AARS President Loraine Jensen signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Uppsala University faculty leaders to support collaborative research.
The American Association of Runic Studies and Uppsala University in Sweden have extended an agreement to collaborate on field studies and academic research into runic artifacts in Europe and North America.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed Nov. 8, 2022 between AARS President Loraine Jensen, and Uppsala University representatives David Hakansson, Dean of the Faculty of Languages, and Marco Bianchi, Head of the Department of Scandinavian Languages. The MOU remains in effect through June 30 2025.
Uppsala University has engaged in runic studies since the 1590s and is a leading research university in the multidisciplinary and international field and the seat of the only comprehensive runic text database. Dr. Henrik Williams, a frequent collaborator with AARS on lectures, field studies, and research addressing runic artifacts in North America, is the only designated professor worldwide of runology studies.
The MOU notes that AARS’s mission is to promote scholarly research on runes and runic-like artifacts by supporting research integrity and academic excellence. The non-profit association supports education activities and international academic exchanges.
Among the forms of cooperation highlighted in the MOU are lectures and seminars about runology, knowledge exchanges, study visits, and outreach activities.
Jensen signed the agreement while engaged in a Fulbright Scholar research project on runes in Denmark while in collaboration with Williams. Jensen will return to Denmark in the late summer to lead a Rune Round to explore runes and their provenance.