Ada Arendt
@adaarendt.bsky.social
cultural, environmental historian | co-head of KLIMER research group, UiO | Swiss Excellence Grant alumna | based in Oslo & Zurich 🇳🇴🇨🇭 | here for culture of digitality in HEIs, care ethics & environmental history
Yesterday, an interdisciplinary workshop in Oslo on environmental temporalities, where I was invited alongside Kyrre Kverndokk from Uni Bergen. We brainstormed eight brilliant PhD projects, struggled with anachronistic methodologies and concepts, and agreed not to start any more academic papers
Some PhD projects make headlines in the NYT: @lunduniversity.bsky.social
To Study Viking Seafarers, He Took 26 Voyages in Traditional Boats
nytimes.com
We're delighted to announce publication of 'Nordic Climate Histories' (Dominik Collet et al. eds), an essay collection exploring how the people of the Nordic countries have confronted challenges from climatic variability down the centuries: www.whpress.co.uk/publications... #climatehistory #
Has anybody here tested Google Deep Minds’s Aeneas, advertised as „the first artificial intelligence (AI) model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions”? deepmind.google/discover/blo...
Aeneas transforms how historians connect the past
Introducing the first model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions, designed to help historians better interpret, attribute and restore fragmentary texts.
deepmind.google
ICYMI: "The podcast works as environmental history by reflecting on the relationships between women and landscapes, thinking about embodied experiences of ski touring and jumping." - @cjdrury.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/07/10/r... #envhist #sporthistory #cdnhist #wmshist #skiing
Review of the Ski Like a Girl Podcast
“Ski Like a Girl” podcast explores Canadian women’s skiing history, blending research and personal stories to highlight leadership, barriers, and landscape.
niche-canada.org
Today in Lucerne, the 7th Swiss Historical Days begin, a triennial conference under the theme “(In)visibility.” I had the pleasure of presenting in a panel on multispecies history with @isabelleschuerch.bsky.social & Camille Schneiter, organized and moderated by @smschober.bsky.social. Full room! 🙌🏻🙏🏻
Long story short, gen AI can waste everybody’s time or, in some cases, accelerate learning. More often, though, it accelerates the consumption of HigherEd products, that is, increasingly commodified Uni courses. Focusing on the process is the solution. I agree. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.
newyorker.com
Interesting article in NYT taking the pulse of American historians on gen AI www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...
A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.
nytimes.com
Open PhD position in History of Science and Technology at EPFL www.epfl.ch/labs/lhst/la...
Open positions
The Laboratory for the History of Science and Technology (LHST) at EPFL invites applications for a full-time PhD position in the History of Science and Technology. The successful candidate will develo...
epfl.ch
Brilliant talk today in Oslo by Sarah-Maria Schober @smschober.bsky.social on the multispecies history of early modern wigs, organised by KLIMER and the @uio-oceh.bsky.social OCEH Multispecies Landscapes Lab!👌🏻
Caran d'Ache for scribbling insights, Gruyère for fueling them—strong conference opening in Fribourg!
New on Bluesky! We’re OCEH - a research hub at the University of Oslo @uio.no, exploring climate, nature & culture through the humanities. Follow for research highlights, events, reading tips & snapshots from the OCEH Lab. 📸 OCEH Lab hf.uio.no/oceh #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentalHumanities #envhum
Living in a stack of four exceptional care-centered reads right now. Rare to find this much brilliance in one pile. ▪️The Bloomsbury Handbook of Care Ethics, ed. by M.Carter ▪️J.Davis, D.Pontille, The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance ▪️J.Shulevitz, The Sabbath World ▪️C.McCann, Twist
Heading to Fribourg🇨🇭in mid-May for a phenomenal seminar on time and writing in early modern almanacs, organised by Vitus Huber. Another chance to revisit my PhD dissertation (2018), where I first developed and introduced archaeology of care as an interpretative method.
Reading Chaim Grade's "Sons and Daughters," just published by @aaknopf.bsky.social in Yiddish-to-English translation. “Last great Yiddish novel”? Definitely great, hopefully not last in Yiddish.
PhD workshop this Autumn on environmental temporalities in a historical context, guest-led by Kyrre Kverndokk and me at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo. External candidates welcome but no travel funding provided. Register by June 15 2025 ⤵️
PhD-Workshop: Approaching Environmental Temporalities - Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas
In recent years, diagnoses like the Anthropocene, climate crisis, and shifting baseline syndrome have highlighted that, when it comes to our environments, time is of the essence. But how have environm...
hf.uio.no
Essential read right now - Dwarkesh Patel & Gavin Leech, The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI.
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 : Leech, Gavin, Patel, Dwarkesh: Amazon.de: Bücher
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 | Leech, Gavin, Patel, Dwarkesh | ISBN: 9781953953551 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon.
amazon.de
Le Roy Ladurie in 1968: 'The historian of tomorrow will be a programmer or he will cease to exist.' With advancing AI, I believe the opposite is true. We're entering an era where radically human, affective, embodied, and contextual understanding becomes more vital than ever.
University of Oslo elects its new rector with an all-women slate of candidates. Everyone votes, ranking choices 1-2-3, with comprehensive policy materials readily available. It was a pleasure to cast my vote today. Academic democracy in action www.uio.no/om/aktuelt/a...
Rektorvalgkampen er i gang! - Universitetet i Oslo
Kandidatene til å bli Universitetet i Oslos neste rektor er Hanne Flinstad Harbo, Giske Ursin og Ragnhild Hennum.
uio.no
Very cool Postdoc position in Copenhagen, in an interdisciplinary project “Home in Crisis” employment.ku.dk/all-vacancie...
Postdoctoral position in Law and Humanities
employment.ku.dk
“As food insecurity grows globally, foresight planning for sustainable food systems has become critical. Here we argue that history—through detailed data, case studies and methodologies—can profoundly enhance the robustness of scenario planning.” Great stuff. #EnvHist www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The case for history in planning future food systems transformations - Nature Sustainability
History can enhance the robustness of scenario planning for the food system. Through cases in Mozambique, Bangladesh and Holland, this Perspective illustrates how historical insights can guide interve...
nature.com
💥The ESEH is looking for the venue for the 2027 conference! Consider bringing our community to your city in a couple of years' time. Check the call and get in touch with us if you want to know more. eseh.org/call-for-app... Deadline for application: 31 March #envhist
Call for Applications to Host the ESEH Conference 2027 – European Society for Environmental History
eseh.org
At the new Polish History Museum in Warsaw, discussing how to teach history for climate education with Marcin Napiórkowski, Adam Izdebski, Zuzanna Karcz, and an inquisitive & direct audience. Happy to visit this emerging institution that has a good chance to reshape our collective self-knowledge.
🗓️ Rare 1536 calendar recently donated to National Library of Poland, written by Cracow Academy astrology prof Michal z Wislicy & printed by Szarffenberg. Features woodcuts of King Sigismund I & labours of the months. Salvaged from bookbinding waste, now digitised ➡️ polona.pl/preview/2cb1...
E-mail from MA student I co-supervise: 'I choose to increase your percentage of supervision to 30%, since I value your feedback.' Me: thank you for recognizing my potential sir
Plot twist: I'm benefiting from trickle-down economics... by collecting post-election X escapees on BlueSky like rare Pokémon.
Yass! A paper that dismantles the "science vs activism" dichotomy in climate research. Values & scientific integrity aren't mutually exclusive. Bookmark this for the next "stick to the science" debate. 🔗 shorturl.at/3fLWU @katharinehayhoe.com @lydiamessling.bsky.social @christelvaneck.bsky.social
Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism - npj Climate Action
We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free scien...
shorturl.at
Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 2y agoScience doesn't exist in a vacuum. Values always play a role, especially in thorny issues like climate change. Here, @christelvaneck.bsky.social, @lydiamessling.bsky.social & I argue it's time to move beyond the pipe dream of neutrality + empower scientists to engage openly with societal values. 🧪
📚 Environmental History Enthusiasts! Looking for envhist works with microhistorical traits: focus on small-scale subjects, deep dive into limited sources, connecting local stories to broader contexts, highlighting agency, challenging grand narratives, exploring exceptional normal. 📮Recommendations?
🧠Intriguing workshop on VR in education by UZH Digital Society Initiative! As a cultural anthropologist & historian, I'm skeptical: does VR truly enable 'embodied' learning or just create high-tech historical fictions? Fascinating to explore #EdTech #VR #digitalhistory
