Eva H. Önnudóttir, Professor at the University of Iceland's Faculty of Political Science, was elected president of the Nordic Political Science Association (NoPSA) at their online congress last week. The congress was organised from Reykjavík and should have taken place in August 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation. Eva H. Önnudóttir is the first Icelander to hold this position in NoPSA. Furtherermore, Sara Þöll Finnbogadóttir, assistant and student at the Faculty of Political Science, will act as the NoSPA secretary, also the first Icelander to do so.
NoPSA is the Nordic extension of the national associations of political science in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and Iceland has been a member since it was founded in 1975. NoPSA promotes political science as a discipline and professional co-operation among political scientists in the Nordic countries by publishing an academic journal, Scandinavian Political Studies (SPS), and organising a conference every three years. The NoPSA congress rotates between the Nordic countries and has been held three times in Iceland, in 1990, 2005, and this year.
NoPSA has a board of two members from each from the political science associations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, but until 2017 Iceland only had one member. This was changed in 2017 and the Icelandic Political Science Association now nominated two representatives for the board. At the same time Iceland also takes part in the nomination for editorship of the NoPSA journal, Scandinavian Political Studies (SPS). The Icelandic representatives nominate the next SPS editors in 2023.