer in each country and how factors such as race, class, and gender impact citizens’ access to and experience in the health care system.

Instructor: Jonas Brodin
Credit: This course is typically given credit by sociology and political science departments.

People move from one place to another – and always have. Migration might be voluntary and economic – in search of a better life – or forced and political – simply to save one’s life. Whatever the nature of migration, it always has consequences that go far beyond the simple increases and decreases in population – for example, the current migrant crisis in Europe has strengthened far-right populism and isolationism, seen most dramatically in Britain’s decision to withdraw from the EU. It should come as no surprise, then, that migration is perpetually at the center of our political discourse. In this course, we will investigate migration and its consequences fro a number of different perspectives. The first section of the course will take a historical perspective, looking at past migration flows and the many ways in which those flows have transformed the places that migrants leave, pass through, and settle in. The next section examines the migrant experience from multiple angles – from how rhetoric surrounding immigration influences public policy, to the barriers and policies related to the integration of immigrants in different areas – culture, the labor market, and criminal justice. The final section of the course will critically examine current migration debates and case studies. At the end of this section – and the course – students should be able to analyze those debates and case studies and understand the consequences of migration more fully.

Instructor: Jonas Brodin
Credit: This course is typically given credit by sociology and political science departments.

This direct enrollment course is an advanced course in the theories and practices of decision-making. Having completed the course, the successful participant will be able to apply decision theory to a variety of practices of complex decision making in business firms and other organizations — in everyday situations and during crisis; examine the wider context of strategic decision making and evaluate the extent to which important contingencies for such decision making may be altered (e.g. through lobbying); reflect upon her/his own role in processes of decision making (e.g. through knowledge of how bounded rationality influences the capacity of individuals in decision making) and make illustrations of it and express the insights by using course theories; explain how and why “implementation problems” may arise, and to what extent and how such problems may be addressed; and describe the range of other functions that decisions can fulfill (apart from being choices of particular courses of action), and how these alternative functions may affect decision making in practice.

Instructor: Karin Svedberg Helgesson
Credit: This course is typically given credit by political science, sociology, and psychology departments.
Prerequisites: One course in public policy and one course in either the sociology of organizations or the psychology of organizations.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 10 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

The purpose of this direct enrollment course is to improve students’ abilities to understand and analyze gender structures, and how issues of gender may be intertwined with everyday practices, rules, and routines in the workplace. The course further aims to improve students’ knowledge of how problems and dilemmas related to gender in the workplace are currently being addressed in organizations. Finally, an explicit aim of the course is to provide students with examples of models and tools that can be used to build better organizations where gender is not a problem but an opportunity to make work both more equal and productive.

Instructor: Karin Svedberg Helgesson and Jesper Blomberg
Credit: This course is typically given credit by sociology, political science, and gender studies departments.
Prerequisite: One course in social science or gender studies.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 15 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

Language is a fundamental tool in human processes, playing a key role in sharing and influencing reality, in the transmission of cultural knowledge, and in establishing and maintaining relationships. What people say to each other strongly influences the quality of their relationships and their psychological well-being. Humans are also surrounded by language throughout the day—in face-to-face interaction, but also in the media, such as in newspapers, literature, and the Internet. The aim of this course is to explore this intersection of language, cognition, and social interaction. We will examine how language affects and is affected by cognition. Special attention will be given to how learning Swedish as a study abroad student can be seen as an empirical case study of this relationship between language, cognition, and social interaction.

Instructor: Hellen Vergoossen
Credit: This course is typically given credit by psychology departments.
Prerequisite: One course in psychology.

In this course, we will focus on human behavior at work and in other organizational settings. Specific topics to be examined include motivation and job satisfaction; stress and employee health; challenges and benefits of group decision-making; status and power; values, culture, and leadership; and organizational change. The course consists of three modules: I. The person and the situation: feelings, values, and goals of an individual and how are they influenced by the social environment; II. Groups and leaders: cooperation, judgment, effectiveness of teamwork, and reasons why we need leaders; and III. Stability and change in the organization: climate, culture, organizational processes, and how to initiate change.

Instructor: Aleksandra Bujacz
Credit: This course is typically given credit by psychology departments.
Prerequisite: One course in psychology.

This course is an examination of the cultural history of modern Scandinavia with a unique focus on art and architecture. We will look at how cultural forces such as religion, geography, and views of community and nature have shaped the ways in which Swedes have created urban space and other images of their society, i.e., art. The class will incorporate visits to Stockholm’s well-known museums into the structure and methodology of the course.

Instructor: Peder Fallenius
Credit: This course is typically given credit by art history departments.

This direct enrollment course is taught at the Swedish Film Institute. The course provides an overview of the role of the moving image in Swedish culture and society during the last 100 years, a period when moving image culture became increasingly more important. Swedish film and television culture is presented in relation to international trends and developments. Various approaches are considered, including the analysis of formal concerns combined with different socio-cultural perspectives as well as entertainment genres and avant-garde experiments. Industrial practice and film analysis are discussed with a focus on individual artists. Attention is also paid to case studies dealing with questions of criticism and reception.

Instructor: Joel Frykholm
Credit: This course is typically given credit by film and English departments.
Enrollment Limit: Limited to the first 14 Swedish Program students who register. Interested students are encouraged to apply early.

Swedish Language 1

Study of the Swedish language for beginners. The course contains the following: pronunciation, reading and listening comprehension, descriptive grammar, semantics, written and oral practice. The emphasis will be on communicative and conversational skills, listening comprehension and pronunciation. The content is based on the course literature as well as authentic texts, songs, games, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Swedish Language 2

Study of the Swedish language for students with a background in Swedish. The aim is to raise the student’s level of oral and written proficiency in Swedish and the course is adjusted to the individual student’s language skills and needs. The course contains the following: pronunciation, reading and listening comprehension, descriptive grammar, semantics, written and oral practice. The content is based on the course literature as well as authentic texts, songs, games, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Swedish Language, Advanced

Study of the Swedish language for students with a strong background in Swedish. The aim is to raise the student’s level of oral and/or written proficiency in Swedish and the course is adjusted to the individual student’s language skills and needs. The content is based on the course literature as well as novels, articles, poems, songs, movies, study visits and other activities related to Swedish culture and everyday life.

Instructor: Camilla Sveréus

The purpose of the course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the tradition of Swedish crime fiction, and to stimulate interest and critical reflection on this subject. A selection of acclaimed Swedish crime novels is the main material of the course, but the students will also get acquainted with famous film adaptations in the genre, as well as critical analyses of important works and discussions of the genre in the book market. The course takes its starting point in the influential author-duo of Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, creators of emblematic character Martin Beck. The works of Sjöwall & Wahlöö can be seen as the incitement to the way many Swedish authors use crime fiction as a genre where societal problems and political issues can be highlighted. The genre of Swedish crime fiction will be discussed from several points of view, but special attention will be directed towards the relationships of literature to society (e.g. issues concerning class, gender, and how Sweden as a nation is (re)presented in these texts).

Instructor: Malin Nauwerck
Credit: This course is typically given credit by English and comparative literature departments.

This course option is only open to full-year students in their second (spring) semester.

Independent studies can be arranged in most disciplines. Past topics have included medical ethics, theater, statistics, philosophy, and photography. Your independent study must be approved by the chair of the relevant department at your home institution and our Executive Director. Please download our Independent Study Proposal Form for more information.

There is an additional course fee of $950 to arrange an independent study. If you receive financial aid but your aid doesn’t cover this expense, you can request a fee waiver during registration.