Dr. Dag Blanck awarded 'Stora historiepriset' (Great History Prize)

Dr. Dag Blanck '78, the director of Augustana's Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center and the director of the Swedish Institute for North American Studies at Uppsala University, has received the 2025 Stora historiepriset, one of Sweden’s most prestigious awards for history. The prize of 100,000 Swedish kronor is awarded by the Sörmland museum and the culture and leisure board of Nyköping municipality. 

The prize jury, which consists of leading academics in history at universities and museums across Sweden, praised Dr. Blanck for his “ability to place currents events in the United States in a historical context and to make them intelligible to the broader public.” The jury also noted that Dr. Blanck is widely recognized as an expert on North America and well-known to the Swedish public through frequent TV and radio appearances and interviews in the press.

Earlier this year, Dr. Blanck was awarded the Charlotta Medal by the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Växjö, the leading Swedish institution in the field of Swedish migration to America. The Institute cited Dr. Blanck's “constant push forward to broaden understanding of the Swedish emigration to North America and its wider consequences” as the reason he received the medal, which is awarded annually to people who have made valuable contributions to the Swedish Emigrant Institute.