The Sunshine Children (2021-2023)

This project is focused on exploring North American-Icelandic culture and history through a collection of letters published in the North American Icelandic-language children’s newspaper Sólskin (Sunshine) between 1915-1918. Thus far, it has received financial support through the Manitoba Heritage Grants Program and the Sjóður Páls Guðmundssonar frá Rjúpnafelli (Páll Guðmundsson from Rjúpnafell fund) at the University of Iceland.

Publications

“Dear Editor of Sólskin.” Intersections (The Letter) 7.1, 2024, pp. 12–13.

The Sunshine Children, edited and with a foreword by Birna Bjarnadóttir. Reykjavík: Hin kindin, 2023.

“The North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin: Culture, Identity, and Community.” Prairie History 11 (Summer), 2023, pp. 18–29.

“Letters from the North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin, October 1915–April 1918.” Prairie History 11 (Summer), 2023, pp. 83–84.

“Sólskin and the Sunshine Children.” Lögberg-Heimskringla, February 15, 2023, p. 12.

Letters from the North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin, October 1915–April 1918, translated by Christopher Crocker, Campus Manitoba (Pressbooks), 2023.

Conference papers and lectures

“The North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin: Identity, Culture, and Community,” The Scottish Society for Northern Studies Seminar Series (online), August 25, 2022.

““I wanted to write in our little paper too … to be included”: Belonging and community building in the children’s newspaper Sólskin, Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada Annual Meeting (online), May 16–19, 2022.

““Eg þakka þér fyrir litla blaðið”: The North American-Icelandic Community, Cultural Identity, and the Children’s Newspaper Sólskin,” 10th Partnership Conference, University of Manitoba – University of Iceland (online), February 25–26, 2022.

“The Sunshine Children: The children’s newspaper Sólskin and North American-Icelandic culture and identity,” Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada Annual Meeting (online), May 31–June 3, 2021.