PhD Scholarship at the School of Humanities – Institute of History 2019-2022, University of Iceland, Iceland

The main purpose of this project is to re-examine medieval sources on the eastern Vikings, and to highlight the ongoing “debate” (to use a term made popular in this context by Jan and Aleida Assmann) on the Rus and the Varangians in the medieval period. The aim is to compare and contrast sources emanating from different cultures, such as Byzantium, the Abbasid Caliphate and its successor states, the early kingdoms of the Rus and the high medieval Scandinavian kingdoms, and analyse what significance these sources attached to the Rus and the Varangians in different contexts. The proposed outcome of the project is a fresh view of these medieval sources, and a thorough reassessment of established historiographical grand narratives on Scandinavian peoples in the east. These sources will be analysed with regard to the cultural and political context in which they were written and the purpose behind the narrative, always with particular attention to the sections connected to the Rus and the Varangians in these accounts. An important part of this debate on the Rus and the Varangians was the fashioning of identities and how different cultures define themselves in comparison and contrast with the other. This comparison fuels the main research questions of the project, encompassed in the overarching theme on the formation of medieval identities.
The project leaders are Sverrir Jakobsson, professor of medieval history at the University of Iceland, and Þórir Jónsson, lecturer in Arabic Studies at the University of Iceland.

The PhD candidate will work collaboratively with the research group at the University of Iceland to accomplish the aims of the project. The tasks of the PhD candidate include undertaking research devoted to the Old Slavonic sources of the Varangian legend (from the 11th-13th centuries), prepare research publications, present papers at appropriate scholarly conferences and meetings and assist with the administration of the project.

Applicants must have a first class Master's degree in History or a related subject and should be able to demonstrate good skills in both written and spoken English. Knowledge of Slavonic languages will be required. 

The candidate will be enrolled in the doctoral program in History at the University of Iceland. The selected candidate must send a formal application for PhD studentship at the University of Iceland in collaboration with the chosen supervisor and be accepted before a formal decision on the scholarship can be made (applications outside regular deadlines are accepted for this position).