The 2021 Conference was closely related to UiO's Environmental and Climate Strategy. (Link to more information about UiO's strategy). Vice-Rector Bjørn Stensaker stated that it would be possible to include topics of climate and the environment in different disciplinary programs.
Ursula Münster, Associate Professor and Director of OSEH, gave a Keynote about the new Honours Certificate in Environmental Humanities and Sciences:Teaching for the Anthropocene: Challenges and Prospects of Transdisciplinary Learning. In her talk, Münster talked about how students with different disciplinary backgrounds can benefit from a transdisciplinary approach to challenges related to the environment and climate change.
Honours Certificate students Tarjei Brekke and Dina Skotnes followed the Keynote speech and shared their experience as students from the interdisciplinary programme. Skotnes stressed that studying interdisciplinarity allowed her to explore new ways of using already existing knowledge from her legal studies. Also, that " there is great value in having students being challenged in new ways compared to their main-studies and it seems that studying interdisciplinarily comes hand in hand with learning with more creative methods and environments".
The Honours Certificate offers students the unique opportunity to develop transdisciplinary competence and knowledge in environmental and climate change studies. The Certificate runs parallel with students' main Master programme, over two semesters. The Certificate is structured through collaborative lectures, experimental seminars, and field excursions. The goal is that students will learn to better understand and address the environmental challenges of our times.
For more information about the EHS Certificate, see OSEH's web page.