Lunchtime Discussions

The tropical rainforest is the most diverse terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, it is a symbol of the exuberance of life and Creation, it has spiritual meaning for indigenous peoples and forest dwellers, it is home to hundreds of millions of people, and it makes up an immense carbon sink without which the world will not reach its climate goals. In this Environmental Lunchtime Discussion, Simon Rye, shares his perspectives on religions' and indigenous people's efforts to end the destruction of tropical rainforests.

Frits Thaulow (1847-1906) was in his own time often referred to as the painter of "the Stream, the Snow and the Night." To this one can add "Smoke". In many of his most captivating landscapes, Thaulow captured signs of modern industry such as smoke from factory chimneys, and steam from trains. Øystein Sjåstad, associate professor in art history at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas offers his perspectives on the beautification of pollution.

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates that 75% of UK consumers' carbon emissions come from the use of products and services. We also know that 80% of the environmental impacts of those products and services are determined in the early stages of design (EU). These two figures tell us that sustainability is chiefly about stuff and that the impacts of products or services are pretty much designed-in (or out for that matter) from the very outset; “Design is the problem as well as the solution”. Jannicke Hølen, programme leader Innovation for All, and Knut Bang, Senior Advisor of Design at DOGA (Design og arkitektur Norge), propose the following: If environmentalism's success was in spotlighting sustainability problems to the world, the success of design will be in helping deliver solutions.

What does the recovery of large carnivores in Norway tell us about the nature of conflict and coexistence? John Linnell, senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, offers his perspectives.

Why does the recent turn to matter in critical theory so often invoke fiction to explain its ideas? In this lunch talk, Tobias Skiveren, assistant professor at Aarhus University (DK), will discuss this question based his recent publication in Theory, Culture & Society.

How to think about territorial rights and duties in a world where the relative stability and predictability of Holocene conditions are gone? In this talk, associate professor in philosophy Alejandra Mancilla claims that political theorists require a new model for thinking about land, natural resources and our relationship to them, and suggest how this may be done.

How do different universities engage with the question of what "environmental humanities" should entail? Five fellows in environmental humanities at Ca' Foscari University in Venice offer their perspectives on their methods and topics.

Can monstrous plants help human beings imagine and transform themselves into more sustainable creatures? In this talk, Dr. Astrid Møller-Olsen analyses fictional plant-human hybrids that question the nature-culture dichotomy and explore alternative paths to understanding the planet as a cross-species environment.

In this talk, professor Kyrre Kverndokk will present some of the main results from the research project: “The Future is now: Temporality and exemplarity in climate change discourses”.

The green roadmap for the Norwegian Arts and Culture Sector aims to provide an overall status, set specific goals and propose measures to reduce the climate footprint in the sector. Project manager of the road map, Linnéa E. Svensson, will present the outline and discuss with you - are we there yet?

Surveillance is increasingly used to sate the public’s curiosity for a window into the ‘secret lives of wild animals’. Citizens can now track their local wildlife through trail cameras connected to their smartphone, and they can follow live data streams offering minute-by-minute close-ups of wildlife nests 24/7. In this talk, Erica von Essen, Ph. D. and researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, asks: what does this digitalization of wildlife mean for human-wildlife relations? 

In this webinar, Barbara Bramanti, associate professor of Physical Anthropology at the University of Ferrara, Italy, will present some of the major outcomes of a multidisciplinary ERC-research project (“MedPlag: The medieval plagues: ecology, transmission modalities and routes of the infections”), and reconsider dynamics behind pandemics.

This talk considers the intensive research and emergent policy regimes that have cohered in the last 15 years around bioacoustics, e.g. the scientific study of animal sounds. What is the significance of sound in the animal kingdom, and how can it help us track biodiversity? Max Ritts, postdoctoral researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) gives us his perspectives.

How come Western countries consume more meat than ever despite of its negative impacts? Agronomist, ethnologist and cultural historian, Dr Karen Lykke Syse, talks about how meat consumption in Norway is being justified by history and culture.

AD 536 and 540 are important years in European history, and marks the advent of a series of documented environmental changes that affected societies throughout Europe in various ways. Sudden and severe climate deterioration led to vast crop failure and was followed by plague in the following decades and centuries (up to ca. AD 750?). How did this affect Scandinavian societies? Frode Iversen, professor at the Department of Archaeology at Museum of Cultural History, UiO, is here to tell us!

Sustainable food is on the agenda of the UN, nations, corporations and an increasing number of consumers. Yet, does sustainability include animal welfare? This week, Live Kleveland, lawyer and co-founder of the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance will ask how modern food production can become more animal friendly.

How and when does a being become autonomous? What makes an environment? In this talk, Sara R. Yazdani discusses her work on how notions of the environmental have been explored in contemporary and late 20th century art: art in which new alliances and new types of environmental and affective formation have been mobilized against an anthropocentric world-view.

This week, the curator, producer and artist James Finucane introduces the long and honourable tradition of subvertising ('subverting advertising'). We will learn about the background behind this 'protest art' movement, it's various forms and functions, and, perhaps most importantly, the tools and know-how to do it yourself.

How does the environment and lifestyle impact our genes, both today and in the future? This week, professor in Public Health Gunnar Tellnes will introduce the concepts of "Green Care" and "Nature-Culture-Health" (NaCuHeal). Drawing on recent epigenetic research that indicates that our genes may be 'turned on and off' as consequence of the way we live, he will present his work and vision at NaKuHel Center in Asker, Norway. 

What does it mean to listen to the ending of a world that has always already ended? How can we attend to what has been there but heard elsewhere, by someone else, that may not be ours to hear?  This week, geographer and sound artist Anja Kanngieser will introduce Climates of Listening, an ongoing conversation and collaboration with predominantly women, queer and transgender people in the Pacific.

What can future fictions tell us about how we live and exist in the present? What can they tell us about how we may live and exist in the present?