Old Norse News

A rare opportunity to apply for a job teaching Old Norse philology at one of the truly great centres of the discipline, the University of Bergen, has been advertised on jobbnorge.no. If you have some Norwegian or are prepared to learn it, take a look at the particulars and consider applying. The successful person will be filling Else Mundal’s shoes after her retirement at the end of 2012–jobs like this one don’t come along very often!

It’s rare to find much to be cheerful about in the current climate surrounding Higher Education, but I was very pleased to see that at least two North American colleges are trying to recruit Old Norse specialists this year.

First, Berkeley is looking for an Assistant/Associate Professor of Old Norse in the Scandinavian Department:

[They] seek candidates with expertise in the field of Old Norse literature, broadly defined.  As the members of the Scandinavian Department all work across disciplines, we require that candidates for this position also exhibit expertise in a secondary field.  Historically, secondary fields among our faculty have included Folklore, Film, and 18th- and 19th-century Nordic literature; we would also welcome such fields as Art History, Cultural Studies, and Comparative Literature, to offer some examples.  Strong ability in a modern mainland Nordic language (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, or Swedish) is required; ability in modern Icelandic would be a welcome plus.  The candidate is expected to contribute courses to the undergraduate and graduate programs in Scandinavian that will also appeal to students working in other academic fields. Demonstrated research excellence and teaching ability are required.  Ph.D. is expected to be completed by spring of 2011.

Also on the West Coast, the University of Oregon is looking for an Old English expert, but Old Norse is specified as a desideratum:

The University of Oregon Department of English seeks an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Old English Literature.  We expect the candidate to be able to teach Middle English literature; knowledge of Old Norse language and literature is also desirable. We particularly encourage candidates whose research engages issues that intersect with the interests of colleagues in other literary periods and fields; these issues include, but are not limited to, race, community and nationhood; gender and sexuality, literature and the environment.

Minimum Requirements: Ph.D. in English or related field in hand by time of appointment. Salary is competitive.

The best of luck to any readers of ONN who decide to apply. Please let us know if you hear of any similar openings in the autumn hiring season.

Good news from the University of Aberdeen, where–despite the economic difficulties that are smiting higher education in Britain–the Centre for Scandinavian Studies is offering four funded PhD places for 2010/11 and a further four for the next academic year. They are looking for qualified candidates in the following subject areas:  Nordic medieval law and policy, Old Norse sagas and poetry, the pre-Christian religion and mythology of Scandinavia, Christianization of Scandinavia, Viking Studies, early landscape studies or related fields.

These studentships are fees-only, although they say that they may also be able to contribute to students’ maintenance. Three posts each year are for British or EU students with the other one open to candidates from anywhere in the world. See the advertisement for details or the Centre’s own website.

Visiting Scholar in Old Norse Studies for Spring 2010

The Department of English and The Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico have sponsored an annual stipend for a visiting Scholar in Medieval Scandinavian Studies for some years.

The Visiting Scholar in Medieval Scandinavian Studies is open to scholars who have published in Old Norse language and literature. The position carries with it visiting scholar status at the University of New Mexico and a stipend of $10,000. The successful candidate will teach a class in Scandinavian Mythology. We are seeking candidates for this position for Spring 2010. Please reply by May 1, 2009.

Those interested may apply to:

Professor Helen Damico

UNM Presidential Teaching Fellow

Director, Medieval Graduate Studies in English
Department of English Language and Literature

http.//www.unm.edu/hdamico.unm.edu
hdamico@unm.edu

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.

I don’t know if any reader of Old Norse News is illustrious enough to picture themselves as the Director of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík, but applications are now being sought for one of the most prestigious and important jobs in the field of Icelandic studies:

Position as the director of the Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies available

Applications are being sought for the position as the director of the Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies. The appointment will be for five years from 1 March 2009. The deadline for submitting applications is September 30, 2008. For further details of the announcement: www.arnastofnun.is/english

The Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies was established by law in the Icelandic Parliament on June 2, 2006. The function of the Institute includes “carrying on research in Icelandic studies and related fields, especially in the area of Icelandic literatureand language.”

The very best of luck to any reader who thinks of applying!

The Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum has invited applications for next year’s Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowships. I had the great good fortune to receive one of these this year (indeed I’m still in Reykjavík at the time of writing), and I can’t speak highly enough of the support that they offer. So, if you’d like to spend three months working on an Icelandic project in situ, you really should consider applying.

The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies invites applications for the Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowships for 2009. The Fellowships are granted to writers, translators and scholars (not students) from outside Iceland, to enable them to stay in Iceland for a period of at least three months, in order to improve their knowledge of the Icelandic language, culture and society. Read more »