Biography

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon was born in the West End of Reykjavík. He completed his B.A. in history and philosophy in 1984 from University of Iceland. His thesis was published year later in a book called, The Mode of Living in Iceland, 1930–1940, by the Institute of History at the University of Iceland. That same year he started his doctoral studies in Pittsburgh, USA, at Carnegie Mellon University (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Mellon_University) in history where he recived a M.A. degree in 1988 and a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in 1993. His dissertation dealt with popular culture and is titled The Continuity of Everyday Life: Popular Culture in Iceland 1850–1940.

Sigurður Gylfi taught part time at the University of Iceland and in other academic settings in Iceland from 1994 when he returned back from USA. He taught at his old university, Carnegie Mellon, in the spring of 2002 when he was a Fulbright scholar for six months. He became in 1998 the first chair of an independent research institute called The Reykjavík Academy (http://www.akademia.is/), which was founded by independent scholars who had got their education in Iceland, Scandinavia, Europe and USA. The colorful saga of the Reykjavík Academy attracted considerable outside attention, from its humble beginnings as a forum for ten independent scholars to its eventually finding a home for 80 researchers from all areas of the humanities and social sciences.

In 2003, Sigurður Gylfi founded and chaired the Center for Microhistorical Research which, among other things, runs the international web-page microhistory.org (http://www.microhistory.org/) and publishes books on microhistorical issues. He is the editor of the web-journal The Journal of Microhistory (http://www.microhistory.org/journal2006.php) with his co-worker and a long-time friend Dr. Davíð Ólafsson.

Sigurður Gylfi is the founder and one of three editors of the book series Anthology from Icelandic Popular Culture which has already published 24 books in cooperation with the University of Iceland Press (see: www.sia.hi.is). The other editors are Dr Már Jónsson, Professor of History at the University of Iceland, and Dr Davíð Ólafsson, Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in Faculty of Icelandic, and Comparative Cultural Studies, at the University of Iceland. Sigurður Gylfi is also co-editor with Dr István M. Szijártó of a new book series, Microhistories, published by Routledge.

Sigurður Gylfi is now a Professor of Cultural History at the University of Iceland. He is the PI of Grant of Excellence from the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) for a project called: “My Favourite Things: Material Culture Archives, Cultural Heritage and Meaning” from 2018 (see: www.hh.hi.is). He is as well one of the leaders of another Grant of Excellence called “Disability before Disability” runned by Dr Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir (PI) from 2017.

Sigurður Gylfi lives in Reykjavík, and he is married to Dr Tinna Laufey Ásgreisdóttir, Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland , and they have one son, Pétur Bjarni, born 2002, who is Sigurður Gylfi‘s step son.

It could be argued that the primary objective of many of Sigurður Gylfi’s work has been to present a view of the ways in which history, and in particular social and cultural history, has developed in the last 20 years, at a time of major reassessment within the academic world manifested in the radical ideas grouped under the banner of postmodernism and/or poststructuralism. The History War is based on his former research which he has published in years before 2007, when the book was published, on first hand sources, microhistory and everyday life. That includes the following books: Dreams of Things Past: Life Writing in Iceland (2004; Metastories: Memory, Recollection, and History (2005); Academic Liturgy. Humanities and the Society of Scholars (2007), and finally a book which he co-edited called From Re-evaluation to Disintegration. Two Final Theses, One Introduction, Three Interviews, Seven Articles, Five Photographs, One Afterword and Few Abituaries from the Field of Humanities (2006).

After mostly dealing with the methods of microhistory for over ten years Sigurður Gylfi turned back to his empical research in 2007 with the focus on material culture and everydag life. His book Wasteland with Words. A Social History of Iceland (2010) (http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/book.html?id=412), was published by Reaktion books (http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/) in England (see criticism in The Economist: http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16213940&fsrc=rss). After that a number of other books were published in English as will be discussed in this part of the home page:

Books in English

Books in Icelandic (English Summary)

Books as Art Pices