The Project

The research project Iceland and Images of the North illuminates Iceland’s role as an important part of the circumpolar world through the analysis of various representations of Iceland as part of the North, the function and practice of such images in the present and their origins in the past. The project is a cooperative, interdisciplinary and international undertaking on the part of researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

The Field

Cultural identity and images have emerged as one of the most challenging issues in the social and cultural sciences. The reason for this is that the state of the world has changed radically in the past two decades. In some places, nationalist movements have intensified and new borders have been created, while in other places borders have opened. Globalization now extends to all corners of the world. These circumstances and upheaval change the self-images of groups and nations and their attitudes toward each other. New lines of conflict emerge. This changed world provides an occasion for thorough re-examination of cultural, historical, political and economic aspects of society. It is for precisely this reason that the research group on Iceland and Images of the North (the INOR group) regards it as important to promote research on images of Iceland as a part of the North.

The Group

The INOR group is an interdisciplinary group of Icelandic and non-Icelandic scholars who have in recent years conducted research on images of Iceland and the North in the present and past with the goal of analyzing the form which these images assume, their function and dynamics. This group includes representatives of most fields of the humanities and social sciences, in many instances individuals who are leading experts in their fields. The research project is lead by principle investigators Sumarliði Ísleifsson of the Reykjavík Academy, where many of the participants are based, and Daniel Chartier of the International Laboratory for the Comparative Multidisciplinary Study of Representations of the North, based in Québec. The group has also brought about extensive collaboration with research groups and scholars involved in similar projects in neighboring countries.

Objectives

The project's general objectives may be summed up as follows:

• to elucidate diverse representations of Iceland as part of the North, the function of such images in the present and their historical emergence.
• to study images in general: their nature; different definitions of images as a phenomenon; the functions they serve; and not least their connection with hegemony. Is their role negative, or can they also serve a positive and constructive function? How is the dialectic between self-images and images of alterity configured? To what extent do structural constraints influence the emergence and form of images?
• to study the idea of the North, how it has evolved and changed and what function such ideas serve.
• to promote research in this area of study in Iceland and to incorporate images of Iceland and its closest neighbours into the current theoretical discourse on images and the North.