ACTUALITÉS DES SOCIÉTÉS NATIONALES - ISLANDE

A profile of the Icelandic Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

The Icelandic Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Félag um átjándu aldar fræði, was founded in 1994. Its current membership (February 2009) is 260.

The society holds at least three symposia per year, on various aspects of eighteenth-century studies and related fields. The society has to date held two Nordic conferences in Reykjavík, in 2002 and 2007.

Every year the society organizes a full-day excursion from Reykjavík.

Every other year the society arranges a tour abroad, lasting about a week, during which places of historical interest are visited.

Members of the society have been active in international co-operation. In addition to participation in the international congresses on the Enlightenment, special contacts with the sister societies in the other Nordic countries can be mentioned.

The website of the society is: http://www.akademia.is/18.oldin/. Abstracts of most of the lectures given at the symposia of the society are available at the website.

The society publishes an electronic journal named Vefnir. Tímarit Félags um átjándu aldar fræði. It has, inter alia, published a number of articles based on lectures given at the symposia of the society. The editor of the journal is Bragi Thorgrímur Ólafsson (e-mail address: bragio@bok.hi.is).

Until September 2009 the society will hold two symposia. On 2 May it will hold, in co-operation with Menntaskólinn að Laugarvatni, an educational institution, a symposium at Laugarvatn, South Iceland, on outlaws in history and literature. The symposium is organized in order to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the scholar and teacher Ólafur Briem. On 5 September the society will hold, in co-operation with Sögufélag Borgarfjarðar, the historical association of the region Borgarfjörður, a symposium in Borgarnes, West Iceland, on the history of the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

There is no research centre in Iceland that is specifically concerned with eighteenth-century studies. However, research in this field has been carried out, inter alia, at several institutes at the University of Iceland.