Elisabeth Ida Ward served as assistant curator of the Smithsonian Institution's special traveling exhibition, Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga, from 2000 to 2004, and went on to complete her PhD in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focused on medieval narratives called the Sagas of Icelanders, and their relationship with the actual physical landscape of Iceland. She argues that the literature and the land are “co-constituted,” meaning one cannot be read without the other.

In addition to appearing on documentaries for the Smithsonian Channel and others, Elisabeth also worked as the program director for Vikingaheimar Museum in Reykjanesbær, Iceland, and as the director of the Scandinavian Cultural Center at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Since 2005, she has served as a consultant for Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center, helping to create exhibitions about the Vikings, Norwegian folk culture, and Norse mythology. In 2017, she began applying her love of history on the ground to small museums in California and is currently the Executive Director of the Moulton Museum.

The daughter of an American serviceman who met his wife while stationed in Iceland in the 1960s, Elisabeth has a lifelong passion for all things Icelandic. Though she grew up in southern California, she became fluent in Icelandic by listening to her mother speak to her grandparents and visiting Iceland during summers. She lived there from 2006 to 2010 while conducting her PhD research and gained Icelandic citizenship.

Language ​​spoken: English