Research team
Dr. Ólafur Rastrick, project leader.
Ólafur is Professor of European Ethnology at the Department of Folklore/Ethnology and Museum Studies at the University of Iceland. He is a cultural historian by training specialising in the fields of cultural heritage and cultural history of modern Iceland.
Find Ólafur’s website
Contact Ólafur here.
Snjólaug G. Jóhannesdóttir, researcher.
Snjólaug is a doctoral student in ethnology at the University of Iceland. She holds an MA-degree in ethnology and folkloristics from the same university.
Contact Snjólaug here.
Dr. Páll Jakob Líndal, environmental psychologist.
Páll holds a PhD in environmental psychology from The University of Sydney, Australia. He is the owner of two businesses TGJ Design – Consultancy – Research, and ENVALYS in Reykjavik, Iceland. He holds an adjunct position at University of Iceland, School of Psychology. His research interests span the impact of urban environments on people and the application of the 3D technology for studies on the interaction between people and the environment.
Áki Guðni Karlsson, ethnologist.
Seasonal teacher and doctoral student in ethnology at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Folkloristics at the University of Iceland.
Vera Knútsdóttir holds a PhD degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Iceland. She defended her dissertation titled “Spectral Memories of Icelandic Culture: Memory, Identity and the Haunted Imagination in Contemporary Literature and Art” in June 2021.
Vilhelmína Jónsdóttir, doctoral student in ethnology at the University of Iceland.
Sigurlaug Dagsdóttir, researcher and sessional lecturer at the University of Iceland. MA in folklore/ethnology from the University of Iceland.
Anna Sigríður Melsteð, MA student in ethnology at the University of Iceland.
Vitalina Ostimchuk, MA student in ethnology at the University of Iceland.
Advisory board
Dr. Steven Cooke, Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage and Museums Studies at Deakin University (Australia) and Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Winchester (UK), attached to the Dep. of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography. He is a cultural and historical geographer and an expert in issues related to heritage, memory and identity. He has a longstanding involvement with matters of the historic urban landscape and has lately been in the forefront of developing visual research methods for understanding place-people relations.
Dr. Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, Professor in folklore/ethnology at UI and former president of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF). He is an internationally acclaimed scholar within critical heritage studies and has published widely. Recent book publications include Making Intangible Heritage, published in 2018 by Indiana University Press and with Martin Skrydstrup Patrimonialities, published in 2020 in the Cambridge Elements series.
Dr. Ingrid Martins Holmberg, Associate Professor at the Dep. of Conservation and research coordinator of Curating the city at the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies at Gothenburg University. She is a leading scholar in the area of cultural heritage of the built environment and has undertaken research in areas such as the city as mnemonic device, heritage of national minorities and participation in heritage management.