Yu Yasuhira receives the Ellý Katrín Scholarship
Yu Yasuhira has been awarded the 2026 Ellý Katrín Scholarship. Mayor Hildur Björnsdóttir presented the scholarship during a formal ceremony at Höfði yesterday.
The Ellý Katrín Scholarship was established in 2024 to honor the memory of Ellý Katrín Guðmundsdóttir, former Director, Chief Executive Officer and leader in environmental and climate change issues in Reykjavík.
The grant is awarded annually for master's projects to encourage graduate study in environmental issues and climate change issues and advance knowledge in these areas for the future.
Horticultural practices in private gardens in South Iceland
As part of her master's thesis, "Ethnography of Multispecies Gardening," Yasuhira plans to examine horticultural practices in private gardens across South Iceland. She will focus on the active roles of multiple participants—plants, soil, people, and climate—and how they interact both inside and outside garden spaces. By examining Icelandic gardening practices, the project explores how people adapt to challenging environmental conditions through everyday acts of care and cultivation.
Rather than treating gardens as spaces fully controlled and designed by humans, she will approach them as sites of ongoing dialogue with the natural environment. Helga Ögmundardóttir serves as Yu Yasuhira's instructor.
In total, the scholarship received four applications. The selection committee included Hrönn Hrafnsdóttir, head of division for climate change issues at the Department of Environment and Planning of Reykjavík City, who also served as chair; Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir, professor at the University of Iceland; and Orri Páll Jóhannesson, representative of the Environment and Planning Council.