University of Iceland Courses

Gender and Intersectionality

5

Understanding how gender intersects with various cultural and social concepts is not only essential to understanding gender studies as a scientific discipline, it is also an important part of moving through and experiencing the world as a human being. Understanding gender and intersectionality can help us understand ourselves and the world and culture we live in. This course offers an excellent starting point for anyone coming to gender studies for the first time, or for those already in the field who wish to brush up on the basics through a more visual experience. The course will offer different resources in the form of literature, articles, images, audio, websites, and visual texts about gender in many different contexts. Specifically using examples from popular culture, classical literature, and history, this course will teach you how to analyze religious texts and traditions, class divisions, racial inequality, sexualities, and nationalism through a gendered lens. The course is adapted from a semester length undergraduate level course taught at the University of Iceland.

Sheep in the Land of Fire and Ice

4.9

Land use without adequate management can drive environmental degradation. Grazing management is an example of such land use and represents a common problem in many regions of the world. The aim of this short course is to raise awareness of the environmental risks associated with unsustainable management of natural resources. This course uses Iceland as a case study because here traditional sheep grazing has been associated with extensive environmental degradation. We examine the sustainability of sheep grazing in Iceland and explore how history, socioeconomic factors and environmental conditions have influenced the management of grazing resources. The development of sustainable management practices needs to take into account ecological, as well as economic and social aspects. We can devise general rules and guiding principles for management based on our current understanding of the socio-ecological systems, but fine-tuning of specific management decisions, for example regarding stocking rates or the duration of the grazing season will have to be site-specific. A better understanding of the consequences of these practices and how their ecological impacts vary under different environmental conditions will improve management decisions and increase the sustainability of management practices in the face of ongoing environmental changes.

Friendship machine: forming a new type of human connections

0

Did you know that there are now 2.6 billion gamers in the world? By 2021, that number is expected to rise by 125 million. In terms of revenue, the video game industry has become bigger than the movie and music industries put together. Video games are sweeping the globe, quickly becoming a primary shaper of culture.In an age of seemingly increasing social isolation and loneliness, communities are being formed and friendships forged in video games. But can you design for friendship? Do virtual connections have a meaningful impact on humans? What is the cost of loneliness?In this course, the University of Iceland - in collaboration with leading game developer CCP Games - will guide you through the most interesting insights to emerge from the world of video games. Themes include friendship, loneliness, and the societal implications of a new type of human connection rapidly being formed in the 21st century.

Intercultural Competency in Education

0

Some of the challenges we are facing in the world today are related to the ongoing trends towards immigration and globalization of education and the labour market. Combined with increased numbers of refugees in many countries, this has led to greater interpersonal cross cultural encounters and heightened cultural concerns. All school levels are facing complex challenges in adjusting their services to an increasingly diverse student population, irrespective of their background. It is therefore of great importance that employees at all school levels are culturally competent and can understand and adapt their services when working with people with diverse cultural backgrounds.The aim of this course is to help the students develop intercultural competence by broadening their understanding of different cultures and different identities, as well as promoting students´ awareness of their own culture, learning from the experiences of international educators as well as professionals at the municipality level in the Nordic countries.An added value is that the course is open to participants from different parts of the world, which creates a cross-cultural learning and teaching environment.By the end of this course you should have learned practical intercultural skills and increased your understanding of intercultural competence; how to talk about and address intercultural opportunities and challenges, how to develop strategies to respond to diverse and hybrid identities in a fairer way, and how to promote social justice in education and respect for different languages, preventing conflicts and enhancing societal cohesion.

The Medieval Icelandic Sagas

5

The Medieval Icelandic Sagas is an introductory course on the single most characteristic literary genre of Medieval Iceland. Mainly written in the 13th century, the Icelandic Sagas are comprised of roughly 40 texts of varying length. In this course, you will learn about three Sagas, written at different times, with the aim of giving an overview of the writing period and the genre as a whole. These are Eyrbyggja Saga, Njáls Saga and Grettis Saga. We will explore the landscape and archaeology of Iceland to see how they can add to our understanding of the Sagas as well as take an in-depth look at the most memorable characters from the Sagas. Participants will have opportunities to engage with an online community of Icelandic and international scholars, learners and others to explore topics relating to Icelandic and Nordic Medieval history beyond the course curriculum. The Medieval Icelandic Sagas course is associated with a two-year international master’s program in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies at the University of Iceland.

Monitoring Volcanoes and Magma Movements

4.9

The course gives an introduction to volcano monitoring techniques, magma movements and volcano unrest.  It also presents some aspects of why volcanoes are dangerous and volcanic hazards. Volcano monitoring relies on diverse approaches to infer the state of a volcano so many different instruments and techniques are used to monitor volcanoes. Predicting eruptions or forecasting future activity of a volcano is based on monitoring data. If activity level rises above normal the volcano is in a state of unrest. Magma often intrudes in the roots of volcanoes prior to eruptions. This process generates earthquakes as stress level is increased and ground deformation as the volcano expands in response to additional mass in its subsurface. Seismology and geodetic measurements on the surface of the volcano are thus key to monitoring subsurface conditions. As magma, molten rock inside volcanoes, approaches the surface it releases volcanic gas that finds its way to the surface, and geothermal activity can change.  In addition to ground-based techniques, satellite observations are extensively used. The main monitoring techniques for volcanoes are explained in the course, with the aim that students understand both the concept of volcanic unrest and how it can be monitored, how eruptions can be monitored, and signs of volcanic eruptions as seen on instruments. Understanding the possibilities and limitations of present-day volcano monitoring for detecting magma movements is an important step in understanding volcanoes, evaluating hazards and for giving warnings of impending eruptions. The course thus provides information on how scientists predict future activity of volcanoes and volcanic eruptions. Monitoring data are interpreted in terms of models of subsurface processes such as magma accumulation during volcano unrest, and magma withdrawal during eruptions. The course gives an introduction to such models, used to infer the volume and location of magma movements in volcano roots, in particular those based on mapping ground deformation. The course presents examples of monitoring data and interpretations from recent eruptions and periods of volcanic unrest in Iceland and around the world, including the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull that closed Europe’s airspace.