Previous guest lectures and seminars

2019

Guest lecture: The Language of Feminism, Anchored in Hope

Professor Cheryl Glenn will give a guest lecture Friday November 15. The lecture is titled “The Language of Feminism, Anchored in Hope” and is open to everyone.

Time and place: 15. nov. 2019 10:15–11:00, Eilert Sundts Hus, A-Blokka. Auditorium 5

Abstract

“The Language of Feminism, Anchored in Hope” honors contemporary expansions of rhetoric in terms of theory, practitioners, and practices. I’ve forged a new pathway that begins at the nexus of rhetoric, feminism, and hope, a juncture where the rhetorical practices and power of so-called Others have remained mostly disregarded—perhaps because they purposefully resist traditional rhetorical practices and displays. Nonetheless, many of these Others are formidable rhetors whose feminist praxes are admirably potent. In my presentation, I codify these resistant practices as constituent features of a theory I call “rhetorical feminism.” My hope is that the best parts of these rhetorical feminist praxes will meld with the best parts of rhetoric writ large.

About the lecturer

Cheryl Glenn is Distinguished Professor of English and Women’a Studies at Penn State University, Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, and co-founder of Penn State’s Center for Democratic Deliberation. Her scholarly work focuses on histories of women’s rhetorics and writing practices, feminist theories and practices, inclusionary rhetorical practices and theories, and contexts and processes for the teaching of writing. In 2015, she received an honorary doctorate from Orebro University for her rhetorical scholarship and influence. In 2019, she received the Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar Award.

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Depictions of the Heavens: The Interface of Science, Religion and Art in Medieval Scandinavia

Welcome to a guest lecture by Christian Etheridge, University of Copenhagen 

Time and place: Sep. 30, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, P.A. Munchs hus, seminarrom 3

The cosmos was depicted in medieval art in a variety of forms, with the artists having to supplement the very basic biblical descriptions of the universe with information stemming from scientific manuals. This created many artistic portrayals of the cosmos in the form of images in church art, manuscripts and early printed images. These are put into content of the location where they would have been viewed and those who would interpret the images for a wider audience in the form of sermons and lectures.

Christian Etheridge will treat some of these portrayals of the cosmos in a medieval Scandinavian context during the period 1000–1550.

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Sophus Bugge Annual Lecture: Perfect Men? The Nine Worthies and Medieval Masculinity

Talk on nine great heroes, or "Nine Worthies" of medieval art and literature, by Professor Ruth Mazo Karras, Trinity College Dublin.

Time and place: Mar. 27, 2019 4:15 PM, Auditorium 2 Georg Sverdrups hus

The masculine virtues of the "Nine Worthies"

Beginning in the early fourteenth century, the ‘Nine Worthies’ became a popular theme in medieval art and literature. These nine great heroes epitomised the masculine virtue of prowess.

This lecture will discuss what other virtues they represented and what virtues were missing. Ideal manhood could differ significantly across different social groups within western European Christian society, but this lecture argues that there were important shared features. Even depicting pagans and Jews as well as Christians, and in non-ecclesiastical contexts, the Nine Worthies present a vision of exemplary masculinity that includes ideas about the crusade, and about women as sexual temptations.

About the speaker

Ruth Mazo Karras is the Lecky Professor of Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin. Previously she was a Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

She is the President of the Medieval Academy of America, and General Editor of the Middle Ages Series of the University of Pennsylvania Press. She is a former Co-Editor of "Gender & History" and member of the editorial board of the "American Historical Review". She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and EURIAS.

She has written books and articles on a wide variety of subjects in the history of gender and sexuality.

Sophus Bugge Annual Lecture

Sophus Bugge is a foundational figure for the study of Scandinavian, and most prominently Old Norse culture and language.

The Sophus Bugge Annual Lecture series aims to present international and excellent research in the multidisciplinary study of the Scandinavian Middle Ages in the tradition of Sophus Bugge.

Organizers

The event takes place in collaboration between the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN), the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH), and the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas (IFIKK) at the Faculty of Humanities, and the Norwegian School of Theology (MF).

2018

Sophus Bugge Annual Lecture: Misadventure and Mischance at King Arthur`s Court: Guinevere`s Trial in La mort le Roi Artu

Speech by Stephen D. White, Emory University. The lecture provide a legal historical interpretation of an early 13th-century French prose-romance in order to show how so-called fantastic literature can sometimes be read as raising profound questions about law and politics.

Time and place: Mar. 7, 2018 4:00 PM, Georg Sverdrups hus, Lille auditorium.

In "La mort le Roi Artu" (c.1230), Queen Guinevere is accused of treacherously poisoning Gaheris, a knight of King Arthur’s, but is later acquitted when Lancelot proves by battle against Gaheris’s brother Mador that the queen had no treason in mind.  Because the story shows that Guinevere caused Gaheris to die by giving him a poisoned fruit to eat, but did so without knowing that it was poisoned, the killing resembles other “misadventures” and “mischances” that befall many characters in this prose-romance when one of them harms or kills another without intending to do so.  By analyzing Guinevere’s trial for killing by treason in relation to other cases of “misadventure” and “mischance,” I show how "La mort le Roi Artu" – like other Arthurian romances – makes artful use of odd coincidences, accidents, disguises, honest and dishonest misunderstandings, ridiculous conspiracies and other plot-devices to raise serious questions about legal and moral responsibility, intention, treason, loyalty, and sin in kingdoms of the High Middle Ages.

About the lecturer

Stephen D. White is Candler Professor of Medieval History (emeritus) at Emory University. He was part of an anthropological turn within medieval studies, and wrote important articles from the late 1970s onwards discussing the social, political and legal order in “feudal” France. Here he argued against the widespread opinion that this was a “feudal anarchy”, instead highlighting alternative ways of creating and maintaining social order without a state. Since the 1990s, Professor White has written extensively on emotions, holding that Norbert Elias’ view on the “civilizing” of emotions needs to be drastically revised. Increasingly, White has turned to inter-disciplinary methods in his research, exploring so-called “unhistorical” literature and works of art (including the Bayeux Tapestry) for their implicit discussions on contemporary issues. Some of Stephen White’s most important contributions are collected in "Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France" (2005) and "Re-Thinking Kinship and Feudalism in Early Medieval Europe" (2006, both in Ashgate Variorum series).

About Sophus Bugges Annual Lecture

Sophus Bugge is a foundational figure for the study of Scandinavian, and most prominently Old Norse culture and language. The Sophus Bugge Annual Lecture series aims at presenting international and excellent research in the multidisciplinary study of the Scandinavian Middle Ages in the tradition of Sophus Bugge.

Young medievalists awarded with grants from Kaja & Torfinn Tobiassens fund for medieval studies will be presented in conncection with the lecture.

Organizers

• Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN) 
• Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH), 
• Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas (IFIKK), 
• Faculty of Humanities (HF)  
• Norwegian School of Theology (MF)

2017

Old Norse and Celtic Forum: Oral and Written Cultures in Medieval Scandinavia

PhD-fellows Johan Bollaert and Bianca Patria will present their new projects about oral and written cultures in medieval Scandinavia.

Time and place: Nov. 2, 2017 5:15 PM–8:00 PM, P.A. Munchs hus, seminar room 3

Roman alphabetical inscriptions from Scandinavia

Johan Bollaert compares alphabetical inscriptions with runic inscriptions and manuscript texts, in order to determine their place within the different medieval writing cultures in Scandinavia. He investigates which oral and written elements the alphabetical inscriptions share with the other writing cultures in Scandinavia, and how this can be connected to the societal context. 

Poetic synonyms in skaldic poetry

Bianca Patria wants to shed light on the meaning of "heiti" from a lexical, semantic and stylistic point of view. She does this by means of linguistic and etymological analysis. A significant number of skaldic stanzas will be translated and analyzed. Patria's hypothesis states that "heiti" are not merely combinational units or metrical devices, but full sense-bearing expressions.

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Norrønt forum: Body and Soul in Old Norse Culture

Presentation by Elisa Kleivane and Marie Novotná.

Time and place: Jan. 31, 2017 5:15 PM, P.A.Munchs building, seminar room 3

There will be two presentations on the topic:

• Elise Kleivane (Old Norse philology, University of Oslo) will talk about senses and the soul in medieval mass.
• Marie Novotná (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague) will present the Old Norse concept of "hamr" between the soul and the body.

Organizer

The Norrønt forum Organizing committee.

2016

"Norrønt Forum": Memory and the past

Time and place: Feb. 11, 2016 5:15 PM, P.A. Muchs hus, sem. room 4

• Pernille Hermann (ass. prof. Aarhus University) will talk about “Memory Imagery in Sagas of Icelanders”.
• Mikael Males (PhD, University of Oslo) will speak about “Memory and Knowledge in the Middle Ages”.
• Jon Gunnar Jørgensen (prof. University of Oslo) will talk about “The Recovery of the Old Norse Literature by the Renaissance Humanists”.  

Old Norse Literature is to a large extent centered on memories of the past. In the Middle Ages, memory was perceived as an active and creative part of the intellect, and its uses were correspondingly varied.

We wish to focus on the uses of memory for the discovery of the past and of knowledge generally, and finally on the rediscovery of the Old Norse past in a later era.    

Organizer

Norrønt Forum

2015

"Norrønt Forum": Supernaturality in Old Norse Literature

Daniel Sävborg (prof. University of Tartu): "Encounter with Otherworld beings in the Íslendingasögur: the Spatial dimension".

Sandra Schneeberger (ph.D. student University of Zürich): "Giant gloves and deceptive cats. Some ideas about the functions of supernaturality in the Prose Edda".

Time and place: Nov. 26, 2015 5:15 PM–8:00 PM, P. A. Munchs hus, seminar room 10

Old Norse Literature features many supernatural actions and spaces. Who were able to experience supernatural actions and who recognize objects as supernatural? And, since it plays such a prominent role in the literature: How does supernaturality structure the narratives?

Organizer

Norrønt Forum

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Biblical kings and medieval kingship theory

Guest lecturer: Elizabeth Boyle, Maynooth University.

Time and place: Oct. 20, 2015 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Kristen Nygaards hus, Lille Auditorium

Theories of kingship in the Middle Ages drew ultimately on biblical models, mediated through the scholarly interpretive lenses of exegesis, commentary and historiography. The kingship ideology underlying the Kongungs Skuggsjá situates the text within wider European traditions, not only of political theory, but also of scholarly practice and intellectual enquiry.

This lecture will focus on medieval European scholarship regarding two kings: the Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great (sixth century BCE); and David son of Jesse (c. 1000 BCE), who is depicted in the Old Testament as king of the unified kingdoms of Judah and Israel. These kings were widely used as models of kingship in medieval learned literature.

The lecture will examine learned texts from a variety of sources and languages, but with a focus primarily on vernacular texts surviving from later medieval Ireland, in order to explore ideas of kingship, governance, and the succession of ‘world empires’ in medieval Europe.

Organizer

Research group for Norse and Celtic philology

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"Norrønt Forum": The Medieval Church

Now and Then: Museum Object, Medieval Liturgy and Runic Inscriptions. Talk about Gol stave church and the medieval runic inscriptions inside the church. Open for all.

Time and place: Oct. 13, 2015 4:00 PM, Norsk Folkemuseum

Mogens With (Architect) and Monica Mørch (Historian) (both from Norsk Folkemuseum) will talk about Gol stave church as a museum object, the moving of the church and further plans for the church.

Elise Kleivane (Philologist, University of Oslo) will give us an introduction to medieval liturgy and Alessia Bauer (Philologist/runologist, University of Oslo) will lead us through the medieval runic inscriptions inside the church.

Organizer

"Norrønt Forum"

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Geographical space c. 1200-1400: a world with many images

Alfred Hiatt, Queen Mary University of London.

Time and place: Sep. 15, 2015 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Kristin Nygaards hus, Lille Auditorium

This lecture will provide an overview of key developments in European geographical thought in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It will comprise three main sections. The first will offer a brief survey of ‘traditional’ knowledge of the world as inherited and adapted by the Middle Ages from classical antiquity.

The second and third sections will outline what might be considered challenges to these traditions. Section two will examine challenges from external sources: first, from the materials imported to the Latin west from the Islamic world, which offered innovations to theoretical geography; second, from the expansion of practical knowledge of Asia, the Atlantic and other parts of the world through the reports of travellers, merchants and missionaries.

Finally, section three will examine the challenge from within Latin culture posed by humanism, which brought new energy to the study of geography as a means of reconstructing aspects of the classical world. As this summary suggests, the main theme of the lecture will be that there was no single medieval image of the world but several, sometimes in competition, sometimes in co-existence.

Organizer

The research group for Old Norse and Celtic philology

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Parisian intellectuals and 'encylopaedic tendencies' in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

Ian Wei, University of Bristol.

Time and place: Sep. 8, 2015 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Kristen Nygaards hus, Lille Auditorium

I will begin by exploring the development of schools in northern France in the twelfth century, noting the highly competitive environment in which students and masters pursued a new type of career, often leading to tensions between schoolmen and monks.

I will then turn to the emergence of the University of Paris in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries and the nature of the academic community that took shape during the thirteenth century.

Finally, I will discuss what I will call ‘encylopaedic tendencies’ in Parisian intellectual culture, taking this to mean the urge to gather universal knowledge and place it within meaningful frameworks.

I will focus on Hugh of Saint Victor’s Didascalicon, Porphyry’s trees as part of the basic study of logic, the way in which quodlibetal questions were ordered within overarching structures, and theological summae.

If time permits, I may also briefly discuss my current work on the attitudes of Parisian intellectuals to ‘others’, and how they were placed within the taxonomies used to structure theological summae.

Organizer

The research group for Old Norse and Celtic philology

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Composition and Message in The King's Mirror

Sverre Bagge, University of Bergen

Time and place: Sep. 1, 2015 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, Helga Engs hus, Auditorium 2

The title Speculum seems to indicate that the King’s Mirror should be regarded as a popular genre of its time, the large encyclopedic works, as for example the ones compiled by Vincent of Beauvais at about the same time. The title of the King’s Mirror has been interpreted in this way, as a compilation of knowledge.

The interpretation of the author himself, however, as presented in the prologue would seem to indicate a more covering explanation, focused on the moral content: the reader is expected to see himself as if in a mirror. There was in the Middle Ages always a close connection between knowledge and moral. The lecture will treat this connection and how it is expressed in the King’s Mirror.

Organizer

The research group for Old Norse and Celtic philology

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Working with Runica Manuscripta: some methodological considerations

Alessia Bauer, University of Munich.

Tid og sted: 19. mai 2015 14:15–16:00, P. A. Munchs hus, seminarrom 1

Despite the pioneer-work of René Derolez from 1954 “Runica manuscripta – the English Tradition”, working with manuscript-runes continues to be a great challenge. For this special field of runology there isn’t until now any theoretical and methodological approach. That’s why scholars have to base their studies mostly on empirical analyses.

In my paper I would like to focus on different aspects of my work with manuscript records and show how problematic and at the same time intriguing it can be, the first ‘difficulties’ starting already by the definition of the corpus. An edition of the entire Scandinavian material ‒ which shall be concluded at the end of the current year – will hopefully represent the first step towards a better understanding and analysis of this special kind of literacy.

Organizer

The Research group for Norse and Celtic

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Global Medieval Virtual Seminar

Jerusalem in Medieval Scandinavia: The integration of the north in the Oikumene of Latin Christendom

Time and place: 8. may 2015 16:15–18:00, Georg Sverdrups hus, room 3514

Professor Kristin B. Aavitsland, MF Norwegian School of Theology

Abstract: The paper presents a new research project, Tracing the Jerusalem Code: Christian cultures in Scandinavia, hosted by MF Norwegian School of Theology and starting up in August 2015. The project aims to explore the structuring significance of Jerusalem in Scandinavian history. Through a interdisciplinary and cross-period investigation of literal and visual sources and with the changing idea of Jerusalem as a lens, the project partners want to develop new theoretical perspectives on the history of Christianity in Scandinavia.

Project leader Kristin B. Aavitsland will present the objectives of the project as a whole, before addressing some of the issues concerning medieval Jerusalem interpretations in Denmark and Norway, especially during the 12th century.

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Tonality in Middle Icelandic

Tonality in Middle Icelandic – The evidence from poetry. Haukur Þorgeirsson, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum. 

Time and place: 17. apr. 2015 10:15–12:00, Seminar room 1, PAM

Modern Icelandic has no trace of the tonality distinction found in Norwegian. In a 2010 article, Klaus Johan Myrvoll and Trygve Skomedal argued that this distinction must have been present in Old Icelandic. Based on a close reading of the 13th century grammatical treatise by Óláfr Þórðarson, they showed the potential for tonal distinction to affect Icelandic poetry.

Building on the Myrvoll-Skomedal work, as well as previous observations by Jón Helgason and Stefán Karlsson, Haukur Þorgeirsson has investigated a large corpus of rímur poetry from the period 1350–1950. In the period 1350–1550, the poets do not use disyllabic words like góður (< góðr) or löndin (< lǫnd+in), which should have accent 1, at the end of a line. This restriction weakens in the 16th century and disappears altogether in the following centuries.

One plausible interpretation of the data is that Icelandic had a tonal distinction which was lost in the 16th century.

Haukur Þorgeirsson holds an MS degree in computer science and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Iceland. He works as a research lecturer at the Árni Magnússon Institute.

Organizer

Research group for Norse and Celtic philology

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Heimskringla and Egils saga

Heimskringla and Egils saga – A stylometric analysis. Haukur Þorgeirsson, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum. 

Time and place: 15. apr. 2015 15:15–17:00, Seminar room 1, PAM

Peter Hallberg performed a detailed stylistic comparison between a number of Old Icelandic texts. One of his conclusions was that there are close similarities between Heimskringla and Egils saga, indicating common authorship.

While many have accepted Hallberg’s results, there have been a number of critical voices as well as radically different theories on the text of Heimskringla. Jonna Louis-Jensen has argued that Heimskringla is not the work of one author. Sigurjón Páll Ísaksson has argued that Heimskringla, Fagrskinna and Morkinskinna are all works by the same author. Alan J. Berger has argued that Heimskringla is an abbreviation of Hulda-Hrokkinskinna.

Haukur Þorgeirsson evaluates the competing theories in the light of stylometric evidence.

Organizer

Research group for Norse and Celtic philology

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Conceiving the Word

Conceiving the Word: Mary as Hermeneutic Key in Medieval Women's Visionary Narratives

Time and place: 17. March 2015 14:15–16:00, HW 536

Lecture by Laura Saetveit Miles, University of Bergen. 

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Global Medieval Virtual Seminar

Searching for Marguerite Porete, lecture by Professor E.A.R. Brown, Professor Emerita, City University of New York.

Tid og sted: 27. feb. 2015 16:15, Georg Sverdrups hus, Elektronisk klasserom, Rom 3514

Abstract: I have been searching for Marguerite Porete for five years.  My quest began at a conference in Paris, held on 31 May and 1 June 2010 to commemorate the burning on 1 June 1310 at the Place de Grève of Marguerite Porete, alleged author of a heretical book on the soul’s relationship to God.  Just one contemporary chronicler recorded her execution, presenting it with the burning the same day of a relapsed converted Jew convicted of spitting on images of the Virgin and the harsh punishment of Marguerite’s companion Guiard de Cressonessart, who called himself the Angel of Philadelphia.  Since 1944, owing to the scholar Romana Guarnieri, Marguerite has been acclaimed as the author of the mystical treatise, The Book of Simple Souls, which since at least 1911 had been known to scholars (and attributed to a male author).

Intrigued by Lydia Wegener’s challenge at the conference to consider Marguerite apart from this work, I have spent the intervening years looking at every scrap of evidence that survives – which turns out to be the six acts now preserved in a carton (with documents relating to the Albigensians) at the Archives nationales in Paris.  Having published articles challenging the usefulness to understanding Marguerite of remarks made by the English Carmelite John Baconthorpe († 1347) and Jean Gerson (1363-1429), I am continuing my search for Marguerite Porete – and her companion Guiard de Cressonessart, too often overlooked but the subject of equal attention in the documents. 

In the seminar I will describe the approaches I am using, which include using the tools of integral paleography described by Leonard Boyle and deconstructing chronicle sources to establish their biases and perspectives.  In the seminar, through dialogue with other scholars interested in Marguerite and her work, I will try to explain why I consider the search worthwhile and why I have no intention of abandoning it.
 

2013

Etymology and Paronomasia in Medieval Literatures

Time and place: October 9th 2013. Georg Sverdrups hus (Universitetsbiblioteket) Room 2531.

Workshop program

• Mikael Males (University of Oslo): Presentation of the Project and Outline of the Latin Background
• Frank Coulson (The Ohio State University): The Use of Etymology and the Figure of Paronomasia in Latin Commentary on the Classics in the Middle Ages
• Keith Busby (University of Wisconsin-Madison): The Terminal Paronomasia of Gautier de Coinci
• Stephen Carey (University of Minnesota): Ambiguum and Paronomasia: Macaronics in Middle High German Literature
• Julia Verkholantsev (University of Pennsylvania): Etymology, Paronomasia, and the Construction of Slavic Historical Identity
• Jan Erik Rekdal (University of Oslo): Etymology and Polysemy as a Literary Device in Medieval Irish Literature
• Eric Weiskott (Yale University): Puns and Poetic Style in Old English
• Mikael Males: Etymological Interpretation of Dreams in Old Icelandic Literature 

2011

Women Writers in History

The guest lecture

10.15 – 12.00, Aud. 4, Eilert Sundts hus, Blindern

Suzan van Dijk, Huygens Institute, Netherlands, chair of the COST action: "’Women Writers In History’: the relevance of studying literature.”

The seminar: “Scandinavia within the European context: Women's contributions to European literary culture before World War I.”

12.15 – 18.00 Rådssalen, Lucy Smiths hus, Blindern

Papers

• Torill Steinfeld, University of Oslo: “Personal voices and unaffected writing: Camilla Collett, Rahel Varnhagen,Therese von Bacheracht”

• Petra Broomans, University of Groningen: “Awards and networks. A secret formula for the canonization of a cultural transmitter? On Swedish women´s literature in Dutch translation”

• Tone Selboe, University of Oslo: “Male Melancholics and Female Fighters: Camilla Collett on George Sand”

• Marie Nedregotten Sørbø, University College of Volda: “Genius and housewife: The Norwegian nineteenth-century reception of George Eliot.”

• Janet Garton, Norwich: “Amalie Skram and her German translators”

• Viola Capkova, University of Turku: “Finnish Women Writers as Translators and Mediators of Writing by European Women at the Turn of the 18th and the 19th Century”

• Ragnhild J. Zorgati, University of Oslo: “From Denmark to the hammam: the international female networks of the Danish – Polish painter Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann”

Organizer

Tone Brekke, STK, Anne Birgitte Rønning, ILOS, Torill Steinfeld, ILN

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Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st Century

Time and place: 5. may 2011 10:15–15:00, 536 HW

• Mimesis and Alterity in recent American Hip-Hop
  Cecelia Cutler, City University of New York, Lehman College
• Diversity in interaction and discourses on diversity
  Lian Malai Madsen, University of Copenhagen

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