Ryan Eyford, historian of Indigenous and Canadian histories, is the 2025 recipient of the international Vigdís Prize, an award conferred for outstanding contributions to world languages and cultures. The award ceremony will take place in Reykjavík, Iceland, on November 6, 2025.
The Vigdís Prize is awarded annually by the Icelandic government, the University of Iceland, and the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, in honor of Her Excellency Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland (1980–1996) and current UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages. The Prize spotlights exceptional achievements in the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, multilingualism, and translation.
Eyford receives the 2025 Vigdís Prize for his contribution to research on the Icelandic settlement in Canada and Indigenous and immigrant histories. Eyford is the author of White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West (University of British Columbia Press, 2016). The book subverts classic views of the Icelandic settlers and highlights their participation in settler colonialism. By juxtaposing the Icelanders’ experiences with those of the Cree, Ojibwe, and Metis people they displaced, his work bears relevance to the global history of settler colonialism.
Eyford is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Winnipeg where he teaches Indigenous and Canadian History. He obtained his doctoral degree from University of Manitoba and MA degree from Carleton University in Ottawa. In addition to White Settler Reserve, Eyford has published several articles on the history of the Icelanders in North America. Eyford serves as vice president of the board of New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli.
Eyford will present a public award lecture, titled "Commemorating Colonization: New Iceland Anniversaries“, during the ceremony at the University of Iceland on November 6. The event takes place in the university Main Building at 3 pm.
Previous awardees of the Vigdís Prize are Asifa Majid, British psychologist and linguist; Anne Carson (2023), Canadian poet and classicist; Juergen Boos (2022), the President and CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair; Katti Frederiksen (2021), a Greenlandic linguist, writer and politician; and Jonhard Mikkelsen (2020), a Faroese linguist, teacher and publisher.
The award board of the Vigdís Prize consists of Rósa Signý Gísladóttir, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Iceland (chair); Birna Bjarnadóttir, Research Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of Iceland; and Páll Valsson, author and publishing director at Bjartur publishing. Magnús Diðrik Baldursson, Director of the Rector’s Office, is an advisor to the award board.