BYU Iceland Conference
Celebrating 160 Years: "Icelanders and Their Connection to Utah and the West."
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Conference papers will be presented at the BYU Varsity Theatre in the Wilkinson Student Center (WSC)
9:00 a.m. — Welcome and Announcements. Greetings by Dr. Sandra Rogers, international vice president at Brigham Young University.
9:15 a.m. — Fred E. Woods, BYU professor of Religious Education, and Kári Bjarnason, Curator for the Library of Vestmannaeyjar — “The First Three Icelanders to Settle in Utah.”
9:45 a.m. — Guðmundur Hálfdanarson is Jón Sigurðsson's professor of history at the University of Iceland —“Setting for the second half of the 19th century history in Iceland.”
10:15 a.m. — Inga Lára Baldvinsdóttir, photo curator at the National Museum of Iceland—“19th century Iceland as seen in Sigfús Eymundson´s photographs.”
10:45 a.m. — Markús Þ. Þórhallsson, graduate student at the University of Iceland —"Freedom of religion and the first civil marriage in Iceland."
11:15 a.m. —Halldór Guðmundsson, Director of Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre as well as author, —“An allegory of disillusion - an Icelandic reading of Paradise reclaimed by Halldór Laxness.”
11:45 a.m. — Mark Mendenhall, J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga—“An Ambivalent Expatriate: The Life of Runólfur Runólfsson.”
12:15–1:25 p.m. — Lunch (on your own) *For your convenience, the BYU Cougareat Food Court has 10 different dining options and is only a one-minute walk from the Varsity Theatre.
1:30 p.m. —Matthew K. Heiss, archivist in the Church History Department, Salt Lake City—“The Translation of the Book of Mormon into Icelandic.”
2:00 p.m. — Richard Williams and Lacey Neilson, president and vice president of the Icelandic Association of Utah— “History of Iceland Days in Spanish Fork, Utah.”
2:30 p.m. — Steven L. Olsen, senior curator for Historic Sites, Church History Department—"Commemorating the Legacy of the Icelandic Saints."
3:00 p.m. — Sóley Renee Mathiesen, Icelandic LDS Church member—“The re-emergence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints