Earlier conferences

With its 31th conference in Groningen, Netherlands 2016, IASS also celebrated its 60th anniversary . Scholars from all over the world have over the past years been brought together, united by their interest in and fascination for Scandinavian literature and culture. 

In 2006 Professor Janet Garton and Professor Elias Bredsdorff put together The History of The International Association of Scandinavian Studies, published by Norvik Press. Unfortunately, the publication was never for sale, but it is now possible to get a copy. Just send IWCSS Administrators an e-mail.

Here follows a survey of all the conferences arranged by IASS, from the very first at the University of Cambridge until present day. 

CONFERENCES 1956-2020
 

• 1958 University of Oslo, Lillehammer
  Theme: Experiment and renewal in Nordic literature in the twentieth century
   
• 1960 Oosterbeek, Holland 
  Theme: Impressionism in Nordic literature 1880-1900
   
• 1962 University of Aarhus
  Theme: Revaluations
   
• 1964 University College London
  President: A. H. Smith
  Theme: Literary Influence
   
• 1966 University of Uppsala
  Theme: Interaction between literature and other arts
   
• 1968 University of Paris
  President: Maurice Gravier
  Theme: Franco-Scandinavian literary relations
   
• 1970 University of Bergen, Fana folkehøgskole
  President: Harald Noreng
  Theme: The modern Nordic novel and literary researach
   
• 1972 Christian-Albrechts-Univerität, Kiel
  President: Otto Oberholzer
  Theme: Modern Nordic Poetry
   
• 1974 University of Reykjavík
  President: Sveinn Skorri Höskuldsson
  Theme: Ideas and ideologies in Scandinavian literature since the First World War
   
• 1976 University of Ghent
  President: Alex Bolckmans
  Theme: Creatio versus Mimesis: problems of realism in modern Nordic literature
   
• 1978 University of Helsinki, Hanaholmen
  President: Johan Wrede
  Theme: Twentieth-century drama in Scandinavia
   
• 1980 Ernst-Moriz-Arndt-Universität, Greifswald
  President: Horst Bien
  Theme: The writing of Nordic literary history
   
• 1982 University of Odense
  President: Mogens Brøndsted
  Theme: The short story genre in Nordic literature from Andersen's tales to the modern novelle
   
• 1984 University of Washington, Seattle
  President: Birgitta Steene
  Theme: Scandinavian literature in a transnational context: reception translation, migration
   
• 1986 University of Gothenburg
  President: Lars Lönnroth
  Theme: The Modern Breakthrough in Nordic literature
   
• 1988 University of Zürich
  President: Oskar Bandle
  Theme: Nordic Romanticism
   
• 1990 University of Trondheim
  President: Jorunn Hareide
  Theme: Modernism in Nordic literature
   
• 1992 Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest
  President: András Masát
  Theme: Literature as resistance and counterculture
   
• 1994 University of Reykjavík
  President: Helga Kress
  Theme: Literature and gender
   
• 1996 University of Bonn
  President: Heiko Uecker
  Theme: Eighteenth-century Nordic literature
   
• 1998 University of the Faroes
  President: Malan Marnesdóttir
  Theme: Nordic literature and mentality
   
• 2000 University of East Anglia, Norwich
  President: Janet Garton
  Theme: Beginnings and endings in Nordic literature
   
• 2002 University of Aalborg
  President: Anker Gemzøe
  Theme: Nordic prose ficiton after 1960
   
• 2004 University of Vienna
  President: Sven Rossel
  Theme: The image of Scandinavia abroad - the image if other nations in Scandinavia
   
• 2006 University of Åbo
  President: Clas Zilliacus
  Theme: Borders in Nordic literature
   
• 2008 University of Gdansk
  President: Maria Sibinska
  Theme: Nordic Drama. Renewal and Transgression
   
• 2010 Lund University (link)
  President: Per Erik Ljung
  Theme: Översättning - adaption, interpretation, transformation
   
• 2012 University of Latvia, Riga/University of Daugavpils, Daugavpils
  President: Ivars Orehovs
  Theme: Literature and Law
   
• 2014 University of Agder
  President: Unni Langås
  Theme: Literature inter artes
   
• 2016 University of Groningen
  President: Petra Broomans
  Theme: Transit - 'Norden' och 'Europa'
   
• 2018 University of Copenhagen (link)
  President: Torben Jelsbak
  Theme: Scandinavian Exceptionalisms
   
• 2021 Vilnius University (link) [postponed from 2020, due to the corona pandemic]
  President: Ieva Steponavičiūtė Aleksiejūnienė
  Theme: Memory Culture in Scandinavian Studies
   
• 2023 UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø
  President: Henrik Johnsson