Call for Applications: Application deadline 15th of June!
Convenors : Ursula Münster and Susanne Bauer
When : 12th of August – 16th of August 2024
Where : Svanhovd, Pasvik , Finnmark, Norway
Organiser: Research Project – Anthropogenic Soils, University of Oslo
Cofunding: INPART Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies
Description
This interdisciplinary PhD course introduces participants to the environmental humanities of soils. Soil demands a transdisciplinary approach and, as a matter of nature-culture in the Anthropocene, has become a key interest to the humanities. As a group of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds – archaeology, art history, arts, biology, design, environmental humanities, philosophy, social anthropology, STS – we will organize this place-based PhD course to find different ways of approaching human-soil relations in the Arctic.
Human survival depends on the invisible and largely unknown world below our feet. The slow pace of "natural" soil creation processes (pedogenesis) justifies a perspective on fertile soils as a limited non-renewable resource, like coal and oil. Planet Earth has reached "peak soil", that is the point at which we are destroying soil faster than it can recover. Moreover, precarious, contested, and post-conflict livelihoods remain largely disconnected from conversations on more-than-human health based on microbial and metabolic thinking. Soils are not just endangered—they are also becoming dangerous. Contaminated by chemicals and radioactive substances, some soils pose a threat to more-than-human health. Further, soils' weakened ability to store organic matter—the result of extractive land use and global warming—means that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other climate gases are being released, accelerating the climate crisis.
Yet, in the Anthropocene, soil is not only a natural resource that is rapidly exploited, polluted, and overused, it is also "anthropogenic" in the sense that it is responsive to human care, it can be manipulated, healed, and repaired. Its ontological conditions further complicate soil protection paradigms – instances of soil memory (eg heritage soils) or soil personhood (eg rights to nature legislation) do not always align with other quantifiable factors of soil health such as soil organic carbon or nutrient availability.
Participants will spend five days together with our multidisciplinary team at a research station in Pasvik, Northern Norway, to engage with human-soil relationships of the region. Activities include joint site visits, lab visits, artistic interventions, lectures and collaborative writing and research exercises.
Activities
- Introduction to Soil Science in the Arctic
- Site visits: organic farming, soil futures, borderlands, post-mining, post-WWII sites
- Discussions on Arctic colonisation through agriculture, mining, industrialization, toxic legacies
- Workshop on conflict soils and mushroom archaeology
- Art of noticing soils
- Artistic approaches to vulnerable and endangered soils
Lecturers
Ursula Münster – Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities, University of Oslo
Susanne Bauer – Professor at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo
Anna Krzywoszynska – Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu
Alex Regan Toland – Professorship in Arts and Research, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Marianne Elisabeth Lien – Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo
Nora Sørensen Vaage – Associate Professor at the Department of Art and Media Studies, NTNU and Nord University
Anatolijs Venovcevs – Postdoctoral Researcher in Mushroom Archaeology, University of Oulu
Pierre du Plessis – Researcher at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo
Annike Flo – Scenographer, Artist
Jomy Joseph – Industrial designer and Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oslo
Application
Places in the PhD course are limited to 12 participants. If you are interested in joining us, please send a short CV (max. 2 pages) as well as a short statement (max. 800 words) in which you outline your current research project, how it relates to the topic of the Researcher School and your motivation for attending. The extended deadline for applications is 15 June 2024. We will get back to you with a decision by 30 June 2024.
Who can apply:
Participants must be enrolled in a PhD program to join this course. You can attend at any stage of your project. Please note that we are aware that participants may have different ranges of abilities and support needs and we will adjust our programming, as needed and where we can, to enable all participants to be fully involved.
Application details:
Please submit your application by following the link below, and make sure that you include the following:
- your name
- your department or program and your university
- title and expected completion date of the doctoral project
- an 800-word (max) statement of your doctoral project and motivation for attending
- a 2-page (max) CV
- contact information with email address
Facts and Requirements
Credits: 5 ECTS for attendance at both the workshop and subsequent symposium. If another amount of ECTS is needed at your institution, a learning agreement can be arranged. Please get in touch.
Language of instruction: English
Registration deadline for accepted participants: July 7, 2024
Mandatory Writing: Before the course starts, you are asked to prepare a 2500 – 3200-word essay (excl. references) for pre-circulation, addressing your research project in relation to the course theme. The essay can include visual, sonic, performative or multimedia elements if these are necessary for building up your position. We recommend that you choose a topic that is central to your thesis but that provides a new lens on an aspect of your own research. This can include approaches to methods, writing, theories, field sites etc., as well as areas where supportive ideas would be helpful.
Participants' papers should be submitted no later than July 20 2024.
Your essay will be discussed as part of the course, and each participant will serve as a commentator for one essay. You can also respond with a visual, sonic, performative or multimedia reflection on the essays. The response should be uploaded to the relevant seminar folder at the latest 1 week prior to the workshop.
Preparation:
Each participant must familiarize themselves with the course literature and overview of lectures before the course (see separate document).
Fees
This course is funded by the INTPART network. There is no fee to attend the course. Members of the INTPART network will have access to travel and accommodation funds. Other participants will need to cover their own travel and lodging.