Staff

Go to � Staff: Stefan Brink \| Tarrin Wills \| Michael Gelting Postdocs: Jan-Henrik Fallgren \| Lisa Collinson \| Sarah Thomas PhDs: Rachel Backa \| Edward Carlsson Browne \| George Chittenden \| Ian Crockatt \| Douglas Dutton \| Irene Garc�a Losqui�o \| Mads Heilskov \| Triin Laidoner \| Sandra Lantz \| Hilde Nielsen \| Lisa Nitsche \| Claire Organ \| Declan Taggart \| Lisa Wotherspoon Honourary and associates: Sally Garden \| Ralph O'Connor Centre Staff
	Professor Stefan Brink (Fil. dr [Uppsala]), director of the Centre, joined the History department in 2005 as Professor of Scandinavian studies. His research interests include: the society and culture of early Scandinavia, landscape history, Viking slavery, and Germanic place-names. He has published several books on early culture, society and language in Scandinavia, recently The Viking World (publ. Routledge 2008), and Vikingarnas slavar (Viking Slaves) (Atlantis Publ., Stockholm 2012).� During 2008-11 he is on research leave as a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow.
	Dr Tarrin Wills (PhD [Sydney]) joined the English department as a lecturer in 2007. He is Co-Director of the Centre during Stefan Brink's Leverhulme fellowship 2008-11. Tarrin's research interests include: Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature; textual editing; palaeography, runology and the post-medieval reception of medieval literature. He has been closely involved with the international research project, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (publ. Brepols) since 2001.
	Dr Lisa Collinson (DPhil [Cambridge]) is a postdoctoral research fellow, co-ordinating the Leverhulme Trust-funded 'Medieval Nordic Laws' project, headed by Stefan Brink. She is currently co-editing (with Stefan Brink) a collection of articles on early Scandinavian law, and translating three Norwegian legal texts. Other work has focused on medieval Scandinavian, Orcadian and Hebridean literature and culture.
	Professor Michael Gelting (Fil. dr h.c. [G�teborg]) is Senior Research Archivist at the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet), Copenhagen. His research interests include: the development of Danish society from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. His research in this field is particularly concerned with the development of Danish law as it was transmitted through the law-books that were issued from c.1170 to c.1247. He is also engaged in research on the effects of the Black Death upon fourteenth-century society.
Honorary Research Fellow
	Sally Garden (PhD [Edinburgh]) - mezzo-soprano and musicologist performing under the banner �Mons Graupius�. Her portfolio covers international collaborations, festival appearances, concert promotion, publishing, editing, recording, new media work, and composition. She was also formerly Historical Musician in Residence 2003-06 at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Dundee. Her research interests include music and nation-building in Scotland and Scandinavia, lyric art and linguistic identity in the northern world, the role of geopolitical factors in the shaping of northern musical culture, and all aspects of Scottish and Scandinavian art song.
Postdoctoral Fellows
	Jan-Henrik Fallgren (PhD [Uppsala]) is working on the project �The political geography of Iron Age Scandinavia� (see 'Research Projects' for more information) funded by the Swedish Research Council and is based in Aberdeen September 2009 to December 2010. His research interests include: the society, settlement and agricultural landscape during Iron Age and Medieval Scandinavia.
	Sarah Thomas (PhD [Glasgow])has a three-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the Centre. Her project examines local communities� religious practices in north-western mediaeval Europe through a study of chapels and open-air devotional sites in five dioceses: Sodor and Galloway in Scotland, York and Exeter in England and Bergen in Norway. Sarah studied at the University of St Andrews at undergraduate level, graduating with a MA (Honours) in Mediaeval History. Subsequently, she spent two years at the Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies in the University of Oslo where she gained an MPhil in Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture. Sarah returned to Scotland to undertake a PhD in Archaeology and History at the University of Glasgow which she completed in 2009.
Research Students
	Irene Garc�a Losqui�o joined the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in 2007 to do her PhD in 'The Split of West Germanic from Northwest Germanic through the analysis of the runic inscriptions in the Elder Futhark�. Previous to that, she completed her MLitt in Medieval Studies at the University of Aberdeen (2007), and a degree in English Philology at the University of Alicante (2006).
	George Chittenden, an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, is both a concert organist and the Assistant Organist to the Cathedral Church of St Andrew in Aberdeen. George completed a Master of Arts degree in History with Music Studies, focusing on classical music during the Nazi occupation within Denmark; he has now begun the part-time study of a PhD, focussing on developments of Scandinavian compositional style between 1925 and 1965. In addition to doctoral studies, George teaches organ, piano, theory and voice regularly to students of all ages across Aberdeen, including those from within the Music Department of the University of Aberdeen.
	Triin Laidoner is a PhD candidate and joined the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in autumn 2009. She has studied Swedish language and literature and translation theory at the University of Tallinn and has an undergraduate degree in Icelandic language and culture (2007) and MA degree in Old Nordic Religion (2009) from the University of Iceland. Her PhD research project focuses on the practices concerned with ancestor worship in pre-Christian Scandinavia.
	Ian Crockatt completed an MLitt in Creative Writing at Aberdeen University in 2010. He is an experienced poet, has been a prize winner in national poetry competitions, and has twice been awarded writer�s bursaries by the Scottish Arts Council. His poem series Original Myths, with etchings by Scottish artist Paul Fleming, was short-listed for the Saltire Society�s Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2000. His latest collection is Skald (Koo Press, 2009), a series of 30 poems using a form derived from Old Norse skaldic poetry of 8th � 12th centuries. He has a selection of translations from Rilke�s poetry due out from Arc Publishing in 2011. His PhD project is titled Poetry, Accuracy and Truth � translating skaldic verse from Orkneyinga Saga.
	Declan Taggart began his PhD at the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in 2010. His project 'Understanding Diversity in Old Norse Religion taking ��rr as a Case Study' focuses on the degree of change and variety in pre-Christian belief, and the consequences for the later production of mythological texts. Prior to his time at the University of Aberdeen, he completed a BA in English Literature at Durham University (2008) where his interest in early Nordic culture prompted further study on an inter-disciplinary MA in Medieval Studies at the University of York (2010).
	Edward Carlsson Browne graduated from Corpus Christi College Cambridge in 2008 with a B. A. in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and from University College London in 2009 with an M. A. in Language, Culture and History (Medieval and West Norse), for which he was awarded a Distinction. His previous research has focused on onomastics in Old English royal dynasties; claimants to the throne in 12th century Norway and the expeditions of Magn�s berf�ttr to the British Isles. For his Ph.D. he is intending to research the role of the half-brothers, step-fathers, foster-fathers and other �non-royal kin� of Norwegian kings in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
	Lisa Wotherspoon was born and bred in England, and is the first of her immediate family to attend university. She moved to Aberdeen to begin her academic career, graduating with first class honours as an MA in English and Celtic Civilisation. She subsequently undertook an MLitt in Medieval Studies at the University of Aberdeen, culminating in a dissertation exploring the heroic tradition of Beowulf. Her study thus far has led to a growing interest in insular and Scandinavian language and literature, in which areas she hopes to specialise. In particular Lisa is fascinated by the comparative approach, having found the recurrence of similar themes in the literatures of different medieval cultures. She believes that applying the approaches from one field can open up opportunities for further research in another, and as such her thesis will centre on a comparative study of Old Irish and Old Norse literature on the role of status on masculine expression.
	Mads Heilskov is PhD candidate whose research project is split between Centre for Scandinavian Studies and the Society and Culture in the North Sea World project. He is Danish of origin and has a MA in History and Visual Culture from Aarhus University. He has spent the last couple of years working as an archivist at the State Archives of Denmark and a curator at Hiller�d Folkemuseum, which have provided him with competences and a �hands on� approach that may prove useful in his studies. He is studying the late medieval memoria-culture in the 15th century North Sea region within an interdisciplinary theoretical framework using both written and material sources. His main interest is how culture was passed on from generation to generation through the religious and social practice of commemoration and thus played an important part in shaping social and cultural identities as well as creating continuity and cohesion in the late medieval society.
	Sandra Lantz�s PhD research project focuses on animism in Celtic, Norse and Sami myths in parallel to Orcadian folklore. She holds an RPAS award. Sandra has a Master of Education and a Master in Social Science, with a major in Religious History from the University College of G�vle, Sweden. In 2007 she was awarded by the Scholarship Committee of the University College of G�vle as the top student in the province (H�lsinglands distansstudent). During her studies at the University College of G�vle she was offered a scholarship from SIDA (Swedish International Development Association) to go to Vietnam to study Vietnamese whale worship. Her extended field work resulted in a publication in 2009: Whale Worship in Vietnam. In the summer of 2007 she enrolled in the Archaeology Summer School program: Stone Circles, Celts, Picts and Vikings: A Journey through Prehistoric Scotland, at Aberdeen University. After graduating in 2008, she continued to study Ancient Religions at MA-level and worked part time as an adjunct within Religious Studies at the University College of G�vle.
	Claire Organ completed her MA in English and Celtic Civilisation (2010) and a MLitt in Scandinavian Studies (Viking and Medieval) at the University of Aberdeen (2011). Claire�s PhD research project focuses on treasures within Old Norse and Old English mythological and heroic texts, in particular Claire is exploring the literary motif of �red gold� in V�lundarkvi�a.
	Lisa Nitsche completed her MA in Computing and History (2011) and MLitt in Scandinavian Studies (Viking and Medieval) at the University of Aberdeen (2012) with first class honours. Lisa received an AHRC award. Her PhD thesis is entitled 'Liquid Culture: Alcohol and Drunkenness in early Scandinavian Society' and focuses on an interdisciplinary study of the nature and importance of Old Norse drinking culture. Lisa is particularly interested in the female ('traditional') role within the production, consumption and safekeeping of alcohol in the pre-Christian Scandinavian society.
	Douglas Dutton� completed his MA in History (2010) and continued into the MLitt (Viking and Medieval) programme,�focusing�upon the Cult of��inn at the University of Aberdeen��(2011). Returning in 2012 for his PhD, having been awarded a scholarship to do so, his thesis is entitled "Entering��inn's Hall: Ritual and Remembrance". Douglas is particularly interested in the fields of burial, memorialisation, ritualistic practices and Viking religion.
Centre Associates
	Dr Ralph O�Connor (PhD Cambridge) is the author of Icelandic Histories and Romances (Tempus, 2002) and various articles on mediaeval Irish and Icelandic literature. He is Lecturer in Irish and Scottish Studies and is based in the History, Celtic and English Departments. His Scandinavian research focuses chiefly on the Sagas of Icelanders, legendary sagas and romance-sagas, but he welcomes enquiries about graduate research in any aspect of mediaeval and early modern Icelandic literature. He is currently working on a study of genre and fictionality in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Icelandic sagas, and a comparative analysis of the motif of the �lustful stepmother� in mediaeval and early modern Irish and Icelandic literature.