INLUS Webinar – The Vikings in North America and North Americans in Iceland

Zachary Jordan Melton is a postdoctoral researcher at the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík. He will be joining us on Wednesday, October 9, to discuss his research. In his presentation, he will discuss the research from his PhD and his current post-doctoral position, and though they are very different, many of the same themes appear.

He will discuss Vikings in North America, particularly how they came to be associated with ideas of racial supremacy. He wishes to highlight this uneasy relationship through works of popular culture, including fiction and film.

Iceland’s 1930 Millennial Celebration

In addition, he will discuss his work on Kvennaspor, a project that explores women’s roles in Icelandic history. He has created a database of women who traveled to Iceland before WWII. He will highlight women from North America, including Western Icelanders, many of whom visited Iceland in 1930 for the Alþingi millennial celebration. In some of the travel narratives, we find some interesting and recurring ideas, such as race, discovery, and destiny.

Zachary was born in Indiana and received his BA from Indiana Wesleyan University. After working as a 911 dispatcher and touring in a band, he moved to Iceland in 2015.

Zachary Melton

He graduated from the Viking and Medieval Norse Studies master’s program at the University of Iceland in 2017 and received his PhD in comparative literature in 2023. He now works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík.

Please join us on Wednesday, October 9th,  at 9 pm GMT / 5 pm EDT / 4 pm CDT / 3 pm MDT / 2 pm PDT

This event is open to the public and will be recorded.