How many people do you know who can say they’ve conducted fieldwork in the heartland of Denmark and published papers through an established journal in Helsinki, Finland? This week’s Campus Celebrity has done that and more.
Joseph’s major is an independent interdisciplinary study of Germanic Studies and Philology. What does this entail exactly?
“My major is a combination of disciplines including anthropology, history, classics, linguistics, and old Germanic folklore. I’ve always been interested in digging up things that have been long-buried, in a sense; where we’re at now, where we’ve been, and where we could be.”
Last summer, Joseph was accepted by the CURO Fellowship to travel to Denmark and create a research project examining the role of Norse mythology in modern pop culture. In the past few years, various motifs based on the stories told in this mythology have appeared in the media (eye-candy Thor should come to mind) and Joseph wished to understand how we interpret these narratives today.
“Things are in constant fluctuation; constant change.”
Most notably, Joseph runs Ár Var Alda at UGA. This club conducts monthly readings and analyses of ancient texts written in the Germanic territory. The goal is to educate members who may not have any background in the subject at all. In addition, he recently launched a website titled (http://www.mimisbrunnr.info/) which attempts to unify new scholarly papers and information conducted in the field, as the archeological record is constantly expanding.
Joseph plans to continue his scholarly pursuits through grad school and hopes to make even more strides in his chosen field. Much is in store for this Campus Celebrity’s future!