Dr. Erla S. Kristjánsdóttir is Professor and Chair of Doctoral Education in the School of Business at the University of Iceland. She holds a Ph.D from Arizona State University and M.A. from University of West Florida.
Prior to completing her graduate degrees, she was a corporate trainer in Iceland. Her research and teaching interests are culture, intercultural communication, intercultural transitions, migration, diversity in the workplace and gender equality. She has extended her research on cultural adaptation, communication and identity to a variety of contexts (international educations, national disasters and international business): immigrant groups and refugees in Iceland, Katrina victims in the U.S., and business personnel in multinational organizations.
Erla´s most current research studies are on highly educated immigrants in Iceland. She has been looking at how these groups of immigrants are integrating into the Icelandic work place, their negotiation opportunities, negotiation position and communication with their employers. Moreover, she is examining what challenges and opportunities these groups of immigrants are facing on their career path and in the Icelandic labor market.
Erla has published in leading intercultural and communication journals in the U.S., Iceland and Scandinavia and has achieved a record of research presentations at regional, national and international conferences.
Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications:
Kristjánsdóttir, E. S., & Skaptadóttir, U. D. (2019). “I’ll always be a refugee”: The lived experience of Palestinian refugee women of moving to a small society in Iceland. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 17(3), 389-404.
Kristjánsdóttir, E.S. (2017). Communication Modes, Icelandic. In Y. Y. Kim (Ed.). International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication. USA: Wiley & Sons.
Kristjánsdóttir, E.S., & Skaptadóttir, U.D. (2017). Our home is our kingdom: A refuge of Palestinian women to a small society in Iceland. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Kristjánsdóttir, E.S., & Christiansen, T. (2017). “…You have to face the fact that you´re a foreigner”: Immigrants’ lived experience of communication and negotiation position toward their employer in Iceland. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 44.
Christiansen, T., & Kristjánsdóttir, E.S. (2016). The wall is always there: The lived experience of immigrants with college degree on their communication and negotiation position toward their employers. (Veggurinn er alltaf til staðar”: Upplifun háskólamenntaðra innflytjenda af samskiptum og samningsstöðu gagnvart vinnuveitendum.) The Icelandic society. (Íslenska þjóðfélagið), 7(1).
Work for CID:
Erla Kristjánsdóttir was one of the participants at the National Communication Association‘s Summer Conference on Intercultural Dialogue in Istanbul, Turkey, which led to the creation of CID.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 