Month: October 2021

We are looking for a new team member! See the ad below for information on the funding options, application deadline and other details!

Grants for MA students-spring 2022

Grants for MA students

Applications are invited for a grant to work on a MA thesis in Comparative Literature for the Spring term of 2022 under the supervision of Sif Ríkharðsdóttir, Professor of Comparative Literature, in connection with the international research project “Emotion and the Medieval Self in Northern Europe”, which is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (RANNÍS).

The grant is a full grant for the thesis semester: 479.000 ISK (including employment related costs) per month for four months, or 1.916.000 ISK in total (including employment related costs). The thesis should entail either a in-depth case study of the correlation betwen emotion and selfhood in a single Old Norse literary work or, alternatively, engage with the interplay between emotion and selfhood in medieval Nordic literature in general. The project encompasses secular texts from roughly 1200-1500, but the theses can tackle any genre (or historical sources) that are best suited to the topic. Further information about the research project and the team, which the MA student would be joining, can be found here: https://medievalemotion.hi.is/.

The applicants should preferably be MA students in Comparative Literature, although applications from related fields will also be considered. Applicants should preferably have a background in medieval studies or a knowledge of medieval literature.  The following documents should be included with the application: 1) transcript of graduate studies, 2) curriculum vitae and 3) short description of the proposed project (250-400 words).  It is vital that the description detail how the thesis will be connected to the project.

The application should be marked “MA studies-Emotion and Self” and sent to the School of the Humanities: Hugvísindasvið, b.t. Eiríks Smára Sigurðarsonar, Háskóla Íslands, Aðalbyggingu, 101 Reykjavík no later than 15 November, 2022.  For further information on the project please contact Sif Ríkharðsdóttir (sifr@hi.is) and for information on how to apply or details of the grant please contact Eiríkur Smári Sigurðarson (esmari@hi.is).

CALL FOR PAPERS
University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
25-27 May 2022

The conference ‘Emotion and the Medieval Self in Northern Europe’ is the final event in a funded international research project. It aims to bring together a broad range of scholars working on emotion and/or selfhood in medieval literature to explore the interconnections between emotions and the medieval self across Northern and Western Europe. Selfhood is understood here as a literary selfhood, i.e. the narrative representation of a presumed subject. We are looking to foster comparative dialogue regarding the multilingual and cross-cultural representation of emotion and selfhood across Northern Europe and beyond.

Topics of interest could include (but are not limited to):

• The performance of emotion and its relation to selfhood
• Narrative staging of emotion and the presumed self
• Cultural contingencies of narrative emotionality and self-representation
• The borders of the narrative self and the illusion of ‘interior’ emotionality
• Embodied emotions
• Historicity and fictionality of emotion
• Emotion and audience reception

Plenary speakers include:

• Guillemette Bolens, Université de Genève
• Gareth Evans, University of Oxford

Proposals are invited on any of the topics above. To submit a proposal please send 300 word abstract and a brief curriculum vitae (max one page) to medievalemotion@gmail.com by 15 December 2021. General inquiries should be sent to sifr@hi.is. Notifications will be sent out by 1 Feb 2021. The conference is planned as an in-person event and registration is free of charge. The organisers plan to publish a special issue of selected papers in a peer-reviewed journal. Further information about the project can be found here: https://medievalemotion.hi.is/

CFP Emotion & the Medieval Self

Sif Ríkharðsdóttir attended a workshop in Oxford on ‘Saga Emotions’ with a group of scholars in Nordic emotions studies, ranging from doctoral students to Professors emeriti. Her discussion was on the concept of ‘love’ in Old Norse saga literature.

The project’s postdoctoral researcher from September 2019 to August 2021, Timothy Bourns, is continuing and expanding his work on emotions and the environment this year on the west coast of Canada. Tim has joined the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia as an SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow. His project is titled ‘The Nature of Emotion in Medieval Romance’, his research mentor is Professor Robert Rouse, and he is engaging with the Oecologies ‘Inhabiting Premodern Worlds’ research cluster and the Emotion & Self Psychology Lab. He will also remain connected with the Emotion and the Medieval Self project as a gestafræðimaður (visiting research fellow) at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Literature and Visual Arts.