Hallgerður Gísladóttir

Who is Hallgerður Gísladóttir?

Hallgerður Gísladóttir was born in Norðfjörður, East Iceland. She studied anthropology and history at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg 1974-75, she studied a B.A. in history from the University of Iceland in 1981 and cand. mag. 1991.

Hallgerður worked at the Department of Ethnology in the National Museum of Iceland, became its Head of Department in 1995 and later the Ethnological Collections Manager. Hallgerður’s speciality was Icelandic food traditions and gastronomy: in 1999 she published a book on the subject, Icelandic Food Heritage, for which she received scholarly prizes and was also nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize. She was a specialist in the Icelandic man-made caves and was a co-author of a book on the matter, Artificial Caves in Iceland, published in 1991. Hallgerður made a series of television programs for Icelandic TV, both on traditional Icelandic food and cooking methods, and on Icelandic Christmas traditions, along with countless programs for Icelandic radio on related subjects. For many years, Hallgerður taught courses on traditional food and cooking in the history and folklore departments of the University of Iceland, presented papers and lectures in Iceland and other countries and published many articles on her subject in both Icelandic and foreign journals.