H�sk�lasetur Vestfjar�a - News

Warrior Codes in Saga-age Iceland

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:47:00 +0000

Dr. Short is an independent scholar and author, specializing in Viking-age topics. Most of his research has been conducted at the Higgins Armory Museum, a museum of arms and armor in Worcester, MA, USA. At the museum, he regularly lectures on Viking weapons and their place in the society of the Viking-age people, and he demonstrates and teaches Viking-age combat techniques. His most recent books include Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques published in 2009, and Icelanders in the Viking Age published in 2010.

Dr. Short is now working on another book that combines his interest in the sagas with his interest in Viking-age weapons and their use. The book looks at the warrior code of the Viking-age fighting men.

Further information:
http://www.williamrshort.com

The lunch lecture is an open lecture and will be held at the University Centre coffee room starting at 12.10.

The First Course of the Autumn Semester

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:59:00 +0000

This week marks the beginning of the autumn semester of the Coastal and Marine Management masters program. The first course taught is entitled Integrated Coastal and Marine Management and is the first of six course courses in the program. The course will introduce the concepts, principles, approaches, processes and issues of integrated coastal management (ICM) through a review of ICM history and development within a global context, illustrating the complexity of economic, social and natural system interactions in coastal and marine environments.

The course instructor is Rodrigo Menafra who is now returning for the third time to teach this course. He has been involved in Integrated Coastal Management for ten years, having participated in various interdisciplinary research projects, with an emphasis on coastal policy, protected areas and artisanal fisheries. His academic interests derives from his experience as Assistant Coordinator and faculty member in the master's program on Integrated Coastal Management at the University of the Republic of Uruguay, having contributed to the development of the program through technical and administrative roles as well as teaching responsibilities. He currently lives in Halifax, Canada, and works as the Marine Conservation Coordinator for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a non-governmental environmental organization.

Twenty five students have moved to �safj�r�ur

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:43:00 +0000

Today is the first day of classes for the 2010-2011 class of the Coastal and Marine Management master's program. The number of students has increased again this year and now twenty five students have moved to Ísafjörður to attend their studies. The students come from diverse countries and have a wide variety of academic backgrounds.

On Saturday, the group was welcomed by the staff of the University Centre and by last year's students. The day started with a tour of the University Centre and a walk around town. The group then drove to Holt in Önundarfjörður, for a walk on the beach and some delicious homemade Icelandic pancakes.

On their return, the students met with members of the student association Ægir to talk about their experiences with the program and life in the Westfjords. The new students therefore got a lot of useful advices and practical tips and are just as eager as last year's students to get involved with the local community, be it through sports practices, outreach programs or music lessons. The day ended with a barbecue and a party in the University Centre's courtyard hosted by Ægir student association.

Last day of classes for the CMM students of 2009-2010

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:32:00 +0000

After one year of studying at the University Centre of the Westfjords, the 2009-2010 class of CMM students said good-bye to staff members last Wednesday. On Thursday the student group went on a field trip to Reykjavík to complete the last two elective courses of the CMM program, Energy and Materials Management and Coastal and Marine Conservation.

After completing 15 courses in diverse areas ranging from Economics to Fisheries Management and from Contamination to Tourism Planning the 12 month stay in Ísafjörður is now coming to an end for most of the 18 students. On this occasion the student association Ægir organized an informal farewell ceremony at lunch time on Wednesday. Amongst other events Ægir awarded receptionist Guðrún Sigríður Matthíasdóttir an award for being especially helpful in organizing things for the students and making them feel at home. This award is most certainly well deserved by Guðrún Sigríður and the University Centre congratulates her on receiving it.

While some students are going back to their home countries, or hometowns in Iceland to work on their theses, others are going to stay in Iceland, be it in the Westfjords or other places. But there's not going to be any break at the University Centre: Next year's 25 students from all over the world are already arriving in town and are going to be welcomed next weekend by staff members and the student association Ægir.

A Visit From Estonia

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Today a few officials from the town Valga in Estonia visited the University Centre of the Westfjords. The town of Valga is relatively remote and small and has had to battle reduction in population. It can therefore be said that there are quite a few similarities between Ísafjörður Municipality and Valga. In the group were Külliki Siilak, president of the city council, Ivar Unt, mayor, Alar Nääm, vice mayor and Ene Elango, city council secretary.

Peter Weiss director of the University Centre gave a presentation on the University Centre's operations and other staff members answered questions about specific parts of the Centre's activities. After that the Estonians visited other institutions in the building and listened to a presentation about the Westfjords Regional Development Agency and the Municipality Association of the Westfjords.

Three-Week Course in Icelandic ends - One Week Course begins

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:58:00 +0000

Last Friday, the Three-Week Courses in Icelandic came to an end. Both three week courses, the one held at Núpur for exchange students and the open course in Ísafjörður were very successful. The Icelandic courses at the University Centre are not quite over yet since today a one week intensive course began with 15 students from different countries.

As the students of the Three-Week courses were on their way to Reykjavík to enjoy Culture Night or to catch a flight home, new students were already arriving in Ísafjörður. „We're really happy with how the Three-Week Courses turned out this year and got some very good feedback from the students, so I hope the next course is going to be a success, too", says Heiðrún Tryggvadóttir, Project Manager and teacher for the course „Icelandic in One Week".

About half of the students in the Icelandic course are here to take part in the master's program in Coastal and Marine Management this winter, the other half are studying Icelandic for various other reasons. Philipp Ewers for example, a brewer from Düsseldorf in Germany, first came to Iceland for a vacation. He instantly fell in love with the country and the language and decided to look for work here. „Everything went really fast, I applied in June, got the job a few weeks later and now I'm here, trying to learn some Icelandic before I start working at the brewery Mjöður in Stykkishólmur."

The one week course emphasizes communication skills and practical phrases, so Philipp and the other students should be able to put their knowledge into use right away after this week.

Student choir sings on �safj�r�ur town square

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:01:00 +0000

A group of students participating in the University Centre‘s Icelandic course currently taking place at Núpur have been practicing songs in Icelandic with local music teacher Bjarney Ingibjörg Gunnlaugsdóttir. On Thursday, they showed the town and their fellow students what they had learned in the town‘s central square Silfurtorg.

The group sang traditional Icelandic songs like Vatnsdælingastemma and Sá ég spóa as well as the more internationally known Meistari Jakob (Frère Jacques). „I liked that we sang such a wide variety of songs, from folk songs to nursery rhymes and canons", Emmi Kahilainen from Finland explains. She is going to study Dance at the Icelandic Academy of Arts this winter where she‘ll surely get to know even more Icelandic music.

„Working with this group has been a great experience because we really had a connection. Singing in a choir teaches you a lot about pronunciation, the musical culture of a country and using your voice effectively at the same time, so I think it‘s a very important part of the language course" says choirmaster Bjarney Ingibjörg, who usually works at the local music school and teaches music all over the Westfjords.

With electives like the choir, dancing lessons and games, the students of the Icelandic course are encouraged to engage all their senses in the language learning experience. „You simply learn more when your having fun at the same time", Bjarney adds.

The Icelandic Course in the Media

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:29:00 +0000

The Icelandic Course that is now underway at the University Centre has had its fair share of media coverage. The newspaper Fréttablaðið published an article about the course and the local news website bb.is has done the same.

Last Monday the program Samfélagið í nærmynd (Society up close) on the National Radio interviewed Heiðrún Tryggvadóttir, the project manager of the course. This interview is available on the National Radio website, and will be available the next two weeks.

Population of �ingeyri tripled on Wednesday

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:55:00 +0000

The streets of the small fishing village of Þingeyri were buzzing, as a group of hundred stundents attending the University Center‘s Icelandic courses visited the town yesterday.

To start their visit, the international group was first guided through the towns reconstructed viking farm and the fishing factory by Þórhallur Arason, who works as an consultant in the fishing industry and is a member of the local Viking association. „My familiy is from the area, but when I first came here because of my job, I wouldn‘t have thought that I‘d come to live here. But then I fell in love with the town and it‘s people and decided to move here. So if you want to stay, just talk to me!" he invited the students.

And after some delicious Belgian waffles at Simbahöllin Café, a stroll around town and a trip on the Vikingship with Valdimar Elíasson, some students seriously considered his offer. „I‘d really like to spend some more time in Þingeyri, maybe work here for a summer",said Anna-Maria Wolke from Germany, who is going to study music at Listaháskóla Íslands this winter.

But before that, she and the other students still have some studying ahead of them. The remaining one and a half weeks of the course are packed with language teaching, electives and more trips around the area.

Final elective courses 2009 - 2010

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:29:00 +0000

The final elective courses for the master's study in Coastal and Marine Management are underway. Upon their completion the students will be focusing on their master's thesis. Many of the students will stay in Ísafjörður to work on their theses since their research involves matters regarding the Westfjords.

When the final two courses are finished teaching of the academic year 2010 - 2011 will begin. Over twenty students are expected to arrive in Ísafjörður in the next few weeks and in fact four are already here studying in the Icelandic language course that is now underway.

Energy and Materials Management is taught by Dr. John Nyboer, a University Research Associate at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who acts as the Executive Director of the Energy and Materials Research Group (EMRG) in REM. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach at understanding how humans affect global flows of energy and materials, the ways in which such flows are currently and prospectively a challenge for sustaining the Earth's life-support capability and social cohesion, thermodynamic, technological, geological and biological options for changing the character of these flows toward greater sustainability, potential implications of these options from an ecological, economic and social perspective, and institutional and policy mechanisms (local, regional, national and global) for fostering these options.