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Verk
Infallible Iceland? State violence and the struggle for truth, 1968-1998
(University of Iceland, School of Humanities, Faculty of Philosophy, History and Archaeology, 2026-08-10) Brynjarsson, Tryggvi Rúnar; Guðmundur Hálfdanarson; Ragnheiður Kristjánsdóttir; Faculty of Philosophy, History and Archaeology (UI); Deild heimspeki, sagnfræði og fornleifafræði (HÍ); School of Humanities (UI); Hugvísindasvið (HÍ)
In this dissertation, I examine the pattern by which the Icelandic state managed and deflected violence-claims brought against it by aggrieved citizens between 1968 and 1998. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s analytics of power and his conceptualization of regimes of truth, I argue that a particular political logic, what I call the rationality of infallibility, underwrote a recurring repertoire of denial that worked to prevent state violence from being recognized as such. It shows how denial, on Stanley Cohen’s account a structured social and political phenomenon as much as a psychological one, assumed specific historical forms governed by the rationality of infallibility, within a produced horizon that naturalized, in advance, which voices could speak and what narratives could be accepted as true. I trace this rationality and its effects through a microhistorical series following a quartet of outsiders who struggled against it: Haraldur Ómar Vilhelmsson, whose near-fatal assault became, in the hands of authorities, the occasion for his own prosecution; Helgi Hóseasson, whose decade-long struggle to invalidate his baptismal covenant culminated in a nationally televised performance in which he staged state violence; Þorgeir Þorgeirson, the first Icelander to receive a favorable ruling from the European Court of Human Rights after having been censored for writing on state violence; and Sævar Marinó Ciesielski, wrongfully convicted of homicide on the basis of coerced confessions. Each case is reconstructed from previously unused or underused archival sources, and each is read as a high-stakes confrontation that forced the rationality of infallibility to react, and, in reacting, to leave a paper trail of its recurring tactics of denial. The dissertation intervenes both methodologically and politically: by placing these four cases in relation to one another — a coordination systematically foreclosed while the outsiders were alive — it works against the state’s own strategy of individualization, which has kept each grievance contained as an anomalous, and thus manageable, episode. In addition to Foucault and Cohen, the dissertation draws on a range of other interlocutors, developing an original analytical vocabulary to map both the state’s techniques of containment and the outsiders’ methods for contesting them. Together, the microhistorical series constitutes a cumulative stress-test rather than a representative sample; its diagnostic force derives from the clarity with which it exposes the paradox at the heart of the state’s image: an ideal of exceptional innocence that its own violent practice continuously jeopardized. Violence was exercised, as by any modern state, yet it simply could not be publicly owned. This paradox ultimately produced, for the state’s victims, a uniquely cruel outcome: a spectral existence where acknowledgment remained perpetually out of reach.
Verk
The role of MITF in regulating phenotype switching in melanoma
(University of Iceland, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, 2026-08) Evangeline Breeta; Eiríkur Steingrímsson; Faculty of Medicine (UI); Læknadeild (HÍ); School of Health Sciences (UI); Heilbrigðisvísindasvið (HÍ)
Melanoma cells undergo a process known as phenotype switching, a form of cellular plasticity where cells transition between a proliferative, differentiated state and an invasive, mesenchymal-like state. The master regulator of this process is the Microphthalmiaassociated transcription factor (MITF), which acts as a transcriptional rheostat and controls differentiation and invasion in melanoma. This study investigates the molecular mechanisms by which MITF regulates the expression of key epithelial, mesenchymal, and melanocytic genes. Crucially, this study identifies a specific intronic enhancer (CDH1-B) through which MITF directly activates transcription of the epithelial marker CDH1. This activation occurs independently of canonical EMT repressors (ZEB1, SNAI1, and TWIST1), establishing MITF as a primary driver of the differentiated epithelial state in melanoma. In contrast, while MITF loss leads to increased expression of the mesenchymal marker CDH2 and invasive phenotype marker SERPINA3, the results suggest that this regulation is mediated through indirect mechanisms. Further mapping of the MITF regulatory network revealed that MITF also binds to intronic enhancers to directly activate the melanocyte marker MLANA and the differentiation-promoting factor ZEB2, while its repression of pro-invasive EMT transcription factors remains largely indirect. To identify novel regulators of this network, a genome-wide CRISPR knockout (GeCKO) screen was performed using newly developed reporter cell lines. The screen identified a pool of upstream repressors that actively silence the CDH1 expression in both MITF-high and MITF-low conditions. Collectively, these findings show MITF as a central rheostat that maintains the differentiated state through direct activation of epithelial markers and indirect suppression of the invasive program, providing a foundation for identifying new therapeutic targets to prevent metastatic progression.
Verk
Modelling CSRBB under regulatory guidelines
(Elsevier BV, 2025-09) Segal, Maxime; Kristjánsson, Kristján; Björnsson, Björn Hrannar; Department of Engineering (RU); Verkfræðideild (HR); School of Technology (RU); Tæknisvið (HR)
The European Banking Authority (EBA) provides limited standardization for Credit Spread Risk in the Banking Book (CSRBB), delegating its assessment to individual financial institutions. This has led to significant variation in how CSRBB guidelines are interpreted and applied across the banking sector. This study investigates how to model plausible but unlikely credit spread shocks using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), hypothesizing that systemic risk dominates fluctuations across government and corporate bonds. The model aligns with EBA requirements and provides insights to strengthen risk management frameworks.
Verk
Modelling CSRBB under regulatory guidelines
(Elsevier, 2025-05-15) Segal, Maxime; Kristjánsson, Kristján Rúnar; Björnsson, Björn Hrannar; Department of Science and Engineering
The European Banking Authority (EBA) provides limited standardization for Credit Spread Risk in the Banking Book (CSRBB), delegating its assessment to individual financial institutions. This has led to significant variation in how CSRBB guidelines are interpreted and applied across the banking sector. This study investigates how to model plausible but unlikely credit spread shocks using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), hypothesizing that systemic risk dominates fluctuations across government and corporate bonds. The model aligns with EBA requirements and provides insights to strengthen risk management frameworks.
Verk
Grýla in Sléttuhlíð
(2013) Parsons, Katelin Marit; Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies
Grýlukvæði frá Sléttuhlíð í Skagafirði er varðveitt í tveimur handritum frá síðara hluta 17. aldar auk fjölda yngri handrita. Í útgáfu Ólafs Davíðssonar frá árinu 1903 er kvæðið eignað séra Guðmundi Erlendssyni frá Felli í Sléttuhlíð (um 1595–1670). Þessi útgáfa gefur þó óljósa mynd af varðveislu kvæðisins og styðst lítið við elsta handritið, AM 147 8vo, sem Ólafur kallar „brot.“ Í handritinu reynist uppskriftin vera heil en hún inniheldur gerð kvæðisins sem er með öðru sniði en finnst í yngri handritum. AM 147 8vo liggur til grundvallar nýrri útgáfu af þessu grýlukvæði sem birtist í greininni. Færð eru rök fyrir því að kvæðið sé það sama og grýlukvæði eignað Ásgrími Magnússyni (d. 1679) sem Jón Samsonarson taldi vera týnt. Grýlukvæðið mun hafa verið ort um 1640 en ómögulegt er að fullyrða um höfund kvæðisins, enda var Ásgrímur mágur Guðmundar og bjó í næsta nágrenni í Höfða á Höfðaströnd. Kvæðið er vísbending um náin tengsl milli Guðmundar og Ásgríms og undirstrikar mikilvægi fjölskyldusambanda í íslensku bókmenntalífi 17. aldar.