Brynja E. Halldórsdóttir is the third lecturer in the RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference – 2018 autumn term lecture series. Her lecture is titled: “Some say love it is a* …: How the #MeToo discourse reflected immigrant women in Iceland” and will take place on Thursday, 4 October, from 12.00-13.00, at the National Museum of Iceland lecture hall.

The #MeToo stories of immigrant women published in Kjarninn earlier this year touched off thoughts of popular conceptions of love and social justice while also being striking reading. These narratives told stories of intimate partner violence, imprisonment, trafficking and work-related violence. The women´s stories illustrate that immigrant women lack the cultural and social networks that Icelandic women have. Their stories are important as part of the discussion on women’s rights in Icelandic society, as well as in a larger context where populistic rhetoric around immigrants in the West is becoming increasingly evident. In this talk, the stories of foreign women in the wake of #MeToo revolution will be critically examined through bell hooks’ work on love as an integral part of social justice in Western societies.

Brynja E. Halldórsdóttir is an assistant professor of Critical Education Studies at the University of Iceland. She currently is the chair of the Department of International Studies in Education. Her research areas focus on issues of institutional and structural racism and exclusion, immigrant positionality and critical educational theory in diverse societies and educational institutions. With her colleagues, Randi Stebbins, Susan Gollifer and Jón Ingvar Kjaran, she recently received an Equality Fund Grant to begin research on this vital topic.

The lecture is in English, open to everyone and admission is free.

The event is on Facebook!

The lecture is RIKK’s contribution to Equality days. Follow the programme of the Equality days on Facebook!

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The RIKK lecture series during the autumn term 2018 is dedicated to women’s revolution against harassment and violence, and the attending responses, research and activism, in an endeavour to analyse the incentives, nature and consequences of the MeToo movement from different viewpoints.

RIKK lecture series in the autumn semester 2018 is held in collaboration with The National Museum of Iceland.