Historians in Conversation - Prof. Sigurður Gylfi Magnusson

How do historians build their career, what motivates them and how they deal with professional and personal challenges? What shapes their professional path? Prof. Michael Green from the Faculty of Philosophy and History welcomes you to his podcast, where he will be inviting interesting guests to explore their stories. 

Prof. Sigurður Gylfi Magnusson, is professor of cultural history at the University of Iceland. He was born and raised in Reykjavik, where he also studied for his bachelor degree, before going oversees to write his PhD in the US. Upon his return to Iceland, he set up together with a few colleagues the Reykjavik Academy, which became an enormous scientific success. Our conversation revolves around the choices made and their impact on his academic career and interests, which were shaped by various factors.

Among his publications in English:

Autobiographical Traditions in Egodocuments. Icelandic Literacy Practices (London: Bloomsbury, 2023). 

Archive, Slow Ideology and Egodocuments as Microhistorical Autobiography: Potential History (London: Routledge 2021).

Emotional Experience and Microhistory. A Life Story of a Destitute Pauper Poet in the 19th Century (London: Routledge, 2020).

with Davíð Ólafsson, Minor Knowledge and Microhistory. Manuscript Culture in the Nineteenth Century (London: Routledge 2017).

What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2013).