Thanks!

As we all head home from this year’s ICMS at Kalamazoo, The New England Saga Society would like to thank our roundtable participants and audience, who braved the early hour and inclement weather to take part in a spirited pooling of ideas for teaching Old Norse literature in the undergraduate classroom.

To follow up on a couple of sites recommended during the session:

 

• http://public.gettysburg.edu/~cfee/

Chris Fee’s homepage at Gettysburg College, offering syllabi, schedules, multimedia, and other information. Some of Fee’s treasure trove of saga assignments are available at: http://public.gettysburg.edu/~cfee/sagaassignments/

 

• http://www.vikingnorse.com/

Jesse Byock’s site attached to his newly-released “Viking Language Series,” offering text samples, audio recordings of Old Norse, teaching videos, and more.

 

N.E.S.S. will be submitting panels for the 2014 Congress very soon, and will be making other announcements about new projects in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, safe travels to all making their way home today!

ICMS 2013 Session Announcement

N.E.S.S. is pleased to invite all interested parties to our organization-sponsored roundtable at the International Congress in Kalamazoo next month:

Session 207 (10AM Friday, May 10)

Saga Studies in the Undergraduate Classroom: Finding a Place for the Sagas Two and Four-Year Colleges and Universities

Moderator: Andrew M. Pfrenger (Kent State University at Salem)

• John Sexton (Bridgewater State University) “How (and Why) to Run an Undergraduate Sagas Course”
• Jesse Byock (University of California–Los Angeles) “Teaching Sagas and Old Norse in Two and Four Year Colleges and Universities: New Directions”
• Chris Fee (Gettysburg College) “Setting a Saga Course Across the Medieval North Atlantic in the Liberal Arts Classroom”
• Eric Carlson (University of South Carolina–Aiken) “Njal’s Saga as the Keystone Text in an Interdisciplinary Course”
• Eric Bryan (Missouri University of Science and Technology) “Teaching Old Norse lit at an Engineering School”

We hope to see all those interested in saga studies and look forward to an exciting discussion.

Call for Participants: NESS at Kalamazoo 2013 Roundtable on Teaching the Sagas

The Society will be proposing a roundtable for the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies. In 2008, NESS, which has from its 2003 inception made its primary goal the promotion of Saga studies in North American academe, gathered members of this community together for two round-tables on the state of the field in American universities. One of the themes that grew out of those discussions was the felt need for emphasis on teaching Scandinavian literature in the undergraduate classroom. Five years on, our 2013 panel will take up that issue with a discussion on the experiences, successes, and trials of those who teach sagas and other Scandinavian literature at two- and four-year colleges and universities.

We have several participants already lined up, but are interested in adding one or two more. If you have experience teaching the sagas and would like to join the conversation, please let us know! The organizers for this panel are John P. Sexton (john.sexton@bridgew.edu) and Andrew Pfrenger (apfrenge@kent.edu); either may be contacted with a brief statement of interest and relevant experience.

CFP: Kalamazoo 2012

Saga Studies (sponsored by N.E.S.S.)

The call for papers for the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo for 2012 has gone out, and the New England Saga Society is organizing a wide-reaching panel on “Saga Studies.” We seek papers taking a variety of approaches to the study of medieval Icelandic literature, or on the metacritical questions of “saga studies” as a discipline. Any and all paper proposals are welcome.

Please send all inquiries and proposals to Andy Pfrenger, Kent State University–Salem (apfrenge@kent.edu). The deadline for submissions is September 15.

 

A number of N.E.S.S.’s fellow organizers are putting together panels on Scandinavian studies for the 2012 meeting as well. Consider submitting to any of the following panels:

Other Sponsored Sessions

Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (S.A.S.S.)
I. Scandinavian Studies
II. Natural and Supernatural Landscapes in Old Norse (Roundtable discussion panel)
Contact Person: Shaun F. D. Hughes, Purdue University (sfdh@purdue.edu)

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at St. Louis University
III. Old Norse Literature and Culture
Contact Person: Thomas F. Madden, St. Louis University (harvey@slu.edu

Special Sessions

I. Medieval Icelandic Law
II. Medieval Icelandic Bishop’s Sagas
Contact Person: Jana K. Schulman, Western Michigan University (jana.schulman@wmich.edu)

III. Between Theory and Practice: Late Medieval Scandinavian Political Thought
Contact Person: Leidulf Melve, University of Bergen (leidulf.melve@cms.uib.no)

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to the New England Saga Society (N.E.S.S.) blog! We’ll be adding materials to this site over the next few weeks. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!