In the summer 'vacation', most academics are busy writing books and articles (or their PhD), but they also use this time to extend their skills and knowledge by attending conferences and courses, go on pilgrimages to the places they study, organise conferences, and give lectures to both academic and wider audiences. This summer, members of the CSVA have been busy with all of the above.
In July, and MA students Martina Fazio, Aidan Gaunt, and Rebecca Gregory formed the team organising the Institute for Medieval Research's annual . The quality of both papers and discussion was extremely high. Alongside several international participants (including PhD student Benoit Humbert from France who will be visiting Nottingham in 2013-14), Nottingham contributions were a keynote paper by on 'Transmitting the Tales of the Norwegian Hrafnista Heroes from the Middle Ages to Today', as well as , and MA student Thomas Spray.
extended her Norwegian skills by attending the at the University of Oslo.
In August, both Professor Judith Jesch and Dr Christina Lee took part in the , a prestigious quadrennial event, held this time in Shetland, where among others they caught up with former Nottingham Special Professors and , and former MA student . Although the Congress is invitation-only, the first day was given over to public lectures open to non-delegates. In this session, Judith gave a talk on 'The Concept of "Homeland" in the Viking Diaspora', presaging some of the themes of her forthcoming book.
In these weeks before term starts, both Judith and Christina have been invited to give talks on their research. Christina is lecturing on at the University of Iceland. Judith is associated with both the Jelling project and (and coming to London in 2014). She has been asked to give a
As the summer draws to a close, we are looking forward to welcoming this year's intake of new students. More about them in a forthcoming news item!
Posted on Friday 6th September 2013