معرفی
Gudrun Helgadottir serves as a Professor of Tourism at the Department of Business and IT within the USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway, a position she has held since 2018. She leads the Sustainability Management Research group and coordinates the Master in Sustainability Management program, teaching key courses such as Sustainable Development, Politics, Law and Institutions and supervising master's theses. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at Telemark University College (2014-2018) and a Professor at Hólar University College in Iceland (2007-2021), where she focused on rural tourism.
Her educational qualifications include a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of British Columbia (1997), an M.A. in Art Education from the same institution (1989), and dual teaching diplomas from the Iceland Institute of Education in craft education and wood/metalwork (1982-1983).
Professor Helgadottir's research centers on social sustainability in tourism, with particular emphasis on rural and regional development. She investigates how tourism interacts with cultural heritage, event management, and community well-being, often through qualitative case studies. Her work spans contexts such as horse tourism in protected areas, cultural festivals, and the socio-economic impacts of tourism on peripheral regions. She has published on these topics in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, contributing to the discourse on sustainable tourism practices.
She has supervised over ten graduate students at the Master's and PhD levels, guiding research on Icelandic tourism, cultural events, and heritage management. Her projects have attracted funding from diverse sources including the Icelandic Tourism Board, the Icelandic Research Council, NORA, and EU programs (ERASMUS+, Leonardo da Vinci). Notable initiatives include the 'Social Sustainability of Tourism in Iceland' study and the 'Cultural Heritage Tourism' cross-disciplinary project at USN.
As leader of the Sustainability Management Research group, she fosters interdisciplinary collaboration within USN and internationally, notably through partnerships with institutions in Iceland, Canada, and Central Asia. She also contributes to academic service as an editorial board member for several tourism journals.
