Dean Krouk

Biography

Language: Norwegian

Research/Language Interests: Nordic literature since the nineteenth century; fascism and antifascism; literary modernism; the drama of Henrik Ibsen; memory studies; comparative literature

About: Dean’s main area of research is Norwegian literature since the nineteenth century, especially its intersections with modern political ideologies during the interwar period and World War II. His first book, Fascism and Modernist Literature in Norway (University of Washington Press, 2017), examines the work of four authors with varying responses to Norwegian fascism and the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II. His second book, The Making of an Antifascist: Nordahl Grieg between the World Wars (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022) is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the major Norwegian writer Nordahl Grieg, an icon of the Norwegian resistance during the occupation.  In addition, he has translated and written an introduction to My Father’s War: Confronting Norway’s Nazi Past (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), a work of nonfiction that was originally published by Bjørn Westlie in Norwegian as Fars krig. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles on various topics in Scandinavian literature. Since 2023, Dean has been the editor of the journal Scandinavian Studies.

Dean’s research has been supported by UW-Madison with a Vilas Associate Award (2022-2024) and a Romnes Faculty Fellowship (2026-2031), as well as the Birgit Baldwin Chair in Scandinavian Literatures and Languages (2023-2025).

Teaching: Since starting at UW-Madison in 2015, Dean has designed and taught courses about Norwegian literature; modern Scandinavian history; the drama of Henrik Ibsen; memory and literature; and the Second World War in Nordic culture. He has offered graduate seminars on topics such as memory studies in the humanities; interwar Scandinavia; and professional development. He has several graduate advisees and has been the Director of Graduate Studies in the Scandinavian program since 2020.

Affiliated Departments: Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies; Center for European Studies

Education:
• University of California, Berkeley, PhD in Scandinavian (2011)
• University of California, Berkeley, MA in Scandinavian (2005)
• University of Chicago, BA in Comparative Literature (2003)