Ólafur Rastrick is assistant professor of European ethnology at the Department of folklore, ethnology and museum studies in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the University of Iceland. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Iceland. His field of research is modern cultural history and he teaches courses on body culture, cultural heritage, cultural menace and culture and communication. A monograph entitled Háborgin (The Citadel) based on his doctoral dissertation on the interrelations between aesthetics and cultural politics in early 20th century Iceland was published in 2013. In collaboration with Valdimar Tr. Hafstein he edited the volume Menningararfur á Íslandi: Gagnrýni og greining (Cultural Heritage in Iceland: Critical Approaches) published by the University of Iceland Press in 2015. Previous publications include articles and book chapters on cultural history and ethnology from the early nineteenth century to the present.