Bergen International Student Conference 2021: From crisis to action
Join us to discuss how we can move from crisis to sustainability action!
Main content
Opening speaker: rector Margareth Hagen will open the conference.
Keynote speakers and other guests: writer Andri Snær Magnason (IS), lecturer and facilitator Pernilla Glaser (SE), professor Roger Strand (UiB)
How can COVID-19 change the way we think about a sustainable future?
While we are in the midst of the corona outbreak we still face another major crisis: climate change and global sustainability. Both the climate and COVID-19 crises uncover risks and instabilities in an interconnected world. Their level of disruption requires coordinated responses from governments, businesses, researchers and the general population. But they are also different. The pandemic directly threatens individuals whereas climate change undermines both humans and nature. And while both crises call for deep and rapid change, COVID-19 has been able to mobilise quick responses while the climate crisis somehow appears less urgent. We know that crises are inevitable, but when they emerge they appear sudden and unexpected, and the outcome is unknown. Since we cannot eliminate risks, new crises will inevitably emerge. The resilience of the society and the capacity of the institutions are therefore of most importance. At the same time, we also need to move from crisis management to deliberate action towards a sustainable future.
Both collaboration across national borders and knowledge sharing across academic disciplines is crucial to deal with the complexity of these issues. We therefore invite undergraduate and postgraduate students from all countries and academic disciplines to participate in this important dialogue at the Bergen International Student Conference in March 2021. At the conference, we wish to explore how we can move from crisis to action by asking the following leading questions:
How can we move from crisis to action? What should the new normal post-COVID-19 look like?
What can the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about dealing with crises, and how this knowledge can be applied to tackle (sustainability) challenges posed by climate change?
Conflicts, risks and blindspots: what are the barriers to and opportunities for deep and rapid transformations, seen from your disciplinary viewpoint? And how can it make us more prepared for the unknown risks and the inevitable crises?
Which academic activities and methods are appropriate for the challenges of our time?
Practical information
Program:
The conference will be based on student talks, keynote speakers and parallel group sessions. Small changes might occur!
Monday 15.03
09:15-09:30 Opening session with rector Margareth Hagen
09:30-10:00 Keynote speaker: Andri Snær Magnason
10:00-10:15 Break
10:15-11:15 Parallell sessions:
Pandemic
Lisa Garberson: COVID-19, climate change and conspiracy theories
Pablo Ignacio Soto Mota & Adrian Vargas Lopez: Covid-19 in Mexico City: A survey and four behavioral experiments
Camilla Ekanger: Miniature organs as a tool to combat the next pandemic
Globlisation and colonisation
Alejandro Herrera Cano: The COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst to decolonise the humanitarian sector
Jonathan Espinosa: “Normal” Was a Crisis: a Colonial, Gendered, and Neoliberal Crisis
Jayanna Killingsworth: Creative Cultivation or Disposable Design?
11:15-12:15 Lunch
12:15-13:15 Workshop with professor Roger Strand (UiB) "Narratives for change"
13:15-13:30 Break
13.30-14:30 Parallell sessions:
Consumer behaviour
Anna Schmideder: In honour of the rest
Helene Drevland: Individual behaviour adaption
Öner Kaynakdemir: From all in one bag to zero waste policy = Improving industrial and commercial waste policy in Turkey
Systemic change
Jelle Philippus Ronaldus Builjs: Transforming the global food system: Growing sustainability, equity, and democracy
Sara Eriksen: Decarbonising healthcare, time for action
Nadja Najjar: A green and just recovery from COVID-19- crisis as opportunity for urban socio-ecological transformation?
14:30-14:45 Concluding words
Tuesday 16.03
09:15-09:30 Opening session with BISC-team
09:30-11:00 Keynote speaker/workshop: Pernilla Glaser - Uncertainty gymnastics
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-12:15 Parallell sessions:
Leadership and decisionmaking
Lovisa Håkansson: Students as change agents – Reorienting higher education pedagogy for wicked times
Emilie Lindøe: Understanding the role of mindsets in sustainability leadership
Clara McDonnel: Investor initiatives and leaving fossil fuels underground
Social justice
Armando Garcia Teixeira: The Multiple Worlds We Inhabit: Sustainable futures and sustainability education in an era of crises
Ingrid Andrea Holland: Just transition, struggle of interests or space for cooperation?
12:15-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:00 Parallell sessions
Power and knowledge
Ingeborg Grindheim Slinde: Defining the Ice Edge: The relationship between science and politics in the Public Norwegian Discourse
Vilde Maria Bustetun Akselberg: Literature in the Anthropocene
Annelies Coessens: Moving forward: Positive peace as a framework to rebuild a more equal community
Technology
Andreas Langedal: Ranking novel marine resources according to their nutrient density, contaminants, and greenhouse gas emissions
Iwona Jalowczyc: Biomimetics as the answer to our problems
Adam Borkowski: Sustainable car - present and future
14:00-14:15 Break
14:15-15:15 Wrap-up panel discussion: from crisis to action
Dates and venue: 15. – 16. March 2021, online and in Bergen, Norway
Call for abstracts deadline: closing
Conference format: digital
Contact: collaboratory@uib.no
Bergen International Student Conference
BISC is a yearly academic conference by and for students at the university level. The conference is coordinated by The Collaboratory, with support from The Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation and the University of Bergen.
