Thursday 4 February 2010

Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon Norse & Celtic

 The Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, which has been taking place annually since 2000, is surely one of the longest running and most successful graduate conferences in medieval studies. Each year the conference is organised by a committee of graduate students, who then also take responsibility for publishing the proceedings volume, Quaestio Insularis. Each conference, and accordingly each issue of Quaestio, comprises one keynote lecture from a senior academic (usually rotating between Anglo-Saxonists, Scandinavianists and Celticists), followed by a series of papers by Ph.D. and M.Phil. students (and even the occasional undergraduate!), drawn from within the Department and also from further afield. The keynote lecturers have included such eminent scholars as Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Thomas Charles-Edwards, Thomas Clancy, and Janet Nelson, but perhaps just as impressive is the large proportion of graduate contributors who have gone on to become respected academics in their own right. Past contributors have included Chris Abram (now at UCL), Emily Thornbury (now at Berkeley), Ralph O'Connor (now at Aberdeen), Geraldine Parsons (now at Glasgow), Alaric Hall (now at Leeds) and Augustine Casiday (now at Lampeter).

  


This year's CCASNC, which will take place on the 27th of this month, promises to be just as successful as those of previous years. The theme of the colloquium is 'Kith and Kin', and the keynote speaker is Carolyne Larrington, Supernumerary Fellow in English, St John's College, Oxford, who will be speaking on 'Family Drama in the Heroic Poetry of the Edda'. Further information on how to register can be found on the CCASNC website.

2 comments:

  1. I'm somewhat astonished to be described as a 'respected academic'! But I would like to give credit where it's due by mentioning the founder of CCASNC and Quaestio, Aaron Kleist (now of Biola University in Los Angeles)--without him CCASNC's decade of success would never have been possible. As a member of the first ever organizing committee, I'm thrilled that this event continues to thrive: long may it last!

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  2. Thanks for highlighting Aaron Kleist's pivotal role in founding CCASNC and Quaestio. This year's event would suggest that it will indeed continue to thrive. (And you are certainly a 'respected academic' as far as ASNC is concerned!)

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