EcoLit: Ecocritical Literary and Cultural Studies

Literary and cultural texts that explore environmental issues provide important sites for ecocritical analysis.

A winter sunset in yellow, pink and blue, with power lines and poles in the middle.

Photo: Michael Lundblad.

About the group

Within the broader framework of environmental humanities, we explore how literary and cultural studies situated in different historical, cultural, and language contexts can make important contributions and interventions in relation to environmental problems and aspirations.

We engage with interdisciplinary fields such as ecocriticism, multispecies studies, posthumanism, human-animal studies, and animality studies, as well as environmental justice, biopolitics, and cultural theory broadly conceived.

PhD Fellowships Currently Available!

Applications are now being accepted from candidates seeking to be affiliated with the EcoLit Research Group while completing a PhD in in the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages (ILOS). Project proposals would need to be connected to the research and/or teaching areas of one or more permanent faculty members from ILOS in the EcoLit group who could serve as advisors, currently including Michael Lundblad, Gro Bjørnerud Mo, Rebecca Lynne Scherr, and Inger Østenstad. Requirements and deadlines can be found here. Applications are due 31 January 2024 for a start date of 1 September 2024. Additional questions can be addressed to Michael Lundblad: Michael.Lundblad@ilos.uio.no.

For projects focusing on Old Norse literature or contemporary Nordic literature, please see calls for PhD positions at the Department for Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN): Doctoral Research Fellowship within Scandinavian literature or Ibsen ; Doctoral Research Fellowships within Scandinavian Linguistics, Norse and Celtic Philology, Rhetoric and Communication

Event: Environmental Diversity Now!

The sun shining through clouds

Join us as we explore issues of race, ethnicity, and gender, but also diverse ways of opening up environmental problems and possibilities in the academy and beyond. We are joined by acclaimed poet and nature writer Camille Dungy and prominent scholars in the environmental humanities, and there will be upcycled music, celebration and food.

Time and place: Oct. 13, 2023 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM, SALT

https://www.hf.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/oseh/news-and-events/events/other/2023/cultivating-new-grounds-in-the-environmental-human.html

Affiliated Projects

Cooperation

We are interested in developing collaborative projects and maintaining a supportive environment, including doctoral and master’s students, invited scholars and guests, and postdoctoral fellows through programs such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships.

Courses

Members of this research group offer courses related to environmental literary and cultural studies, both through the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities Honours Certificate (M.A.) and through our individual departments. Please let us know if you offer related courses that could be advertised here.

M.A. COURSES

ENG4430EHS – Environmental Literature in English (Oslo School of Environmental Humanities)

ENG4430 – Environmental Literature in English

ENG4474 – The Nature of the Beast in American Literature

FRA4316 - Société et littérature française