Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

The course reviews cultural studies on the whole and focuses on its value as a radical form of social and cultural criticism. Texts of key authors from the 19th Century and until recent years are discussed with the very concept of culture as a central issue and the question of its meaning for critical reflexion on society, history and contemporaneity. The interpellation of cultural criticism and the study of culture is scrutinized and the way in which this relationship is central for cultural studies. This conflict, which can be felt in older and recent texts has for the last decades been a fertile gound for the humanities in general and characterizes their connection to cultural politics. Concepts such as ideology, power, hegemony, gender and discourse play a central role in the discussion.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course, MA students in Comparative literature, Cultural studies and Film studies prepare for their final thesis. The group meets every two weeks during the semester. In the first half of the semester, the focus is on selecting a thesis topic, determining and searching primary sources, formulating a research question and other questions about getting started with a final thesis. Students then turn their attention to the theoretical background for their work and its theoretical basis. This work also involves critical reflection on search methods and approaches to texts. The third part of the course is dedicated to student presentations and discussion, where students and instructors come together to discuss research proposals, give feedback and get constructive criticism. The final product of the course is a report with a research proposal, partial bibliography and commentary on thesis aims, theory and methods. Students are also required to write a working diary describing their preparation process and readings and explaining the relation of different texts to their work. Course evaluation is based on this working diary (20%), class presentation (25%) and final paper (55%).

Final project

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Final project

In this seminar we will read the works of women ranging from Sappho and medieval women writers to later authors, such as Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Karen Blixen and Zora Neale Hurston.  We will read some critical material alongside those works, but the main emphasis will be on working closely with the texts themselves and situating them in a historical and cultural context.  What do these writers have in common other than being women?  Can one discuss women writers as a specific group, or does such classification in fact confirm and maintain gender-biases that many of these authors fought against?  The emphasis will be on close reading and analysis of the texts as well as on comparative reading across temporal and cultural boundaries.  Students are expected to come prepared to class as we will be working closely with the texts in class.

The course deals with Iceland's foreign affairs and foreign policy from 1940 to 2018. The aim of the course is to cover all major events in the history of Iceland's foreign affairs during this period such as membership of NATO, the defence and economic relationship with the USA, the cod wars and Nordic and European cooperation. The course also covers the most recent changes which are taking place in Iceland's foreign policy, i.e. more focus on developing aid and human rights. Theories in international studies and small-states studies will be used to analyse the case of Iceland.

The module looks at meanings and definitons of the concept of culture in cultural tourism especially regarding presentation and mediation of cultural heritage in museums as well as in other types of surroundings. Questions concerning political and ethical issues of collections and presentation of artefacts will be discussed and thoughts will be given to different ways in which people read and perceive of history and heritage, their own as well as others. The relations between cultural tourism and creative tourism will also be explored. Questions regarding appropriation of cultural heritage will be explored as well as who have the power to define cultural heritage. Emphasis will be put on Icelandic heritage and museums and a visit will be made to at least one museum.

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This course offers an introduction to inclusive education policy and practic. It explores examples from the history of (special) education, theories and perspectives from disability studies, stigma and othering, democracy and social justice. The course will provide students with basic understanding of heterogeneous group teaching and learning, and how teachers and schools can work with learners with special needs and their families in general education schools and society.

In a historical context art has been the facet of society where innovation and progressive thinking has been of most value. This forward-looking aspect of art has non-the-less always depended upon its historical precedents—previous art practice. It is in this context that contemporary artists are constantly renewing their previous premises. At the same time contemporary art worlds are by nature complex structures—an increasing mix of different media and influences, where artists of necessity are informed by theoretical, social, political, and economic premises. In accord with that, contemporary cultural premises are in constant flux, dependent upon changes in technology, urbanisation, globalisation, and climate, in addition to a more volatile political field. It is in response to these issues that the nature of artistic practice is constantly changing. For these reasons it is adamant to constantly re-conceptualise the analysis of art and its function in society, where novel ideas and definitions, such as the 'Anthropocene' and the 'posthuman', can be utilised to understand better the situation of art in human society. In this course we re-examine the theoretical premises of contemporary art practice via research of the field of art—historical and contemporary—through research based on the interplay of art with diverse fields of study: history, philosophy, literature, media and film studies, anthropology, political theory, geography, sociology.

New theories and studies on globalization and global processes are presented in the class. The course aims at giving a general overview of important themes related to globalization processes. Studies that shed light on the diverse economic, social and political aspects of global processes are furthermore examined. A critical examination of main concepts is an important aspect of the course but studies that show how people are agents/victims in globalized world are also presented.

The teaching consists of lecture and class discussions. 

 The course is taught in English.

In this course we will examine three main areas in relation to literary tourism and writer's museums. First, we will examine how writers have used museums as sites for their storytelling. Second, we will examine the field of literary tourism in Iceland and in particular, the ways in which writer's museums are addressing the lives and times of literary authors like the Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness. And third, we will examine the wider social and cultural significance of literary tourism and writer's museums in Iceland. Attention will also be made to museums and exhibitions that represent Icelandic (oral) literary heritage. The course will in particular examine writer's museums like Gljúfrasteinn, Þórbergssetur, Davíðshús, Nonnahús, Reykholt and Skriðuklaustur.

The Arctic is expected to become more important in the coming decades as climate change makes natural resources and transport routes more accessible creating threats to fragile ecosystems and societies as well as economic opportunities. Satellite data collected since 1979 shows that both the thickness of the ice in the Arctic and range of sea ice have decreased substantially, especially during the summer months. The melting of the ice facilitates natural resource exploration in the high north. U.S. Geological Survey estimates from 2008 suggest that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic Circle. Moreover, the retreating and thinning of the ice opens up new trade routes.

The Arctic Circle Assembly is designed to increase participation in Arctic dialogue and strengthen the international focus on the future of the Arctic. The Arctic Circle Assembly will contain sessions on a wide variety of topics, such as:

• Sea ice melt and extreme weather
• Polar law: treaties and agreements
• The role and rights of indigenous peoples
• Security in the Arctic
• Shipping and transportation infrastructure
• The prospects and risks of oil and gas drilling
• Clean energy achievements and sustainable development
• Arctic resources
• Human rights and gender equality
• Business cooperation in the Arctic
• The role of Asian and European countries in the Arctic
• Greenland in the new Arctic
• Fisheries and ecosystem management
• The science of ice: global research cooperation
• Arctic tourism
• Arctic identity and cultures
• The ice-dependent world: the Arctic and the Himalayas
• Politics in the Arctic

This course enables and relies on the participation of UoI graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the Arctic Circle Assembly conference in Harpa, Reykjavik. Students are required to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly. Students have to attend one class shortly before the Assembly and one class shortly after the Assembly.

Arctic Circle Assembly,  October 17 - 19th 2024 in Harpa, Reykjavík

Students need to pay the student registration fee to the conference, but receive a discount. 

Various incentives, policies and management initiatives are used to influence human behavior, to limit the ecological footprint (EF), and to promote sustainable development. This course focuses on environmental and resource management and policy - in the context of sustainable development (SD). The course is broken to three sessions. In the first session we assess the concept SD from various perspectives - followed by an attempt to operationalize the concept. We compare the concepts growth and SD and ask if the two are compatible and discuss sustainability indicators. In the second session we critically examine various tools that are frequently used in environmental and resource decision-making, such as formal decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis in addition to valuing ecosystem services. In the third session we examine the ideological foundations behind environmental and resource policy, and assess various policy and management initiatives for diverse situations in a comparative international context. Examples are much based on student interests but possible examples include bottle-deposit systems, ITQ's, voluntary approaches and multi-criteria management.

Relations between humans and animals are the focus of this course, which will be approached from both an academic and an artistic standpoint. Students will complete independent projects on an animal of their choice and attend field trips in nature and museums. The lectures will focus on diverse animals, such as polar bears, whales, great auks and puffins and recent scholarship on them. We will dig into visual and material representations of these, and other, animals in varied cultural contexts, including medieval literature, folktales, oral tradition, film, news reports, material culture and tourism. Consideration will be given to the idea of an “afterlife” of animals in the form of artworks, museum artefacts and souvenirs. We will examine artefacts in both private and public collections and pose the questions of what happens when a living animal is turned into a museum object, and how the meaning that we bestow upon an animal can be subject to development and change under different circumstances. The role of animals in the creation of knowledge and formation of discourse surrounding climate change and issues of the Arctic regions will also be addressed, in addition to animals’ connections to specific places and cultural groups and their role in identity formations of past and present. An attempt will be made to step outside of “traditional” dualism in which an emphasis is placed on distinctions between humans and animals as we acquaint ourselves with the ways in which human/animal (ecological, social and cultural) habitats are intertwined.

Aim

The aim is to explore urgent questions and topical issues regarding human/animal co-existence, climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental sustainability. We will consider how artists, researchers, activists and museums have been engaging with these questions and how they can further contribute to the discussion. We will examine how diverse museums convey their ideas and information on human/animal relations through their collections. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with visual material, objects and texts, both online and through visits to museums and exhibitions. 

Performance Studies is the study of how humans create meaning and identity through shared activities ranging from traditional ritual and religion to storytelling and the arts as well as sports, stand-up comedy, festivals, masking traditions, civic ceremonies, political action and protest, dinner parties, and the virtual world. The course introduces students to theories about the wide range of semiotics involved in performance, from spoken text, to costume and appearance, expression and gesture, gender, social contexts, timing and use of space, as well as audience reception.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.

The objective of this course is to gain methodological knowledge, understanding and practical skills to analyze images and visual data (photographs, films, drawings, advertisements, online media, etc.). We will discuss various methods of analysis of the visual content, consider visual databases and how to work with them. Students receive practical training in visual methodological studies and how to evaluate them. The course is based on practical assignments, where students prepare and design research proposals, collect data and how to analyze. The course is interdisciplinary and is suitable for students of humanities and social sciences, and other related fields.

The basic types of documentaries will be discussed as well as methods of documentary making, editing and cinematography. Emphasis will be put on practical projects and students will be required to make at least one documentary during the course.

The course lays the foundation for the active work of curators for practical work in the field of art and museums. We work in an interdisciplinary and critical way with concepts and theories that relate to the work of curators in the field of contemporary art. Students work in teams and set up an exhibition in collaboration with art students or artists. Students will apply knowledge and methods to practical issues, work on preparation, design, text writing and preparation of promotional material in connection with an exhibition. The course is partly run in collaboration with the Master's program in art at the University of Iceland, and students will have the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Iceland Art Museum and other recognised art museums.

The societal role of museums will be discussed from several angles: economic, political, cultural, social and last but not least in an international context. Examples of topics that will be discussed in the course are the role of museums in building the concept of the nation; the legal environment of museums; how museums are run; the status and role of the main museums; museums owned and run by local authorities and other museums; the financing of museums, and the policies of authorities regarding museums. Both national and foreign examples will be taken. 

Work format

Teaching will take the form of lectures and discussions.

The field of Folklore, emerging out of the phenomena collectively referred to as  Modernity, has a complicated and problematic relationship with gender, both in the material that circulates and the subsequent academic treatment of that material. This seminar combines theoretical perspectives from Gender Studies and Folkloristics to better understand the interconnectedness of popular cultural forms, analyses, and the operations of power, specifically gender relations. Beginning with a feminist critique of Folkloristics from within (a historical reference point), we will examine more recent work on the relationship between gender and genre, between the empowering acts of ordinary rituals (so-called women‘s genres), and how the old, debunked Nature/Culture divide, in which women‘s genres were debased and denigrated, may, looked at from a different perspective, suggest alternate approaches to some contemporary global issues.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course examines the folkloristic/ethnological perspective on culture and society with an emphasis on everyday life - the prose of the world. The history of the discipline is engaged with in a critical fashion in the context of neighboring fields and together students and teacher will examine where the field is headed in the 21st century. Central concepts will be investigated, including cultural difference and diversity, nationality, gender, the popular, tradition, group, authorship, globalization, pluralism, the eleventh hour, hegemony, heritage, and cultural ownership.

The goal is to understand how people create their everyday lives and how they invest their daily environs with meaning, how people make their own history under circumstances not of their own choosing, whether in the peasant society of previous centuries or in contemporary urban society. This course is for graduate students, but it is also open to advanced undergraduates in their last year of study.

The aim of this course is to make students familiar with new research and discourse in translation studies; regarding for example the role of translation in a globalized world; the function of the translator; the translating process and participants; pros and cons of new translation technology; social, political, cultural and linguistic impact of translation; historical research on translators archives etc. 

Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

The course reviews cultural studies on the whole and focuses on its value as a radical form of social and cultural criticism. Texts of key authors from the 19th Century and until recent years are discussed with the very concept of culture as a central issue and the question of its meaning for critical reflexion on society, history and contemporaneity. The interpellation of cultural criticism and the study of culture is scrutinized and the way in which this relationship is central for cultural studies. This conflict, which can be felt in older and recent texts has for the last decades been a fertile gound for the humanities in general and characterizes their connection to cultural politics. Concepts such as ideology, power, hegemony, gender and discourse play a central role in the discussion.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course, MA students in Comparative literature, Cultural studies and Film studies prepare for their final thesis. The group meets every two weeks during the semester. In the first half of the semester, the focus is on selecting a thesis topic, determining and searching primary sources, formulating a research question and other questions about getting started with a final thesis. Students then turn their attention to the theoretical background for their work and its theoretical basis. This work also involves critical reflection on search methods and approaches to texts. The third part of the course is dedicated to student presentations and discussion, where students and instructors come together to discuss research proposals, give feedback and get constructive criticism. The final product of the course is a report with a research proposal, partial bibliography and commentary on thesis aims, theory and methods. Students are also required to write a working diary describing their preparation process and readings and explaining the relation of different texts to their work. Course evaluation is based on this working diary (20%), class presentation (25%) and final paper (55%).

Final project

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Final project

In this seminar we will read the works of women ranging from Sappho and medieval women writers to later authors, such as Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Karen Blixen and Zora Neale Hurston.  We will read some critical material alongside those works, but the main emphasis will be on working closely with the texts themselves and situating them in a historical and cultural context.  What do these writers have in common other than being women?  Can one discuss women writers as a specific group, or does such classification in fact confirm and maintain gender-biases that many of these authors fought against?  The emphasis will be on close reading and analysis of the texts as well as on comparative reading across temporal and cultural boundaries.  Students are expected to come prepared to class as we will be working closely with the texts in class.

The course deals with Iceland's foreign affairs and foreign policy from 1940 to 2018. The aim of the course is to cover all major events in the history of Iceland's foreign affairs during this period such as membership of NATO, the defence and economic relationship with the USA, the cod wars and Nordic and European cooperation. The course also covers the most recent changes which are taking place in Iceland's foreign policy, i.e. more focus on developing aid and human rights. Theories in international studies and small-states studies will be used to analyse the case of Iceland.

The module looks at meanings and definitons of the concept of culture in cultural tourism especially regarding presentation and mediation of cultural heritage in museums as well as in other types of surroundings. Questions concerning political and ethical issues of collections and presentation of artefacts will be discussed and thoughts will be given to different ways in which people read and perceive of history and heritage, their own as well as others. The relations between cultural tourism and creative tourism will also be explored. Questions regarding appropriation of cultural heritage will be explored as well as who have the power to define cultural heritage. Emphasis will be put on Icelandic heritage and museums and a visit will be made to at least one museum.

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This course offers an introduction to inclusive education policy and practic. It explores examples from the history of (special) education, theories and perspectives from disability studies, stigma and othering, democracy and social justice. The course will provide students with basic understanding of heterogeneous group teaching and learning, and how teachers and schools can work with learners with special needs and their families in general education schools and society.

In a historical context art has been the facet of society where innovation and progressive thinking has been of most value. This forward-looking aspect of art has non-the-less always depended upon its historical precedents—previous art practice. It is in this context that contemporary artists are constantly renewing their previous premises. At the same time contemporary art worlds are by nature complex structures—an increasing mix of different media and influences, where artists of necessity are informed by theoretical, social, political, and economic premises. In accord with that, contemporary cultural premises are in constant flux, dependent upon changes in technology, urbanisation, globalisation, and climate, in addition to a more volatile political field. It is in response to these issues that the nature of artistic practice is constantly changing. For these reasons it is adamant to constantly re-conceptualise the analysis of art and its function in society, where novel ideas and definitions, such as the 'Anthropocene' and the 'posthuman', can be utilised to understand better the situation of art in human society. In this course we re-examine the theoretical premises of contemporary art practice via research of the field of art—historical and contemporary—through research based on the interplay of art with diverse fields of study: history, philosophy, literature, media and film studies, anthropology, political theory, geography, sociology.

New theories and studies on globalization and global processes are presented in the class. The course aims at giving a general overview of important themes related to globalization processes. Studies that shed light on the diverse economic, social and political aspects of global processes are furthermore examined. A critical examination of main concepts is an important aspect of the course but studies that show how people are agents/victims in globalized world are also presented.

The teaching consists of lecture and class discussions. 

 The course is taught in English.

In this course we will examine three main areas in relation to literary tourism and writer's museums. First, we will examine how writers have used museums as sites for their storytelling. Second, we will examine the field of literary tourism in Iceland and in particular, the ways in which writer's museums are addressing the lives and times of literary authors like the Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness. And third, we will examine the wider social and cultural significance of literary tourism and writer's museums in Iceland. Attention will also be made to museums and exhibitions that represent Icelandic (oral) literary heritage. The course will in particular examine writer's museums like Gljúfrasteinn, Þórbergssetur, Davíðshús, Nonnahús, Reykholt and Skriðuklaustur.

The Arctic is expected to become more important in the coming decades as climate change makes natural resources and transport routes more accessible creating threats to fragile ecosystems and societies as well as economic opportunities. Satellite data collected since 1979 shows that both the thickness of the ice in the Arctic and range of sea ice have decreased substantially, especially during the summer months. The melting of the ice facilitates natural resource exploration in the high north. U.S. Geological Survey estimates from 2008 suggest that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic Circle. Moreover, the retreating and thinning of the ice opens up new trade routes.

The Arctic Circle Assembly is designed to increase participation in Arctic dialogue and strengthen the international focus on the future of the Arctic. The Arctic Circle Assembly will contain sessions on a wide variety of topics, such as:

• Sea ice melt and extreme weather
• Polar law: treaties and agreements
• The role and rights of indigenous peoples
• Security in the Arctic
• Shipping and transportation infrastructure
• The prospects and risks of oil and gas drilling
• Clean energy achievements and sustainable development
• Arctic resources
• Human rights and gender equality
• Business cooperation in the Arctic
• The role of Asian and European countries in the Arctic
• Greenland in the new Arctic
• Fisheries and ecosystem management
• The science of ice: global research cooperation
• Arctic tourism
• Arctic identity and cultures
• The ice-dependent world: the Arctic and the Himalayas
• Politics in the Arctic

This course enables and relies on the participation of UoI graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the Arctic Circle Assembly conference in Harpa, Reykjavik. Students are required to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly. Students have to attend one class shortly before the Assembly and one class shortly after the Assembly.

Arctic Circle Assembly,  October 17 - 19th 2024 in Harpa, Reykjavík

Students need to pay the student registration fee to the conference, but receive a discount. 

Various incentives, policies and management initiatives are used to influence human behavior, to limit the ecological footprint (EF), and to promote sustainable development. This course focuses on environmental and resource management and policy - in the context of sustainable development (SD). The course is broken to three sessions. In the first session we assess the concept SD from various perspectives - followed by an attempt to operationalize the concept. We compare the concepts growth and SD and ask if the two are compatible and discuss sustainability indicators. In the second session we critically examine various tools that are frequently used in environmental and resource decision-making, such as formal decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis in addition to valuing ecosystem services. In the third session we examine the ideological foundations behind environmental and resource policy, and assess various policy and management initiatives for diverse situations in a comparative international context. Examples are much based on student interests but possible examples include bottle-deposit systems, ITQ's, voluntary approaches and multi-criteria management.

Relations between humans and animals are the focus of this course, which will be approached from both an academic and an artistic standpoint. Students will complete independent projects on an animal of their choice and attend field trips in nature and museums. The lectures will focus on diverse animals, such as polar bears, whales, great auks and puffins and recent scholarship on them. We will dig into visual and material representations of these, and other, animals in varied cultural contexts, including medieval literature, folktales, oral tradition, film, news reports, material culture and tourism. Consideration will be given to the idea of an “afterlife” of animals in the form of artworks, museum artefacts and souvenirs. We will examine artefacts in both private and public collections and pose the questions of what happens when a living animal is turned into a museum object, and how the meaning that we bestow upon an animal can be subject to development and change under different circumstances. The role of animals in the creation of knowledge and formation of discourse surrounding climate change and issues of the Arctic regions will also be addressed, in addition to animals’ connections to specific places and cultural groups and their role in identity formations of past and present. An attempt will be made to step outside of “traditional” dualism in which an emphasis is placed on distinctions between humans and animals as we acquaint ourselves with the ways in which human/animal (ecological, social and cultural) habitats are intertwined.

Aim

The aim is to explore urgent questions and topical issues regarding human/animal co-existence, climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental sustainability. We will consider how artists, researchers, activists and museums have been engaging with these questions and how they can further contribute to the discussion. We will examine how diverse museums convey their ideas and information on human/animal relations through their collections. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with visual material, objects and texts, both online and through visits to museums and exhibitions. 

Performance Studies is the study of how humans create meaning and identity through shared activities ranging from traditional ritual and religion to storytelling and the arts as well as sports, stand-up comedy, festivals, masking traditions, civic ceremonies, political action and protest, dinner parties, and the virtual world. The course introduces students to theories about the wide range of semiotics involved in performance, from spoken text, to costume and appearance, expression and gesture, gender, social contexts, timing and use of space, as well as audience reception.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.

The objective of this course is to gain methodological knowledge, understanding and practical skills to analyze images and visual data (photographs, films, drawings, advertisements, online media, etc.). We will discuss various methods of analysis of the visual content, consider visual databases and how to work with them. Students receive practical training in visual methodological studies and how to evaluate them. The course is based on practical assignments, where students prepare and design research proposals, collect data and how to analyze. The course is interdisciplinary and is suitable for students of humanities and social sciences, and other related fields.

The basic types of documentaries will be discussed as well as methods of documentary making, editing and cinematography. Emphasis will be put on practical projects and students will be required to make at least one documentary during the course.

The course lays the foundation for the active work of curators for practical work in the field of art and museums. We work in an interdisciplinary and critical way with concepts and theories that relate to the work of curators in the field of contemporary art. Students work in teams and set up an exhibition in collaboration with art students or artists. Students will apply knowledge and methods to practical issues, work on preparation, design, text writing and preparation of promotional material in connection with an exhibition. The course is partly run in collaboration with the Master's program in art at the University of Iceland, and students will have the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Iceland Art Museum and other recognised art museums.

The societal role of museums will be discussed from several angles: economic, political, cultural, social and last but not least in an international context. Examples of topics that will be discussed in the course are the role of museums in building the concept of the nation; the legal environment of museums; how museums are run; the status and role of the main museums; museums owned and run by local authorities and other museums; the financing of museums, and the policies of authorities regarding museums. Both national and foreign examples will be taken. 

Work format

Teaching will take the form of lectures and discussions.

The field of Folklore, emerging out of the phenomena collectively referred to as  Modernity, has a complicated and problematic relationship with gender, both in the material that circulates and the subsequent academic treatment of that material. This seminar combines theoretical perspectives from Gender Studies and Folkloristics to better understand the interconnectedness of popular cultural forms, analyses, and the operations of power, specifically gender relations. Beginning with a feminist critique of Folkloristics from within (a historical reference point), we will examine more recent work on the relationship between gender and genre, between the empowering acts of ordinary rituals (so-called women‘s genres), and how the old, debunked Nature/Culture divide, in which women‘s genres were debased and denigrated, may, looked at from a different perspective, suggest alternate approaches to some contemporary global issues.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course examines the folkloristic/ethnological perspective on culture and society with an emphasis on everyday life - the prose of the world. The history of the discipline is engaged with in a critical fashion in the context of neighboring fields and together students and teacher will examine where the field is headed in the 21st century. Central concepts will be investigated, including cultural difference and diversity, nationality, gender, the popular, tradition, group, authorship, globalization, pluralism, the eleventh hour, hegemony, heritage, and cultural ownership.

The goal is to understand how people create their everyday lives and how they invest their daily environs with meaning, how people make their own history under circumstances not of their own choosing, whether in the peasant society of previous centuries or in contemporary urban society. This course is for graduate students, but it is also open to advanced undergraduates in their last year of study.

The aim of this course is to make students familiar with new research and discourse in translation studies; regarding for example the role of translation in a globalized world; the function of the translator; the translating process and participants; pros and cons of new translation technology; social, political, cultural and linguistic impact of translation; historical research on translators archives etc. 

Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

The course reviews cultural studies on the whole and focuses on its value as a radical form of social and cultural criticism. Texts of key authors from the 19th Century and until recent years are discussed with the very concept of culture as a central issue and the question of its meaning for critical reflexion on society, history and contemporaneity. The interpellation of cultural criticism and the study of culture is scrutinized and the way in which this relationship is central for cultural studies. This conflict, which can be felt in older and recent texts has for the last decades been a fertile gound for the humanities in general and characterizes their connection to cultural politics. Concepts such as ideology, power, hegemony, gender and discourse play a central role in the discussion.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Societal values permeate citizenship through many and multimodal means. From satirical plays to superhero movies, from the gossip of the salons to Facebook flame wars, people engage with foundational societal values in many ways. This seminar seeks to examine how democratic discourses surrounding notions of equality, justice, consensus, and agency are disseminated through the media, and how citizens politically engage with these values. The course will incorporate theories on communication, narratives, semiotics, culture, and literature in order to analyse these processes, referencing current politial and socio-cultural events as flashpoints. Emphasis will be placed on recent societal and political movements, with a focus on the role of gender, sexuality and race in democratic processes. As political messaging becomes increasingly decentralized, it is necessary to learn how democratic discourses appear in the most unexpected of places in what has been called a ’post-truth’ world.

The seminar aims to give the participants an insight into the different yet related currents of posthumanism and new materialism that have had a growing impact on theoretical discussions within the humanities and the social sciences in recent years. The seminar will explore how these currents deal with the heritage of the anthropocene and the central role of man in scientfic discourse, further aiming at the constructions new epistemic models that highlight nature and technology. The seminar will further explore how these currents fall back upon notions of extra-subjective consciousness and vital or vibrant matter that are rooted in older epistemic moments, from Plato´s cosmology to artificial intelligence.

This course offers an opportunity to a group of students to take part directly in a democratic consultation and engagement process on ecological restoration in the Icelandic highlands.  Students will be given the task to form proposals on a normative framework for the Icelandic government in policy-making on revegetation and the protection of vegetation in the highlands where questions and concerns about ecological restoration will be in the foreground. The group works with a group of instructors and meets with specialists who will talk about what research tells us about soil, vegetation, grazing and other uses of the highlands. Students will also learn about the differences of opinion about revegetation in Iceland, which have been the source of lively debates for decades. One field trip will be organized for students and the course will end with a deliberative meeting where students are given the common task of forming proposals for the government.  The approach is based on the methodology of citizen juries, which has been used and experimented with in public consultation processes for some time, but there is little experience with them in Iceland.  Evaluation will be based on working diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in meetings and discussion as well as in preparing the final product of the course, proposals for the government

This course explores the critical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on contemporary society. It takes roots in a range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, technology studies, and media theory. Students will critically engage with how the advent of generative AI changes communication, ethical frameworks and processes of globalisation. Students will explore philosophical and ethical questions concerning AI’s role in shaping human identity, agency, and societal norms. Topics such as fake news, deep fakes, algorithmic bias, surveillance, labour automation, and digital inequality will be analysed in global contexts, paying special attention to the intersection of technology with social power dynamics. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and practical exercises, students will apply existing theoretical frameworks to study the emerging field of AI in the humanities. A unique feature of the course is the integration of hands-on activities in prompt engineering and digital humanities, allowing students to critically assess the design and implementation of AI technologies in creative and research-based contexts. Course assessment will be based on creative work diaries that students will keep during the course, active participation in class, as well as an oral presentation of a short, written piece.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

In this course, MA students in Comparative literature, Cultural studies and Film studies prepare for their final thesis. The group meets every two weeks during the semester. In the first half of the semester, the focus is on selecting a thesis topic, determining and searching primary sources, formulating a research question and other questions about getting started with a final thesis. Students then turn their attention to the theoretical background for their work and its theoretical basis. This work also involves critical reflection on search methods and approaches to texts. The third part of the course is dedicated to student presentations and discussion, where students and instructors come together to discuss research proposals, give feedback and get constructive criticism. The final product of the course is a report with a research proposal, partial bibliography and commentary on thesis aims, theory and methods. Students are also required to write a working diary describing their preparation process and readings and explaining the relation of different texts to their work. Course evaluation is based on this working diary (20%), class presentation (25%) and final paper (55%).

Final project

In this course students explore the central role of antagonism in shaping  radical democracy. We will begin by exploring the concept of radical democracy, tracing its intellectual roots in cultural criticism and post-Marxist thought. From there, we will examine the manifestations of radical politics in contemporary Western society. Students will critically examine how radical ideas can challenge and disrupt institutional hierarchies and social structures, also  assessing  how such ideas can inadvertently reinforce colonial dynamics and elite power structures. By the end of the course, students will have a sharper insight into the transformative potential—and limitations—of radical democracy in modern society.

The seminar deals with the history, role and complex meaning of the concept of world literature. Students will gain insight into earlier writings on world literature from the time of Goethe but the main emphasis is on the vivid scholarly debate in the last quarter of a century, as world literature has again come to play a central role in literary studies with the writings of scholars such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova and David Damrosch. A further emphasis is on theories of literary systems and their role in scholarly debates on world literature. A special focus will be put on various smaller systems or subsystems which are often overlooked when scholars consider world literature as a unified system. One focus point is the Icelandic context of the early 20^th century, as the term heimsbókmenntir gained ground, as can be seen among others in the reception of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, red world literature and short story translations from esperanto.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

Final project

In this seminar we will read the works of women ranging from Sappho and medieval women writers to later authors, such as Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Karen Blixen and Zora Neale Hurston.  We will read some critical material alongside those works, but the main emphasis will be on working closely with the texts themselves and situating them in a historical and cultural context.  What do these writers have in common other than being women?  Can one discuss women writers as a specific group, or does such classification in fact confirm and maintain gender-biases that many of these authors fought against?  The emphasis will be on close reading and analysis of the texts as well as on comparative reading across temporal and cultural boundaries.  Students are expected to come prepared to class as we will be working closely with the texts in class.

The course deals with Iceland's foreign affairs and foreign policy from 1940 to 2018. The aim of the course is to cover all major events in the history of Iceland's foreign affairs during this period such as membership of NATO, the defence and economic relationship with the USA, the cod wars and Nordic and European cooperation. The course also covers the most recent changes which are taking place in Iceland's foreign policy, i.e. more focus on developing aid and human rights. Theories in international studies and small-states studies will be used to analyse the case of Iceland.

The module looks at meanings and definitons of the concept of culture in cultural tourism especially regarding presentation and mediation of cultural heritage in museums as well as in other types of surroundings. Questions concerning political and ethical issues of collections and presentation of artefacts will be discussed and thoughts will be given to different ways in which people read and perceive of history and heritage, their own as well as others. The relations between cultural tourism and creative tourism will also be explored. Questions regarding appropriation of cultural heritage will be explored as well as who have the power to define cultural heritage. Emphasis will be put on Icelandic heritage and museums and a visit will be made to at least one museum.

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This course offers an introduction to inclusive education policy and practic. It explores examples from the history of (special) education, theories and perspectives from disability studies, stigma and othering, democracy and social justice. The course will provide students with basic understanding of heterogeneous group teaching and learning, and how teachers and schools can work with learners with special needs and their families in general education schools and society.

In a historical context art has been the facet of society where innovation and progressive thinking has been of most value. This forward-looking aspect of art has non-the-less always depended upon its historical precedents—previous art practice. It is in this context that contemporary artists are constantly renewing their previous premises. At the same time contemporary art worlds are by nature complex structures—an increasing mix of different media and influences, where artists of necessity are informed by theoretical, social, political, and economic premises. In accord with that, contemporary cultural premises are in constant flux, dependent upon changes in technology, urbanisation, globalisation, and climate, in addition to a more volatile political field. It is in response to these issues that the nature of artistic practice is constantly changing. For these reasons it is adamant to constantly re-conceptualise the analysis of art and its function in society, where novel ideas and definitions, such as the 'Anthropocene' and the 'posthuman', can be utilised to understand better the situation of art in human society. In this course we re-examine the theoretical premises of contemporary art practice via research of the field of art—historical and contemporary—through research based on the interplay of art with diverse fields of study: history, philosophy, literature, media and film studies, anthropology, political theory, geography, sociology.

New theories and studies on globalization and global processes are presented in the class. The course aims at giving a general overview of important themes related to globalization processes. Studies that shed light on the diverse economic, social and political aspects of global processes are furthermore examined. A critical examination of main concepts is an important aspect of the course but studies that show how people are agents/victims in globalized world are also presented.

The teaching consists of lecture and class discussions. 

 The course is taught in English.

In this course we will examine three main areas in relation to literary tourism and writer's museums. First, we will examine how writers have used museums as sites for their storytelling. Second, we will examine the field of literary tourism in Iceland and in particular, the ways in which writer's museums are addressing the lives and times of literary authors like the Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness. And third, we will examine the wider social and cultural significance of literary tourism and writer's museums in Iceland. Attention will also be made to museums and exhibitions that represent Icelandic (oral) literary heritage. The course will in particular examine writer's museums like Gljúfrasteinn, Þórbergssetur, Davíðshús, Nonnahús, Reykholt and Skriðuklaustur.

The Arctic is expected to become more important in the coming decades as climate change makes natural resources and transport routes more accessible creating threats to fragile ecosystems and societies as well as economic opportunities. Satellite data collected since 1979 shows that both the thickness of the ice in the Arctic and range of sea ice have decreased substantially, especially during the summer months. The melting of the ice facilitates natural resource exploration in the high north. U.S. Geological Survey estimates from 2008 suggest that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic Circle. Moreover, the retreating and thinning of the ice opens up new trade routes.

The Arctic Circle Assembly is designed to increase participation in Arctic dialogue and strengthen the international focus on the future of the Arctic. The Arctic Circle Assembly will contain sessions on a wide variety of topics, such as:

• Sea ice melt and extreme weather
• Polar law: treaties and agreements
• The role and rights of indigenous peoples
• Security in the Arctic
• Shipping and transportation infrastructure
• The prospects and risks of oil and gas drilling
• Clean energy achievements and sustainable development
• Arctic resources
• Human rights and gender equality
• Business cooperation in the Arctic
• The role of Asian and European countries in the Arctic
• Greenland in the new Arctic
• Fisheries and ecosystem management
• The science of ice: global research cooperation
• Arctic tourism
• Arctic identity and cultures
• The ice-dependent world: the Arctic and the Himalayas
• Politics in the Arctic

This course enables and relies on the participation of UoI graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the Arctic Circle Assembly conference in Harpa, Reykjavik. Students are required to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly. Students have to attend one class shortly before the Assembly and one class shortly after the Assembly.

Arctic Circle Assembly,  October 17 - 19th 2024 in Harpa, Reykjavík

Students need to pay the student registration fee to the conference, but receive a discount. 

Various incentives, policies and management initiatives are used to influence human behavior, to limit the ecological footprint (EF), and to promote sustainable development. This course focuses on environmental and resource management and policy - in the context of sustainable development (SD). The course is broken to three sessions. In the first session we assess the concept SD from various perspectives - followed by an attempt to operationalize the concept. We compare the concepts growth and SD and ask if the two are compatible and discuss sustainability indicators. In the second session we critically examine various tools that are frequently used in environmental and resource decision-making, such as formal decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis in addition to valuing ecosystem services. In the third session we examine the ideological foundations behind environmental and resource policy, and assess various policy and management initiatives for diverse situations in a comparative international context. Examples are much based on student interests but possible examples include bottle-deposit systems, ITQ's, voluntary approaches and multi-criteria management.

Relations between humans and animals are the focus of this course, which will be approached from both an academic and an artistic standpoint. Students will complete independent projects on an animal of their choice and attend field trips in nature and museums. The lectures will focus on diverse animals, such as polar bears, whales, great auks and puffins and recent scholarship on them. We will dig into visual and material representations of these, and other, animals in varied cultural contexts, including medieval literature, folktales, oral tradition, film, news reports, material culture and tourism. Consideration will be given to the idea of an “afterlife” of animals in the form of artworks, museum artefacts and souvenirs. We will examine artefacts in both private and public collections and pose the questions of what happens when a living animal is turned into a museum object, and how the meaning that we bestow upon an animal can be subject to development and change under different circumstances. The role of animals in the creation of knowledge and formation of discourse surrounding climate change and issues of the Arctic regions will also be addressed, in addition to animals’ connections to specific places and cultural groups and their role in identity formations of past and present. An attempt will be made to step outside of “traditional” dualism in which an emphasis is placed on distinctions between humans and animals as we acquaint ourselves with the ways in which human/animal (ecological, social and cultural) habitats are intertwined.

Aim

The aim is to explore urgent questions and topical issues regarding human/animal co-existence, climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental sustainability. We will consider how artists, researchers, activists and museums have been engaging with these questions and how they can further contribute to the discussion. We will examine how diverse museums convey their ideas and information on human/animal relations through their collections. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with visual material, objects and texts, both online and through visits to museums and exhibitions. 

Performance Studies is the study of how humans create meaning and identity through shared activities ranging from traditional ritual and religion to storytelling and the arts as well as sports, stand-up comedy, festivals, masking traditions, civic ceremonies, political action and protest, dinner parties, and the virtual world. The course introduces students to theories about the wide range of semiotics involved in performance, from spoken text, to costume and appearance, expression and gesture, gender, social contexts, timing and use of space, as well as audience reception.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.

The objective of this course is to gain methodological knowledge, understanding and practical skills to analyze images and visual data (photographs, films, drawings, advertisements, online media, etc.). We will discuss various methods of analysis of the visual content, consider visual databases and how to work with them. Students receive practical training in visual methodological studies and how to evaluate them. The course is based on practical assignments, where students prepare and design research proposals, collect data and how to analyze. The course is interdisciplinary and is suitable for students of humanities and social sciences, and other related fields.

The basic types of documentaries will be discussed as well as methods of documentary making, editing and cinematography. Emphasis will be put on practical projects and students will be required to make at least one documentary during the course.

The course lays the foundation for the active work of curators for practical work in the field of art and museums. We work in an interdisciplinary and critical way with concepts and theories that relate to the work of curators in the field of contemporary art. Students work in teams and set up an exhibition in collaboration with art students or artists. Students will apply knowledge and methods to practical issues, work on preparation, design, text writing and preparation of promotional material in connection with an exhibition. The course is partly run in collaboration with the Master's program in art at the University of Iceland, and students will have the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Iceland Art Museum and other recognised art museums.

The societal role of museums will be discussed from several angles: economic, political, cultural, social and last but not least in an international context. Examples of topics that will be discussed in the course are the role of museums in building the concept of the nation; the legal environment of museums; how museums are run; the status and role of the main museums; museums owned and run by local authorities and other museums; the financing of museums, and the policies of authorities regarding museums. Both national and foreign examples will be taken. 

Work format

Teaching will take the form of lectures and discussions.

The field of Folklore, emerging out of the phenomena collectively referred to as  Modernity, has a complicated and problematic relationship with gender, both in the material that circulates and the subsequent academic treatment of that material. This seminar combines theoretical perspectives from Gender Studies and Folkloristics to better understand the interconnectedness of popular cultural forms, analyses, and the operations of power, specifically gender relations. Beginning with a feminist critique of Folkloristics from within (a historical reference point), we will examine more recent work on the relationship between gender and genre, between the empowering acts of ordinary rituals (so-called women‘s genres), and how the old, debunked Nature/Culture divide, in which women‘s genres were debased and denigrated, may, looked at from a different perspective, suggest alternate approaches to some contemporary global issues.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course examines the folkloristic/ethnological perspective on culture and society with an emphasis on everyday life - the prose of the world. The history of the discipline is engaged with in a critical fashion in the context of neighboring fields and together students and teacher will examine where the field is headed in the 21st century. Central concepts will be investigated, including cultural difference and diversity, nationality, gender, the popular, tradition, group, authorship, globalization, pluralism, the eleventh hour, hegemony, heritage, and cultural ownership.

The goal is to understand how people create their everyday lives and how they invest their daily environs with meaning, how people make their own history under circumstances not of their own choosing, whether in the peasant society of previous centuries or in contemporary urban society. This course is for graduate students, but it is also open to advanced undergraduates in their last year of study.

The aim of this course is to make students familiar with new research and discourse in translation studies; regarding for example the role of translation in a globalized world; the function of the translator; the translating process and participants; pros and cons of new translation technology; social, political, cultural and linguistic impact of translation; historical research on translators archives etc.