Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities

Den norske forskerskolen i miljøhumaniora (NoRS-EH) samlet fem partnere og andre medvirkende universitet spredt over Norge for å tilby verdensledende doktorgradsutdanning i miljøhumaniora. Miljøhumaniora er et relativt nytt men raskt voksende radikalt transdisiplinært forskningsfelt som utfyller forskning i miljøvitenskap og offentlig politikk gjennom å fokusere på de kulturelle, historiske, kunstneriske og etiske sidene ved miljøutfordringer. Miljøhumaniora utforsker relasjoner mellom mennesker og miljø, produserer kritiske forskningsarbeider, reflekterer på vitenskapelig utvikling og engasjerer seg på nye og kreative vis i pågående miljøforandringer og -utfordringer. Vi tilbød våre PhD-studenter et tredelt program gjennom teori- og metodekurs i miljøhumaniora, spesialistemner, og fellesskapsbyggende støtteaktiviteter. Vi holdt totalt 15 kurs over forskerskolens fem-årige varighet, samt et større offentlig symposium, en miljøhumaniorafestival og en PhD-studentworkshop som gikk over flere dager. Studenter holdt jevnlig kontakt med resten av studentfellesskapet gjennom nettbaserte studentmøter. Det var totalt 63 studenter tilknyttet NoRS-EH gjennom forskerskolens finansieringsperiode (2019-2024). Av disse fullførte 17 sin PhD før desember 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.