Stefka is a research professor in Old Norse literature and cultural history, with academic background from interdisciplinary medieval studies, including Nordic archaeology, art history, history, and literary studies. Her PhD degree is from the University of Oslo (2010), with a dissertation focusing on book history and manuscript culture in France, Norway, and Iceland, c. 1200-1500. The dissertation is published with Brepols: Writing and Reading in Medieval Manuscript Culture.

She has done extensive research and published on varied topics such as intellectual culture and pedagogy in Old Norse culture (see Intellectual Culture in Medieval Scandinavia), medieval cognition and the senses (see Approaches to the Medieval Self), environmental history and eco-criticism (see ‘Reading in Times of Crisis’, Scandinavian Studies 94(2)). Her work is inspired by theoretical paradigms as material philology, translation and poly-system theory, and cognitive theory.

She was the Principal Investigator of the research project ‘The Self in Social Spaces’ (2016–2020), funded by the Research Council of Norway.

She is currently working on several book and research projects:

• Minds and Mentalizing in Old Norse Culture (monograph)
• Globalisering, statsdannelse og litteratur i middelalderens Norge [Globalization, State Formation, and Literature in Medieval Norway] (monograph )
• Det Gamle Oslo, 1000–1624 [Medieval Oslo] (ed. with Egil L. Bauer, Morten Stige, Håvard Hegdal), forthcoming with Cappelen Damm (interdisciplinary anthology; ca. 35 authors)
• Sound Cultures in the Medieval North (research project)
• Notions of Energy in the Medieval North (research project)

Stefka on Academia.no