Cultural menace: From porcelain dogs to punks and hoodlums (ÞJÓ605M)

The course will focus on various cases from the nineteenth century onwards of cultural elements that have been considered adversary to culture and civilisation in Iceland. Ideas, behaviour and artefacts that have been seen to be threats to Icelandic culture or a menace to a sound and healthy cultural life (such as jazz, popular fiction, avant-garde art) will be reflected upon, and the nature of the assumed dangers explored. As part of the discussion, the interconnection between social power and culture will be taken into careful consideration and questions about who defines cultural menace, by what means and for what purpose will be asked. Do such threats have aspects in common and in what ways have definitions been influenced by interests, ideals and moral standards that are subject to change? To what extent have ideas about cultural menace played a role in fashioning and defining Icelandic culture?

To what extent has Icelandic culture been formed through normative ideas about cultivated behaviour and civilisation? To what extent has Icelandic culture been shaped through resistance to foreign mass culture that has been seen to present itself in the Icelandic community in the guise of, for example, Danish dress fashion and American soap-operas?

Future cultures: Extreme Environments (ÞJÓ311F)

This course examines the physical, cultural and environmental interactions, solutions, innovations, and adaptations of humans living in extreme environments on the Earth’s surface, under its oceans, and in outer space. We will explore the challenges, responses, strategies, and solutions that have emerged, and consider their implications for humanity’s future in a rapidly changing climate on a warming planet.

Performance Studies (ÞJÓ107F)

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.

Theories in Social and human Sciences (FMÞ102F)

The course covers recent writings and currents of thought that mark, or are likely to mark, turning points in social and cultural theory. Particular care will be taken to situate theories in their historical and social contexts. Attendance to weekly 40 min. discussion classes throughout the course is compulsory. Distance learning students attend in person or via the Internet (with Zoom).

Of Microbes and Men: Microbes, Culture, Health, and Environment (MON002M)

Course Description

What can the making of the old Icelandic dairy product “skyr” tell us about how Icelandic society has developed for more than a thousand years? How does the microbiome affect health? How do we dispose of waste in an environmentally friendly way within an urban context and what silent majority of earthlings makes it happen? Microbial communities have shaped the earth and its inhabitants for eons, from the dawn of life on earth. To better understand and deal with the environmental, health, and social challenges of the 21st century, we need to better understand these first organisms and the symbiosis between them and other species, including humans. Recent studies reveal that more than half of the cells in our bodies belong to a variety of microbial species. Does that mean humans are microbes, or “merely” that our relationship with microbes is the strongest and most intimate relationship we have with others? The course invites students to explore the symbiotic practices of microbes and humans from various angles, from microbiology and ethnology, food and nutrition sciences and anthropology. Special attention will be given to the role of microbes in developing and preserving food in human societies, as well as their role in digestion, and how these roles are connected to human mental and physical health. The course also explores how microbes sustain vital nutrient cycles and their ability to transform garbage and waste into healthy soil.

The course works with the concept of „One Health“ which has been in development for the past couple of decades. One Health is a transdisciplinary and collaborative paradigm that recognizes the shared environment and interconnection between people, animals, plants and microbes. The approach promotes health and wellbeing for humans, animals and the environment, emphasizing coordination, communication, and joint efforts across disciplines. The topic will be explored through different examples of microbial-human relations such as how microbes affect the taste of food  and its composition, how diets affect gut microbiota, the role of fermentation in shaping microbial-human relations and how urban waste management disrupts nutrition cycles in the human environment. 

Humanimals: Relations between humans and animals (ÞJÓ110F)

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. 

Applied folklore (ÞJÓ304M)

This course introduces the ways in which the fields and methods of folklore/ethnology are and may be put to use, how their application may help broaden and deepen public debates and positively affect society's self-understanding and self-fashioning. We discuss how folklore/ethnology may be put to use in tourism, museums, arts and various media. One area of focus is also the accessibility and uses of folklore collections. We explore, moreover, various scholarly and popular genres in which the conclusions of ethnological research (based on historical sources, interviews and other fieldwork methods) may be disseminated: exhibitions, festivals, events, articles, books, websites, radioshows or documentaries. Different means of reaching different groups of people will be discussed and moral, financial and political issues will be addressed.

The course will partly be taught in intensive workshops, 3 days at the beginning of the semester in Reykjavík and 4 days during project week in Hólmavík in the Westfjords. Students will work on projects in applied ethnology/public folklore. There will be no final exam.

Cultural Heritage (ÞJÓ506M)

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.

Food and culture (NÆR613M)

Everybody need to eat; food connects nature to culture, culture to industry, the public to the private, the local to the global, the home to the workplace, the past to the present and one person to another in relationships that organize and transcend the axes of class, gender, ethnicity, race and age. The study of food demonstrates that food is always laden with meaning that exceeds its nutritional value and that this meaning is central to understanding the relationship between food and people, one of the more important relationships we have with the world. Food habits thus reveal our views, values and aestethics, and food shapes our existence, bodies, memories, society, economy and ethics.

In the course we will explore what people eat, how, when, with whom and why. Doing so provides us with valuable insights regarding gender and generations, food safety and health, sustainability and human rights, class and cultural diversity, sense and sensibility, technology and food production, food and diet trends, food traditions and cultural heritage, emotions and microbes, friendship and family dynamics.

In the course we explore the relationship between food production and consumption in the 21st century with specific emphasis on public health, ethical consumption and sustainability.

Food and culture is an interdisciplinary course taught in cooperation between the Department of Folkloristics/Ethnology and Museum Studies and the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition.

Gender and Folklore (ÞJÓ021M)

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

Old Nordic Religion and Belief (ÞJÓ203F)

An examination will be made of the religious beliefs and practices of people in Scandinavia from the earliest of times until the conversion, material ranging from burial practices to rock carvings, to the written evidence given in the works of Tacitus, Adam of Bremen and Saxo Grammaticus, as well as in early Icelandic works like the Eddic poems and the Kings' sagas. Alongside this discussion of the development and key features of Old Norse religion, some attention will be paid to the concepts of seid and shamanism, especially in connection to their role in early religions. Finally, an examination will be made of the conversion of Scandinavia and how Christian concepts and practices both fitted and contrasted with the previously dominant Old Norse worldview.

Teaching format

• The teaching takes place in the form of lectures and discussion on the material of the lectures.

Applied folklore (ÞJÓ445M)

This course introduces the ways in which the fields and methods of folklore/ethnology are and may be put to use, how their application may help broaden and deepen public debates and positively affect society's self-understanding and self-fashioning. We discuss how folklore/ethnology may be put to use in tourism, museums, arts and various media. One area of focus is also the accessibility and uses of folklore collections. We explore, moreover, various scholarly and popular genres in which the conclusions of ethnological research (based on historical sources, interviews and other fieldwork methods) may be disseminated: exhibitions, festivals, events, articles, books, websites, radioshows or documentaries. Different means of reaching different groups of people will be discussed and moral, financial and political issues will be addressed.

The course will partly be taught in intensive workshops, 3 days at the beginning of the semester in Reykjavík and 4 days during project week in Hólmavík in the Westfjords. Students will work on projects in applied ethnology/public folklore. There will be no final exam.

Cultural Heritage (ÞJÓ447M)

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.

Oral Tradition in Sagas and Eddas (ÞJÓ109F)

Albert B Lord's theory on oral poetry from The Singer of Tales forms a basis for the course. Research that has appeared since the writing of that book will be discussed and an attempt made to evaluate the influence that the theory has had on research of medieval literature that is partly based on oral tradition. In the latter half of the course the focus will be on the Eddic Poems.

Nature stories: the (super)natural in legends and literature (ÍSB814M)

By focusing on folk tales, literature and other relevant sources, the course discusses the manifestations of nature and the supernatural in Icelandic narrative culture throughout the centuries. Students will learn about the significance, interface, and unclear boundaries of these phenomena and how they have shaped society and the environment as well. Students will thus get to know different ideas about the position of people and (other) animals within, above or "outside" of nature. Through diverse lectures and assignments, topics such as humanity vs. animality, the known world vs. other worlds, and the materiality vs. the supernatural, will be discussed from critical points of view. The roles and forms of landscape, organisms, bodies, weather, and natural phenomena in the narrative culture will be explored. The latest research in this broad field will be presented, such as on the representation of earthquakes and celestial bodies, bears, whales, seals, and domestic animals, and on the supernatural creatures of nature and other mythological creatures such as fairies, ghosts, trolls, and berserks. Students will learn how story worlds and folklore have left their mark on the perception of nature, folk traditions, folk customs, and social spaces such as enchanted spots, sacred places and hunted places. We also ask how these narratives appear in folk art and visual art, from previous centuries to the present. Finally, we will explore the significance of nature narratives and the supernatural in the context of the Anthropocene, human perspectives, climate change, and the different status of social groups and species.

Conference symposium (ÞJÓ209M)

International conferences focusing on ethnology and folklore, where the latest research in the field is presented are held regularly. Scholars from all over the world come together to talk about their own projects, discuss ideas, broaden their horizons, enjoy the company of people in the same field, and outline possible collaborations.

In June 2026 The International Society for Folk Narrative Research will hold an international conference in Reykjavík. In this seminar, we will delve into the ins and outs of international academic conferences, with a focus on these two conferences. We will introduce key speakers, delve into individual seminars according to the participants' areas of interest, examine themes, reflect on the organizations behind them, map different traditions and emphases in ethnography in European countries, and take the pulse of what is happening in the field right now. At the same time, the seminar prepares participants to participate in such a conference. The seminar meets once a week for two class hours at a time.

Students are encouraged to participate in the conference and in return gain 5 ECTS credits; see ÞJÓ210M Conference participation.

Conference participation (ÞJÓ210M)

International conferences focusing on ethnology and folklore, where the latest research in the field is presented are held regularly. Scholars from all over the world come together to talk about their own projects, discuss ideas, broaden their horizons, enjoy the company of people in the same field, and outline possible collaborations.

In June 2026 The International Society for Folk Narrative Research will hold an international conference in Reykjavík. Following a seminar course, where the ins and outs of international academic conferences are presented, students have the opportunity to participate in this conference and turn in a report (5 ECTS). 
Students will need to finance their participation in the congress, but we point out that the Icelandic Society of Ethnology and Folklore sometimes advertises a travel fund in connection with conferences of this type. It is often possible to get reimbursement from the union, and doctoral students can apply for a doctoral student travel fund.

Sowing seeds: Dissemination of Folklore (ÞJÓ215F)

This course is a continuation of the undargraduate course ÞJÓ605G Sowing seeds: Dissemination and career development. The focus here is on the dissemination of folkloristic knowledge. Students learn to present both themselves and their field in public contexts, in written and spoken forms both in person and online. The course is project-based, with students working on small projects consistently throughout the semester.

Vernacular Culture and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life (ÞJÓ212F)

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.

Conference seminar in ethnology/folkloristics: SIEF 2021 (ÞJÓ061F)

From the 21st - 24th of June 2021, the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) will hold its biennial congress in Helsinki, Finland. Ethnologists and folklorists from all over Europe and beyond will gather there, professors, researchers, editors, graduate students, and museum professionals, to present the latest research, debate ideas, broaden the horizon and enjoy the company of like-minded colleagues.

The SIEF congress is an intellectual festival where we showcase the state of the art in our fields and it is a ritual time in the academic calendar, crucial for carrying the fields forward, building professional networks, hatching collaborative projects, and cultivating friendships. This year, there will be over 800 participants presenting over 700 papers in over 80 panels, plus dozens of films and posters. 

In this seminar we will examine the congress program, get to know the keynote speakers, dig into particular panels selected by seminar participants, analyze the congress theme, consider the society itself, map different disciplinary traditions and emphases in the countries of Europe and take stock of what is happening in the field right now. The seminar will also prepare participants to take part in the congress and those who will be presenting a paper or a poster there will have a dress rehearsal in Oddi. 

The seminar meets once a week for two class hours at a time and is open to graduate students and teachers. Course evaluation will be based, on the one hand, on active and informed participation in the seminar and on projects prepared over the course of the semester (5 ECTS) and, on the other hand, on participation in the congress itself and a congress report that is due after it (5 ECTS). Students will need to finance their participation in the congress. It is possible to take the seminar without going to the congress (5 ECTS only).