The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography

SSAG was founded under its present name in 1877, as an extension of the activities of the Association for Anthropology founded in 1873. This was a time of great exploratory expeditions, and the SSAG took a particularly active part in the scientific description of the Arctic region, highlighted by the ‘Vega’ voyage through the passage north of Siberia led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in 1878-1879. The symbol of the Society shows a woman with laurel wreaths, a native with a globe, and the Vega ship at a rocky coast.

The spirit of Nordenskiöld permeated much of SSAG’s activities with lectures and expeditions by geographer Otto Nordenskjöld to Antarctica in 1901-03, anthropologist Erland Nordenskiöld to South America and by explorer Sven Hedin to Central Asia. But SSAG’s activities also included research on Swedish Ethnology (Sigurd Erixon), Baltic urban geography (Sten De Geer) and the beginning of geopolitics (Rudolf Kjellén), to name a few of renowned members during the first fifty years.

In recent years SSAG is more dedicated to the popularization of the three disciplines and to current topics, e.g. environmental degradation, physical planning, political geography and questions of underdevelopment. The gold medalists of later years include Eric Bylund 2000, Sherry B. Ortner 2001, Lonnie G. Thompson 2002, Doreen Massey 2003, Tim Ingold 2004 and Françoise Gasse 2005.

The present activities of SSAG include

meetings with lectures on topics of member interest annual meetings where doctoral students present ongoing research bi-annual excursions Vega day, April 24, when the Society’s medals are awarded and a symposium is held on a topic chosen by the medalist. scholarships granted to doctoral students for projects including travel and other expenses publications: Geografiska Annaler, series A, Physical Geography, Geografiska Annaler, series B, Human Geography (both in English) , Årsboken Ymer (in Swedish). SSAG co-operates with local and professional associations of Geographers and Anthropologists in Sweden and is a member of EU- GEO, The European Geographical Society.

Use the following postal address and phone number for general inquiries.

Fil dr Mattias Viktorin
Socialantropologiska institutionen
Stockholms universitet
106 91 Stockholm

E-mail: ssagmail@yahoo.se
phone: +46(0)8-674 72 19