The University of Oslo has recently launched the Great Viking Survey, a wide-ranging study to explore how people across the world perceive and engage with the vikings as history and heritage, and to map the many ways in which contemporary media and academia shape these views. This online survey invites anyone, anywhere, over 18, to share their thoughts on the iconic viking warrior figure, as well as the enduring legacy and memory of the vikings in the modern world. In doing so, researchers will be able to shine an unprecedented light on the means and mechanisms that allow images and myths of the vikings to be shaped and spread in the public sphere.

The survey is part of the Making a Warrior-project, a pan-Nordic network of scholars examining the concept of viking ‘warriorhood’ and its representations past and present. By determining how ideas and images of vikings are shared among different communities and demographics, the project is able inform future outreach and cultural heritage initiatives that respond to public interest, while fostering a nuanced appreciation of the Viking Age.

The Great Viking Survey is now live at vikingsurvey.org, and remains open until mid-May 2025.

Please feel free to share far and wide!

The summary of the job is as follows:

The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts seeks an enthusiastic processing archivist to work with curators and processing staff to lead a new Penn Libraries initiative to acquire process, and make available the archives assembled by scholars in medieval studies and of professional organizations that advance the field. Situated in the Kislak Center for Rare Books, Manuscripts and Special Collections, the Elizabeth A.R. Brown archivist will be a member of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscripts Studies (SIMS) team and the Archives and Manuscripts Processing Unit. The archivist will arrange and describe analog, digital, and hybrid archival collections, create EAD finding aids using ArchivesSpace in order to provide access to collections, and will contribute posts to the Kislak Center blogs and other social media. The archivist will work with the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Texts and Imaging (SCETI) to ensure that selected material is digitized according to established best practices so that they are made available to a global community of scholars in a timely fashion. The processing archivist will work with fellow archivists within the Penn Libraries and across campus to improve workflows, policies and practices in an effort to respond to and anticipate the evolving needs of the archival profession and the Penn Libraries’ vision of responsibly and ethically promoting access to collections.

Full details can be found here: https://wd1.myworkdaysite.com/en-US/recruiting/upenn/careers-at-penn/details/Elizabeth-AR-Brown-Archivist_JR00101222

ArchaeoTek Bio/Archaeological Techniques and Research Centre has announced its 2025 summer field schools for undergraduate and graduate students. Students gain archaeological and forensic experience in Europe. There is an option to pay for course credits, which students may be able to transfer to their home institution. Or, one can participate as a volunteer and not receive credit. (I didn't see a clear application deadline posted in my cursory reading of the announcement.) 

• 1.      Roman Villa and Settlement Excavation, Transylvania, Romania: https://www.archaeotek-archaeology.org/roman-villa-excavation
• 2.      Medieval Cemetery Funeral Excavation, Transylvania, Romania: https://www.archaeotek-archaeology.org/medieval-cemetery-funerary-excavation
• 3.      Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project Expedition (GRAPE), investigating Neolithic (= end of the Stone Age) culture of the Caucuses region and early wine growing. Marneuli, Republic of Georgia: https://grape.utoronto.ca/

Textual Traditions and Medieval Literary Culture: Essays in Honour of Siân Echard

Edited by William Green, Daniel Helbert and Noëlle Phillips, newly appearing from D. S. Brewer, Jan. 2025. https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843846987/textual-traditions-and-medieval-literary-culture/

The British Library is looking for a curator of Illuminated Manuscripts. Details of position available at: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLG538/curator-of-illuminated-manuscripts

Call for Participants for the CSM's Online Research Forum, 1 Mar. 2025 - Appel à contributions pour le Forum de recherche en ligne de la SCM, 1 mars 2025. Deadline 15 Feb./ date limite 15 fév. 

Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2025–2027, a two-year post with a focus on Natural History Humanities. A collaboration between Cambridge University Library and the Collections-Connections-Communities research initiative. Proposals are welcome on topics which encompass the broadly interpreted fields of bibliography and natural history that draw on the world-class collections of Cambridge's libraries and museums.

Further details: https://lnkd.in/gk5S-Yec

The closing date is 17 January 2025 - for queries Dr Suzanne Paul, Keeper of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library, sp510@cam.ac.uk

Good afternoon!

I am writing to invite anyone with interest in Canadian Byzantine matters to consider becoming a member of the Canadian Committee of Byzantinists.

I am writing as the Secretary- Treasurer of the organization to invite people to join our group so that we can reach as many scholars and students of Byzantium as possible. With your membership, you will receive a copy of CANADIO-BYZANTINA, our newsletter,  which provides an accounting of news and anything else our members wish to share in the Byzantine sphere. If you do decide to join us, and have Byzantine news, you can send any content to Geoffrey Greatrex greatrex@uottawa.ca as soon as possible.  We try to get the newsletter out soon in the new year.

Annual dues are due,  which enable us to belong to the Association Internationale and support initiatives like the annual undergraduate essay prize. Full membership costs $30, student membership $15 – a bargain! 

The preferred method of payment is through e-transfer by Interac on autodeposit. Please use your online banking service and my email address – marica.cassis@ucalgary.ca - to send your membership fee. You will see The Canadian Committee of Byzantinists as the recipient (not me personally!). 

If you don’t do or like online banking, you may continue to send a cheque payable to 'The Canadian Committee of Byzantinists' to me at the address below when the strike is over:

Dr. Marica Cassis

Department of History

University of Calgary

SS 608, 527 Campus Place NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4

I would be grateful if I could receive your transfers or cheques no later than December 20. 

And please encourage  anyone you know who is associated with the field – especially grad students – to join the organization. I’m available for any questions or queries, so feel free to forward my email.

Thanks in advance,

Marica Cassis

Secretary-Treasurer, Canadian Committee of Byzantinists

Applications for the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies are now being accepted. The due date is February 1, 2025. For more information about the fellowships and the application form, please see this link. 

MIDIS DU LABORATOIRE DE PHILOSOPHIE ANCIENNE ET MÉDIÉVALE DE LA FACULTÉ DE PHILOSOPHIE DE L'UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL

Lundi le 9 décembre

de 11h30 à 12h20, FAS-428

MONSIEUR Pierre-Luc Desjardins

Docteur en philosophie (Université de Montréal), associé au Laboratoire d’Études sur les Monothéismes (CNRS UMR 8584) prononcera, suivie d'une période de questions, une conférence (à distance) intitulée

Vouloir le bien par habitude ? Gonzalve d’Espagne et l’hypothèse des affectiones