The first al-ARD Book Club meeting is coming up on 6 October, with Sahar Khalifeh’s “My First and Only Love” at the centre of the conversation. To set the scene, al-ARD is sharing this 1991 interview with Khalifeh on writing, feminism and land dispossession: youtu.be/vsme5Y1_uM0?...

Sahar Kalefeh

YouTube video by Studio 58

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📬 The August OCEH Newsletter is out! A quiet summer gives way to a new semester — visiting artists in Oslo for events on art, myth, and extraction, a look ahead to autumn, and the strange tale of a paint once made from Egyptian mummies 🎨 📖 www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

A beekeeper searching for wild honey. A desert dweller protecting one of the Sahara's last wild moufflons. A young girl's body found in the Nile. Two Iraqis rebuilding their lives in exile. Meet this year's al-ARD Book Club reading list 📖

🌻 Late summer at OCEH brings three days of art, storytelling, ecological thinking and creative exchange. From 25–27 August, our Junior Research Group - Creative Agency and Environmental Humanities - presents four events across Oslo and Blaker.

The June OCEH Newsletter is out! This issue takes us from rivers and swimmers’ bodies to cobalt mines, frozen archives, sediments, sound, and the many ways landscapes hold memory. Read the full newsletter here: www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

🌍 Did you know the greenest place on Earth depends on one of the most barren? The Amazon rainforest is kept alive by dust from the Sahara Desert — blown clear across the Atlantic Ocean. A thread on one of the planet's strangest connections.

Our Newsletter #5 is out 🌿 Bonfires, ticks, Sámi law, energy myths in Shetland — and something you didn't know about the colour green. shorturl.at/lHh8W

April is finally here, and at OCEH, we’re mostly just excited to get outside 🌸 The sun is out in Oslo, so we’ve planned a month that gets us moving — from walking seminars about diseases to a social where we're literally "Waking Up the Trees."

Can a garment be "wild" and "luxurious" at the same time? 🦊💎 In the 1950s, the fashion industry certainly thought so. In a new OCEH blog post, Giulia Girardi revisits the archives of Harper’s Bazaar to see how "The Mink Look" was sold as the ultimate status symbol.

📣 NEW FUNDING CALL: Environmental Humanities Research Groups at @uio.no . OCEH is looking for new research groups to join our community! We have a budget of 150,000 NOK per group for research activities, workshops, and public events. 🌍

How does the "green transition" feel on the ground? 🌬️🏡 Join us in Oslo on March 23 for a lunch seminar with Carolin Maertens. We’re exploring the politics of energy transition in rural Germany and what happens when land is reframed as "merely an energy source." A mini-thread... 👇

New month, new activities at OCEH! ❄️➡️🌱 As the winter frost begins to lift, our March calendar is shifting toward two of the most pressing conversations in the environmental humanities today. We’re opening our doors to unpack the "green shift" in both our museums and our laws.

The February OCEH Newsletter is out! Following a period of growth and the arrival of several new projects in 2025, we are thrilled to announce that 2026 marks the official start of our new research community. The "next phase" of the Center is no longer a plan - it is happening.

Could a volcanic eruption in Indonesia be the reason we have Frankenstein? 🧟‍♂️ In the world of Environmental Humanities, we look at how the Earth’s forces shape our culture. This is the story of the "Year Without a Summer" and the birth of a monster.

Job alert! We are looking for talented PhD researchers to write a dissertation on Benzaiten worship in modern Japan or Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan, as part of the ERC project "Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia" (MARGO).

TWO DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN EAST ASIAN RELIGIONS (296038) | University of Oslo

Job title: TWO DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN EAST ASIAN RELIGIONS (296038), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, April 6, 2026

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Is a forest an economic resource, a place of mystery, or a site of worship? 🍃 For folklorist Dr. Colin Gioia Connors, the answer is hidden in the "social life" of ancient place-names. We’re hosting him at OCEH this year as he digs into the roots of the Scandinavian landscape.

February at OCEH is looking busy! ❄️✨ From the politics of plants to community-led writing in times of crisis, we have a full month of events coming up at OCEH. A quick thread of what’s happening... 👇

Happy New Year from the Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities! 🌿 We’re kicking off 2026 with a busy January. From the "ecosemiotics" of sacred remains to the politics of global climate action, we have some deep dives planned. Check out the thread below for details! 👇 🧵

It’s been a busy semester at OCEH! ❄️ As the year draws to a close, we’re happy to share our third newsletter, capturing a cross-section of our work - from music and anthropology to food systems and environmental art. Read the full update here: shorturl.at/q0VXh

Final OCEH event of 2025! 🥳 Join our Lunch Seminar + cozy Julegløgg Social! 🎄 🗓️ Dec 15th, 12:15 PM Sadie Menicanin: "The Air of the Vienna Woods." Learn how forest air and music responded to Vienna's poor air quality circa 1900. Gløgg & pepperkaker served! ☕🍪 Details 👇

🎄 Did you know Christmas was once banned in England? In 1647, Parliament shut it down - no carols, no feasting, no greenery. The Puritans saw it as wasteful, un-Christian, and suspiciously pagan. #EnvHum #EnvironmentalHumanities

📢 New Blog Post! Meet visiting researcher Sadie Hale, who's exploring human-whale relations and how we sense the ocean in the Norwegian Arctic 🐋 Sadie's work is truly fascinating! Dive into our Q&A now: ➡️ shorturl.at/BHh2t

Sensing the Ocean Through Whales: Meet Visiting Researcher Sadie Hale - Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Earlier this semester, OCEH welcomed Sadie Hale, a PhD researcher with the SEATIMES project in Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. Sadie’s work moves across cold seas, coastal communities...

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December is here, and OCEH still has a few bright moments lined up before the year winds down. If you need some mid-winter inspiration, we’ve got you covered 💫

🌿 OCEH has a new blog! 🌿 We’re opening a space for sharing ideas, reflections, and stories from our environmental humanities community. shorturl.at/50jHU

OCEH Blog - Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Read this story on the University of Oslo's website.

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🍂 November at OCEH! This month, we’re diving into how environments, art, food, and coastlines shape our lives - and how we, in turn, shape them. Events below 👇 More info: shorturl.at/vnBSN

Our second OCEH newsletter just came out 🍂 It’s full of things we’ve been thinking about and doing this autumn - bonfire by the lake, lab talks, PhD fieldwork and new research groups taking shape. Not a report so much as a snapshot of how #envhum feels in motion. ✨ Read: shorturl.at/PeJVa

Two fascinating OCEH Lab Talks this week 🌿 🗓️ Wed, Oct 22 Stuart Earle Strange – What is Anthropomorphism? How do human–macaque relations in Singapore reveal both the limits and possibilities of cooperation beyond the human? 👉 www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

Stuart Earle Strange: What is Anthropomorphism? Human-Macaque Relations and the Problem of Cooperation - Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Using examples from human-macaque interactions in Singapore, Stuart Strange explores how anthropomorphism depends on cooperative intuitions that both conceal and reveal wider possibilities for relatin...

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👣🌾 Landscapes aren’t just made by humans. They’re shaped through relationships - with animals, plants, microbes, and even the soil beneath our feet. Meet the Multispecies Landscapes Lab, a group at OCEH exploring landscapes as more-than-human worlds. www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...

Multispecies Landscapes Lab - Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History

How have humans historically cultivated practices of co-existence with other species? How have these interactions shaped the landscapes where humans have built, worked, lived, migrated, and wandered?

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Do trees talk to each other? It might sound like sci-fi, but research shows that trees and plants can “communicate” underground — thanks to fungi🍄👇 #EnvHum #Mycorrhiza #WoodWideWeb

A week of creativity, history, and critical reflection at the OCEH Lab 🌿 Here’s what’s happening over the next few days 👇