professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at the
University of Iceland
The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...
.
Kristín has organized and been part of diverse research projects. Examples include research on
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
. Kristín has also conducted research relating to the tourism industry,
development cooperation
Development aid is a type of foreign/international/overseas aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. Closely-related concepts include: developm ...
and
masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
. Kristín has done research in Europe (Iceland, Belgium, and Italy), as well as West Africa (Niger). Kristín's writings have also appeared in many scholarly journals and chapters in books. Kristín has written three monographs and two novels and edited six books with others.Google Scholar. Kristín Loftsdóttir /ref>Kristín Loftsdóttir. Professor in Anthropology. Published work /ref>
Education
Kristín Loftsdóttir was born in 1968 in Hafnarfjörður. She completed her matriculation examination from Flensborgarskóli in Hafnarfjörður in 1989 and a BA in Anthropology from the
University of Iceland
The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...
in 1992. She went to graduate school abroad and graduated with a master's from the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, in 1994, and then completed a doctorate at the same university in 2000. Her doctoral research revolved around global changes in the lives of pastoralists and migrant workers. She did her project in
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages
Professional experience
Kristín has been engaged in various international collaborations and participated in and directed international projects. Kristín, for example, was project manager of Icelandic Identity in Crisis (supported by The
Icelandic Centre for Research
The Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNÍS; Icelandic: Rannsóknamiðstöð Íslands) funds and promotes scientific research in Iceland. It formed in 2003 through an act of legislation. As of April 1 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science ...
). She was also one of three project managers of the top project Mobility and Transnational Iceland (supported by The Icelandic Centre for Research). She was one of two managers of the associative projects ''“Crisis and Nordic Identity” and “Decoding the Nordic Colonial Mind”'' that NOS-HS supported. She was a member of the HERA project ''Arctic Encounters'', 2013–2015.
Kristín has been a guest teacher at the University of Graz, Lafayette College, Roskilde University, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She has also taught the summer school "Noise" at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
. In 2014, the University of Iceland recognised Kristín for her academic work. Her book ''The Woman Who Got a Spear in Her Head'' (''Konan sem fékk spjót í höfuðið'') discusses research procedure in anthropology in an accessible manner. It won the Women's Literary Prize 2011 and was nominated for a Hagþenkir Award in 2010 as well as the DV Prize 2010.
Works of fiction
Kristín won the Icelandic Children's Book Prize in 1988 for ''Bird in a Cage'' (''Fugl í búri''). Her book ''Time's Footstep'' (''Fótatak tímans'') was published by Vaka Helgafell in 1990. The same year it was nominated for the
Icelandic Literary Prize The Icelandic Literary Prize ( Icelandic: ''Íslensku bókmenntaverðlaunin''), or Icelandic Literary Award, is an award which is given to three books each year by the Icelandic Publishers Association. The prize was founded on the association's cen ...
.
Exhibitions
Kristín is one of the authors (along with Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir) of the exhibition ''Iceland in the World and the World in Iceland'', 2016–2017. The exhibition was part of Kristín's research project ''Icelandic Identity in the Crisis'', supported by the Research Fund of the University of Iceland and The Icelandic Centre for Research. The exhibition's main goal was to shed light on ''transnationalism'' as a part of both Iceland's history and present and to highlight how Icelanders have for centuries been part of history's racial prejudices in Europe. The exhibition was done in collaboration with other scholars at the University of Iceland and in collaboration with Iceland's National Museum. The exhibition's emphasis on racism built on Kristín's research on the republication of the book ''Negroboys.''
Kristín also set up the exhibition "The cow's horns do not weigh it down: Kristín Loftsdóttir’s Ethnographic Research amongst WoDaaBe Pastoralists in Niger." The exhibition was in Hafnarborg, Hafnarfjörður's Centre of Culture and Fine Art. The exhibition ran from 4 March to 12 April 2001. It was then set up in the National and University Library of Iceland. The exhibition's name is from a proverb of the WoDaaBe people. It points out that just as the cow does not notice its horns, we do not notice what we are used to.
Research
Kristín's research in Iceland has underscored the importance of considering the present in the context of the history of racial prejudices, and how they are recreated in the present. Her research has through the lens of anthropology and post-colonialism brought up critical questions about racism in Europe – particularly in Iceland and other Nordic countries. It has pointed out as well the importance of analysing "whiteness" in this context. Kristín's research has also critically examined the concept and idea of "Europe" – both the hierarchy of European nations and issues related to the exclusion of certain groups from the Continent.
Kristín's research on the Icelandic
economic collapse
Economic collapse, also called economic meltdown, is any of a broad range of bad economic conditions, ranging from a severe, prolonged depression with high bankruptcy rates and high unemployment (such as the Great Depression of the 1930s), to a ...
emphasises the moulding of national self-images in an inter connected world, as well as how the collapse reawakened old questions about being a nation among nations. In addition, Kristín has posed critical questions on the meaning of being a European that come up in relation to Iceland's economic expansion and the collapse. Kristín's articles on this topic have discussed symbolic significance of the opening and closing the McDonald's fast-food chain in Iceland; the
Icesave
The Icesave dispute was a diplomatic dispute between Iceland, and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that began after the privately owned Icelandic bank Landsbanki was placed in receivership on 7 October 2008. As ''Landsbanki'' was one of ...
dispute as a crisis of national self-image in Iceland, and national ideas about the business Vikings.
Kristín's research in this field has been conducted within larger and smaller projects. Kristín did the research project "Images of Africa in Iceland". It examined historical manifestations of Africa and racial ideas in Iceland. Kristín also researched the republication of the book ''Negroboys'' in 2007. Kristín has researched Lithuanians' experience in Iceland in the years during the economic crisis. She showed that Lithuanians encountered extensive prejudice in Iceland. Recently, Kristín has critically examined images of the tourism industry in relation to ideas of Nordic exceptionalism, and of purity and whiteness.
Kristín's research on prejudices has overlapped her projects focusing on refugees and her writings related to them. She has discussed the refugees' "crisis" and worked on research revolving around precarious migrants (including refugees and asylum seekers) from Niger. The research examines the reasons that refugees from Niger go to Europe. It points out as well the difference in assistance provided to different groups, depending on their historical ties with Europe.
Private life
Kristín's parents are Loftur Magnússon (1945) and Erla Guðlaug Sigurðardóttir (1947). She is married to Már Wolfgang Mixa, lector at Reykjavík University. They have three children.Dagblaðið Vísir - DV. (October 28, 2008) Kristín Loftsdóttir. Prófessor í mannfræði við HÍ. 40 ára í dag Retrieved February 13, 2020.