The mid-term evaluation is organized in two parts and starts with a 2-hour public seminar, followed by a closed meeting.
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the progress of the PhD project at a point when it is still possible to make small or substantial changes. In general, we want to know how the candidate is doing, how much work is done, and what is left.
About the PhD candidate and her Research
Laura op de Beke is employed as a Research Fellow at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. Her project is connected to the lager research project Lifetimes, a Natural History of the Present.
My contribution to the project looks at what I call "Anthropocene temporalities" in science fiction video games. Science fiction betrays an enduring fascination for deep time: stories of the rise and fall of civilizations, species histories, cosmic dramas etc. At the same time, video games, as interactive, procedural objects of culture enable different ways of story-telling, some of which are auspiciously favorable to engaging with these topics. My research sits at this productive junction, and asks what kinds of experiences science fiction video games generate that are tapping into the cultural and political insecurities and opportunities characterizing the Anthropocene.
At UiO I also run a monthly environmental humanities reading group called un-earthed, in collaboration with OSEH (the Oslo School for the Environmental Humanities) and two peers. A record of these meetings can be found on my blog. If you want to attend one of the sessions, sign up for the mailing list here - or send me an email.