Consultation and workshops on prejudice, diversity and inclusion
I have extensive experience in giving lectures and workshops about racism and prejudice in Iceland, as well as on the topic of inclusion and diversity. Feel free to send an inquiry here to the right.
My knowledge of the subject is both academic and personal.
In the spring of 2020, I graduated with a Master’s degree in global studies from the University of Iceland. There I, e.g., examined the interaction of power and foreignness, imperialism and orientalism. In my master's research, which was conducted under the guidance of Kristín Loftsdóttir, professor of anthropology, I studied the experiences of Icelandic women with foreign roots of prejudice in Iceland - and the effects of prejudice on their self identities. More about it here.
In 2021, I started doing lectures about racism and cultural prejudice in Icelandic society under the title "Hvaðan ertu?” (e. “Where are you from?"). This educational project was established in collaboration with Chanel Björk Sturludóttir, the founder of Mannflóran and Hennar Rödd. We met when I she interviewed me for her radio program Íslenska mannflóran. As a result, we developed educational materials, held numerous lectures and workshops for children, young people, youth workers, teachers and at workplaces. It can be assumed that in one year 1000 people received training from us. The collaborative project Hvaðan ertu? officially ended in the summer of 2022, but my interest in the subject has certainly not waned. In 2022 and 2023 I continued providing presentations and workshops on the topic.
I do all of this in parallel with my work as an expert at the Icelandic Center for Research. There I work as a project manager for several projects related to providing information to young people and are connected to the National Agency for Erasmus+ in Iceland. I am also the inclusion and diversity officer of the agency and have led a team on developing an inclusion strategy. I have discussed this strategic work in a lecture that I gave on behalf of Stjórnvísi, where I’m a board member of the committee on diversity and inclusion.
I am very interested in intersectionality, i.e. how many different aspects of people's lives can overlap and how society either privileges them or excludes them because of it. I have written about overlap for the web version of Via magasine.
My knowledge is based in many ways on the fact that I am an Icelander with a mixed background. One of my parents was born in Iceland in 1952, while my other parent moved to Iceland in 1965. I know firsthand how important the feeling of belonging to one's community is - at the same time that I know prejudice both from my own experience and through the experiences of those close to me. For a long time, I have devoted myself to drawing attention to this latter type of experience, and over the years I have written columns and sat for answers on television and radio and discussed this issue. In 2015, I was nominated for national newspaper Fréttablaðið's community award in the category of anti-prejudice. Shortly before, I had drawn attention to prejudice in Iceland following comments by members of parliament about background checks on Muslims in Iceland. I discussed prejudice in an interview on national TV show “Ísland í dag” (e. Iceland Today) in January of that year. In 2023 I was nominated in the category of Trailblazer in Diversify Nordics’ Blaze Inclusion Awards. A Trailblazer is “an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment and proactiveness in the DEIB field in the past year”. I was really honored to be nominated and happy to win the national round in Iceland.
