Where to Study Medieval Scandinavia, 1: North America
I recently got an enquiry from an American student (Hi, Meg!) about the universities in the States that might offer courses in Old Norse at either undergraduate or postgraduate level. At Kalamazoo last year, in a round-table on the state of Saga Studies in the USA, one of the speakers claimed there were 38 institutions (I think) that offered Old Norse language in their syllabus. But I didn’t get a list, so I thought that we might try to compile one together. When we’ve identified likely universities, I’m going to try to get in contact with teachers in various locations and ask them to describe the opportunities available to students in our field.
So: where do (or can) you study Old Norse literature, language, and Medieval Scandinavian history/archaeology in North America (Canada is certainly to be included). Please leave a comment or use the contact page to let us know.
The information that would be most useful is:
- What courses are available?
- Which departments offer them?
- Are they undergraduate or postgraduate level?
- Are there opportunities for PhD research in these disciplines?
Once we’ve built up a database of North American institutions, we’ll move on to the rest of the world. Thanks for your help!
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Ohio State University offers Old Norse every couple of years, most recently taught by Dr. Merrill Kaplan last winter
The University of MN – Twin Cities Campus offers an Old Norse language course. There is also a Scandinavian studies program and a Medieval studies program. I believe in the past they have also taught both Old English and Gaelic as well.
The University of Toronto offers Old Norse at the graduate level only, through the Centre for Medieval Studies. It’s a full-year course, grammar reading beginners’ level most years but it turns into a second level reading course every third year or so. Traditionally taught by David McDougall, it has been taught by Ian McDougall in recent years. There are no courses on Scandinavian history or palaeography, and none on archaeology that I know of. PhD opportunities yes, teaching opportunities no, unless you design your own course and convince St. Michael’s College that they want it.
The University of Connecticut offers courses in Old Norse at the graduate level (both MA and PhD) in the Medieval Studies Program (cross-listed in the English department). While not officially on the books, Robert Hasenfratz regularly offers these graduate courses (every 1-2 years, depending on demand; usually in the spring semester). In the past two academic years, he offered an ON grammar course, a reading/translation course, and a second reading/translation course (advanced) is being offered this spring.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers courses in Old Norse through the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures,
http://www.germanic.uiuc.edu/scandinavian/languages/
and they have a “Scandinavian program”:
http://www.germanic.uiuc.edu/scandinavian/
The University of California, Berkeley offers Old Norse courses through the Scandinavian department. I’m not sure exactly what opportunities are available to undergrads for the language itself, though courses are offered on topics such as mythology and culture, but I believe they can occasionally sit in on graduate courses. For graduates, there are a variety of courses on Old Norse literature, typically one per semester, and they offer an MA/PhD in Scandinavian Studies (one can then focus on the medieval period, and pair with the Joint Medieval Studies PhD if desired).
The author of the poll you’re referring to is Prof. Jana Schulman of Univ. of West Michigan (obviously, the organizers of Kazoo). Here’s a link to her webpage – http://www.wmich.edu/english/facultyandstaff/profiles/schulman.html. I would gather she still has the results and I imagine she would share that with us at OldNorseNews. Maybe a good idea would be to try to contact her.
Paul above obviously has insider’s knowledge of UofT, and my outsider’s impression is that he’s absolutely correct.
More on Canada – George Clark at Queen’s University in Kingston (http://www.queensu.ca/english/clark.html) offers Old Norse now and then. The demand, unfortunately, isn’t that overwhelming, he said.
In US, Cornell obviously has Tom Hill (http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/people/hill/), and he certainly teaches Old Norse. I have no idea how often, however.
The University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada offers third-year undergraduate Old Norse classes from Dr John Tucker, who also oversees the Beck Trust, which brings scholars from Scandinavia and elsewhere to UVic to give open lectures on Old Norse topics; these usually occur twice a year.
http://web.uvic.ca/~becktrus/
As Paul mentioned, U of Toronto offers the beginning Norse (full-year) class every other year, and usually a second year reading course in the off years, both taught by Ian McDougall. Andy Orchard has also offered the odd semester course (Sources of Norse Mythology, The Poetic Edda, etc.).
I learned my Norse as an undergrad with Kirsten Wolf in the Scandinavian Studies Dept. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course was graduate-level, but open to intrepid youngsters. If the structure hasn’t changed, it´s two semesters of grammar and reading, and then an additional semester of more advanced reading, together with some introductory paleography. Kirsten also offers courses on the history of Scandinavian Linguistics, if that’s your thing.
The course listing is here…http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/courses/index.html
I’m sure there are some current Wisconsinites following the blog who could add a bit more…
Thank you all so much for the help! I’m the questing undergrad in question. Alas, I am from Florida, where our Scandinavian studies departments are sadly lacking… perhaps I shall be applying to one of the above schools when I finish my undergraduate degree.
Again, thank you all so much for the help.
Meg, are you at the University of Florida? Furthermore, are you interested in studying abroad?
I did my BA there and spent a year learning Old Norse in Munich at the Institut für nordische Philologie (though of course you could go anywhere else that teaches it), and UF is surprisingly kind when it comes to giving you credit for courses they don’t teach.
If you are interested in Germanic Philology in general, look into the University of Minnesota, already mentioned above. We have Old Norse and Middle High German every year, Old English every other year, and, on no particular schedule, we have Old Saxon, Gothic, Old High German, Middle Dutch, and Old Frisian. We also teach ALL modern Germanic languages (except Faroese, of course), including a rare summer course in Modern Icelandic.
To actually respond to the question and end my shameless plug, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Massachusetts Amherst teach Old Norse, though with the impending (or current?) retirements of, respectively, Marianna Kalinke and James Cathey, I’m not sure if they will continue them. Perhaps they have qualified lecturers or have gained new Scandinavian medievalist faculty.
A few more perspectives on learning Old Norse in North America —
Paul Acker teaches Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon at St. Louis University, which has a very strong medieval studies program.
http://www.slu.edu/x23805.xml
Don’t forget about Harvard either, where Steve Mitchell and Joe Harris both have offered courses in Old Norse in recent years. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~folkmyth/HarrisPage.htm
http://web.me.com/samitch1/Publications/Stephen_Mitchell.html
Marianne Kalinke has indeed retired from the University of Illinois, but I do not know if she continues to teach there.
http://www.germanic.uiuc.edu/scandinavian/
Old Norse has been taught at the Univ. of Washington too, and the department even has a special scholarship for a graduate student interested in that field. Recent retirements may have brought the Old Norse program on to thin ice, but one hopes the department will soon be back at it.
http://depts.washington.edu/scand/information.php
Thanks for all of the comments, this is indeed a very cool website.
Bill
I am agog with all the lovely archaic Germanic languages I’ve been just rolling in lately. Second on my list to learn is Middle High German, so I can read the autobiography of Gotz von Berlichingen, the “Lebensbeschreibung des Herrn Gözens von Berlichingen”, which has no English translation that I’ve yet found. Thanks again for all of your helpful comments on graduate programs.
Indiana University (Bloomington), taught by Kari Gade (as Old Icelandic).
Purdue University (West Lafayette) , taught by Shaun Hughes
Catholic University in Wash DC has it on the books
Adam–
In reply, no I am not at UF. I was originally at Eckerd College and am going to transfer to USF this fall, hopefully.
Meg
Fordham Univ (NY), taught by Martin Chase
A few more perspectives on learning Old Norse in North America —
Paul Acker teaches Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon at St. Louis University, which has a very strong medieval studies program.
http://www.slu.edu/x23805.xml
Don’t forget about Harvard either, where Steve Mitchell and Joe Harris both have offered courses in Old Norse in recent years. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~folkmyth/HarrisPage.htm
http://web.me.com/samitch1/Publications/Stephen_Mitchell.html
Marianne Kalinke has indeed retired from the University of Illinois, but I do not know if she continues to teach there.
http://www.germanic.uiuc.edu/scandinavian/
Old Norse has been taught at the Univ. of Washington too, and the department even has a special scholarship for a graduate student interested in that field. Recent retirements may have brought the Old Norse program on to thin ice, but one hopes the department will soon be back at it.
http://depts.washington.edu/scand/information.php
Thanks for all of the comments, this is indeed a very cool website.
Bill
Just wanted to thank all of you again for the updates on this stuff. I was accepted to finish my history degree at USF St. Petersburg, which is cause for much praise and joy. What I’m going to do with it, who knows. I would be content to study the Viking Age and medieval period in a dusty old library for the rest of my days, but I have yet to see a wanted ad for that.
How did you all end up using your degrees?
I’ve been looking into PhDs on Norse/Viking topics in North America. If it helps, this has been my experience so far. http://meganarnott.blogspot.com/2011/03/phd-in-vikingnorse-studies-in-north.html
I too am appreciative of the advice that I found here.