ASNC Noticeboard

2010-11

The annual Quiggin lecture will be held in room G-R 06/07 at 5pm on Thursday, 2 December, 2010. It will be given by Professor Liam Breatnach of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The lecture title is: The early Irish law text senchas már and the question of its date. The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Social Space - all are welcome.

November 2010

BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' 9am Thursday, 11 November: Dr Elizabeth Rowe, lecturer in Scandinavian Medieval History, joins Melvyn Bragg and other guests to discuss the Volga Vikings. In the 8th century AD a group of Norsemen travelled through the land now known as Russia into Central Asia and founded settlements there. They penetrated so far east that their activities were documented by Arab scholars: one, Ahmed ibn Fadlan, recorded that the Volga Vikings were perfect physical specimens but also "the filthiest of God's creatures". Through trade and culture they brought West and East into regular contact for the first time; their story sheds light on both Scandinavian and early Islamic history.

Post-doctoral Research Fellow in medieval Icelandic literature, Emily Lethbridge, is planning an ambitious and exciting project for 2011: a year-long '21st-century pilgrimage to the saga-steads of Iceland'. Emily will travel around the country reading each one of the 13th-century Íslendingasögur (the Icelandic family sagas) in the physical landscapes in which they and their 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-century actvities are set. Living for the most part out of a Land Rover ambulance she will talk to people about their personal interests in, and responses to, the sagas and she hopes to persuade people to tell oral versions of sagas they know, or episodes from sagas that are local to their part of the country. Emily will draw on published 19th-century travel accounts by figures such as William Morris, W. G. Collingwood, and Sabine Baring-Gould, comparing what they found on visiting the saga-sites with what is to be found now. Click here to read Emily's blog and follow her progress through the year.

October 2010

Dr Margo Griffin-Wilson has been appointed Teaching Associate in Modern Irish in the Department. A graduate of Harvard University, she was previously a lecturer in Modern Irish at the University of Utrecht. Dr Griffin-Wilson will be teaching all levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced.

For further information on the classes please contact Dr Margo Griffin-Wilson by email mg597@cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 767295 and see www.asnc.cam.uk/currentstudents/irish/index.htm.

October 2010

Research Horizons

Rosalind Love and Simon Keynes' work on the Encomium Emmae Reginae has been mentioned in Issue 12 of Research Horizons magazine. You can read the article here.