Between 13–15 August 2025, members of the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (NACS) and many international scholars gathered in Aarhus, Denmark, for NACS-XIV, the 14th Triennial NACS Conference in Canadian Studies organized in collaboration with the Canadian Studies Centre at Aarhus University. NACS operates across the five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden—to support the study of Canada in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences.
In the opening ceremony, we were joined by Her Excellency Carolyn Bennett, Ambassador of Canada to Denmark, ICCS President Anna Branach-Kallas and Peter Mortensen, Head of the Department of English at Aarhus University. The generous support offered by The Embassy of Canada to Denmark, ICCS and Aarhus University was crucial to the success of the conference. The opening session was marked by many happy reunions between NACS scholars and long-time friends from Canada and elsewhere and offered the chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones over exquisite Canadian wine generously provided by the Embassy of Canada.
In the academic sessions on 14–15 August, over 30 papers addressed Canada on its own and in various comparative networks and topics across English-speaking, francophone and Indigenous communities. The contributions addressed various Canadian spaces in relation to literature and other arts, linguistics, sports, political science, climate and environment; they also addressed Indigenous experiences, decolonizing practices, questions of family and gender and the echoes of the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown experiences.
The conference keynote address “‘In These Tender Times’: Mennonite Literary Studies After Multiculturalism” was given by Robert Zacharias (York University). The talk offered wonderful insights into not only the rich tradition of Mennonite writing in Canada, but also broader questions that require the attention of any scholar working on Canadian literature today.
An important aspect of the conference was encouraging young researchers in Canadian studies to gain opportunities to present their work and meet scholars at different stages of their careers. The conference organizers were happy to welcome doctoral researchers and other young scholars from the Nordic countries and also from elsewhere in Europe and from Canada.
During the conference, NACS also held its triennial General Meeting and elected a new board for the next triennial period 2025–28. The board members for that period are Janne Korkka (NACS President, Finland), Kristín Margrét Jóhannsdóttir (Iceland) and Mark Eaton (Denmark). A major project for the board will be planning the next NACS conference – stay tuned for news about the forthcoming NACS 2028 Triennial conference!
Our thanks to NACS President Janne Korkka for this report.
NACS photographs.