Week in Review (Dec. 11th-18th, 2019) (Patreon)

Videos over this past week have included the full recording of our Patreon-exclusive crowdcast conversation with Professor Natalie Van Deusen, and a first stab at a new series called "Wandering through Hávamál" featuring personal reflections on different stanzas rather than scholarly commentary. I can't say the latter seems to have thrilled anyone, but it's never a mistake to experiment.

This is final exams week at CU Boulder, so I have a lot of angry e-mails to look forward to.

I also announced this week that I will finish my three-year appointment at the Department of German and Slavic (which contains the Nordic program) at the University of Colorado this school year and not seek reappointment to the job in fall 2020. Since Mathias Nordvig's contract is also up at the end of spring 2020, that means neither of us will be teaching Nordic classes at the University of Colorado next school year. I'm not sure who will. I will remain affiliated with the University of Colorado through my honorary position at the Center of the American West.

The decision is a difficult one, but grounded in a lack of rewards and opportunities in this department, and more importantly, I want to see if my own public education efforts (such as my videos and books) can support me if I'm able to give more time to them. I sincerely believe in my mission to spread good information about Norse mythology and language without the baggage or elitism of the ivory tower, or the ugly hatred and mad obsessions of internet gurus. We'll see if I can do that--and I count myself lucky to have your support in this endeavor.

All the best for now,

Jackson Crawford