Henrik Williams is a noted expert on

runes Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

. He is currently a Professor of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Early life and education

Williams was born in Kalmar,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. After graduating from school in his hometown, he spent a year as an exchange student in Ohio. After returning to Sweden in 1978, he settled in Uppsala and enrolled at Uppsala University. He studied Scandinavian languages, and in 1983, when he spent some time as a faculty assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, he became interested in researching

runestones A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

. When returning to Sweden he wrote his PhD thesis on Swedish runestones.

Career

Academic career

Williams received his PhD at Uppsala University in 1990 and became a senior lecturer, later associate professor, at the Department of Scandinavian languages at that university. In 1998, Williams served as visiting associate professor at University of California, Berkeley. Williams also held visiting professor position at University College London and University of Central Oklahoma in 2015 and 2017 respectively, and has had fellowships and positions as visiting professor at several academic institutions in Scandinavia. Williams has been invited as a guest speaker and lecturer at various museums and institutions in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...

Editorial work

From 2002 to 2008 and later from 2011 to 2014 Henrik Williams served as a member of the electoral college of the ''Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences'' subsequently becoming its board member. Since 2010, he serves as a co-editor of ''Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies'' and is a member of the editorial board of ''Scripta Islandica''. Williams is also a member of the American Association for Runic Studies.

Awards and honors

*Fellow of the

Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (CAS; no, Senter for grunnforskning ved Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) is an independent research foundation funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research ...

, Oslo (2013-2014) *Rudbeck Medal (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Henrik Living people Uppsala University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Academic staff of Uppsala University People from Kalmar Year of birth missing (living people)