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CELL Iceland Study Abroad Program
CELL's unique study abroad programs focus on sustainability through community and are designed for students who believe that they can make a difference in the world: students who would like to play an active role in creating long-term solutions to problems facing our global communities and environment. Semester programs consist of a combination of structured course work, field-learning experiences, service-learning opportunities, and development of individual action plans for environmental stewardship. Our programs are interdisciplinary by design and fit any major or program of study. CELL is partnering with Solheimar, an ecovillage of about 100 people renowned for its international, artistic, and...
Poiesis of Place: Inhabiting the edge - Domesticating the terrain
The course explores the concept of living at the intersection of human settlement and nature; the urban and the edge. We will explore natural and cultural landscapes in relation to social networks and the spatial morphology of habitation in rural and semi-urban settlements. The course is based in the remote, privately operated nature and heritage centre at Skálanes, on the east coast of Iceland; a region characterised by high mountains and deep fjords, agricultural land and small-scale historical fishing towns. Along with a study of the local nature reserve, we will examine the historically affluent and cosmopolitan 19th-century small town...
The Pen, the Press and the People: A Polymedia Approach to Written Communications
Iceland is widely known for its preservation of medieval culture and history through its highly praised vellum manuscripts containing Saga literature, Eddaic poetry and medieval chronicles. What is less known, both in Iceland and internationally, is the literary culture of the following centuries that was principally performed via handwritten publication, despite a fairly early advent of print in the 1530s. In addition to a renowned body of medieval manuscripts, the case of Iceland encompasses an extremely rich corpus of handwritten material from the sixteenth century and into the first decades of the twentieth century. This manuscript culture of post-medieval Iceland...
Iceland and Images of the North
This course examines the cultural role of the North in the circumpolar world through the analysis of various representations of Iceland as part of the North. It focuses on the practice and performance of such images in the present, as well as their origins in the past. Participants will study images in general, their dynamics and relation to power and hegemony, gender and space, tourism and locality. Also examined is the idea of the North in general, its construction and how it is appropriated to various cultural contexts. Students will, for example, address questions such as: How is the dialectic between...
Grettir the Strong and Billy the Kid: Outlaws, Myth and Reality in Iceland and America
This course explores the history of outlaws and outlaw mythology in Iceland and the US, in particular the American West. In doing so, it examines the historical origins of outlaws and their mythological development, the myths and folktales relating to them, and the fictionalised social bandit. At the same time, it explores the connection between wildness and outlawry, and considers why the most potent outlaw stories concern desolate, forbidding landscapes. The most common outlaw material in Iceland will be read and interpreted, including medieval sagas, 17th-century accounts, folktales and historical accounts, along with the relationship between the Icelandic highlands and...
Culture and Nature - The Svartarkot Centre for Research & Education, Iceland
Break away from the confines of lecture hall and campus this summer and earn 10 ECTS credits in the process while studying the multi-faceted relationship between culture and nature, in the unique setting of the Svartarkot Centre for Research & Education. Straddling the margins of the habitable and uninhabitable worlds just below the Arctic Circle in northeast Iceland, Svartarkot (Black River Croft) is a working sheep farm set amid some of the country's most spectacular scenery. Bordered to the north by the sweeping expanse of the Fljotsheioi heath and to the south by the empty wastes of Óda rahraun, Iceland's largest lava...
The Landscape in Our Bodies: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire
The course deals with the subject of Landscape, both as idea and experience, combining practical exploration and conceptual investigation with the interplay of art, theory and writing, in an original and interdisciplinary fashion. Parting from the rather uncanny condemnation of Landscape as an outmoded genre or a sweet leftover of the Romantic tradition, the course sets out to investigate the complex relationship between humans and the natural world, as it appears in contemporary art practice and recent debates in art history and art theoretical circles. Working through a wide range of ideas and images of nature, we will examine the historical and...
Understanding Global Heritage
Why do people value things from the past? Why are some aspects of history preserved and others allowed to disappear? Who decides what parts of history should be preserved and why? Why do people from different parts of the world value different parts of the past? What does Heritage mean in today's multi-cultural global context? Understanding Global Heritage offers the student an opportunity to learn about the theory and application of both natural and anthropogenic 'heritage' within today's global context. Through developing a critical approach to defining what is heritage the student will learn about its origins in the global west...
Geotourism and Geoparks: A Tool for Conservation and Development
Defined as the tourism of geology and landscape, geotourism is growing rapidly, as travel to - and appreciation of - natural landscapes and geological phenomena continue to develop as a niche area of the global tourism industry. This course aims to enable students to acquire a deeper insight into the scope and nature of geotourism and the issues and challenges facing it, both with regard to tourism in general and regional development in particular. It will also provide wide-ranging insights into the characteristics of geotourism, by examining its sustainable nature through landscape conservation, benefits to local communities, and economic development....
Folklore and Nature on the Northern Shores of Iceland
In this course students will be introduced to Icelandic culture, folklore and nature through traditional cultural forms as well as in everyday life, media and contemporary innovation. Reflecting on both past and present, students will delve into the folk beliefs, calendar customs, life traditions, identity and images of Icelanders. Through such expressive forms as oral tradition, Eddic poetry and the Icelandic Sagas we will look for representations of early times in Iceland. Through ethnology, archaeology and vernacular literary culture we will study national and local traditions, such as housing and food culture, but also the transnational communication of Icelanders with...
Iceland: Renewable Energy, Technology, and Resource Economics
Iceland is a world leader in developing the use of renewable energy. While this is partly attributable to the country's ample endowment of geothermal and hydroelectric resources, Icelanders have also made unique economic choices, valuing the social benefits of energy independence differently than much of the world. The program is divided into three components. In the capital, Reykjavik, students meet with politicians, industry leaders, and social activists to develop their understanding of how Iceland's energy policy fits into the larger national agenda. They then move on to Akureyri, where they study with leading engineers, physicists, and geologists, and visit major...