The doctoral compendium entitled Literary Studies in Norwegian Literature collects a part of the research work of PhD students of the first Norwegian studies specialisation I have initiated as a scientific coordinator for the doctoral school of Linguistic and Literary Studies at the Faculty of Letters of Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj.

As revealed by their contributions, the authors of the volume have an implicit background in Norwegian language and literature as a prerequisite for their research.

The compendium marks a decade of doctoral research dedicated to Norwegian literature, collecting studies written by both former and present doctoral students whose training relies fundamentally on their bachelor level education in Norwegian language and literature.

I have correlated the idea of publishing a volume that collects the research work of doctoral students whom I tutored for ten years (2010-2020) with that of inviting the teaching staff that I have mentored and developed at the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature to join me as editors of this doctoral research compendium. By doing so, my intention has been to reunite, with this volume, the Norwegian academic community established in Romania, at Cluj-Napoca: both doctoral students and the present team of teaching staff at the department that was founded in 2001 and which was based on the Norwegian language and literature study programme that I initiated in 1991 and have developed ever since.

In a way, the volume is the expression of an institutional growth spanning three decades during which efforts, inspiration and personal dedication have correlated with the university’s academic and internationalisation policies and with the support provided by the Norwegian institutions.

Sanda Tomescu Baciu