ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (October 2, 2026) The 2026 O Fritiof Ander Symposium brings together scholars, policymakers, and journalists for a public conversation about elections in United States and Sweden. The symposium will take place Friday, October 23, 2–4:30PM, at Augustana College’s Wilson Center, 3750 7th Avenue in Rock Island.
Through a keynote address and panel discussion, speakers will explore what recent and upcoming elections reveal about democracy, public policy, and political change in the two countries.
The program features Joakim Palme of Uppsala University as keynote speaker. Dr Palme is professor of political science, and vice-president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters. He is also the son of the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, a pivotal figure in Swedish politics who was assassinated in 1986, in what for Swedes was an exceedingly rare act of political violence.
Palme will be joined by a panel including former US Congressman Dave Loebsack, journalist and author Karin Henriksson, and Benjamin Teitelbaum, faculty director of the University of Colorado’s Conference on World Affairs.
The event will include remarks by Dag Blanck, director of the Swenson Swedish American Research Center. Blanck is a graduate of Augustana who went home to Sweden to become director (now retired) of Uppsala University’s Center for North American Studies, as well as one of Swedish media’s foremost commentators on the United States. Ties between Uppsala and Augustana extend back to the latter’s founding in 1860, and in June of this year Augustana President Andrea Talentino signed a Memorandum of Understanding expanding partnerships between the two institutions.
The symposium, and a reception following, are free and open to the public, though advance registration is requested. Please register here.
