Minority Identity in Baltic Literature and Film

• January 5, 2026

This episode of the Baltic Ways podcast welcomes Dr. Liina-Ly Roos, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the German, Nordic, Slavic+ department. The discussion centers on Liina-Ly’s recent book: The Not-Quite Child: Colonial Histories, Racialization, and Swedish Exceptionalism (University of Washington Press, 2025), in which she analyzes films and literature that portray Indigenous Sámi, Tornedalian, and Finnish-speaking children and how these figures disrupt the normative understanding of growing up in Sweden. These cultural texts are filled with tensions of assimilation, invisibility, and the struggle to grow in a society that demands conformity to a specific “Swedishness.” The discussion also considers parallels to the Baltic context. Dr. Roos is a graduate of the University of Washington and a grant recipient from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. 

Baltic Ways is a podcast from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, produced in partnership with the Baltic Initiative at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of AABS or FPRI.

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