University-wide project aims to ‘decolonise the curriculum’
The University of Nottingham in England has deleted the term Anglo-Saxon from several programs as part of a larger effort to “decolonise the curriculum.”
One course formerly known as “Viking and Anglo-Saxon Studies” recently was renamed “Viking and Early Medieval English Studies,” The Telegraph reports.
The term also was removed from another program, “Research Methods in Viking and Anglo-Saxon Studies”; now it’s called “Early Medieval English,” according to the report.
The changes come from a university-wide project aimed at “decolonising the curriculum,” according to its website.
Rooted in critical race theory, the project goal is to “recognis[e] and challeng[e] the colonial roots and Western biases of what we teach, how we teach it, and what we value in our students’ work.”
Academics in charge of the project recommended a number of changes to the university’s English Studies programs, including classes on the Vikings.
Under the changes, the university’s Viking Studies will address “abuses,” including links to “slavery and equity under the law of Vikings and the parts they colonized,” according to the project website.
The “decolonising” project also links Vikings to problems with “race, empire,” and “Nazism,” The Telegraph reports:
An English literature module “A Tale of Seven Kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England from Bede to Alfred the Great” was also renamed “Early mediaeval England from Bede to Alfred the Great”.
It comes amid concerns over the connections of “race, empire, Nazism” to Norse culture and mythology.
The Nazis made use of Norse runic figures in their iconography, including the stylised “S” figures of the SS.
The move follows a pledge made in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests to decolonise the curriculum, a term denoting a move away from Western-centred material and the dominance of “white voices” in academia.
Teaching staff at Nottingham also ensure that module content aims at “undercutting nationalist narratives” and “essentialist ideas” about nationality, meaning the belief that English identity is distinct and confers fundamental characteristics.
Other academic institutions also have abandoned the term Anglo-Saxon.
Earlier this year, Cambridge University Press changed the name of its journal “Anglo-Saxon England” to “Early Medieval England and its Neighbors,” The College Fix reported.
In the United States, Western Washington University also considered scrapping its Viking mascot after a taskforce suggested it was “idolizing conquest,” The Fix reported in 2022.
MORE: WWU eyes ditching Viking mascot due to colonialism
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