Yale professor discusses commons misconceptions, historical facts about Vikings

This past Thursday evening, the medieval and early modern studies minor program presented the second of two presentations on Vikings for the semester. The goal of the presentations is to garner interest in the interdepartmental minor.

According to Katherine McKinley, Associate Professor of English and Director of the MEMS minor, “The MEMS minor is now four years old, and this spring we will have had seventeen minors graduate in total.”

The speaker for the lecture, entitled “The Glory of the Viking Ship,” was Anders Winroth of Yale University’s Department of History. Winroth specializes in Medieval Europe and Viking Age history, and recently published his fifth book, The Age of the Vikings.

Winroth began the lecture focusing on common misconceptions about Vikings. He began by discussing Viking hygienic practices, explaining that they actually bathed once a week — more frequently than most Europeans at that time.

Winroth also discussed the misconception of horned helmets. He explained, “When you fight with clubs and axes and swords and so forth, it’s very stupid to have big things protruding from your helmet.” The association of Vikings with horned helmets began in 1876. The first horned Viking helmets were designed by Carl Emil Doepler for Wagner’s opera, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and the association these helmets claimed with Vikings persists today.

The second section of Winroth’s presentation, “How You Speak Like A Viking Everyday,” centered on Scandinavian words that have been incorporated into English for so long that their true origins are not commonly known. He showed how words such as “awesome,” “husband,” “eggs” and “steak” are all of Scandinavian origin. Winroth also showed that the Bluetooth logo is the Viking king Harald Bluetooth’s initials in runes. The presentation also discussed how Vikings loved poetry and wearing silk.

Winroth, however, acknowledged that not all of our perceptions of Viking culture are incorrect: “Did we just get history wrong? Are Vikings nothing but misunderstood metrosexuals? No. Unfortunately that’s not so,” Winroth said. “Their poetry, after all, glorified violence. They were violent.”

Winroth concluded his lecture by talking about how the Viking ship really helped the Vikings to thrive. He added lightheartedly, “Without the Viking ship, there would have been no Viking race; and without the Viking race, there would have been no Viking Age, and I would have never gotten to Baltimore.”

Winroth explained that throughout his undergraduate education, in Scotland and Sweden, professors did not teach about the Vikings extensively. “It’s a funny thing of, especially, Scandinavian history teaching that when you have written sources it’s thought to be history, but when you only have archeology it’s archeology and it’s not really taught in history departments.”

He went on to state that most historical evidence of the Vikings is archeological, which explains why there seems to be a limited historical understanding of them. As a result, after getting his PhD in medieval legal history, Winroth decided to take on Viking history as his second project.

The MEMS minor holds these lectures annually, this being their third. For more information you can check their site here: http://mems.umbc.edu/.

Compiled by the Retriever Weekly Senior Staff

Campus developments will benefit the next generation rather than the current one

The current and future development plans for UMBC were discussed by four strategy groups and a Foundations Work Group on February 9 in the ballroom. These four strategy groups are comprised of UMBC undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff.

The groups were delegated specific areas of focus: Student Experience; Innovative Curriculum and Pedagogy; Collective Impact in Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement; and Community and Extended Connection.

After conducting interviews and surveys with the UMBC community during the fall 2014 semester, the groups presented their findings, which will be incorporated in the overarching plan for the university’s development.

While upcoming projects will clearly benefit the campus and community, a majority of the changes seem intended for the next generation of students, rather than the students who are presently here. Many students have expressed frustrations over the construction taking place and hope the results will be worth the wait.

Some students are currently struggling with the campus entrance project. With the anticipated completion date set for 2016, many of the upper-level commuters will only get to experience the bumper-to-bumper traffic and hair-raising maneuvering through the construction.

Joanne Pan, a junior English major who utilizes the UMBC transit system to get to and from campus, explained that the congestion from the new campus entrance construction can cause problems during her commute. She said, “It’s really annoying sometimes, as both a commuter and a student. You do not want to go there.”

Julianne Simpson, the assistant director for planning facilities management, described the benefits of the new events center at the meeting, which will house the sports teams, graduations and career fairs. This project is set for completion by 2017.

The new Interdisciplinary Life Sciences building, anticipated for 2019, was described as a major benefit to the university. Not only will it contain more classrooms for interactive learning, it will also increase the number of STEM graduates and provide a space for research.

Sofia Navard, a senior media and communication studies major, said, “I am particularly excited about the events center. Unfortunately, the traffic stemming from the construction can be a bit unbearable on some days. However, I just remind myself that it’s all a part of the package.”

Expansion projects and improvements are part of the reality of attending a public university, especially one that promotes itself as a research institution. The construction on campus can be exhausting and nerve-racking, but it is a necessary evil. These projects, while frustrating and inconvenient to current students, will greatly benefit the impending student body and UMBC community as it continues to expand. They will help to increase the number of students who graduate from UMBC as well as improving the quality of their education.

In regards to the plan for UMBC’s future, Philip Rous, the university provost, said, “We will be offering additional opportunities for the entire campus community to engage with the planning process as it proceeds along the timeline. Each strategy group has, and will continue to, engage with the UMBC community as their work progresses.”

The next step is for the strategy groups to convey their research to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, who will incorporate the data into the development plan for the university. This discussion will take place over the course of the spring 2015 semester.

 

Sources: http://planning.umbc.edu/

http://planning.umbc.edu/files/2015/01/planning_timeline_lg_2015.png

http://planning.umbc.edu/steering-committee/

The many benefits of ending the war on drugs

Maryland’s recent decriminalization did not benefit the state much — regulating and legalizing is exactly what Maryland needs.

The long and unjustified fight against the legalization of marijuana has been going on for too long. On February 13, the Marijuana Control and Revenue Act of 2015 was introduced to the Maryland General Assembly, under the sponsorship of Delegate Curt Anderson.

This bill will essentially regulate recreational marijuana like alcohol, most importantly create jobs, and alleviate the state’s budget deficit. With an expected budget deficit of $600 million for this fiscal year, in addition to the inherited $300 million from last year, according to WBAL, Maryland needs change.

One of the significant effects of the deficit is budget cuts, specifically to the University System of Maryland. Budget cuts have resulted in a substantial increase in tuition for UMBC students. This increase could be the equivalent cost, if not more, of a semesters’ worth of textbooks or online programs.

Students who are paying thousands to receive a higher level of education are burdened with a variety of potentially avoidable issues. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland’s Public Policy Director Sara Love said, “now, our state has the opportunity to move beyond the tragic costs of the counterproductive ‘war on drugs’ and toward increased revenue that can be used to support policies that strengthen communities.”

This bill has the potential to catalyze the already dropping unemployment rate by creating many new job positions in the new industry. Many new regulations will also be placed on the industry, which could reduce the ability for minors to obtain the drug. It seems like a much safer alternative when compared to the existing condition of the substance: anyone can able to obtain the substance, because it is in its own way unregulated.

Maryland spent $106 million enforcing marijuana prohibition laws in 2010 alone, according to the ACLU of Maryland. That’s millions of dollars that, should this bill be legalized, could be spent towards many beneficial services. Services such as healthcare, education or public transportation. Maryland would benefit from less court traffic and a better use of time for law enforcement officers.

It will certainly, at the very least, supplement job market with new openings and generate tax revenue. According to the ACLU of Maryland, the fiscal note for similar legislation proposed in 2014 estimated about $95.6 million per year in revenue from the $50/ounce excise taxes and about $39 million in new revenue from sales taxes. Revenue like that can’t be ignored.

“The Colorado experiment showed us that just one year of marijuana sales can bring in over $60 million in revenue for the government. … Colorado is making so much money they might actually be constitutionally mandated to rebate some of the money,” said Brian Ephsteyn, a recent UMBC graduate with a degree in political science.

There is no reason for Maryland to ignore this opportunity. “I think education is far too important of an investment to be cutting. … I think that legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana is an opportunity Maryland cannot forgo,” Ephsteyn exclaimed. We can only hope that Maryland goes in the right direction with this bill.

 

http://www.wbaltv.com/politics/hogan-faces-tough-time-to-gap-budget-deficit/29704062

 

https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/bill-regulate-marijuana-alcohol-introduced-maryland-legislature

 

http://www.aclu-md.org/marijuana_reform

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