May 2020 – Jan Alexander van Nahl

May 21, 2020June 7, 2020

Fyrsta styrkúthlutun vegna RÍM-verkefnisins

Athöfn í Snorrastofu – Reykholti – 21. maí 2020.

Ríkisstjórn Íslands stofnaði til RÍM (ritmenning íslenskra miðalda) í tilefni af því að liðin voru 75 ár frá stofnun lýðveldis á Íslandi. Fólst í því fyrirheit um að frá og með árinu 2020 mundi ríkissjóður leggja 35 m. kr. á ári í fimm ár til rannsókna á ritmenningu íslenskra miðalda

Les meira hér.

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Medievalism in the Age of COVID-19: Banal medievalism?

Medievalism in the Age of COVID-19: A Collegial Plenitude
(comp. & ed. Richard Utz, Medievally Speaking, May 4, 2020)

A compilation of more than 40 voices on the current state of medievalism studies ➔ check it out here!

... contributing with a piece on the emptying of 'medieval notions' of any earlier meaning, and turning them into memes used to convey extreme black-and-white ideologies.

My name is Jan Alexander van Nahl, and I am from Germany. I visited Iceland for the first time in 2004, and moved here in 2014. From 2019 to 2021, I was an assistant professor (Lektor) in medieval Icelandic literature at the Háskóli Íslands. Since 2021, I have been an associate professor (Dósent). My previous studies at the universities of Bonn, Uppsala and Munich encompassed Medieval and Modern Scandinavian Studies, Cultural Geography, and Archaeology. I defended my doctoral dissertation in 2012, published my first book in 2013, and completed my habilitation (venia legendi) in 2020. Since 2021, I have been a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Letters in Agder, Norway.

Obviously, I am interested in medieval literature, culture and mentality, but likewise in the question of why we are doing things the way we are doing them, i.e., in reception and effective histories. I like traveling, translating, philosophising, mountain (b/h)iking, drawing, and graphic novels, among many other things. I am also a full member of the Icelandic Search & Rescue service.