Thea R. Strand

Thea Strand is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Arizona. Her primary research involves ongoing fieldwork in rural Valdres, Norway, where she studies the relationships among dialect use, language change, political economy, and mass media. Her current research projects are focused on 1) the ways in which dialect has become a valuable commodity in Valdres' growing tourism industry, and 2) the mutual environmental, cultural, and linguistic effects of tourism development and changing heritage practices around transhumant farming in Valdres.