Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir joined the School of Public Administration in 2017. She is a historical comparative sociologist, using history and comparison to get perspective on what human experiences mean. Prior to her appointment at the School, she was appointed to the Department of Sociology at UVic. She was the President of the University’s Faculty Association between 2014 and 2019 and Acting Director of the School of Child and Youth Care from 2019 to 2020. She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Development.
Collective bargaining and dispute resolution in the Public Sector
Social Movements, Protest, and Contentious Politics
Welfare States and Social Policy
Gender and Sexuality
Work and Social Vulnerability
Labour Movements, Labour and Union politics
Selected Publications and Addresses
Journal Articles (recent)
Hallgrímsdóttir, H.K., L. Shumka, C. Althaus and C. Benoit. 2017. “Fear, Risk, and the Responsible Choice: Risk Narratives and Lowering the Rate of Caesarean Sectionscin High-Income Countries.” AIMS Public Health 4: 615-632.
Shumka, L., Strega S., and H. Hallgrímsdóttir. 2017. “I wanted to feel like a man again”: Hegemonic masculinity in relation to the purchase of street-level sex. Frontiers in Sociology 2:15 doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2017.00015
Kennedy MC, Jansson M, Benoit C, Magnuson D, Scramstad J, Hallgrímsdóttir H. 2017. Social support among street-involved youth. Journal of Youth Studies 10: 1328-1345.
Roth, E., Cecilia Benoit, Mikael Janssen and Helga Hallgrímsdóttir. 2017. “Public Drinking Venues as Risk Environments: Commercial Sex, Alcohol and Violence in a Large Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Human Ecology, published Online First March 7 2017.
Hallgrímsdóttir, HK and Brunet-Jailly, E. 2015 Contentious politics, grassroots mobilization, and the Icesave Dispute: Why Iceland did not “play nicely.” Acta Sociologica 58: 79-93.
Hallgrímsdóttir, HK, & Benner, B. E. 2014. ‘Knowledge is power’: risk and the moral responsibilities of the expectant mother at the turn of the twentieth century. Health, Risk & Society 16: 7-21
Roth, Eric, Elizabeth Ngugi, Cecilia Benoit, Mikael Jansson, and Helga Hallgrímsdóttir. 2014. "A Reasoned Action Model of Male Client Involvement in Commercial Sex Work in Kibera, A Large Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya." Human Organization 73: 174-182.
Benoit, Cecilia, Camille Stengel, Lenora Marcellus, Helga Hallgrímsdóttir, John Anderson, Karen MacKinnon, Rachel Phillips, Pilar Zazueta, and Sinead Charbonneau. 2014. "Providers’ constructions of pregnant and early parenting women who use substances." Sociology of health & illness 36: 252-263.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, Cecilia Benoit and Rachel Phillips. 2013. "The Mother-Citizen and the Working Girl: First-Wave Feminist Citizenship Claims in Canada and Discursive Opportunities for Twenty-First Century Childcare Policy." Canadian Review of Sociology 50: 27-53.
Benoit, C., Roth, E., Hallgrímsdóttir, H., Jansson, M., Ngugi, E., & Sharpe, K. (2013). Benefits and constraints of intimate partnerships for HIV positive sex workers in Kibera, Kenya. International journal for equity in health, 12(1), 76.
Phillips, Rachel, Cecilia Benoit, Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir, and Kate Vallance. 2012. “Courtesy stigma: a hidden health concern among front-line service providers to sex workers.” Sociology of Health and Illness 34: 1-16
Ngugi, Elizabeth, Cecilia Benoit, Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir, Mikael Jansson and Eric Abella Roth. 2012. "Family Kinship Patterns and Female Sex Work in the Informal Urban Settlement of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya" Human Ecology, 30
Ngugi, Elizabeth, Cecilia Benoit, Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir, Mikael Jansson and Eric Abella Roth. 2012. “Partners and clients of female sex workers in an informal urban settlement in Nairobi Kenya.” Culture, Health, and Sexuality 14: 17-30
Books, Chapters, Monographs
Hallgrímsdóttir, HK and Brunet-Jailly E. 2016. “Contentious Politics, Political Expediency, and the Real Costs of the Icesave Debt.” P. 103-120 in Iceland’s Financial Crisis: The Politics of Blame, Protest and Reconstruction. edited by Valur Ingimundarson. London, England: Routledge.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, Kathy Teghtsoonian, Debra Brown and Cecilia Benoit. 2011. “Neo-liberalism Gender and Care-Work: Trends and Implications.” P. 197-2013 in Valuing Care Work: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Cecilia Benoit and Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Benoit, C and Hallgrímsdóttir, HK. (2011). “Conceptualizing Care Work.” Pp. 7-21 in Valuing Care Work: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Cecilia Benoit and Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cecilia Benoit and Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir (co-eds). (2011). Valuing Care Work: Comparative Perspectives on Canada, Finland and Iceland. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, Cecilia Benoit and Rachel Phillips. (2011). “Fallen Women and Rescued Girls.” In Reading Sociology edited by Lorne Tepperman and Angela Kalyta. Toronto: Oxford University Press
Cecilia Benoit and Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir (co-eds.). (2008) Finding Dignity in Health Care and Health Care Work. Special Supplement. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 99 Supplement 2.
Other
Helga Hallgrímsdóttir, 2012. “The GTM Analogy: The Organistic Metaphor revisited.” Invited Commentary in Journal of Evolutionary Biology 39: 27-30.
Helga Hallgrímsdóttir, 'Review of Brian Donovan, White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-vice Activism, 1887-1917.' Canadian Journal of Sociology Online, September - October 2007. <http://www.cjsonline.ca/reviews/whiteslave.html>
Hallgrímsdóttir, HK 2005. Review of Linda Cullum’s Narratives at Work: Men, Women, and the Fashioning of Identities. Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 20:315-317
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín. 2000. “Social Cohesion: Definitions and Applications,” Working paper produced for SSHRC funded research group: First Nations and Social Cohesion.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, and Paul C. Whitehead. 1999. The Ecology of Low Birth Weight in London, Ontario: A Needs Assessment. Research Report.
Papers, Lectures and Addresses (recent)
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín and Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly. “Friends in need; foes in fish: The failure of the Icelandic bid to join the European Union, 2009-2015.” Presented at “Grassroots politics and protest after the financial crisis,” held at the University of Victoria, May 23rd, 2016.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín and Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly “Why Iceland didn’t play nicely after the 2008 crash: Grassroots mobilization and participatory governance.” Presented at the Social Science and Humanities Conference, held in Victoria, BC June 2013.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín and Bryan Benner. “Knowledge is power! Risk and the Moral responsibilities of the expectant mother in Canada at the turn of the Twentieth Century”. Presented at the Social Science and Humanities Conference, held in Victoria, BC June 2013.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín and Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly “Why Iceland didn’t play nicely after the 2008 crash: Grassroots mobilization and participatory governance.” Invited lecture for the Icelandic Anthropological Society December 10th 2013.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín and Bryan Benner. “Knowledge is power! Risk and the Moral responsibilities of the expectant mother in Canada at the turn of the Twentieth Century”. Invited lecture at the University of Iceland, December 7th 2013.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, Sirpa Wrede, and Cecilia Benoit. 2012. "Mother-Citizens and Citizen-Workers: First-Wave Feminist Claims for Social Citizenship in Iceland, Canada, and Finland, 1890 to 1935." Invited paper presented at the Nordwel International Conference on Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Welfare State Development, held in Odense, Denmark, June 14th to 16th, 2012.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga Kristín, Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, Sirpa Wrede, and Cecilia Benoit. 2012. "Mother-Citizens and Citizen Workers." Paper prepared for the 26th annual conference of the Nordic Sociological Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 15th to 18th, 2012.
Grants & Awards (recent)
2016-2021 “Contentious Politics: Austerity and the rise of nationalism in Europe after the financial crisis”. SSRHC Insight Grant, funded at $89,251. Principal Investigator. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, co-investigator.
2016-2018 “Narratives of memory, migration and xenophobia in the European Union”. Jean Monnet+Erasmus Project Grant, funded at €59,000. Principal Investigator. Helga Thorson, Charlotte Schallie and Daniel Peter Biro, co-Investigators.
2014-2015 Risk in Pregnancy: Is it Worth the Labour? CIHR planning grant, funded at $22, 680. Principal Investigator. Catherine Althaus and Cecilia Benoit, coinvestigators.
2013-2015 “The Other Side of the Equation: Researching Male Customers of Street Sex Workers.” A SSHRC IDG grant, funded at $70,633. Principal Investigator: Susan Strega (School of Social Work, University of Victoria). Co-investigator
2013-2020 “Borders in Globalization.” A SSHRC Partnership Grant funded at $3.4 Million. Includes 21 partner universities (10 Canadian, 11 International). Co-investigator. Principal Investigator: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (School of Public Administration, University of Victoria)
2012-2014 “Borders in Globalization.” LOI for SSHRC Partnership Grant, funded at $20,000. Co-investigator. Principal Investigator: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly.
2013-2016 “European Center for Excellence.” A European Jean Monnet Grant, funded at €600,000. Co-applicant. Principal Investigator: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly.
2012-2014 “The Icesave Dispute: Grassroots activism, governance, and opportunities for social movement success.” SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Principal Investigator. Funded at $33,037. Co-investigator: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly.
2012-2013 “The Icesave Dispute: Grassroots activism, governance, and opportunities for social movement success.” SSHRC General Research Grant. Funded at $6816.00. Principal Investigator
2012-2013 “Borders in Globalization. Cultures, Governance, Market Forces, History, Security, Sustainability.” LOI for SSHRC Partnership Grant. Funded at $20.000. Co-applicant. Principal applicant Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly.
2010-2012 “Interventions to promote health and healthy equity for pregnant and early parenting women facing substance use and other challenges.” CIHR operating grant on Population Health Intervention Research Benoit, C., Marcellus, L. (Co-PIs), Anderson, K., Hallgrímsdóttir, H., MacKinnon, K. (Co-Is).. Funded at $117, 224
2011-2016 “Team Grant on contexts of vulnerabilities, resiliencies and care among people in the sex industry.”Funded at $140,125,200. Benoit, C. (NPA), Atchison, C., Casey, L., Jackson, L., Jansson, M., McCarthy, B., Phillips, R., Reist, D., Shaver, F., Spittal, P., Walby, K. (Co-PIs); Abel, G., Bass, M, Fitzgerald, L., Goodyear, M., Hallgrímsdóttir, H., Michelow, W., Reimer, W., Shannon, K. (Co-Is); West, V. (PKU); Gerber, J., Pacey, K., Poag, E., Wellman, T., Shabna, A. (KUs); Capyk, S., Davis, S., Hakkarainen, P., Healy, C., Johnston, B., Mrnka, M., Paterson, J., Porth, K., Teegee, M., Young, A. (Collaborators). CIHR Team Grant: Violence, Gender and Health
2011-2012 Principal-Investigator on “Citizenship and Migrant Work” SSHRC General Research Grant ($3910.00)
Courses Taught
SOCI 100: Introduction to Sociology
SOCI 100a: Introduction to Sociology: Culture and Socialization
SOCI 100b: Introduction to Sociology: Institutions and Social Change
SOCI 215: Class and Social Inequality
SOCI 309: Modern Social Theory
SOCI 316: Social Movements
SOCI 402: Current Issues in Social Theory
SOCI 525: Gender, Power and Social Justice
SOCI 566: Social Movements
Professional Appointments and Memberships
American Sociological Association
Labour Movements Section
Collective Action Section
Comparative and Historical Sociology Section
Canadian Sociological Association
Nordic Sociological Association
CAUT, Member of Council
CUFA-BC, Executive Member
Border Region in Transition
Dr. Helga Hallgrímsdóttir talks about individual and collective power through social movements
In this video, Dr. Helga Hallgrímsdóttir describes her approach to the study of sociologyy and the lessons we can learn from her study of the success of social movements in Iceland.
