Jobs for Runologists!
The Riksantikvarieämbetet in Visby, Sweden, is looking for two post-doctoral runologists to work on a new research project. Rather than take the risk of trying to translate it myself, I’ll just post the description in Swedish:
Med stöd från Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) och Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (KVHAA) utlyses två anställningar inom runforskningsområdet för forskare med avlagd doktorsexamen. Anställningarna är placerade vid Riksantikvarieämbetet, Visby, och är femåriga, uppdelat i två perioder om två respektive tre år.
Full details are available here: utlysning-runanstallningar-090128. The closing date is 1 April.
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[...] Speak Swedish? Know your runes? The Riksantikvarieämbetet is looking for runologists. [...]
Well, I would say this perhaps suggests a need to have Runology brought back to the Scandinavian Studies Dept at UCL, no? If there is actually demand for people to research such things then it stands to reason that offering a course on runes at undergraduate level would make sense so that study of the subject can be continued at a higher level at a later stage.
Dear Chris,
Again i want to express gratitude to you for this wonderful website. It is full of such invaluable information for amateur researchers, students and scholars alike.
Dear Mikael,
I am just in the process of applying for the Viking studies (undergraduate) for year 2010. I have heard that Runology is no more available as a subject at Scandinavian St. Dept. at UCL. I certainly hope that it will be in the future, as my goal is to be a Runologist.
Yes, unfortunately runology as it was is no longer on offer at UCL, but myself and others are trying to persuade the powers that be to bring it back into the curriculum in some shape or form, but whether that will happen before 2010, I can’t say.
This is really great news Mikael. I will have to enroll for 2010, because years are passing by (i am 40 years old now) and i have to act fast. Viking studies at UCL are the best thing to happen in my life since meeting my wife and having my children. It is my Orlog.
Thank you for the comments! Haki and I were talking about this the other day, and we are now definitely going to look for ways to bring some runes back into the curriculum within the next couple of years. However, there’s very little chance that we’ll be able to bring back runology in the form it was previously taught as a separate specialist class. It’s more likely that we’ll either cover runes in existing courses, or else move towards a new course that combines an introduction on how to read them with study of them from a historical/cultural perspective. UCL students might also consider choosing to study at a Scandinavian university that has a runology course during their year abroad: I think Oslo does, for example.
Well, that takes care of me bringing the point up at the next student-teacher meeting! But I probably will anyways! Great to hear that you are seriously looking at this in the near future though.