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For Nordic and Baltic readers in the U.S. and Canada, their work offers both a bridge to heritage and a platform for future collaboration.
New Haven–NYC hub: Yale’s Baltic Studies program
A short train ride from New York City, Yale’s Baltic Studies Program sits inside the MacMillan Center as a cross-disciplinary home for research on Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The program convenes workshops, lectures, and symposia, and regularly hosts visiting fellows from the region—an on-campus meeting point where humanities, social sciences, and policy mingle.
In June 2024, Yale anchored the Baltic scholarly calendar by co-hosting the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) biennial conference with the University of New Haven—hundreds of researchers gathering to debate everything from language change to security and health. It was a clear signal that New England (with NYC just down the corridor) remains central to North American Baltic studies.
At the program’s day-to-day helm is historian Bradley D. Woodworth, a Yale program manager and University of New Haven professor whose portfolio ranges from Estonian history to the multiethnic Russian Empire. Woodworth embodies the program’s role as a connector—bridging campus resources, regional partners, and the Baltic scholarly world.
Seattle’s anchor: University of Washington’s Baltic Studies
On the West Coast, the University of Washington (UW) has emerged as a powerhouse for Baltic languages and culture within its Department of Scandinavian Studies. The program’s center of gravity is Guntis Šmidchens, the Kazickas Family Endowed Professor and head of Baltic Studies, whose work and mentoring have sustained Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian scholarship and instruction in the Pacific Northwest.
UW’s reach is national as well. Through partners, students find intensive summer pathways in Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian via the Baltic Studies Summer Institute (BALSSI), with recent announcements promoted by UW–Madison’s CREECA. These pipelines keep language learning alive for heritage speakers and new learners alike—critical for future research, media, and diplomacy.
Seattle also benefits from cross-institutional connections: scholars collaborate with the National Nordic Museum and regional universities, ensuring Baltic topics show up not only in classrooms but also in public programs and cultural venues.
The curator’s bridge: Stanford Libraries and the Bay Area
In California, Stanford Libraries plays an outsized role through the work of Liisi Esse, Curator for Estonian and Baltic Studies since 2013. Esse leads collection building across formats (from books to born-digital sources), advises scholars, and organizes exhibits that surface Baltic materials for wider audiences—work that quietly powers dissertations, public history, and transatlantic collaborations.
For West Coast readers, this matters: a strong research collection attracts visiting scholars, informs teaching at neighboring institutions, and keeps Baltic questions in circulation well beyond area-studies departments.
Chicago’s keystone: Lithuanian studies at UIC
In the Midwest, the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) hosts the Endowed Chair in Lithuanian Studies—a rare and enduring commitment made possible by diaspora philanthropy. Directed by linguist Giedrius Subačius, the chair anchors teaching and research in Lithuanian language and culture inside UIC’s Department of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies. It’s a Chicago story through and through: a community-backed academic foothold supporting generations of students.
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Expanding the frame: Nordic studies, Sámi scholarship, and Black–Nordic histories
Nordic studies in the U.S. isn’t only about national languages—it increasingly highlights Indigenous and diasporic perspectives.
- Troy Storfjell (Sámi), a professor at Pacific Lutheran University, has helped map a space for Sámi and Indigenous studies in North America, teaching across Norwegian/Nordic, Indigenous, and environmental studies and collaborating with cultural institutions from Seattle to New York (including Scandinavia House programming). His scholarship on Sámi culture, film, and Nordic colonialisms brings Indigenous frameworks into Nordic classrooms and public conversations.
- Ethelene Whitmire (UW–Madison), a scholar of African American history with affiliations in German, Nordic & Slavic and Gender & Women’s Studies, has illuminated the under-told Black–Nordic connection—research that helped catalyze the exhibition Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the 20th Century (which traveled from Seattle to New York). Her ongoing book project on African Americans in 20th-century Denmark reframes Nordic space as a site of refuge and creativity.
This widening lens strengthens the field’s relevance—and speaks directly to North American audiences reckoning with migration, race, and Indigenous sovereignty.
Why this matters for Nordic/Baltic communities in North America
For diaspora readers, these educators and programs do more than sustain language classes or archive collections. They:
- Preserve access to heritage through instruction, fellowships, and special collections (from New Haven colloquia to Stanford’s archives).
- Create public platforms—festivals, museum partnerships, and conferences—that carry Nordic/Baltic stories into civic life (witness AABS at Yale or Seattle’s museum collaborations).
- Connect generations, welcoming heritage speakers, adoptees, and newcomers to shared spaces of culture and inquiry (UW’s language ecosystem; UIC’s endowed Lithuanian chair).
- Expand the canon, centering Indigenous and Black–Nordic narratives that resonate with the diverse realities of the U.S. and Canada today.
The result is a living, outward-facing field—rooted in the North, firmly at home in North America.
Where to watch next
- NYC/New Haven: More MacMillan Center events and future Baltic visiting fellows; collaborations with cultural organizations in the city.
- Seattle/West Coast: Continued Baltic language offerings and museum partnerships; Sámi/Indigenous programming that travels.
- Midwest/Chicago: Lithuanian studies at UIC as a model of diaspora-funded academic sustainability.
- Bay Area: Exhibits and digital humanities projects tied to Stanford’s Baltic collections.
For The Northern Voices readership, these educators are not just names on department pages—they’re builders of transatlantic commons. Their classrooms, archives, and public programs are places where a Canadian of Icelandic descent can study Sámi cinema; where a second-generation Estonian American can read family history against new archival sources; where a New Yorker discovers how Black artists remade themselves in Copenhagen.
In a moment when global ties are tested, Nordic and Baltic studies in the U.S. offers something both durable and dynamic: rigorous scholarship with open doors.
