What are you working on at the moment? How does it relate to Eco-Emotions?
I am currently working on a book that examines how renewable energy dilemmas are represented in historical and contemporary literature and film from the Nordic countries, especially Norway. Although major controversies over hydropower did not arise until around 1970, my research indicates that environmental justice issues are addressed in literature and visual media already with the earliest hydropower developments. Literature, film, and visual art are important outlets for the emotions associated with energy development, whether for positive emotions such as pride and optimism for the future, or more negative emotions. These negative responses include the grief associated with the loss of watershed ecosystems and the cultures they support, frustration at the lack of transparency or opportunity for democratic participation, and anger at the inequitable distribution of benefits and harms. Literature and film are well suited to exploring the human dimensions of energy transitions, but they also undermine the distinction between ecological and social consequences, revealing instead how nature and culture are mutually dependent.
What activity or aspect of Eco-Emotions are you most excited about?
I've most enjoyed attending Eco-Emotions seminars featuring scholars who work on different time periods, languages, and cultures. Sometimes I recognize commonalities between their research and my own that help me better understand or articulate something that I have been struggling with. Other times, I am struck by differences between the contexts we are working in that help me to challenge my own assumptions.
What do you currently read for pleasure?
I read biographies and memoirs often in my free time. Lately, I have been working my way through Tuula Karjalaiinen's biography of Tove Jansson. I read all the Moomin novels aloud to my child, and ecological disasters feature heavily, from comets to floods. Reading her biography, I can see how a lot of the ecological anxiety in her work relates to the fear and grief associated with war and nuclear disaster during her lifetime. I'm inspired by her use of wild imagination, humor, and creativity to persist through difficulties.