More-Than-Human Humanities

More-Than-Human Humanities

Monday 28 - Thursday 31 October 2024

How do we undertake more-than-human research in the environmental humanities? Multispecies entanglements and the need to foreground species and things beyond the human is greatly emphasised in the environmental humanities, since they challenge human exceptionalism, help disrupt how we work in and with various environments, and provide different ways of knowing and being in the world.

While the significance of the more-than-human for the environmental humanities is clear, it can be difficult to translate the approach and theoretical advocacy for more-than-human entanglements into practice. Some environments can be challenging for human researchers, or some actors are, ostensibly, not recognised as extant species in Western scientific discourse. At the same time, current ethnographic and other participatory methods may not satisfactorily integrate the more-than-human as they do the human.

This PhD course, hosted by the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, explores the various challenges of, and opportunities for, working with the nonhuman and more-than-human. It will particularly consider some of the trickier aspects researchers face, such as how to do fieldwork with nonhumans, working in environments we may not be used to, or engaging with ‘supernatural’ more-than-humans in indigenous and Western vernacular thought. This four-day course comprises three days of lectures, discussions and a short experimental walk, followed by a session at the University Museum of Bergen to consider nonhuman representation in exhibitions. Participants in this course will gain an understanding of the role of more-than-humans in Environmental Humanities research, along with skills in researching and analysing more-than-human ethnographies. They will critically reflect on the challenges and potential of conducting research with nonhumans, while also exploring representations of more-than-humans in exhibitions.

About the course

This course takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding, interrogating, and doing fieldwork with more-than-humans, including their varied entanglements with humans, each other, and their environments. We will explore this through a variety of species and environments, alongside considerations of what more-than-human fieldwork might look like. We will also think about how we represent and tell stories about the more-than-human in public engagement contexts.

As a coastal city with rich maritime histories, Bergen is an ideal place to consider the various ways we can work with the sea and engage with aquatic more-than-humans. Marine environments can present some unique challenges for undertaking multispecies and more-than-human research. But they are also fruitful and important avenues of exploration, particularly as bellwethers for climate change, species decline, and exploitation. We will examine the various ways we might engage with aquatic species – and what happens when we fail to encounter them. We will further explore the impact of governance and culture on more-than-human communities, and how to write oceanic ethnographies and present stories of aquatic nonhumans and their entanglements with the human.

Enigmatic species are intriguing to work with, but often tricky to encounter, especially if they are supernatural. Although not necessarily recognised in Western science, supernatural beings can tell us much about multispecies entanglements and environments in the past and present. Supernatural more-than-humans can be traced in historic and contemporary narratives, superstitions, and rituals, and point to a heightened engagement with, and different way of knowing, environments, other nonhumans, and temporalities. We will discover the significance of supernatural nonhumans as part of complex ecologies through textual analysis of folk narratives and personal encounters, religious belief and ritual.

Despite the importance placed on the more-than-human in environmental humanities and related research, and the fruitful avenues that have been opened up, it can be difficult to know where to start with doing more-than-human fieldwork. While many advocate writing multispecies ethnographies, there can be some disconnect between ethnographic method and working with more-than-humans. We will consider how we can develop methods for undertaking ethnographic and other participatory fieldwork, what materials we might collect, and how we can use our encounters in the field and with collections to meaningfully articulate the more-than-human.

The final day will include a session at the University Museum of Bergen to explore how old natural history collections can be used in contemporary natural sciences and humanities research – and how to combine these streams of research. We will consider how human-nonhuman animal relations can be interrogated and represented in exhibitions.

The workload of this course is equivalent to 5 ECTS credits. The course will include lectures by scholars in the field, workshops, and seminars, in which participants’ own research will be discussed. Participants must also write a short paper to be handed in approximately one month after the course has ended. Details about the paper, and a reading list for the course, will be provided to successful applicants.

Speakers

UiB

Sarah Hamilton (History)

Tina Paphitis (Cultural Studies)

Ernesto Semán (Spanish)

Bjørn Ola Tafjord (Religion)

Non-UiB

Kristin Armstrong-Oma (Archaeology, University of Stavanger)

Lotten Gustafsson Reinius (Ethnology and Museum Studies, Stockholm University)

Marius Palz (Anthropology, University of Oslo)

Sonja Åman (Political Ecology, University of Oslo)

Applicaton Process

Application deadline: 30 June 2024

PhD candidates from any country and any discipline are welcome to apply. Application guidelines are as follows:

1. NoRS-EH members: The course is offered as part of the Norwegian Researcher School in Environmental Humanities (NoRS-EH), and priority will be given to members. Students based at a Norwegian university in any discipline working on a PhD project related to environmental humanities are encouraged to join the researcher school. If you are eligible to join and are not yet a member of NoRS-EH, please complete the process detailed on the school’s main page: https://www.uis.no/forskning-og-ph-d/ph-d-utdanning/forskerskolen-nors-eh/. Those based in Norway who are not NoRS-EH members, see #2 below.
2. Non-NoRS-EH members, including applicants based outside Norway: PhD students based in any country who are not members of NoRS-EH are also encouraged to apply for this course. Any places not filled by NoRS-EH members will be offered to students from outside the school.

There are no course fees, but all participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.

To apply for this course, submit your application as a single PDF file to marit.r.bjerke@uib.no. It should consist of 1) a one-page description of your research project and explanation of your motivation for participating in the course, and 2) a one-page CV.

Candidates will be notified of the outcome of their applications in mid-August.

Organisers

Sarah Hamilton, Kyrre Kverndokk, Tina Paphitis, Marit Ruge Bjærke

Optional Activities

In addition to the course, participants may be interested in the following events at the Department of Social Anthropology occurring after the course ends:

Thursday 31 October, 14:15-16:00

Bergen Social Anthropology Seminar (BSAS): Unruly Fluffy Cows and Shy Reindeer. The Spectacle of Wilderness and Multispecies Relationalities in Dovrefjell, Karin Lillevold (Cultural Studies)

Friday 1 November

Free one-day conference: Marine Megafauna (details to follow on the Department of Social Anthropology's website)

These events are not part of the PhD course, but participants may wish to add these optional events to their course attendance.