DECEMBER
Public Lecture
On December 8, Anna Grasskamp will give the annual Christmas Lecture at the Kunsthistorisk Forening's end-of-the-year meeting at Gamlе Rааdhսs Scеnе in Oslo.
- More information here
Sakshi Jain and Yixin Xu will present a co-authored paper at the conference "The Qing Empire in the Maritime World: Towards a Braided History of Art, Material Culture, and Ecology" at City University Hong Kong, December 12–13, 2026. Sakshi Jain will present a paper at the event "Tout ce qui brille n’est pas d’or… Stratégies de l’éclat dans les arts visuels (XVe-XVIIIe siècles)" held December 15-16, 2026, at Institut national d'Histoire de l'art (INHA) in Paris.
NOVEMBER
Fellowship & Events in the Netherlands
From November 2 to 11 Sakshi Jain will join the international event Sharing Stories on Contested Histories organised by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and Amsterdam University of the Arts.
Marie Ngiam will also spend time in the Netherlands during her time as Lingling Wiyadharma Fellow at the special collections of Leiden University Libraries and received a grant from the Decorative Arts Trust to be spent in 2026-2027.
OCTOBER
Conference Papers, Seminar & Invited Lectures
In October 2026, Yixin Xu presented the paper “Warm Stones, Cool Dreams: Thermal Metaphors and Material Ecologies in Qing Court Culture” at the Renaissance Ecologies – 7th Conference of the Nordic Network for Renaissance Studies held at the University of Gothenburg. She also presented a paper based on her ongoing PhD dissertation research at the conference Thinking with Materials across Histories and Practices at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague on October 1 and 2, 2026. In addition, Yixin Xu will give a lecture at a day dedicated to the study of Chinese art and material culture held by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Norway (NSOK) on October 25, 2026.
On October 2 and 3 Tomasz Grusiecki (Queen's University) discussed matters related to early modern ecology, art, and materiality with the ECOART team in two seminars.
Anna Grasskamp will give a Lunch Talk at the Kunstgeschichtliches Institut of the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt and a paper at a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania.
The shut-up-and-write session series organized by Sarah Chen Huang was continued in October with new dates for the rest of the year being fixed.
SEPTEMBER
Workshop & Seminar
In September 2026, four of the five ECOART team members joined the workshop The Material Realities of Making in the Early Modern World in the Berner Oberland hosted by Zuzanna Sarniecka, University of Bern, with the support of a SNSF Scientific Exchanges Grant.
On September 8, ECOART collaborated with the ERC Consolidator project MARGO for a small seminar in which Aike Rots presented his project MARGO and Mary Josefti Nito and Anna Grasskamp discussed their work-in-progress. More info on MARGO here.
AUGUST
Screening, Workshop & Artist Talk
On August 25, Sarah Chen Huang organized a screening of works by the artist Mia Yu for the research project Creative Agency and Environmental Humanities at Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities in collaboration with Amber Worlds as well as the research group Creative practice – (trans)forming space, place and the environment and ECOART.
On August 26, Sarah Chen Huang organized a day at the Guttormsgaard Archive in Blaker, which starts with a zine writing workshop and ends with a viewing of Asian artifacts for the research project Creative Agency and Environmental Humanities at Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities co-organized by the Guttormsgaard Archive in collaboration with ECOART.
On August 27, Sarah Chen Huang organized an artist talk by Aki Nagasaka, followed by a panel discussion of four artists for the research project Creative Agency and Environmental Humanities at Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities in collaboration with Amber Worlds and ECOART hosted by the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
JULY
Presentations & Appointments
In July, Marie Ngiam will present her work at the Graduate Institute of Art History of National Taiwan University in Taipei. She will also give a talk as part of the seminar series “Powerful Ideas: New Research in Art History” held at the Power Institute of the University of Sydney. Her trip is generously supported by a UiO: Energy&Environment grant.
From July onward Anna Grasskamp will serve as Field Editor (Chinese Art) of CAA Reviews. She was also appointed to be an editorial board member of the Journal of the History of Collections from July onward.
And ... the ECOART team is complete by now -- we celebrated the arrival of Dr. Mary Josefti Nito with some colleagues over drinks & snacks 🍾🥂
Heartfelt congratulations to her as she also got accepted to join the Prints Across the Pacific 1565 – 1815 project by the Connecting Art Histories program organized by the Getty Foundation, a collaborative series of travel seminars focusing on the transregional print culture, book history, and material exchanges linked to the Manila - Acapulco Galleon trade!
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JUNE
Conference Papers & Seminars
In June 2026, Mary Josefti Nito and Anna Grasskamp presented their work at the workshop Baroque Ecologies: Materiality, Relation, Friction organized at Queens University in Kingston, Canada. Marie Ngiam contributed a paper in the panel “Trans-imperial Contact Zones and Collision Space in Southeast Asia” to the European Architectural History Network Biennial Conference, held 17-21 June 2026 at the University of Aarhus.
On June 24, the ECOART team's second shut up & write session was organized by Sarah Huang Chen and attended by team members as well as a number of other IFIKK PhD students.
On June 15, the ECOART team had the pleasure to learn from Camille Serchuk (Southern Connecticut State University), Tone Blixøen (MA student, Art History, UiO), and Elke Papelitzky (UiO, Chinese Studies) concerning map-related matters in exchange with Elisa Saggioro (UiO, Comparative Literature), and Ragnhild Bø (UiO, Faculty of Theology/Museum of Cultural History).
On June 5, the ECOART team hosted a seminar with Kyoungjin Bae (The University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill) and Elke Papelitzky (UiO, Chinese Studies).
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MAY
Workshops, Papers & National Museum Visits
Anna Grasskamp joined the NICHE research cluster Ecologies of Making: Material Culture Beyond the Human led by Noemi Quagliati at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
- more information here.
On May 28, Yixin Xu introduced PhD students and post-docs affiliated to the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas to the display space of the National Museum that is dedicated to exhibits from Asia.
On May 21, Sarah Chen Huang presented a paper at the symposium Threading Critical Resources.
On May 13, Sarah Huang Chen organized a seminar with Erling Agøy to discuss climate phenomena in relation to primary textual as well as visual sources from the Ming dynasty.
On May 8, the ECOART team had the pleasure to learn from Wu Yulian (Michigan State University), who presented the paper "From 'Breaking-Up Jade' Sands to 'Treasure Sand': Surface, Toughness, and Abrasion in High Qing Court Production" on the sourcing and use of abrasives in jade crafts of the Qing dynasty and exchange views with Jean-Baptiste Clais (Louvre), Kyoungjin Bae (The University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill), and Wang Yujin (New York University).
On May 11 and 12, the ECOART team discussed research with Leah Clark (University of Oxford), Meha Priyardashini (University of Edinburgh), and Mei Mei Rado (Bard Graduate Center), and viewed selected items at the Conservation Department of the National Museum in Oslo.
more information here
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Workshop on (Dis)Connected Objects in the Early Modern Period
MARCH
Shut up and Write Session & Papers
On March 23, Sarah Chen Huang organized a "shut up and write session" attended by IFIKK PhD students and the ECOART team's junior members.
On March 9, Sarah Huang Chen offered insights into her work-in-progress at the History of Science Lunch Seminar at University of Oslo.
In March 2026, Anna Grasskamp presented a paper at Columbia University in New York at the symposium “New Directions in the History of Knowledge and Material Culture” organized by the Columbia University Seminar in the History and Philosophy of Science.
FEBRUARY
Workshop Contribution, Paper & Book Launch
Alongside Craig Clunas (Oxford University), Karina Corrigan (Peabody Essex Museum), Xiaoxin Li (Victoria and Albert Museum), Emile de Bruijn (National Trust) and others, Anna Grasskamp contributed to the workshop “Chinese Furniture: A Global History” that took place at Merton College in Oxford convened by Jennifer Altehenger (Oxford University) and Kyoungjin Bae (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
Anna Grasskamp presented a paper at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago, held February 18—21, 2026.
Together with Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University) Anna Grasskamp had a shared book launch party during CAA at Sandmeyer's Bookstore to celebrate the publication of Zorach's monograph Spontaneous Objects and Grasskamp's edited volume (Re)made in China.
Drawing Session & Screening
In February, Anna Grasskamp co-organized a drawing session with Hong Kong-based artist Zheng Bo held at Victoriahuset in the Botanical Gardens followed by a screening of three of his works and a panel discussion at Kunstnerners Hus, which was attended by more than 70 students, colleagues, artists and interested members of the public.
- More information on the event
- Student journal Paragone covering the event
Article published in Morgenbladet
JANUARY
Contribution to Workshop
Anna Grasskamp contributed to a workshop with Carrie Anderson (Middlebury College), Yael Rice (Amherst College), and Marsely Kehoe generously hosted by Angela Vanhaelen at McGill University in Montréal.
DECEMBER
Workshop
On December 3, ECOART had the pleasure of hosting a workshop with, among others, De-nin Lee (Emerson College), the author of many pioneering academic contributions in the field of Asian art history with a focus on environmental perspectives, to visit the National Museum and discuss work in progress.
Reading Seminars
On October 8, December 2, and January 19, ECOART convened three seminars to discuss literature and artworks.
Book Launch
In December, Ingrid Halland and Kjetil Fallan who lead the Material Ecologies of Design research project at Center for Advanced Studies hosted a book launch for the volume "(Re)made in China. Material (Dis)connections, Art, and Creative Reuse" (degruyterbrill.com) edited by Anna Grasskamp, which included as speakers Amanda Boetzkes (University of Guelph), Finn Arne Jørgensen (University of Stavanger), Monica Klasing Chen (University of Heidelberg) and others.
Contributions to Symposium
In November, Anna Grasskamp served as respondent and all ECOART members attended the symposium “Curating ‘the Wild’: Environmental Approaches to Art History” at the National Museum, an event organized by Trine Nordkvelle for the Environmental Art Research group.
Conference Paper
Marie Ngiam presented a paper at the seminar “What is a forest?”, the kick-off event of the research project “Norwegian Wood: Extraction landscapes, art and visual culture in Denmark and Norway 1730 to 1860,” held at the University of Copenhagen from 24 to 25 November 2025.
Scroll Viewing with Shuo Hua and Anne Håbu
On September 15, the ECOART team and Elke Papelitzky (University of Oslo, Chinese Studies), and Mariana Zegianini (University of Oslo, Art History) benefited from the visit of Shuo Hua (The University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong), who, together with Anne Håbu (Museum of Cultural History, UiO), will take a closer look at some Chinese painting scrolls in the library collection of the University of Oslo.
Conference Paper & Panel Chairing
In September 2025, Anna Grasskamp contributed a paper to the panel “Asian Art in Planetary Perspective” organized by Feng Schöneweiß (University of Warwick) alongside Aurelia Campbell (Boston College), De-nin Lee (Emerson College) and Uranchimeg Orna Tsultem (Indiana University Indianopolis) at the 4th European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology held at Lisbon September 8-13, where she also served as chair to a panel on transnational narratives in modern and contemporary Chinese art.
Presentations of Research Results
On August 27, the ECOART team members Yixin Xu, Sarah Huang Chen and Anna Grasskamp had the pleasure to present research results at The Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities of the University of Stavanger led by Dolly and Finn Arne Jørgensen.
Workshop with KODE Museum Bergen
On August 25 and 26, ECOART collaborated with KODE Museum at Bergen hosting a workshop on its Chinese collections which featured the ECOART team, ECOART guest Shih Ching-fei (National Taiwan University), Elke Papelitzky (University of Oslo, Chinese Studies), and Mariana Zegianini (University of Oslo, Art History).
Seminar with Yeorae Yoon and Shih Ching-fei
On August 22, the ECOART group ws pleased to host a presentation by Yeorae Yoon (Oberlin College and Conservatory), entitled The Ecological Eye: Picturing Disaster and Climate in Eighteenth-Century China.
Abstract
This talk examines how the eighteenth-century Chinese artist Gao Fenghan (1683–1749) visually recreated his sensory experiences of enduring natural disasters and climatic abnormalities caused by the global cooling of the Little Ice Age.
Through innovative ink painting techniques—eccentric left-handed practice, unrestricted finger painting, and creative adaptation of European pictorial elements—Gao vividly expressed his tactile and kinesthetic sensations of experiencing extreme weather events such as excessive rain, floods, unusual snowfall, and severe cold.
Embedded in his paintings is an acute ecological awareness that not only offers a historically and culturally specific lens for exploring eighteenth-century climate change in China but also highlights how ink painting can shed its own light on the history of human engagement with the environment.
Museum of Cultural History Depot Visit
On August 20, the ECOART team with ECOART guest Shih Ching-fei (National Taiwan University), Elke Papelitzky (University of Oslo, Chinese Studies) and Mariana Zegianini (University of Oslo, Art History) viewed Chinese artworks at the depot of the Museum of Cultural History, a visit kindly made possible by Anne Håbu.
Seminar with Shih Ching-fei
On August 19, ECOART guest Shih Ching-fei (National Taiwan University) and ECOART team member Marie Ngiam presented their ongoing research to the ECOART team and Elke Papelitzky (University of Oslo, Chinese Studies).
Conference Paper
On July 11, Anna Grasskamp presented a paper at the two-day conference The Global Baroque: European Material Culture between Conquest, Trade and Mission, 1600-1750 held at the University of York.
Conference Paper
In July 2025, Anna Grasskamp presented a (recorded) paper at the 27th International Congress of History of Science & Technology held at the University of Otago's Dunedin campus in New Zealand.
Summer School
Marie Ngiam’s application was selected for participation in the Plant Humanities Summer Program offered by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, DC, an institute of Harvard University, June – August 2025, an interdisciplinary program that combines intellectual training in concepts and methodologies from the emerging field of plant humanities with skills in digital humanities.
The program had an on-site component and Marie spent 3 weeks at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, and one week at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia. The last two weeks of the program were virtual and participants created plant narratives for the Plant Humanities Lab (Featured Plant Narratives (ab.plant-humanities.org)).
Workshop Contribution
On June 6, Marie Ngiam contributed a paper to the workshop EurAsian Materials in Central European Collections organized by Robyn Radway (Central European University Vienna) held at the University of Innsbruck and Schloß Ambras.
PhD Course
Together with Øystein Sjåstad (Art History, University of Oslo) and Áine Mangaoang (Musicology, University of Oslo), Anna Grasskamp developed and taught the PhD course “De-Centering as Method”.
Seminar with Rebecca Zorach and Kesia Halvorsrud
On May 30, the ECOART team convened with ECOART guest Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University) and Kesia Halvorsrud (KODE Museum/Kunsthistorisk Forening) to discuss published work and samples of forthcoming scholarship.
International Workshop
On May 28, ECOART collaborated with Alessandro Rippa (University of Oslo, Anthropology), the PI of the AMBER project, in convening the international workshop Artifacts, Resources and Circulation during the Early Modern Period at Domus Bibliotheca of the University of Oslo.
The closed-door part of the workshop focused on work-in-progress by Tina Asmussen (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum & Ruhr-Universität Bochum).
The public afternoon included presentations by her on the cosmogeopolitics of early modern Europe with a focus on mining in Saxony, a paper by Rachel King (The British Museum) which highlighted strategies to decolonize research on amber in a global context, and a lecture by Zuzanna Sarnecka (Universität Bern) on early modern tin mining for ceramic production at previously under-discussed places such as Krušné Hory. Marie Ngiam, Yixin Xu, and Sarah Chen Huang from the ECOART team presented their work receiving responses by Elke Papelitzky (University of Oslo, Chinese Studies), Mariana Zegianini (University of London, SOAS), and co-convenor Alessandro Rippa (University of Oslo, Anthropology).
The day ended with a roundtable featuring Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University) and Christopher Heuer (University of Rochester).
Silver Mine & Mining Museum Visit at Kongsberg
On May 27, the ECOART team in collaboration with the AMBER project took the contributors to the workshop Artifacts, Resources and Circulation during the Early Modern Period on May 28 to the silver mines and the Mining Museum at Kongsberg.
Co-organizer Alessandro Rippa summarizes: “we learned about the history of mining in Norway since the 16th century, and how the development of this industry relied on the circulation of people and expertise within the European continent and beyond.
A guided tour of the Kongsberg mining museum, kindly led by the local expert Dr Bjørn Ivar Berg, illuminated this history and its contemporary ramifications.”
Reading Seminar on Work by Rebecca Zorach at National Museum
On May 22, Anna Grasskamp convened a Reading Seminar at the National Museum dedicated to the work of ECOART guest Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University) in collaboration with Kunsthistorisk Forening and the Art History Division of University of Oslo.
A group of 20 registered participants – BA, MA, and PhD students, museum staff and university colleagues – discussed major publications by Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University) in the presence of the author, who kindly offered insights into her work, and continued their exchanges over a lunch generously sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo.
Research Trip
In May 2025, Marie Ngiam spent some time in London and Cambridge, UK, visiting libraries and museums and was invited to attend a PhD workshop at the Department of International History of the London School of Economics (LSE) where she had the opportunity to learn about the research carried out by doctoral students, in areas such as British colonial history and Southeast Asian trade.
Research Project Presentation
On May 14, Anna Grasskamp presented aspects of the content and structure of the ECOART project to the administrative staff of the Department of Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo.
Workshop Paper
On May 9, Anna Grasskamp delivered a paper at the workshop Sensing the Environment organized by Malin Graesse and Noemi Quagliati at the Environmental Humanities Laboratory of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology at Stockholm.
Read more on the event here (The Environmental Humanities Laboratory)
Seminar with Elke Papelitzky
On March 24, April 7, and April 30, the ECOART team had the pleasure to meet with Elke Papelitzky, an Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at UiO, to discuss secondary literature and concepts and terminologies in relevant texts from premodern China.
Seminar with Malin Graesse and Susanne Winterling
On the afternoon of April 4 2025, the ECOART team was lucky to spend some time discussing topics related to art and ecology with Malin Graesse, a post-doctoral fellow at The Greenhouse (University of Stavanger), and Susanne Winterling, professor at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Art and Craft).
Keynote lecture
Anna Grasskamp gave the keynote lecture "Transcultural Recycling. Europe, China and Objects In-Between" at the international conference Reuse Value? Practices and Strategies for the Reuse of Material in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in Köln, 17-18 March 2025.
Contribution to roundtable
Anna Grasskamp contributed to the “Ulmer Lunch Talk” on the topic “Warum Ökologien vormoderner Kunst?” on March 10 2025.
Contribution to lecture series
Anna Grasskamp gave the talk "Reinkarniertes Papier: Aspekte der Wiederverwendung in der chinesischen Kunst" in the lecture series "Materia Povera. Material und Technik" organized by the Art History and History departments at the University of Cologne on November 28 2024.