Peder Saether Symposium (March 9-10, 2000)

About the Symposium

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The Peder Sæther Symposium: History of the Event

The Peder Sæther Symposium represents an ongoing collaboration between the governments of Norway and Sweden and the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The conference was first initiated by San Francisco's Norwegian Consulate General in 1991 and has been held on a biennial basis since. The Norwegian Government has generously funded the program since its 1991 inception; the Swedish Government extended her support to the 1994 and 1996 conferences. Moreover, with the present conference in 2000, Sweden has joined Norway as official sponsor of future Peder Sæther Symposia.

The overall goal of the event is to promote the understanding of current and similar political, economic, and cultural issues in the United States and Scandinavia. A large number of policy-makers and scholars from a variety of disciplines gather for two days of lectures, panel discussions, and presentations. The event is designed to foster interdisciplinary discussion among scholars and policy makers from Europe and the U.S. on international issues of mutual concern.

Previous Peder Sæther Symposia include the following: Impact of New Technology on Health and Health Care Systems: An International Perspective (1998); Challenges to Labor: Integration, Employment, and Bargaining in Scandinavia and the United States (1996); Gender, Equality, Children and the Family: Changing Scandinavian and American Social Policy (1994); Environment and Global Climate Change (1991).

Publication of conference papers and findings from past conferences are available for purchase. Please contact the Institute for European Studies at UCB for information about availability and price.

Who was Peder Sæther? The History behind the Symposium's Name

Peder Sæther was born in Norway on September 17, 1810. He emigrated to New York and then to California, where he founded the banking firm of Sæther & Church. Peder Sæther was one of the early trustees of the College of California and an active participant in aiding the institution that later became the University of California. Upon his death, the Sæther & Church banking firm was absorbed by the Bank of California. Although it was Peder Sæther who had accumulated the wealth and resources that helped fund education in California, it was the work of his wife, Jane Krom Sæther, a native of New York State, who made the Sæther name part of UC Berkeley's history. Through her generous endowments to the University's teaching resources and beautification efforts (notably Sæther Gate, which was once the main entrance to the UC campus), the Sæther name has come to symbolize a legacy of collaboration between Norway and the University of California. With the Sæther legacy in mind, the University of California and the Royal Norwegian Consulate General of San Francisco inaugurated the first Peder Sæther Symposium in 1991.

This 5th Peder Sæther Symposium is the result of the hard work of many individuals:

Chair:

Dr. Diane Harley, Executive Director, BMRC; Research Associate, CSHE

Program Committee:

• Professor Stig B. Hagstrom, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• Secretary General Per Nyborg, Norwegian Council of Universities
• Barbro S. Osher, Consul General, Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco
• Ulla Wikander Reilly, Vice Consul, Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco
• Professor Lawrence Rowe, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Division (EECS); Director, BMRC
• Astrid Forberg Ryan, Vice Consul, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco
• Suzanne Breese Ryan, Assistant Director, Institute of European Studies
• Hans Ola Urstad, Consul General, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco
  

Additional Invaluable Advice Provided By:

• Dr. Agneta Bladh, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Education, Stockholm
• Professor Chris Curran, Dean of Faculty, Dublin City University; Director, National Distance Education Centre, Ireland
• Professor Thorsten Nybom, History, Uppsala University
• Professor Sheldon Rothblatt, History, UCB; STINT Professor of History, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
• Professor Martin Trow, Graduate School of Public Policy, UCB
  

Staff:

• Diane Terry, office manager, CSHE
• Jenny L. White, editor
• Jennifer Shen, events coordinator
• Additional Staff Support:  Shelley Claman, Edgar Macias, Melissa Martinez, Sandra Ouyang, Sarah Sanchez, Joyce Wong, Nancy Zhao

Sponsors:

• The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE-UCB)
• The Berkeley Multimedia Research Center (BMRC-UCB)
• The Institute of European Studies (IES-UCB)
• The Royal Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco
• The Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco
• The Ministry of Education and Science, Sweden
• Norwegian Council of Universities
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Additional Support has been provided by:

• The Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany
• Center for Higher Education Development, Germany
• The Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, the Netherlands
• Finnish Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley
• The Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• The Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• Scandinavian Department, University of California, Berkeley
• The Swedish Trade Council
• Virtual University Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany