This page is current as of 21:26:53 February 15 2010

Curriculum Vitae

My name is Sveinbjorn Thordarson. I am Icelandic by birth and citizenship, in my twenties, and currently living in Old Town in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. I have hitherto spent a considerable part of my life living outside my native country, mostly in Denmark and Britain.

As of writing, I am a doctoral research student in intellectual history at the University of Edinburgh. My thesis is on the changing role of final causality in early modern British and French natural philosophy.

In my spare time I work as a freelance translator, read books, watch the occasional film, play musical instruments and travel around the world. I was once deeply engrossed in computer technology, mostly software and web development, but unfortunately I am unable to find much time for it these days.


Contact Information

Via electronic mail:

email address 		Via traditional mail:

Sveinbjorn Thordarson
14\7 East Parkside
EH16 5XL
Edinburgh
Scotland
United Kingdom
[Google Maps Link]

OR

Sveinbjorn Thordarson
Öldugata 4
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
 		Via telephone:

UK Mobile: (+44) 07913775738

UK Landline: (+44) 01316674925

You can also contact me using an online form on this page.



Education

Junior College

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavik (2001)

Junior College Diploma, specialising in Modern Languages, 4 years, 1997-2001. Received the Bogi Ólafsson award on graduation.

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University

BA Philosophy, University of Iceland (2006)

Studied philosophy at the University of Iceland and the University of Guelph from 2001-2006.

My BA thesis was on epistemological justifications for simplicity as a criterion in theory choice.

 University of Iceland

MSc Philosophy and History of Science, LSE (2008)

2006-2007 Master's Degree in the philosophy and history of science from the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

My MSc thesis was on the role of ontological and nomological parsimony in the adoption of the Copernican system in the 16th century.

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MSc History (Enlightenment Studies), University of Edinburgh (2008)

2007-2008 Master's Degree in the history and philosophy of the 17th and 18th-century Enlightenment, in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.

My MSc thesis was on final causes and the "design argument" in the philosophy of Voltaire and Baron Paul Heinrich Dietrich d'Holbach.

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PhD History, University of Edinburgh (PENDING 2011)

I am currently studying for a doctorate in intellectual history on a Doctoral Teaching Scholarship at the University of Edinburgh. My PhD thesis is on the role of teleology in the metaphysical theories of 18th-century British and French Enlightenment philosophers.

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My overall academic aim is to acquire a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the wider historical development of early modern European thought, and to make original contributions in this field through research. However, I have a wide range of academic interests, amongst them general intellectual history, political and moral philosophy, the philosophical foundations of the sciences of man, philosophy of mind and language, philosophy of science, history of science, historical methodology, logic and logical analysis, medieval Icelandic history, the history of Britain and the English language, and European cultural and literary history.


Languages

Icelandic

Skill: Native speaker (mother tongue)
1st language
Roughly 10 years of formal instruction 		Icelandic

Danish

Skill: Native speaker
2nd language - learnt at age 4
Also 7 years of formal instruction
 Danish

English

Skill: Native speaker
3rd language - learnt at age 9
Also 8 years of formal instruction
TOEFL: 670/670 (100%) (2005)
SAT: 780/800 (97%) (2001)

English

French

Skill: Poor
4th language
4 years of formal instruction 		French

German

Skill: Poor
5th language
2 years of formal instruction
 German

Latin

Skill: Very poor
2 years of formal instruction
 Latin

Thanks to my knowledge of Danish and Icelandic, I can also more or less read and comprehend Old Norse, Faroese, Norwegian and Swedish.


Translation

I have worked as a freelance translator since 2005. I undertake translations from Icelandic to English and vice versa. My clients have hitherto mostly been translation agencies such as Robertson Languages and Park IP Translation. My forte is translating Icelandic to English, although I am also a skilled English-to-Icelandic translator. I mostly translate documents of a technical or commercial nature, but have in the past undertaken translations of prose literature for the Reykjavík Literary Festival. I have also translated for the University of Iceland Science Web.

For details, see my translation page.


Teaching



Publications

Articles

Translations

"Auðmúrinn mikli" - a translation into Icelandic of Mike Davis' essay "The Great Wall of Capital" from his In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire (2007), published in Ritið, April 2008.

"Ölkofri's Saga" - translation into English from the Old Norse Ölkofra Saga, author unknown. Published in the Icelandic Saga Database, 2008.

Conference papers

(14/03/2009) "The Alliance of Christianity and Mechanistic Philosophy in 17th century England," Journal of the Oxford University Historical Society Colloquium 2009: Odd Alliances in History, Balliol College, Oxford.



Employment history



Computer Skills

I am open to offers of short-term, freelance software and web development work. You may thus be interested in taking a look at my skills profile below.

System Administration

Software & Web Development


My development platform of choice is Mac OS X, but I am comfortable in any decent UNIX environment. My professional experience is mostly with web programming, but I'm highly versatile and can quickly become competent in any set of development-related skills.

In general, I would describe myself as a careful and meticulous programmer. I think my code speaks for itself. I prefer the ANSI bracket style to the Kernighan & Ritchie. I am equally at ease with object-oriented and procedural programming, although I have only limited knowledge of object modeling theory


Open-Source

I have worked as a self-employed pro bono open-source software developer from 2002 to the present day. I am involved in the following active open-source projects:

I have also started or become involved in a number of other (currently inactive) projects. For further details, see a list of all my projects. My most popular piece of software, Platypus, has been an Editor's Pick in Mac World magazine.


Other Projects

Icelandic Saga Database

I initiated and am the principal editor of the Icelandic Saga Database project at sagadb.org, a publishing repository for the medieval Sagas of the Icelanders and public domain translations.



Music

I play the following instruments:

Although I am classically trained, I mostly play blues music.


Personal

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