The position is associated with the research initiative Eco-emotions: Affective Response to Environmental Change in and through Literature. The project is one of four strategic initiatives funded by the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, 2024‒2028.
The main aim of the project is to discuss how humans affectively deal with environmental change, as represented in and through literature, from the past and today, in the North and globally. The current environmental crisis has made us aware of the pressing need for new insight, pertaining to the deeper emotive structures of humanity and the cognitive mechanisms that condition our relationship to the environment. The two main research questions of the project are: (1) How does literature represent and describe affective responses to environmental change? (2) What effect does literature have on our emotions and thoughts, and how can it contribute to sustainability in times of environmental transformations? By discussing these research questions, the project will harvest the yet unexploited potential of powerful, large-scale narratives from the past and today, which have the potential to activate new ways of thinking about and relating to our environment.
The candidate will be part of the project’s core team and will contribute to its main objectives together with the team. The candidate will be responsible for addressing the project’s research questions from a contemporary perspective, i.e. by discussing either how contemporary literature narrates, expresses and represents affective responses to environment change, or by discussing the production, transmission, and/or reception of contemporary literary as a coping strategy during the current crisis, on emotional and cognitive level.
The candidate is expected to present an individual research project connected to the main project The candidate should also be interested and open to collaborative initiatives on the topic with the rest of the team.
The description of the individual project should be clear about the research questions, main sources, theories and methods of the investigation, and the planned outputs. Comparative, cross-cultural and/or diachronic projects based on contemporary material will be prioritized. Projects with an empirical component, such as survey studies, participatory observation or other appropriate methods, investigating how readers in various social spaces (book clubs, classrooms and workplaces) react to environmental literature, are also welcome.
In addition, the postdoc will be responsible for the development of an interdisciplinary course, to be taught in collaboration with the rest of the team-members. The course will be relevant for students at the faculty of humanities (literature, cultural and environmental history) but it may also be incorporated in UiO’s Sustainability certificate. The course answers a key challenge identified by the Norwegian educational system, namely to address prevailing societal challenges such as health, democracy and sustainability, in an interdisciplinary and research-based way. The course aims to have a broad outreach to future educators.