Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.04.2003, Side 3

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur, 25 Apríl 2003 • page 3
FRÉTTIR • NEWS
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A Wonderful Cultural Institution
ReykjavíkurAkademían - Rannsóknasamfélag
This is one of the most won-
derful things that has hap-
pened in the cultural life of
Iceland,” said Viðar Hreinsson.
He was speaking of
ReykjavíkurAkademían, the
Reykjavík Academy.
Situated on the top floors
above the Nóatún grocery store
on Hringbraut in 107
Reykjavík, the “west end,” the
offices overlook Faxaflói.
Currently seventy to eighty
scholars work out of this space.
It all began in 1997 when a
handful of freelance scholars
banded together to establish an
association. When they opened
their doors, the Academy occu-
pied sixteen offices. The con-
cept was so popular that they
soon had to expand their space.
Within a year, the members of
the Association put on their car-
penters’ clothes and erected
walls, hung doors, creating new
offices for others who wished to
join.
With grants from two levels
of government, the scholars
themselves paying rent for
space, the Academy now has
staff to manage the operation.
Within the halls, offices,
galleries and lunch rooms of
their space, there is a “strong
solidarity” which fosters “lots
of ideas.” All kinds of people
work there, writers, biogra-
phers, translators and academ-
ics. Some teach pait time at the
university, some have retired
from teaching at the university.
Cuirently working there are his-
torians, social psychologists,
philosophers, archaeologists,
classicists, ethnologists, social
workers, economists, art histori-
ans, philologists, linguists,
political scientists, lawyers and
literaiy historians.
According to Viðar
Hreinsson, Stephan G.
Stephansson’s biographer, and
one of the founders of the
Academy, there is even a
“Canadian comer,” where Ann
Brydon stores her hiking boots
and Bill Bourne his stomp
board.
“We were driven by our
collective optimism and desire
to work on serious research
projects which would be impos-
sible to finance privately,”
writes Sigurður Gylfi
Magnússon, a historian and the
former president of the board of
the Academy.
He goes on to say, “From
day one, the atmosphere at the
Reykjavík Academy was elec-
tric. and everyone realized that
something special was in the
making. We began to chart our
future direction by creating
smaller, interdisciplinary
research collectives. The energy
of young and enthusiastic spe-
cialists with diverse experiences
brought together in a coopera-
tive rather than competitive set-
ting was soon productively
channeled into several enter-
prises.”
“One of the Academy’s
mandates is to help scHolars
throughout the world to build
similar institutions or collec-
tives in their own countries.
Hopefully, sooner or later, we
will see a global network of
academies: communities of
independent scholars who
refuse to accept the constraints
and deadening politics that have
cofne to characterize many uni-
versities. We are currently trans-
lating our web site
(www.akademia.is) so that the
Intemet will be the means for
spreading the ideals of the
ReykjavíkurAkademían,” con-
cludes Sigurður.
The Academy’s website
invites scholars visiting Iceland
to consider working out of their
oflices. It states: “The main aim
of the Reykjavík Academy is to
promote inter-, cross- and
multi-disciplinary research and
to instigate and encourage criti-
cal discourse and commentary
about the most pressing issues
facing contemporary society. As
well as conducting research and
publishing book series, the
Reykjavík Academy organizes
conferences and seminars, both
for specialists and the general
public.The Reykjavílc Academy
has ties with various other insti-
tutions and universities, both in
Iceland and abroad. One of the
Academy’s main objectives is
to enhance these ties and create
new ones, through research
projects, intemational confer-
ences and workshops.If you are
posted in the Reykjavík area for
longer or shorter periods, doing
research, completing your the-
sis, teaching or writing the
Reykjavík Academy is probably
ideal. The Reykjavík Academy
leases oflice space for a reason-
able price to scholars and artists
on long or short time bases with
access to office facilities such as
the intemet. The creative and
ReykjavíkurAkademían
relaxed atmosphere and com-
panionship with writers, artists
and scholars of various disci-
plines makes the Academy an
interesting place of work.
For details on becoming a
member or leasing office space
please contact Ms. Eva
Þórarinsdóttir, reykjavikur
@akademian.is or phone +354
562 8561.”
To read the article by
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, see
http://www.akademia.is/sigm/e
nsk6.html
Sources: Onsite visit, Viðar Hreinsson,
the Academy website, article by
Sigurður Gylfi.
Ivbmh
Iceland Coming to North America
Birna Bjarnadóttir is a Candidate for the Position of Chair of the University of
Manitoba’s Icelandic Department
Birna Bjarnadóttir was born
and raised in Hafnarfjörður, in a
house which her father built.
She lives in that house again,
with her nineteen-year-old
daughter Ása Helga
Hjörleifsdóttir. Her parents live
upstairs.'
In between these times liv-
ing in the house of her birth, she
lived in Berlin for two years,
Chicago for four, Warwick,
England for one, and in
between all of these, in
Reykjavík off and on.
Birna is one of the appli-
cants for the position of Chair
of the Icelandic Department at
the University of Manitoba.
Her Ph.D. dissertation, which
will be published by the
University of Iceland Press this
fall, is on Guðbergur Bergsson,
one of Iceland’s leading con-
temporary novelists. For her
master’s degree, she wrote her
dissertation on Snorri
Sturluson’s Ólafs saga helga.
So she has her feet in both
nredieval and modern literature.
Her interests lie in the his-
tory of ideas and she looks at
Icelandic literature through this
lens and within the context of
Westem history and literature.
Birna currcntly teaches at
the University of Iceland in
Reykjavík and is the project
manager at Snorrastofa in
Reykholt.
She has never been to
Canada before. She wishes to
widen her interests in literature
to encompass the history and
literature of the diaspora in
North America and Canadian
literature generally. She is cur-
rently reading Nýja fsland by
Guðjón Amgrímsson.
Bima sees the position at
the University of Manitoba as
having three thmsts, one as a
teacher in the only Icelandic
Department in a university in
North America. This is a major
responsibility as the profile
must be raised. The second is
with the Icelandic community
in North America. Without
them, the department would not
exist. The third is developing
and maintaining contact with
writers, artists and academics in
Iceland.
Bima herself would like to
teach Icelandic sagas, modem
Icelandic literature, and
Icelandic Canadian literature.
She sees as a real possibility the
development of a website and
offering distance leaming for the
courses. She thinks this would
work well in concert with efforts
at the University of Iceland.
Ivbmh
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