Research interests

My research interests are in the following areas:

Literature: Icelandic literature of the 20th and 21st century (particularly fiction); war and occupation literature, literatures of memory and trauma, Icelandic-Canadian literature, Canadian and minority literatures. In all of these, the role of cultural and national identity is of particular interest to me, as is a transcultural approach. Based on my research in peripheral and minority literatures in Canada, I have, in recent years, also developed an interest in island literatures and cultures, as well as in the role and mediation of North in literature

Language: Icelandic as a second language, Icelandic as a heritage language, Heritage Language Studies. I am primarily interested in the teaching methodologies and materials for second and heritage languages from a cultural and literary perspective, the role of literature, culture and cultural identity in second and heritage language teaching

 

Research projects

In recent years, much of my research has focussed on war and occupation literature and literatures of memory and trauma, particularly in an Icelandic context. In 2007 I received a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to start this research, and since then its progression has benefitted from the financial support of an EDDA Research Grant (2011-21: „Memory and Forgetting: Ruptures, Gaps, National Identity”), participation in the COST-action “In Search of Transcultural memory in Europe” (2013-2017) led by Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, and, not least, co-operation with Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir. I am currently working on a book on this topic.

In 2015, the Icelandic-Irish Memory Studies Network was founded and has hosted two symposiums to date as well as actively promoted research co-operation between its members. In my case, this has led to research on the public memory and mediation of the Icelandic experience of the Second World War through memorials, museums, policy and public discourse.

I was part of a large Icelandic research project on „Heritage Language, Linguistic Change and Cultural Identity”, supported by a Rannís Research Project Grant (2013- 2016) and led by Höskuldur Thráinsson and Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir. My part in the project foussed on the role of cultural identity for Icelandic as a heritage language. The research included interviews taken with people of Icelandic descent from across Canada and the U.S. The main findings were presented in Sigurtunga. Vestur-íslenskt mál og menning, edited by Höskuldur Þráinsson, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir and Úlfar Bragason (University of Iceland Press, 2018).

In 2007-2010 I took part in the international research project “Iceland and Images of the North”, led by Sumarliði Ísleifsson (Reykjavik Academy) and Daniel Chartier (University of Montréal) and supported by a Rannís Center of Excellence Grant, studying the representation of Iceland in foreign literatures from the perspective of the ideas of North and nordicity. The findings of the project were published in Iceland and Images of the North, edited by Daniel Chartier og Sumarliði Ísleifsson (Montréal: Presses de l´Université de Québec, 2011).