Meet the 2026 Olsson Visiting Scholars

The Swenson Center wishes to congratulate the two scholars chosen to receive the 2026 Dagmar & Nils William Olsson Visiting Scholars Award, Magdalena Naum and Christine Ekholst!

Magdalena Naum is an Associate Professor of Historical Archaeology at Lund University, Sweden. Her research focuses on Swedish and Danish colonial history, with particular emphasis on colonial collecting and the production of knowledge, settler colonialism and settler interactions with Indigenous peoples in North America, and extractive industries in Sápmi. Her current project investigates the fantasies and realities of friendship between Nordic settlers, the Anishinaabe, the Lakota, and the Dakota in the nineteenth-century Midwest.

Christine Ekholst received her Ph.D. in history from Stockholm University in 2009. After working many years in Canada, she is now an Associate Professor of history at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research project concerns ethnic identities and national loyalties among Swedes in Canada during World War One.

Professors Naum and Ekholst will use this award to visit and conduct research using the Swenson Center's collections. We look forward to welcoming them to our facilities!