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Icelandic Sherlocks: A Century of Icelandic Crime FictionSunday, February 21, 2027, at 2:00 pm
University of Victoria, Clearihue A207
Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland from 2017–2024, literary critic, and crime fiction writer
Icelandic crime fiction has its roots in the early 20th century when Icelandic writers in Canada and Iceland started writing their own stories of master criminals and eccentric detectives. It took the genre almost a century to mature in Iceland, but its history may be seen as a remarkable testimony of the joy of creating a new literary genre in a culture better known for its medieval poetry and sagas. Katrín Jakobsdóttir began her studies on Icelandic crime fiction in the late 1990s when the genre had its breakthrough and went on to flourish in Iceland ever since. In her lecture she will talk about the history of Icelandic crime fiction and in particular discuss current popular writers like Arnaldur Indriðason, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson, and Stefán Máni. She will also introduce her own books, which she has co-written with Ragnar Jónasson in recent years.
Katrín Jakobsdóttir served as the prime minister of Iceland (2017–2024) and led a three-party government. She was a member of the Icelandic parliament from 2007 to 2024. She served as Icelandʼs minister of education, science, and culture, and of Nordic cooperation from 2009 to 2013. She served as the chair of the Left-Green Movement from 2013 to 2024 and as a vice-chair of that party from 2003. She ran for president of Iceland in 2024 and came in second with 25,1% of the popular vote.
Prime Minister Jakobsdóttirʼs coalition government continued Iceland’s groundbreaking approach to addressing systemic gender inequality. Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir’s government was also at the forefront of climate change policy and committed to make Iceland carbon-neutral before 2040. Her government emphasized the importance the approach of Well-being government and spearheaded a framework of 39 indicators that cover social, economic and environmental dimensions of quality of life. During her time in office, she also led the work on Iceland´s first policy on artificial intelligence that was published in 2021 and her government established a plan to make the largest language models well-usable in the Icelandic language.
Before entering politics, she studied Icelandic literature, worked as literary critic, teacher and in a publishing house. She co-wrote a crime novel called Reykjavík with best-selling author Ragnar Jónasson that was published in 2022 and has been published in fifteen languages. They published a sequel called Franski spítalinn in 2025.
She now works as Senior emissary and chair of the Polar Dialogue at the Arctic Circle, serves as the Chair of the Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health, lectures on various topics and works as an independent consultant. She is also chair of the Reykjavík Arts Festival, chair of the Center of Equal Opportunites at the Business faculty at the University of Iceland and a member on the board of University of Iceland. She is a senior advisor to the Reykjavík Global Forum and a member of the global advisory board of the Forum.
She lives in Reykjavík, is married to Gunnar Sigvaldason and they have three sons.
*Please note that Katrín Jakobsdóttir will also be providing an additional lecture at UVic’s Centre for Global Studies on Monday, February 22, 2027. This talk, titled Well-being, Gender Equality and Climate Action: Pushing a Progressive Agenda in Times of Permacrisis, will take place from 12:00–1:20 pm in Sedgewick C168.
The Richard and Margaret Beck Lectures on Icelandic Literature:
The Beck Lecture series at the University of Victoria focuses on various aspects of Icelandic literature and culture. Richard and Margaret Beck made provision in their wills for a special fund to be established at the University of Victoria to provide public lectures on Icelandic language and literature. Richard passed away on July 23, 1980, and Margaret on December 10, 1985. The first Richard and Margaret Beck Lecture on Icelandic Literature took place on February 14, 1988. Since then, the University of Victoria has hosted over 80 lectures on a wide range of topics.
Learn more: https://becklectures.uvic.ca/
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Event venue
Clearihue A207, 3800 Finnerty Rd., Victoria, BC, Canada, British Columbia V8P 5C2
Tickets
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