Pia Hansson

Thematic expertise: security studies, peace and conflict studies, ceasefire agreements and monitoring

Geographic expertise: Nordic and Arctic region, Sri Lanka (limited)

Languages: Icelandic, English, Swedish, Danish, French (basic)

Pia Hansson is the Director of the Institute of International Affairs and its three centres, the Centre for Small States Studies, the Centre for Arctic Studies and Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre. Pia manages several research projects in the field of international relations and foreign policy, including a new Horizon Europe project on liberal democracy in the post-factual age. Furthermore, Pia has taught a graduate level course on international cooperation at the University of Iceland for the last three years. She holds a B.A. degree in Communication from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. degree in International Relations from the University of Iceland. She also pursued an M.F.A. programme in Television Production at the City University of New York. Pia worked as a Broadcasting Producer, both in Iceland and abroad, for many years, and was the Media Specialist at the US Embassy in Iceland from 2000-2006. In the winter of 2007-8 Pia served as the Head Spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, a Nordic ceasefire monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.