All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

This seminar engages with theories on culture, narrative, and mediation. Active class participation is required.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Jane Austen may be a recognizable staple of classic English literature in the 21^st century, but her mass popularity is a fairly recent development. This course will go back to Austen’s beginnings and investigate her as a female pioneer that she was, offering new, refreshing insight into some of her most beloved works, and reframing her importance through a feminist lens. The critical analysis will focus primarily on the late 20^th/early 21^st century reception and (re)framing of Austen’s work; we will investigate Austen’s role in the creation of the chick-lit and rom-com genres, and her overall influence on modern (post-) feminist literature.

This course focuses on examining how the Tudors and the Tudor period are presented in 21st century fiction and film. Special emphasis is placed on examining 21st century portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I.

This research project is linked to the course ENS505G - The Tudor Period as Presented in Contemporary Literature and Films. Students in the course ENS022G are encouraged to attend the lectures in ENS505G. 

Please note that students who have previously completed ENS505G cannot take this course.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This course provides an overview of different theoretical ways to approach videogames. Individual learning will be fostered through selected texts, in-class and online discussion, and the practical application of the theories studied. Students will explore current issues in game studies from the perspective of the humanities and the use of narratology and other literary theories for the scholarly study of videogames as texts.

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.

A thorough overview of the political system, history and culture of France. Taught in French.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

Individual project. A supervisor has to be found before signing up for it.

Seminar C. Lexicografía

Objetivo

En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

As the internet has become an ever greater presence in our lives, it has become necessary to understand how this global connectivity has affected our society and culture. This course seeks to give students an understanding of their online lives and the forces that move them when they engage with social media. We will examine how the media has adapted to the online world, and how these two avenues of information shape each other. Students will be expected to reflect on their relationship with social media, and discuss their experiences in the digital landscape and their thoughts on the role social media plays in society. In this course, we will engage with material that examines the formation of social media, the dissemination of information across media, human behaviors both on-and offline, and the influence of social media on social and political movements. Students will learn to engage critically with online sources and gain insight into the internet as a field of academic research. They will learn about communication and sociological theories, critical media theory, and theories on moral panics, online radicalisation and internet antagonism. We will explore the often hidden parts of the online world, deeply embedded in pop culture, disinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

An important tradition in linguistics proposes that the patterns in which the arguments of a verb appear in the syntax are partially conditioned by the semantics of the verb. For instance, agents are always subjects, and verbs of externally caused change of state in English generally allow both transitive and intransitive uses. This course evaluates the evidence for this position and the theoretical tools that linguistics have used to capture the relevant generalisations.

Deborah Eisenberg’s post-9/11 short story “Twilight of the Superheroes” opens with an imaginary conversation between the protagonist and his hypothetical future grandchildren. He recounts the story of Y2K, “The year two-thousand! The new millennium!” when some were convinced the world would end. Ultimately, nothing happened; “It was a miracle. Over the face of the earth, from east to west and back again, nothing catastrophic happened at all” (38). That “miracle” was short-lived. The 21st century has been one of crisis and catastrophe, especially in the United States. In this course, students will read narratives that engage with contemporary crises, particularly 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial collapse, racially motivated violence against Black people, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The course uses literature to emphasize the web of connections linking these crises to one another—for instance, how post-9/11 racial profiling impacted rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and how in turn Hurricane Katrina underscored systemic racial inequalities that came to a head during the Black Lives Matter movement.  Readings will include works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Khaled Hosseini, Dave Eggers, Jesmyn Ward, Michael Lewis, Celeste Ng, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brit Bennett, and Gary Shteyngart, among others. Students will study and utilize relevant literary theory, including trauma theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, cultural studies, and new sincerity. 

This course seeks to investigate the enigmatic and charismatic figure of the detective in detective fiction as well as some of the common tropes in literary works of this kind. Often eccentric and wonderfully witty, the character of the professional or amateur sleuth is one that has charmed and delighted readers since its invention. The detective, along with the subgenre named after this persona, has attracted legions of fans and enthusiasts who are drawn to mysteries and who are eager to solve puzzles or riddles, alongside their favourite private investigator.

Frequently followed by a well-meaning but clueless sidekick, the detective imparts his knowledge and findings to his assistant and to the audience alike, shedding light on the darkest and most baffling cases, much to the awe and excitement of those in his midst.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Utilizing cartoons, jokes and comedy sketches to illustrate linguistic concepts, this course seeks to facilitate the understanding of these concepts. The course covers all the basic topics relating to the study of human language, including communication systems, sounds, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourse, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. The unsual feature of this course is the use examples of humor, jokes and irony, which are often based on ambiguity. The goal is to make it easier to appreciate ambiguous information so common in language.

This course looks at the ways in which women of history (in a broad sense) have been rewritten in historical fiction, focusing on some key texts published since 2000. It examines various aspects of the project of (re-)making space for women in an otherwise mostly male-dominated history, and how this challenges stereotypical classifications of women such as angels, virgins, witches and whores. Theories and criticism relating to the topic will be studied alongside the set texts, with focus on readings of the historical novel as feminist, revisionist and postmodern counter-narratives that question and challenge written history.

NB. This is not formally a distance course but students interested in taking it without attending on-site classes are encouraged to contact the teacher regarding possible arrangements.

The objective of the course is to help students establish their grammar and writing in French. Students will work with complex sentence structure and texts. The course is taught in French.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

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 week-long intensive seminar in medieval studies held annually in mid May (usually sometime during the period May 10–30, taught by visiting faculty and covers a different subject every year.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

Special project.

A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

MA-seminar: literature

Individual project.

NOTE: This is an intensive course taught in one block from 10-14 May 2021 (the week after the end of final exams in the spring semester), for six class hours each day (total of 30 class hours). Students must read all the course literature before the first day of classes. They do field research and present preliminary results in a seminar during this week and then write up a final paper after the course ends.

Nigella licks her finger in slow motion on her TV show after dipping it in gravy. She makes a sensual sound, as she looks into the camera and beckons us to enjoy it with her. Flip the channel, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey shouts relentlessly at other chefs who are fighting to save their restaurants. Many of them shed tears while he scolds them.

Sensuality, anger, stress, excitement, chauvinism, femininity, cream, dieting, healthy eating, food blogs, bake-offs and the fight for better and more righteous foodways all reflect the current popularity of food as entertainment and as an instrument for making people and society better. How can we explain this current tremendous interest, obsession even, with food and nutrition?

In this course we will investigate some select ingredients that have been turned into desirable cultural forms and focus in particular on how imaginations of gender and lifestyle take shape in such phenomena as television food shows, cookbooks, cooking competitions, and food blogs.

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

Jane Austen may be a recognizable staple of classic English literature in the 21^st century, but her mass popularity is a fairly recent development. This course will go back to Austen’s beginnings and investigate her as a female pioneer that she was, offering new, refreshing insight into some of her most beloved works, and reframing her importance through a feminist lens. The critical analysis will focus primarily on the late 20^th/early 21^st century reception and (re)framing of Austen’s work; we will investigate Austen’s role in the creation of the chick-lit and rom-com genres, and her overall influence on modern (post-) feminist literature.

This course focuses on examining how the Tudors and the Tudor period are presented in 21st century fiction and film. Special emphasis is placed on examining 21st century portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I.

This research project is linked to the course ENS505G - The Tudor Period as Presented in Contemporary Literature and Films. Students in the course ENS022G are encouraged to attend the lectures in ENS505G. 

Please note that students who have previously completed ENS505G cannot take this course.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This course provides an overview of different theoretical ways to approach videogames. Individual learning will be fostered through selected texts, in-class and online discussion, and the practical application of the theories studied. Students will explore current issues in game studies from the perspective of the humanities and the use of narratology and other literary theories for the scholarly study of videogames as texts.

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.

A thorough overview of the political system, history and culture of France. Taught in French.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

Individual project. A supervisor has to be found before signing up for it.

Seminar C. Lexicografía

Objetivo

En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

Final project in Inter-American Studies written in English.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in French but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in Spanish but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

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%).

The aim of the course is to provide students with a more comprehensive and deeper insight into the different theoretical approaches within the humanities. In the course, the main theories that have influenced theoretical discussion in the humanities over the last decades will be presented and discussed, and the students are taught how to apply them in their own research.

Constant technological development and emphasis on digital solutions has brought about frequent and numerous changes in the role of the webmaster. In this course, Efforts will be made to provide students with good insight into the main aspects of the webmaster's work. The writings of experts and scholars will be examined, and students will be introduced to the necessary tools and equipment. Professionals in the field will visit and share their experience with students.

The job of a web editor is often integrated with general web management. Students get a good insight into web editing and writing for digital media. The main aspects that a webmaster / web editor needs to be able to master will be discussed, such as information architecture, writing for the web, presentation of images, fundamentals in web design, accessibility, usability, security, analytics, content management systems (CMS), and basic web interface technology.

Students set up their own websites and use a CMS of their choice, e.g., WordPress or Wix, which are both available in free versions, and some of the assignments are submitted on there. In this way, students gain training in setting up a simple website. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that instruction in the use of the CMS is not part of the course. Those who have no or limited experience, in the use of CMS, are advised that YouTube has numerous videos where you can learn about the systems, from the basics to much more complex aspects that are expected in this course.

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

As the internet has become an ever greater presence in our lives, it has become necessary to understand how this global connectivity has affected our society and culture. This course seeks to give students an understanding of their online lives and the forces that move them when they engage with social media. We will examine how the media has adapted to the online world, and how these two avenues of information shape each other. Students will be expected to reflect on their relationship with social media, and discuss their experiences in the digital landscape and their thoughts on the role social media plays in society. In this course, we will engage with material that examines the formation of social media, the dissemination of information across media, human behaviors both on-and offline, and the influence of social media on social and political movements. Students will learn to engage critically with online sources and gain insight into the internet as a field of academic research. They will learn about communication and sociological theories, critical media theory, and theories on moral panics, online radicalisation and internet antagonism. We will explore the often hidden parts of the online world, deeply embedded in pop culture, disinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

An important tradition in linguistics proposes that the patterns in which the arguments of a verb appear in the syntax are partially conditioned by the semantics of the verb. For instance, agents are always subjects, and verbs of externally caused change of state in English generally allow both transitive and intransitive uses. This course evaluates the evidence for this position and the theoretical tools that linguistics have used to capture the relevant generalisations.

Deborah Eisenberg’s post-9/11 short story “Twilight of the Superheroes” opens with an imaginary conversation between the protagonist and his hypothetical future grandchildren. He recounts the story of Y2K, “The year two-thousand! The new millennium!” when some were convinced the world would end. Ultimately, nothing happened; “It was a miracle. Over the face of the earth, from east to west and back again, nothing catastrophic happened at all” (38). That “miracle” was short-lived. The 21st century has been one of crisis and catastrophe, especially in the United States. In this course, students will read narratives that engage with contemporary crises, particularly 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial collapse, racially motivated violence against Black people, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The course uses literature to emphasize the web of connections linking these crises to one another—for instance, how post-9/11 racial profiling impacted rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and how in turn Hurricane Katrina underscored systemic racial inequalities that came to a head during the Black Lives Matter movement.  Readings will include works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Khaled Hosseini, Dave Eggers, Jesmyn Ward, Michael Lewis, Celeste Ng, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brit Bennett, and Gary Shteyngart, among others. Students will study and utilize relevant literary theory, including trauma theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, cultural studies, and new sincerity. 

This course seeks to investigate the enigmatic and charismatic figure of the detective in detective fiction as well as some of the common tropes in literary works of this kind. Often eccentric and wonderfully witty, the character of the professional or amateur sleuth is one that has charmed and delighted readers since its invention. The detective, along with the subgenre named after this persona, has attracted legions of fans and enthusiasts who are drawn to mysteries and who are eager to solve puzzles or riddles, alongside their favourite private investigator.

Frequently followed by a well-meaning but clueless sidekick, the detective imparts his knowledge and findings to his assistant and to the audience alike, shedding light on the darkest and most baffling cases, much to the awe and excitement of those in his midst.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Utilizing cartoons, jokes and comedy sketches to illustrate linguistic concepts, this course seeks to facilitate the understanding of these concepts. The course covers all the basic topics relating to the study of human language, including communication systems, sounds, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourse, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. The unsual feature of this course is the use examples of humor, jokes and irony, which are often based on ambiguity. The goal is to make it easier to appreciate ambiguous information so common in language.

This course looks at the ways in which women of history (in a broad sense) have been rewritten in historical fiction, focusing on some key texts published since 2000. It examines various aspects of the project of (re-)making space for women in an otherwise mostly male-dominated history, and how this challenges stereotypical classifications of women such as angels, virgins, witches and whores. Theories and criticism relating to the topic will be studied alongside the set texts, with focus on readings of the historical novel as feminist, revisionist and postmodern counter-narratives that question and challenge written history.

NB. This is not formally a distance course but students interested in taking it without attending on-site classes are encouraged to contact the teacher regarding possible arrangements.

The objective of the course is to help students establish their grammar and writing in French. Students will work with complex sentence structure and texts. The course is taught in French.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

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 week-long intensive seminar in medieval studies held annually in mid May (usually sometime during the period May 10–30, taught by visiting faculty and covers a different subject every year.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

Special project.

A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

MA-seminar: literature

Individual project.

NOTE: This is an intensive course taught in one block from 10-14 May 2021 (the week after the end of final exams in the spring semester), for six class hours each day (total of 30 class hours). Students must read all the course literature before the first day of classes. They do field research and present preliminary results in a seminar during this week and then write up a final paper after the course ends.

Nigella licks her finger in slow motion on her TV show after dipping it in gravy. She makes a sensual sound, as she looks into the camera and beckons us to enjoy it with her. Flip the channel, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey shouts relentlessly at other chefs who are fighting to save their restaurants. Many of them shed tears while he scolds them.

Sensuality, anger, stress, excitement, chauvinism, femininity, cream, dieting, healthy eating, food blogs, bake-offs and the fight for better and more righteous foodways all reflect the current popularity of food as entertainment and as an instrument for making people and society better. How can we explain this current tremendous interest, obsession even, with food and nutrition?

In this course we will investigate some select ingredients that have been turned into desirable cultural forms and focus in particular on how imaginations of gender and lifestyle take shape in such phenomena as television food shows, cookbooks, cooking competitions, and food blogs.

Final project in Inter-American Studies written in English.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in French but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in Spanish but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

The course focuses on stereotypes and prejudice as manifestations of Othering processes and racism, by using the lens of critical race theories and postcolonial perspectives. The course emphasizes the interlinking of past and present discourses and images about those categorized as Others and how Othering takes place. For this purpose, it analyses colonial imaginaries and of the historical connection of orientalism with key concepts such as culture, identity, and development. It thus highlights the connection between older colonial discourses, nationalism, and contemporary imageries that target marginalized groups, with a specific focus on the European context.  

The course asks how discourses shape bodies and identities of specific groups or categories of people, as well as the social and physical spaces they inhabit. The course also addresses the issue of agency and strategies of resistance against Othering processes and racism, and explores the delicate role that anthropological knowledge, and social theory more in general, plays in this scenario.  

 The course will be taught in English. 

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

This seminar engages with theories on culture, narrative, and mediation. Active class participation is required.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Jane Austen may be a recognizable staple of classic English literature in the 21^st century, but her mass popularity is a fairly recent development. This course will go back to Austen’s beginnings and investigate her as a female pioneer that she was, offering new, refreshing insight into some of her most beloved works, and reframing her importance through a feminist lens. The critical analysis will focus primarily on the late 20^th/early 21^st century reception and (re)framing of Austen’s work; we will investigate Austen’s role in the creation of the chick-lit and rom-com genres, and her overall influence on modern (post-) feminist literature.

This course focuses on examining how the Tudors and the Tudor period are presented in 21st century fiction and film. Special emphasis is placed on examining 21st century portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I.

This research project is linked to the course ENS505G - The Tudor Period as Presented in Contemporary Literature and Films. Students in the course ENS022G are encouraged to attend the lectures in ENS505G. 

Please note that students who have previously completed ENS505G cannot take this course.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This course provides an overview of different theoretical ways to approach videogames. Individual learning will be fostered through selected texts, in-class and online discussion, and the practical application of the theories studied. Students will explore current issues in game studies from the perspective of the humanities and the use of narratology and other literary theories for the scholarly study of videogames as texts.

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.

A thorough overview of the political system, history and culture of France. Taught in French.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

Individual project. A supervisor has to be found before signing up for it.

Seminar C. Lexicografía

Objetivo

En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

As the internet has become an ever greater presence in our lives, it has become necessary to understand how this global connectivity has affected our society and culture. This course seeks to give students an understanding of their online lives and the forces that move them when they engage with social media. We will examine how the media has adapted to the online world, and how these two avenues of information shape each other. Students will be expected to reflect on their relationship with social media, and discuss their experiences in the digital landscape and their thoughts on the role social media plays in society. In this course, we will engage with material that examines the formation of social media, the dissemination of information across media, human behaviors both on-and offline, and the influence of social media on social and political movements. Students will learn to engage critically with online sources and gain insight into the internet as a field of academic research. They will learn about communication and sociological theories, critical media theory, and theories on moral panics, online radicalisation and internet antagonism. We will explore the often hidden parts of the online world, deeply embedded in pop culture, disinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

An important tradition in linguistics proposes that the patterns in which the arguments of a verb appear in the syntax are partially conditioned by the semantics of the verb. For instance, agents are always subjects, and verbs of externally caused change of state in English generally allow both transitive and intransitive uses. This course evaluates the evidence for this position and the theoretical tools that linguistics have used to capture the relevant generalisations.

Deborah Eisenberg’s post-9/11 short story “Twilight of the Superheroes” opens with an imaginary conversation between the protagonist and his hypothetical future grandchildren. He recounts the story of Y2K, “The year two-thousand! The new millennium!” when some were convinced the world would end. Ultimately, nothing happened; “It was a miracle. Over the face of the earth, from east to west and back again, nothing catastrophic happened at all” (38). That “miracle” was short-lived. The 21st century has been one of crisis and catastrophe, especially in the United States. In this course, students will read narratives that engage with contemporary crises, particularly 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial collapse, racially motivated violence against Black people, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The course uses literature to emphasize the web of connections linking these crises to one another—for instance, how post-9/11 racial profiling impacted rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and how in turn Hurricane Katrina underscored systemic racial inequalities that came to a head during the Black Lives Matter movement.  Readings will include works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Khaled Hosseini, Dave Eggers, Jesmyn Ward, Michael Lewis, Celeste Ng, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brit Bennett, and Gary Shteyngart, among others. Students will study and utilize relevant literary theory, including trauma theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, cultural studies, and new sincerity. 

This course seeks to investigate the enigmatic and charismatic figure of the detective in detective fiction as well as some of the common tropes in literary works of this kind. Often eccentric and wonderfully witty, the character of the professional or amateur sleuth is one that has charmed and delighted readers since its invention. The detective, along with the subgenre named after this persona, has attracted legions of fans and enthusiasts who are drawn to mysteries and who are eager to solve puzzles or riddles, alongside their favourite private investigator.

Frequently followed by a well-meaning but clueless sidekick, the detective imparts his knowledge and findings to his assistant and to the audience alike, shedding light on the darkest and most baffling cases, much to the awe and excitement of those in his midst.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Utilizing cartoons, jokes and comedy sketches to illustrate linguistic concepts, this course seeks to facilitate the understanding of these concepts. The course covers all the basic topics relating to the study of human language, including communication systems, sounds, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourse, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. The unsual feature of this course is the use examples of humor, jokes and irony, which are often based on ambiguity. The goal is to make it easier to appreciate ambiguous information so common in language.

This course looks at the ways in which women of history (in a broad sense) have been rewritten in historical fiction, focusing on some key texts published since 2000. It examines various aspects of the project of (re-)making space for women in an otherwise mostly male-dominated history, and how this challenges stereotypical classifications of women such as angels, virgins, witches and whores. Theories and criticism relating to the topic will be studied alongside the set texts, with focus on readings of the historical novel as feminist, revisionist and postmodern counter-narratives that question and challenge written history.

NB. This is not formally a distance course but students interested in taking it without attending on-site classes are encouraged to contact the teacher regarding possible arrangements.

The objective of the course is to help students establish their grammar and writing in French. Students will work with complex sentence structure and texts. The course is taught in French.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

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 week-long intensive seminar in medieval studies held annually in mid May (usually sometime during the period May 10–30, taught by visiting faculty and covers a different subject every year.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

Special project.

A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

MA-seminar: literature

Individual project.

NOTE: This is an intensive course taught in one block from 10-14 May 2021 (the week after the end of final exams in the spring semester), for six class hours each day (total of 30 class hours). Students must read all the course literature before the first day of classes. They do field research and present preliminary results in a seminar during this week and then write up a final paper after the course ends.

Nigella licks her finger in slow motion on her TV show after dipping it in gravy. She makes a sensual sound, as she looks into the camera and beckons us to enjoy it with her. Flip the channel, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey shouts relentlessly at other chefs who are fighting to save their restaurants. Many of them shed tears while he scolds them.

Sensuality, anger, stress, excitement, chauvinism, femininity, cream, dieting, healthy eating, food blogs, bake-offs and the fight for better and more righteous foodways all reflect the current popularity of food as entertainment and as an instrument for making people and society better. How can we explain this current tremendous interest, obsession even, with food and nutrition?

In this course we will investigate some select ingredients that have been turned into desirable cultural forms and focus in particular on how imaginations of gender and lifestyle take shape in such phenomena as television food shows, cookbooks, cooking competitions, and food blogs.

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

Jane Austen may be a recognizable staple of classic English literature in the 21^st century, but her mass popularity is a fairly recent development. This course will go back to Austen’s beginnings and investigate her as a female pioneer that she was, offering new, refreshing insight into some of her most beloved works, and reframing her importance through a feminist lens. The critical analysis will focus primarily on the late 20^th/early 21^st century reception and (re)framing of Austen’s work; we will investigate Austen’s role in the creation of the chick-lit and rom-com genres, and her overall influence on modern (post-) feminist literature.

This course focuses on examining how the Tudors and the Tudor period are presented in 21st century fiction and film. Special emphasis is placed on examining 21st century portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I.

This research project is linked to the course ENS505G - The Tudor Period as Presented in Contemporary Literature and Films. Students in the course ENS022G are encouraged to attend the lectures in ENS505G. 

Please note that students who have previously completed ENS505G cannot take this course.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This course provides an overview of different theoretical ways to approach videogames. Individual learning will be fostered through selected texts, in-class and online discussion, and the practical application of the theories studied. Students will explore current issues in game studies from the perspective of the humanities and the use of narratology and other literary theories for the scholarly study of videogames as texts.

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.

A thorough overview of the political system, history and culture of France. Taught in French.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This course will explore the history of Spanish cinema in twentieth century Spain, with particular emphasis on the post-Franco period. (The Cine-Club Hispano will be operated during the semester).

Individual project. A supervisor has to be found before signing up for it.

Seminar C. Lexicografía

Objetivo

En este seminario se pretende ofrecer una introducción a la lexicografía teórica (metalexicografía) como base para estudiar, valorar y usar los diccionarios del español tanto en formato impreso como electrónico. También se presenta el diccionario como herramienta pedagógica.

Final project in Inter-American Studies written in English.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in French but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in Spanish but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

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%).

The aim of the course is to provide students with a more comprehensive and deeper insight into the different theoretical approaches within the humanities. In the course, the main theories that have influenced theoretical discussion in the humanities over the last decades will be presented and discussed, and the students are taught how to apply them in their own research.

Constant technological development and emphasis on digital solutions has brought about frequent and numerous changes in the role of the webmaster. In this course, Efforts will be made to provide students with good insight into the main aspects of the webmaster's work. The writings of experts and scholars will be examined, and students will be introduced to the necessary tools and equipment. Professionals in the field will visit and share their experience with students.

The job of a web editor is often integrated with general web management. Students get a good insight into web editing and writing for digital media. The main aspects that a webmaster / web editor needs to be able to master will be discussed, such as information architecture, writing for the web, presentation of images, fundamentals in web design, accessibility, usability, security, analytics, content management systems (CMS), and basic web interface technology.

Students set up their own websites and use a CMS of their choice, e.g., WordPress or Wix, which are both available in free versions, and some of the assignments are submitted on there. In this way, students gain training in setting up a simple website. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that instruction in the use of the CMS is not part of the course. Those who have no or limited experience, in the use of CMS, are advised that YouTube has numerous videos where you can learn about the systems, from the basics to much more complex aspects that are expected in this course.

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

As the internet has become an ever greater presence in our lives, it has become necessary to understand how this global connectivity has affected our society and culture. This course seeks to give students an understanding of their online lives and the forces that move them when they engage with social media. We will examine how the media has adapted to the online world, and how these two avenues of information shape each other. Students will be expected to reflect on their relationship with social media, and discuss their experiences in the digital landscape and their thoughts on the role social media plays in society. In this course, we will engage with material that examines the formation of social media, the dissemination of information across media, human behaviors both on-and offline, and the influence of social media on social and political movements. Students will learn to engage critically with online sources and gain insight into the internet as a field of academic research. They will learn about communication and sociological theories, critical media theory, and theories on moral panics, online radicalisation and internet antagonism. We will explore the often hidden parts of the online world, deeply embedded in pop culture, disinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

An important tradition in linguistics proposes that the patterns in which the arguments of a verb appear in the syntax are partially conditioned by the semantics of the verb. For instance, agents are always subjects, and verbs of externally caused change of state in English generally allow both transitive and intransitive uses. This course evaluates the evidence for this position and the theoretical tools that linguistics have used to capture the relevant generalisations.

Deborah Eisenberg’s post-9/11 short story “Twilight of the Superheroes” opens with an imaginary conversation between the protagonist and his hypothetical future grandchildren. He recounts the story of Y2K, “The year two-thousand! The new millennium!” when some were convinced the world would end. Ultimately, nothing happened; “It was a miracle. Over the face of the earth, from east to west and back again, nothing catastrophic happened at all” (38). That “miracle” was short-lived. The 21st century has been one of crisis and catastrophe, especially in the United States. In this course, students will read narratives that engage with contemporary crises, particularly 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial collapse, racially motivated violence against Black people, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The course uses literature to emphasize the web of connections linking these crises to one another—for instance, how post-9/11 racial profiling impacted rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and how in turn Hurricane Katrina underscored systemic racial inequalities that came to a head during the Black Lives Matter movement.  Readings will include works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Khaled Hosseini, Dave Eggers, Jesmyn Ward, Michael Lewis, Celeste Ng, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brit Bennett, and Gary Shteyngart, among others. Students will study and utilize relevant literary theory, including trauma theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, cultural studies, and new sincerity. 

This course seeks to investigate the enigmatic and charismatic figure of the detective in detective fiction as well as some of the common tropes in literary works of this kind. Often eccentric and wonderfully witty, the character of the professional or amateur sleuth is one that has charmed and delighted readers since its invention. The detective, along with the subgenre named after this persona, has attracted legions of fans and enthusiasts who are drawn to mysteries and who are eager to solve puzzles or riddles, alongside their favourite private investigator.

Frequently followed by a well-meaning but clueless sidekick, the detective imparts his knowledge and findings to his assistant and to the audience alike, shedding light on the darkest and most baffling cases, much to the awe and excitement of those in his midst.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Utilizing cartoons, jokes and comedy sketches to illustrate linguistic concepts, this course seeks to facilitate the understanding of these concepts. The course covers all the basic topics relating to the study of human language, including communication systems, sounds, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourse, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. The unsual feature of this course is the use examples of humor, jokes and irony, which are often based on ambiguity. The goal is to make it easier to appreciate ambiguous information so common in language.

This course looks at the ways in which women of history (in a broad sense) have been rewritten in historical fiction, focusing on some key texts published since 2000. It examines various aspects of the project of (re-)making space for women in an otherwise mostly male-dominated history, and how this challenges stereotypical classifications of women such as angels, virgins, witches and whores. Theories and criticism relating to the topic will be studied alongside the set texts, with focus on readings of the historical novel as feminist, revisionist and postmodern counter-narratives that question and challenge written history.

NB. This is not formally a distance course but students interested in taking it without attending on-site classes are encouraged to contact the teacher regarding possible arrangements.

The objective of the course is to help students establish their grammar and writing in French. Students will work with complex sentence structure and texts. The course is taught in French.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

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 week-long intensive seminar in medieval studies held annually in mid May (usually sometime during the period May 10–30, taught by visiting faculty and covers a different subject every year.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

An overview of the history and developments of the Spanish language.

Special project.

A survey of literature and history of the Mexico-USA boarder regions. Works by Mexican and Mexico-American (Chicano) authors read.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

An introductory course in Latin American Literature. Literary works include poems, short stories and novels.

This course will explore literature from the colonial period, with particular emphasis on the role of the conquest gaze as a promoting factor in the image making for the new world. Geographic, literary, and ethnic issues will be examined.

MA-seminar: literature

Individual project.

NOTE: This is an intensive course taught in one block from 10-14 May 2021 (the week after the end of final exams in the spring semester), for six class hours each day (total of 30 class hours). Students must read all the course literature before the first day of classes. They do field research and present preliminary results in a seminar during this week and then write up a final paper after the course ends.

Nigella licks her finger in slow motion on her TV show after dipping it in gravy. She makes a sensual sound, as she looks into the camera and beckons us to enjoy it with her. Flip the channel, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey shouts relentlessly at other chefs who are fighting to save their restaurants. Many of them shed tears while he scolds them.

Sensuality, anger, stress, excitement, chauvinism, femininity, cream, dieting, healthy eating, food blogs, bake-offs and the fight for better and more righteous foodways all reflect the current popularity of food as entertainment and as an instrument for making people and society better. How can we explain this current tremendous interest, obsession even, with food and nutrition?

In this course we will investigate some select ingredients that have been turned into desirable cultural forms and focus in particular on how imaginations of gender and lifestyle take shape in such phenomena as television food shows, cookbooks, cooking competitions, and food blogs.

Final project in Inter-American Studies written in English.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in French but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

Final project in Inter-American Studies. The project should be in Spanish but the supervisor makes the decision in agreement with the student.

The course focuses on stereotypes and prejudice as manifestations of Othering processes and racism, by using the lens of critical race theories and postcolonial perspectives. The course emphasizes the interlinking of past and present discourses and images about those categorized as Others and how Othering takes place. For this purpose, it analyses colonial imaginaries and of the historical connection of orientalism with key concepts such as culture, identity, and development. It thus highlights the connection between older colonial discourses, nationalism, and contemporary imageries that target marginalized groups, with a specific focus on the European context.  

The course asks how discourses shape bodies and identities of specific groups or categories of people, as well as the social and physical spaces they inhabit. The course also addresses the issue of agency and strategies of resistance against Othering processes and racism, and explores the delicate role that anthropological knowledge, and social theory more in general, plays in this scenario.  

 The course will be taught in English.