Birna Bjarnadóttir read literature at the Freie Universität in Berlin, University of Warwick and the University of Iceland, and completed her PhD at the University of Iceland (2003) in Guðbergur Bergssonʾs aesthetics. She served as the Chair of Icelandic at the University of Manitoba (2003–2015), and as a Project Manager at the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute (2015‒2020).

Her key areas of research are modern literature and aesthetics, Icelandic‒Canadian literature, Icelandic-American literature, immigration in modern literature, and the inheritance of exile in modern literature.

She is a published author on both sides of the Atlantic, (monographs, fiction, translations, essays, articles and book-chapters), and has edited numerous books, including bilingual and trilingual editions of both modern Icelandic literature and Icelandic-Canadian literature. She is currently researching the creative power of immigration in Icelandic-Canadian and Icelandic-American literature, leads the Expedition to the Magic Mountain project, and, with Ingi Björn Guðnason, the international research project The Creative Power of the Westfjords.

Birna Bjarnadóttir, CV December 2021