Based at Uppsala University, Loraine will conduct field studies, engage in research, collaborate with scholars, and offer presentations on her current and previous activities with runes. During that time she will collaborate with Dr. Henrik Williams, of Uppsala University, who is one of the leading runic scholars in the world.
As a licensed teacher and education specialist in the Minnesota Department of Education, Loraine will draw on those experiences for her Fulbright appointment. She will translate her Fulbright research into developing curricula and lesson plans on runes to be offered to schools throughout the U.S.
Loraine points to the common Scandinavian heritage found in the Midwest as well as other areas of the U.S. as the influence for ensuring those students have the opportunity to learn more about their common European heritage and ancestry. Through legitimate classroom education, she also hopes to dispel and discredit the myths and misinformation common in popular and social media that purport to relate the historical and cultural meaning and purpose of runes.
Her focus on runes will draw on a wealth of information culled from the thousands of known runes in Europe that were carved over a millennia to tell stories, memorialize family members, celebrate heroic acts.
In 2020 several hundred teachers and professionals like Loraine were named Fulbright Specialists. Coordinated by the U.S. State Department, each year some 8,000 Fulbright Scholars are selected from more than 40,000 applicants to participate in exchanges intended to increase understanding between Americans and people of other nations. Founded in 1946, more than 390,000 Americans and foreign nationals have been selected for this honor. Its ranks include hundreds of Fulbright alumni who have gone on to become Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Foundation Fellows “Genius Award” recipients, and Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees.
