Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon (born August 29, 1957) is an Icelandic historian specialising in microhistory. He was an independent scholar from when he finished his doctoral dissertation in 1993 until 2010. He established the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavík Academy) in 2003. He got a research position at the National Museum of Iceland named after Dr. Kristján Eldjárn, the former president of Iceland and an archaeologist, in 2010 and until 2013. After that, he became a Professor of Cultural History at the Department of History at the University of Iceland.

The following text is mainly based on his book "The History War: Essays and Narrative on Ideology" (Reykjavik, The Center for Microhistorical Research, 2007) (http://sgm.hi.is), which is autobiographical and deals with historiographical issues such as the development of ideas which are part of the microhistorical agenda. Magnússon is the author of 26 books (http://sgm.hi.is) and has been involved in the publication of fifty more through two book series which he has co-edited with few of his fellow historians; the first one is called Anthology of Icelandic Popular Culture, or in Icelandic, Sýnibók íslenskrar alþýðumenningar, and the second one is called Microhistories published by Routledge. His co-editor is Dr. István M. Szijártó, a Hungarian microhistorian and a long-time friend.

His latest books in English are • Disability Studies Meets Microhistory (New York: Routledge, 2025), Co-author with Dr Guðrún Valgerður Stefánsdóttir and Dr Sólveig Ólafsdóttir • Autobiographical Traditions in Egodocuments. Icelandic Literacy Practices (London: Bloomsbury, 2023). 272 pages. Archive, Slow Ideology and Egodocuments as Microhistorical Autobiography: Potential History (London: Routledge 2021); Emotional Experience and Microhistory. A Life Story of a Destitute Pauper Poet in the 19th Century (London: Routledge, 2020); Minor Knowledge and Microhistory. Manuscript Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Co-author Dr Davíð Ólafsson (London: Routledge 2017); What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2013). Co-author Dr. István M. Szijártó; Wasteland with WordsSocial Historytory of Iceland was published in 2010 by Reaktion Books in England.

He is married to Dr Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir, a Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland, and they have one son, Peter Bjarni, who is Sigurður Gylfi stepson.