About the Conference
The University of Iceland is pleased to announce the call for papers for a conference „New Frontiers“ on refugees and asylum seekers with a special focus on the experience of children and youth.
The organizers of this conference are a team of inter-disciplinary scholars who received a major, multi-year grant from the Icelandic Research Fund to research the inclusion of resettlement refugees from Syria and Iraq who arrived in Iceland between 2016-2021 with special attention on the children and youth. Among the topics that this project explores are second-language acquisition, education, well-being, social networks, trust, and access to resources and services.
At this conference we would like to explore the comparative dimensions of the refugee experience and evaluate how this question has manifested itself in different settings around the world. We encourage papers that address different aspects from the cultural, political, social, religious, and economic perspectives. We also welcome papers on other relevant themes pertinent to refugees and border crossers from different disciplines including education, history, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, politics, media, the visual arts and literature as well as inter-disciplinary studies.
The conference will be held in Reykjavik on October 31st and November 1st , 2025 and will include keynote talks and pre-organized panels on refugees and border crossers in Iceland.
Conference venue and travel
The conference venue will soon be announced.
The conference is held by the University of Iceland, Reykjavík. The main campus is located close to the city center.
The conference venue is close to the city center and there are many accommodation options available in walking distance or by bus. Click on the link below to see suggested accommodation.
See suggested accommodation here
There are several options available when traveling from Keflavík airport to Reykjavík.
Rental Car: Renting a car in Iceland is highly recommended, as it gives you the flexibility to explore even the country’s most remote destinations. Many car rental companies provide airport pickup, allowing you to drive to Reykjavík on your own—a journey that takes about 50 minutes.
Private Transfer: For the most convenient and quickest way to get from the airport to your hotel, consider booking a private transfer. This door-to-door service eliminates the hassle of schedules and transfers.
Airport Bus: If you’re not renting a car or prefer to pick one up later, the airport bus is a great option for a comfortable and budget-friendly transfer to Reykjavík.
Grayline
Flybus
Airport Direct
Public Bus: Another way to reach Reykjavík from Keflavík Airport is by public transport. Bus 55 connects the airport with the city center, making it the most affordable choice. However, it also has the longest travel time, taking approximately 90 minutes.
Taxi: Taking a taxi is a hassle-free and direct way to get to Reykjavík, though it is the most expensive option, costing around 20,000 kr. This can be convenient if you are a group traveling together.
You have a lot to choose from if you are searching for an activity, a great dining experience, a swim in one of the local swimming pools or a visit in the untouched nature of Iceland.
Keynote Speakers
Gry Paulgaard
Gry Paulgaard is Dr.Polit. in Pedagogics and Professor emeritus at the Department of Teacher Education & Pedagogics at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Northern Norway, campus Tromsø.
Her scholarly interests include geography of education; implying the importance of contextualization of educational research, globalization and uneven development between center and periphery; particularly focusing on how young people growing up in northern areas live their lives, experience their opportunities for education and work, and the ‘choices’ they have.
In recent years, after 2015, much of her research has focused on migration, refugee education and integration of young people and families in rural places, particularly in the rural north of Norway. She is also the head of the research group ICred – Intercultural Relations in Education – at UiT the Arctic University of Norway.
Laura Robson
Laura Robson is Professor in the Department of History and the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University. She is a scholar of international and Middle Eastern history, with a special interest in questions of refugeedom, forced migration, and statelessness.
Her most recent books are The League of Nations (with Joseph Maiolo; Cambridge, 2025), a reconsideration of the meaning and import of this first experiment in formal internationalism, and Human Capital: A History of Putting Refugees to Work (Verso, 2023), a wide-ranging investigation of the many twentieth century schemes to deploy refugees as labor migrants across the globe. She is also the author of The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East (Oxford, 2020); States of Separation: Transfer, Partition, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (University of California, 2017); and Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine (University of Texas, 2011), as well as the editor of Partitions: A Transnational History of 20th Century Territorial Separatism (with Arie Dubnov; Stanford, 2019) and Minorities and the Modern Arab World: New Perspectives (Syracuse, 2016).
With Jennifer Dueck, she is a co-founder and co-editor of StatelessHistories.org, a digital humanities project exploring the varied and multifaceted experiences of statelessness in the modern era.
