30th Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies
Fordham University, Lincoln Center, New York City: March 27-28, 2010

Conference Program

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

8:30-8:55   Registration and Coffee

8:55-9:00   Welcome, Maryanne Kowaleski, Director of the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University

9:00-10:20  Session 1: Plenary Lectures (12th Floor Lounge)
Chair:  Martin Chase, S.J., Fordham University

The Composition of Hávamál—Oral or Written?
Vésteinn Ólason, University of Iceland

Tristan in Iceland: The Continuing Saga
Matthew Driscoll, University of Copenhagen

10:20-10:45  Break

10:45-12:15  Session 2: Three Concurrent Sessions

2A.  Literary Theory and the Sagas (Room 523)
Chair: Haruko Momma, New York University

La sagesse sauvage: Towards a Structural Analysis of the Icelandic Sagas
Oren Falk, Cornell University

Dialogue with Theory: Bakhtinian Directions for Saga Studies
Carl Phelpstead, Cardiff University

Psychoanalysis and the Sagas
Torfi Tulinius, University of Iceland

2B.  Questions of Poiesis: Poetry outside the Canon (Room 524)
Chair: Christina Carlson, Iona College

The Genesis of Strengleikar: Scribes, Translators, and Place of Origin
Ingvil Brügger Budal, University of Bergen

From Darkness Comes Light: Reading Medieval Scandinavia from the Perspective of Riddles
Hannah Burrows, University of Sydney

Praising King Olaf: Oral Tradition in Christian Skaldic Poetry
Rolf Stavnem, University of Aarhus

2C.  Með Lögum Skal Land Byggja: The Emergence of Law in the North (Room 518)
Chair: Wolfgang Müller, Fordham University

Dismissing "The Good Old Law": New Interpretations of Danish Law and Legal Culture
Per Andersen, University of Aarhus

For Each Criminal a Punishment. Gender and Legal Responsibility in Swedish Medieval Law
Christine Ekholst, Stockholm University

Documenting the Reception of Learned Law: The Evidence of the Local Courts
Anders Leegaard Knudsen, Society for Danish Language and Literature

12:15-1:30:  Lunch (a list of local restaurants will be provided)

1:30-2:15  Session 3A:  Plenary Lecture (12th Floor Lounge)
Chair:  Richard Unger, University of British Columbia

Slow Fade, No Credits: How Norse Greenland Slipped from Late Medieval Knowledge
Kirsten Seaver, Stanford University

2:15-2:30  Break

2:30-4:00  Session 4: Three Concurrent Sessions

4A:  The French Connection:  Interactions between Scandinavian and Continental Texts (Room 524)
Chair:  Susanne Hafner, Fordham University

Shortened Norse Translations of French Romances
Hanna Steinunn Thorleifsdottir, University of Caen

Signs of Identity in the Alexander's Saga
K. P. Middel, Groningen University

Converting the Scandinavian Vikings to Christian Normans: Warner of Rouen's Moriuht as a Tool of Conversion at the Norman Ducal Court c.1000 A.D.
Sally N. Vaughan, University of Houston

4B:  New Approaches to Skaldic Poetry (Room 518)
Chair: Lilla Kopar, Catholic University of America

Towards a Skaldic Lyric
Daniel D. Brielmaier, University of Toronto

Þórsdrápa – A Minimal Reading of Skaldic Poetry
Rune Flaten, University of Oslo

Patterns of Variation in Skaldic Poetry: Can We Arrive at a Firmer Footing?
Mikael Males, University of Oslo

4C:  Blurred Genres: Historiographical Considerations (Room 523)
Chair:  Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir, University of Copenhagen

Retelling the Fall of the Commonwealth
Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland

Contemporary Kings' Sagas and Fundamental Interdisciplinarity: Toward an Assessment of the Historico-Literary Approach in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
Adam Oberlin, University of Minnesota

Annals and Sagas: Historiography, Politics, and Culture in Medieval Iceland
Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, University of Cambridge

4:00-4:30  Coffee Break

4:30-6:00  Session 5: Three Concurrent Sessions

5A:  Re-imag(in)ing the Medieval North: Interpretations in Contemporary Film (Room 523)
Chair:  Martha Driver, Pace University

Gods as Kids in The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok
Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm, Cornell University

Who's Savage Now? - The Vikings on Film in North America
Kevin J. Harty, LaSalle University

5B:  Plans for a New History of Pre-Christian Religions in the North (Room 524)
Chair:  Stephen Mitchell, Harvard University

Old Norse Religion as an Archaeological Challenge
Anders Andrén, Stockholm University

The Textual Traditions
John Lindow, University of California Berkeley

Some Tendencies in the General Study of Religion: The Consequences for the Study of Old Norse Religion
Jens Peter Schjødt, University of Aarhus

5C:  Keeping their World Large: Culture Contact in the North Atlantic (Room 518)
Chair: Michael Staunton, University College, Dublin

The Vikings in Ireland 795-836: Raids and Bases?
Emer Purcell, University College Cork

Reading Hrólfs saga kraka and Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed as Literary Analogues
Lindy Brady, University of Connecticut

A Norse-Gaelic Settlement in Western Iceland and its Impact on the Christianization of Iceland and Greenland
Jens Ulff-Møller, Columbia University

6:00-7:00  Reception (Plaza Atrium)

SUNDAY, MARCH 28

9:00-9:15  Registration and Coffee

9:15-10:00  Session 6:  Plenary Lecture (12th Floor Lounge)
Chair: Roberta Frank, Yale University

What the Face Reveals: An Analysis of the Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
Kirsten Wolf, University of Wisconsin

10:00-10:15  Break

10:15-12:15   Session 7: Three Concurrent Sessions

7A:  New Technologies for the Study of Medieval Scandinavia (Room 518)
Chair: Richard Sacks, Columbia University

Unmixing Mixture with Statistics: Analyzing the Language of a Medieval Birgittine Manuscript
Jonathan Adams, Society for Danish Language and Literature

Digitizing Medieval Danish Society
Johnny Grandjean Gøsig Jakobsen, University of Copenhagen

Knowledge for Everyman 1492-1750:  A Registration and Selection of Early Danish Textbooks
Vibeke A. Pedersen, University of Copenhagen

The Kuli Runestone and the “Improvement” of Norway by Christianity: Laser Technology and New Readings/Interpretations
James E. Knirk, University of Oslo

7B:  The Life of Myth (Room 523)
Chair: Carol Clover, University of California, Berkeley

Archaeological versus Architectural Models of Norse Mythology. Or: Is Going Forwards the Way Forward?
Christopher Abram, University College London

Tolkien’s Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún: Creative Drama or Scholarly Exercise?
Rory McTurk, University of Leeds

Ginnungagap: The Gaping Maw
Carrie Roy, University of Wisconsin

7C:  Uncertain Loyalties: The Dynamics of Conversion (Room 524)
Chair:  Anders Winroth, Yale University

Resisting Conversion in Medieval Scandinavia
Maths Bertell, Stockholm University

Poppo's Ordeal: Courtier Bishops and the Success of Christianization at the Turn of the Millennium
Michael H. Gelting, University of Aberdeen

Priests, Poets, and Charismatic Legitimation: Using Weber and Bourdieu to Understand Top-Down Conversion in Medieval Scandinavia
Kevin Wanner, Western Michigan University

Jelling – New Excavations and New Insights into the Structure of a Viking Age Royal Domain
Mads Dengsø Jessen, University of Aarhus

12:15-1:30:  Lunch (a list of local restaurants will be provided)

1:30-2:15   Session 8:  Plenary Lecture (12th Floor Lounge)
Chair: Richard Gyug, Fordham University

Diaspora and Identity in the Viking Age
Lesley Abrams, Oxford University

2:15-2:30  Break

2:30-4:00  Session 9: Three Concurrent Sessions

9A:  East, West, and North: Emerging Cultural Identities in Medieval Scandinavian Art (Room 524)
Chair:  Nina Rowe, Fordham University

Embodying Virtue. Identity and Church Art Patronage in Twelfth-Century Denmark
Kristin B. Aavitsland, University of Oslo

"Byzantios" Reconsidered
Lena Liepe, University of Oslo

The Politics of St. Olav’s Burial:  A Fresh Look at the Trondheim Altar Frontal
Margrethe C. Stang, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

9B:  Siðmidöld: Pushing the Boundaries (Room 523)
Chair:  Susan Boynton, Columbia University

New Directions in Icelandic Ballad Studies
Paul Acker, Saint Louis University

Rask 98, Modal Change, and Oral Transmission in 17th-Century Iceland
Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, Iceland Academy of the Arts

On the Circulation of Vernacular Medical Texts in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland
Shaun F. D. Hughes, Purdue University

9C:  New Approaches to Saga Narratives (Room 518)
Chair: Marlene Ciklamini, Rutgers University

Egill Skallagrímsson as Gorilla/Guerilla Hero: Strategies of Mastery and Deformation in Medieval Iceland
Amy C. Mulligan, University of Bergen

Inside and Outside in Gísla saga Súrssonar
Kendra Willson, UCLA

4:00-4:30  Coffee Break

4:30-6:00  Session 10: Three Concurrent Sessions

10A:  Environmental Issues: Culture, Climate, and Landscape in Medieval Nordic Consciousness (Room 518)
Chair: Merrill Kaplan, Ohio State University

Limits of Cultural Identification on the Western Fringes of the Norse Diaspora
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, University of Cambridge

Culture Contact in the Norse North Atlantic AD 800-1500
Dayanna Knight, University of Nottingham

Good Weather, Bad Weather: The Use of the Natural World in Gísla saga
Bernadine McCreesh, University of Quebec

10B:  Virtus et Virilitas: The Making of Holy Men in Medieval Scandinavia (Room 523)
Chair: Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota

Masculinity, Christianity and Sanctity
Ásdís Egilsdóttir, University

History, Tradition, and Authorial Strategy in Aelnoth of Canterbury’s Gesta et Passio
Jonathan Grove, University of Cambridge

10C:  Around the Baltic (Room 524)
Chair:  Nicholas Paul, Fordham University

The Influence of Nationalism on the Interpretative Frameworks of the Medieval Scandinavian State and Urbanization Processes. Case Study: The Town of Lödöse
Erika Harlitz, University of Gothenburg

The Lost King: King Eric of Pomerania and the War of Schleswig
Markus Hedemann, Society for Danish Language and Literature

How the Crusades Have (Re)emerged in Recent Scandinavian Research
Carsten Selch Jensen, University of Copenhagen

6:00-7:00  Reception (Plaza Atrium)

Last modified: Mar. 22, 2010
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