HIS389Y0 Iceland and the World: Histories from the Viking Age to the Modern Era
Could a society that has adapted to some of the most difficult conditions on earth help us learn to navigate the challenges of our own time? Journey to the edge of the Arctic Circle for a special new summer course, Iceland and the World: Histories from the Viking Age to the Modern Era.
Classes alternate between a traditional classroom format and regular immersive, hands-on field trips that bring Iceland’s surreal and storied landscape to life. Students will begin with an introduction to Icelandic history and its relationship to the global Far North. Through museum and site visits, lectures and readings, we begin with the earliest histories of human habitation and international trade in the Viking Age and proceeed into the changing landscape faced by this distinct and geopolitically important country in the 21st century. Using the course’s focus on friction, instability, and resilience, we strive to understand what made that journey possible. How did historical Icelanders survive and eventually thrive in such a harsh landscape amid waves of volcanic eruptions, virtual climate collapse, plagues, poverty, and foreign rule? Does part of the answer to this question lie in Icelandic cultural approaches to adaptation and resilience?
This course will help students analyze the relationship between survival and Icelandic culture, including the central place of historical memory in everyday life. On an island where practically everyone has a working knowledge of medieval history, you will also learn about how modern Icelanders put history to work in the present, using lessons and stories about their past to inform and shape modern responses to global challenges from human rights and Arctic climate change, to democratic sovereignty and digital governance in the AI Age.
Prerequisites: None
Breath Requirement = 3
2026 Tentative Course Outline
Field Trips (TBC)
- Visit World in Words: Manuscript Exhibition, Edda
- Visit Icelandic Settlement Centre, Borgarnes
- Visit National Museum of Iceland
- Visit Reykjavík Maritime Museum
- Visit Modern Icelandic Parliament
- Day trip to Thingvellir National Park and Árbær open air museum
- Day trip to Bjarteyjarsandur
- Day trip to Hveradalir geothermal area and geothermal pools in Selfoss
Instructor
Dr. L.K. Bertram is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto and a specialist in 19th-century Icelandic migration history. In addition to multiple publications, including The Viking Immigrants: Icelandic North Americans (UTP 2020) and work on Icelandic-Indigenous relations in Canada, Bertram also brings Icelandic family roots and years of work and research to help students gain access to hidden chapters in the country’s history. Through an award-winning approach to hands-on, immersive historical learning, Bertram’s courses focus on maximizing student engagement and learning through a range of media, including material culture, food history, and social media public history campaigns.