Loading...
Towards Public Viking Research
Williams, Howard
Williams, Howard
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-03-06
Submitted Date
Collections
Files
Loading...
Book Chapter - AAM
Adobe PDF, 669.16 KB
Other Titles
Abstract
This book is essential reading for those interested in the interdisciplinary study of the Early Middle Ages because our contemporary world is saturated with many different kinds of ‘Vikings’. Exploring our many 21st-century ‘Viking worlds’, spanning real-world, supernatural and digital landscapes, is a key priority for research in heritage studies, public history and public archaeology. The contemporary reception of the Viking Age demands our scholarly cross-disciplinary critical reflection and sustained intervention in profitable and insightful ways because the ‘Vikings’ are a key strand of global interest and debate regarding our human story and pre-modern world as well as contemporary preconceptions of identity, society, economy, politics, history, legend, mythology and religion. Our academic task extends beyond Europe to the globe and includes critically evaluating museum and heritage site interpretations, our public-facing academic outputs, but also a host of other fictional and rhetorical Vikings deployed across media from comic books and video games to commercial heritage tourism ventures and populist political mobilisations. In this chapter I argue that researchers and practitioners must integrate their expertise to tackle this challenge. I propose the specific field of transdisciplinary investigation – Public Viking Research – for these endeavours. Public Viking Research aims to tackle and critique ‘Vikingisms’ but also evaluate the ethical and socio-political responsibilities of our own research in the public realm. In this regard, we can both build critiques of contemporary Viking worlds as well as the impact of our own theories, methods and practice, working with real-world and digital communities and stakeholders to develop new creative and informed stories and visions of the Vikings.
Citation
Williams, H. (2024). Towards public Viking research. In S. Ellis Nilsson & S. Nyzell (Eds.) Viking Heritage and History in Europe: Practices and Recreations (pp. 229-243). Routledge.
Publisher
Routledge
Journal
Research Unit
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Book chapter
Language
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in [Viking Heritage and History in Europe: Practices and Re-creations] on [06/03/2024], available online: http://www.routledge.com/Viking-Heritage-and-History-in-Europe-Practices-and-Re-creations/EllisNilsson-Nyzell/p/book/9780367628628
Series/Report no.
ISSN
EISSN
ISBN
9780367628628
ISMN
Gov't Doc
Test Link
Sponsors
unfunded