Orm Øverland

Orm Harald Øverland (born 17 May 1935) is a Norwegian literary historian and Slavist with emphasis on Russian.

He was born in Oslo and grew up in that city as well as Bryne, Montreal and Aukra. He graduated with the cand.philol. degree from the University of Oslo and took his PhD at Yale University in 1969. He was hired at the University of Bergen as a docent in 1970 and was promoted to professor in 1975, serving until his retirement in 2005. He was also the dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 1979 to 1982. His fields were American literature and the Norwegian-Americans.[1][2]

He has been a board member of the Western Norway Emigration Center, the European Association for American Studies, the Coimbra Group, president of the Nordic Association for American Studies and editor of the journal American Studies in Scandinavia. Øverland became a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1994, received the King's Medal of Merit in gold in 2003[2] and was given an honorary degree at the Vytautas Magnus University in 2007.[3]

He resides at Nygård, Bergen.[2]

References

1. "Orm Harald Øverland 60 år 17. mai" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 26 April 1995.
2. "70 år 17. mai: Professor Orm Øverland" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 27 April 2005.
3. "75 år 17. mai: Professor emeritus Orm Øverland" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 7 May 2010.