Unofficial ambassadors: Swedish women in the United States and the making of non-state cultural diplomacy

ABSTRACT

This article examines how women contribute to cultural diplomacy by engaging in activities that relate to their country of origin. The article focuses on one non-state network called the Swedish Women’s Educational Organization (SWEA). SWEA aims to foster interest in Swedish culture by organizing public cultural events and financially supporting causes that aim to increase engagement with Swedish culture. The transnational practices that these women engage in enables them to display Swedish culture to American society. This study examines how these women assume meaningful roles as unofficial ambassadors of Sweden, and how their daily and unpaid activities to promote their homeland culture is recognized by official Swedish representatives in the United States. Study findings show that the work these women perform became entangled with official diplomatic institutions. On a structural level, the women’s agency enables them to carve out meaningful spaces for themselves within the field of cultural diplomacy. At the same time, some of their assumed roles reinforce notions about feminine spheres of action within international relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural diplomacy
• transnational migration
• gender
• non-state actors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Selma Jacobson became a member of SWEA in Chicago in 1982. Although her actual work in the organization appears to have been limited, her early connections to SWEA attests to her participation in various organizations that worked on Swedish American causes.

2. The Chicago chapter was founded by Kerstin Lane in 1981. Although established as Svea (with a standard ‘v’) and as a separate organization from SWEA, communication between Svea and SWEA was frequent. In 1993, Svea in Chicago officially became a local chapter of SWEA operating under the umbrella organization SWEA International.

3. The empirical sources referenced in this study are held at the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center (SSIRC), Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. Analysis of the material was conducted in February 2019. The data consists of correspondence, minutes from board meetings, member magazines, photographs, and newsletters produced in the 1980s and 1990. The article also includes information from SWEA’s webpages.

4. For a distinction between cultural diplomacy and cultural relations, see (Arndt 2005).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Anna Ahlström and Ellen Terserus Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Nevra Biltekin

Nevra Biltekin is a researcher at the Department of History, Stockholm University and an affiliated researcher at the Department of Northern European Studies at Humboldt University, Berlin. Her previous work has centred on gender and the professionalization of the Swedish diplomatic corps and the history of international relations.