FRIPROSJEKT-FRIPROSJEKT

The Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH) brought together five partner and other affiliated universities geographically spread across Norway in order to offer world-leading Environmental Humanities graduate level training. Environmental Humanities is a relatively new but rapidly expanding radically transdisciplinary field that complements environmental science and public policy by focusing on the cultural, historical, artistic and ethical dimensions of environmental issues. Environmental Humanities broadly investigates the human-environment relationship, producing critical work, reflecting on scientific developments, and engaging in new and creative ways with ongoing environmental change and challenges. We offered our PhD researchers a three-tiered program through theory and method courses in environmental humanities, speciality courses, and community-building / student-support activities. In total, we offered 15 courses over 5 years, as well as a larger public-facing symposium, an environmental humanities public festival, and a multi-day PhD student workshop. Students maintained regular contact with the community through online student meetings. There were 63 PhD students affiliated with NoRS-EH at some time during the research school funding period (2019-24). Of these, 17 students graduated with their PhD before December 2024.

NoRS-EH has put Norway onto the map of European environmental humanities research. We have become an attractive place for students to take environmental humanities courses and to study in the field. There were 63 PhD students affiliated with NoRS-EH at some time during the research school funding period (2019-24). By the end of 2024, we had 17 NoRS-EH PhD students graduate. Our graduating PhDs have gotten positions both in Norway and internationally, including tenured or tenure-track assistant/associate professor positions, post-doctoral researcher positions, and university teaching positions. NoRS-EH has served as a major community-building research support activity for environmental humanities in Norway. In total, we offered 15 courses over 5 years, as well as a larger public-facing symposium, an environmental humanities public festival, and a multi-day PhD student workshop.The five universities offering courses have cooperated in designing and offering the courses, including bringing in teachers from the other partner universities as well as international instructors. Students also built community with each other through the courses, a retreat, and online meetings where they met each other and international students. This has created a vibrant research culture for environmental humanities in Norway.

We will establish the Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH) with an initial program period from September 2019 to August 2025. This School will bring together seven universities (five partners and two affiliated universities) geographically spread across Norway in order to offer world-leading Environmental Humanities graduate level training. We will offer our PhD researchers a three-tiered program that consists of: 1. Overviews of environmental humanities as a radically transdisciplinary matrix (through Course A and Biannual Symposium) 2. Specialty courses in environmental humanities themes with international participation (through a series of B Courses) 3. Community building through NoRS-EH through the digital NoRS-EH Portal In addition, we will offer supervisor training and integration of supervisors at the various institutions into the development and teaching of our courses.