"Inspirationen fra romantikken";"Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab";"2026-06-11";"14:15";"";"";"Søndre Campus, auditorium 22.0.11";"Professor Johnny Kondrup holder afskedsforelæsning.";"Professor Johnny Kondrup holder afskedsforelæsning. Foto: Freja Wille Romantikken er ikke blot den bevægelse, som tænker filologi og hermeneutik sammen til en enhed og dermed skaber sammenhæng i litteraturfaget. Fra romantikken stammer også meget af det tankegods, som universitetet har bygget på indtil nu: Ideen om en grundforskning, der bedrives uafhængigt af nyttehensyn. Tanken om frihed som det nødvendige grundlag for al søgen efter viden. Forestillingen om dannelse som ideal for både forskning og undervisning. Men universitetet forandrer sig. Efter forelæsningen er instituttet vært ved en reception. Tilmeld dig receptionen. "
"”Polykrise” i filosofien og klimalitteraturen";"Forskningsnetværket Histories and Futures of French Travelling Concepts, Institut for Engelsk, Germansk og Romansk, Københavns Universitet";"2026-06-11";"15:00";"";"17:00";"Søndre Campus, lokale 15A.0.13";"Forskningsnetværket Histories and Futures of French Travelling Concepts inviterer til eftermiddagsseminar om begrebet ”polykrise”.";"Forskningsnetværket Histories and Futures of French Travelling Concepts inviterer til eftermiddagsseminar om begrebet ”polykrise”. Med oplæg fra filosof Lotte List og litterat Agnethe Brounbjerg Bennedsgaard vil vi både komme tæt på begrebet og dets særlige relevans i dag, samt udfolde brugen af ”polykrise” i en bredere kulturkritisk kontekst. Efter oplæggene vil der være mulighed for at stille spørgsmål til oplægsholderne i en diskussion modereret af Amanda Grimsbo Roswall. Lotte List: ”’Polykrise’ som filosofisk (og fransk) rejsebegreb” Vores samtid bliver ofte diagnosticeret som en særlig krisetid, ulig alle tidligere kriser og derfor noget helt nyt og uforståeligt. Det er især kommet til udtryk i begrebet om ’polykrise’, som blev populariseret af økonomihistorikeren Adam Tooze under Covid-19-krisen. Men begrebet stammer fra fransk sociologi i 1990’erne, et årti, der normalt opfattes som den liberale verdensordens storhedstid. Hvad er polykrisen, er vores tid virkelig så unik, og hvordan genaktiveres et glemt krisebegreb i samtidsdiagnosen? Agnethe Brounbjerg Bennedsgaard: ”Polykrise i klimalitteraturen” Polykrisen er her lyder det unisont fra World Economic Forum, Financial Times, FN og enddog afdøde Pave Francis. At begrebet, der søger at forbinde samtidens mange kriser, gribes af netop disse aktører, fortæller os hvilken neoliberal, eurocentrisk verdensorden der lige nu trues. Begrebets muligheder og faldgruber er dog stadig relativt uudforskede indenfor humaniora, på trods af at samfundsvidenskabelige tænkere som Michael J. Albert understreger kunstens centrale rolle i polykrisen. Derfor spørger jeg hvordan litteraturfaget kan kvalificere og komplicere idéen om specielt klimalitteraturens rolle som krisemediator. Det gør jeg ved at undersøge tre kritiske potentialer for begrebet, der: 1) sætter ord på en fremherskende affektiv atmosfære 2) intuitivt kommunikerer forbindelsen mellem umiddelbart separate kriser og 3) skaber solidaritet på tværs, som modsvar til den polarisering der opstår, når kriserne bevidst politisk spilles ud mod hinanden i en kamp om opmærksomhed og ressourcer. Bios Lotte List er ph.d. i politisk filosofi med speciale i forholdet mellem historiefilosofi, politik og økonomi. Hun er tilknyttet Bolognas Universitet som Carlsberg International Postdoc Fellow. Agnethe Brounbjerg Bennedsgaard er Ph.d.-studerende på litteraturhistorie på Aarhus Universitet. Hendes projekt, Disturbing environmental fiction, undersøger hvordan en bølge af spekulativ feministisk litteratur fra Latinamerika og Østasien bruger ambivalente affekter til at forstyrre gængse opfattelser af klimakrisen som separat fra kapital, køn og klasse. Amanda Grimsbo Roswall er ph.d. i feministisk litteratur og historie fra Københavns Universitet og koordinerer netværket Histories and Futures of French Travelling Concepts sammen med Anna Cornelia Ploug (KU) og Kristian Olesen Toft (Freiburg). Netværket et støttet af Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond og huses af Institut for Engelsk, Germansk og Romansk på Københavns Universitet. Spørgsmål rettes til Amanda Grimsbo Roswall."
"The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries ";"Thinking the European Republic of Letters";"2026-06-11";"15:15";"2026-06-11";"17:00";"Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Room H140";"Lecture by Andrew Hui, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore.";"Lecture by Andrew Hui, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries (Princeton University Press, 2025) This study studies the study. It investigates how Renaissance humanists created an intimate healing place of the soul—the studiolo—as a personal library of self-cultivation and self-fashioning. Cocooned within its four walls (or, if you’re Montaigne, a circular tower), the studiolo was an aperture through which you contemplate the world and a retreat wherein you cultivate the self. In order to know the world, one must begin with knowing the self, as ancient philosophy instructs. In order to know the self, one ought to study other selves too, preferably their ideas as recorded in texts. And since interior spaces shape the inward soul, the studiolo—the diminutive of studio in Italian—became a sanctuary and a microcosm. The study thus mediates the world, the word, and the self. All are welcome! Contact: Christian Benne, University of Copenhagen (christian.benne@hum.ku.dk) CEMES research group Thinking the European Republic of Letters website "
"Folket har talt: En historie om statistik, stikprøver og demokrati i Danmark";"Saxo-Instituttet";"2026-06-12";"13:00";"2026-06-12";"16:00";"Søndre Campus, Auditorium 9A-0-01";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Anton Sylvest Lilleør.";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Anton Sylvest Lilleør. Resumé Afhandlingen udspringer af den observation, at folket ikke kun er demokratiets grundlæggende subjekt, men i det moderne demokratis periode også har været et centralt statistisk vidensobjekt. Med det afsæt er den et forsøg på at skrive en historie om demokrati, ikke så meget som livsform eller som styreform, men som vidensform. Afhandlingen undersøger, hvordan valgstatistik, opinions- og vælgerundersøgelser blev introduceret i Danmark, repræsenterede folket på nye måder og formede demokratiske idéer og praksisser. Hovedbudskabet er, at det moderne demokrati bygger på en statistisk funderet forståelse af, hvad folket er, og hvordan dets stemme kan komme til udtryk. Denne forståelse indebærer, at folket ikke taler af sig selv, men må repræsenteres ved at blive udspurgt, undersøgt og optalt. Bedømmelsesudvalg Professor Karen Vallgårda, Københavns Universitet, Danmark (forperson) Professor Jeppe Nevers, Syddansk Universitet, Danmark Seniorforsker Christopher Kullenberg, Göteborgs universitet, Sverige Vejleder Professor Niklas Olsen, Københavns Universitet, Danmark For at få adgang til ph.d.-afhandlingen kan du kontakte: anton.sylvest.lilleoer@hum.ku.dk. Du vil enten modtage en kopi af afhandlingen eller få oplyst, hvor du kan læse en fysisk kopi."
"How Women Shaped the Nordic Enlightenment II: The Political Public Sphere";"WHENCE";"2026-06-15";"09:00";"2026-06-17";"15:15";"South Campus, room 15A.0.13";"Conference.";"This conference addresses women's contributions to the political public sphere in the Nordic Enlightenment. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, SMK Open and Nordiska museet, DigitaltMuseum Scholarship of recent years has challenged the pervasive assumption that the conceptual development of political ideas such as liberty and equality during the European Enlightenment was driven exclusively by male thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baruch de Spinoza. It has been shown that women played a previously underestimated role as political actors and as contributors of political thought. This has not only led to a more nuanced understanding of how the Enlightenment as an intellectual movement unfolded but also to an expansion of what counts as political thinking – now including considerations of marriage, friendship, as well as the equality and liberty of women and other marginalized groups – and where it took place. While this research illuminates the complexities of the European Enlightenment, the extent of Nordic women’s contributions to the Enlightenment as it evolved in the North remains an open question. With this conference we want to discuss and provide answers to this question by analyzing how women shaped the Nordic Enlightenment, from the perspective of their participation in the political public sphere. Taking into account the particular political settings in the North, such as the strikingly early freedom of the press periods in the kingdoms of Sweden-Finland and Denmark-Norway and the outstanding role queens played in these kingdoms, we aim to investigate how women debated political topics and influenced or took part in political decision-making. By focusing on the various ways in which Nordic women made an impact in the political public sphere, the conference aims to expand our knowledge of how women shaped the development of politics and political ideas in the Nordic Enlightenment. Register to attend the Conference. Registration closes on 8 June. See book of abstracts. Programme Monday 15 June 9:00 - 9:30 Arrival 9:30 - 9:45 Welcome (Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, Martin Fog Arndal, Maria Mårsell) Women’s Equality in Europe and the North 9:45 - 10:30 Jacqueline Broad (Monash University)Stoic Themes in Early Modern Arguments for Women’s Education: Thott, Astell, and Chudleigh 10:30 - 11:15 Sandrine Bergès (University of York)Staël on Slavery: Shame and Compromises 11:15 - 11:45 Coffee break 11:45 - 12:30 Matilda Amundsen Bergström (University of Gothenburg)Anna Margareta von Bragner, Françoise Marguerite Janiçon, Charlotta Frölich and the Poetics of Political Polity 12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Mary Wollstonecraft and the North 14:00 - 14:45 Lena Halldenius (Lund University)Mary Wollstonecraft in Scandinavia: Reflections on Philosophical Anthropology and Feminist Editing 14:45 - 15:30 Elad Carmel (University of Jyväskylä) & Martina Reuter (University of Jyväskylä)Wollstonecraft in the North 15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break Periodicals and Journals 16:00 - 16:45 Maria Nørby Pedersen (Aarhus University)Female Voices in the Danish Periodical Press (1740-1770) 16:45 - 17:30 Ulrik Langen (University of Copenhagen)From Tea Tables to Dark Profundity: Female Knowledge, Sociability, and Performativity in Eighteenth-Century Danish-Norwegian Periodicals 17:30 - 17:45 Coffee break 17:45 - 18:30 John Christian Laursen (University of California Riverside)Women in the Press Freedom Pamphlets Tuesday 16 June Correspondence Across Class and Gender 9:30 - 10:15 Christina Petterson (University of Greenland)Religious Enlightenment Within or Beyond Class 10:15 - 11:00 Juliane Engelhardt (University of Copenhagen)Female Patriotism and Republican Motherhood in the Danish-Norwegian Enlightenment 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break Female Rule 11:30 - 12:15 Carsten Jahnke (University of Copenhagen)The Beauty Queens? The Role and Influence of Nordic Queens Prior to the Enlightenment 12:15 - 13:00 Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen (University of Copenhagen)The Political Mind of Dowager Queen Juliane Marie 13:00 - 14:15 Lunch 14:15 - 15:00 Stefano Fogelberg Rota (Södertörn University)Queen Christina and French Salon Culture 15:00 - 15:45 Gianni Paganini (University of Eastern Piedmont)Philosophy for a Queen, a Queen for Philosophy. Christina of Sweden between Lipsius, Freinsheim and Descartes 15:45 - 16:15 Coffee break 16:15 - 17:00 Anaïs Waag (University of Copenhagen)Wife, Mother, Queen: Perceptions and Projections of Female Rule in the North (1626-1818) 19:00 Conference dinner Wednesday 17 June Women, Power, and Politics 9:15 - 10:00 Anu Lathinen (University of Helsinki)Informal Channels: Family and Politics of Memory as Women’s Tools of Influence 10:00 - 10:45 Maria Mårsell (University of Copenhagen)Nationalism, Parliamentarism, and Equality in Elisabeth Stierncrona’s En Swensks Tankar Öfwer Den 22 Junii 1756 10:45 - 11:00 Coffee break Women and Civil Society 11:00 - 11:45 Bodil Hvass Kjems (University of Copenhagen)Brought to Life by Holberg: The Agency and Influence of the Learned and Exiled Cille Gad & Leonora Christina Ulfeldt 11:45 - 12:30 Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen (University of Turku)Midwifery Training as an Enlightenment Project in Eighteenthcentury Sweden 12:30 - 13:30 Lunch Theology and Politics 13:30 - 14:15 Martin Fog Arndal (University of Copenhagen)God is no Respecter of Sex: Scandinavian Women Psalm Writers, The Quakers, and Thomas Hobbes 15:00 - 15:15 Closing up the conference Call for papers - closed We invite contributions on the following topics: Women’s political thought: Study women’s reflections on freedom of speech, democracy, rights, and liberties, and their contributions to emerging political philosophies. Impact of women’s writings: Explore how women’s texts influenced political discourses and debates in the Nordic Enlightenment. Women as political agents: Examine women’s roles as active participants in political life — as queens, aristocrats, members of academies, editors, journalists, publicists, or leaders in intellectual societies. Women’s formal and/or informal power: Investigate the structures, networks, and intellectual outcomes of women’s various forms of participation in politics. Documenting women’s presence: Recover and highlight evidence of women’s participation in public and political arenas, from salons and print culture to formal political spaces. Use of genres to shape the Enlightenment: Analyse how women employed letters, poetry, autobiographies, diaries, essays, novels, plays, or visual arts to intervene in and shape political ideas and debates. Clashes with gender roles: Consider the tensions and negotiations between traditional gender expectations and women’s political involvement as rulers, thinkers, and public intellectuals. Submissions should include a title, max. 300-word abstract, and contact information gathered in a single pdf or word-file. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 December 2025. Please send by email to Maria Mårsell. "
"Women international civil servants and their contribution to international thought – 1920-1975";"INNER_LEAGUE";"2026-06-15";"13:00";"";"15:00";"South Campus, room 12.3.07 and online on Zoom. Meeting ID: 686 0807 6059.";"Public lecture by postdoc Myriam Piguet, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History.";"Public lecture by postdoc Myriam Piguet, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History. We have at INNER_LEAGUE the honour of hosting Myriam Piguet for a presentation on her soon to be published doctoral dissertation on women international civil servants and their contribution to international thought which she finished in 2024 at the Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva. The title of the dissertation is 'Gender Before Mainstreaming: The Integration of Women to International Civil Service in the Secretariats of the League of Nations and the United Nations, circa 1920-1975.' Myriam Piguet now works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History and as the Vice-Head of the Contemporary European History research group. Brief International organizations (IOs) were founded on the principles of fair representation and meritocracy, starting in the 1920s. From the League of Nations to post-Second World War IOs, all endorsed gender equality among their staff – however, none truly lived up to this promise. This presentation considers the progressive spread of gender equality through the lens of women’s career in the secretariats of IOs, with a focus on the League of Nations and the United Nations. It examines how international organizations selectively integrated women into their staff, delving into the experience of three high-level personalities of the IO system: Rachel Crowdy (U.K.), Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Julia Henderson (U.S.). Drawing on their career trajectories and personal paths, this presentation will explore the gradual shift in the objectives of international organizations towards socioeconomic expertise, among which the implementation of family planning within the Development’s agenda. The presentation will include a discussion where participants are welcome to ask Myriam questions about her research and results. Everyone is welcome and we will have a piece of pizza, snacks and drinks afterwards! We hope to see you there!"
"Ormehuller - Når tiderne tørner sammen";"Institut for Kunst- og Kulturvidenskab (IKK)";"2026-06-15";"13:00";"2026-06-15";"";"Søndre Campus, lokale 21-0-54 (Multisalen)";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Anna Weile Kjær.";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Anna Weile Kjær. Resumé Ormehuller – Når tiderne tørner sammen er et praksisorienteret kuratorisk ph.d.-projekt, der i arbejdet med en udstillingsserie på Den Frie Udstillingsbygning i København sigter mod at udvikle en anakronistisk kuratorisk metode. Kimen til projektets kuratoriske udforskning blev lagt, da to historiske udstillinger fundet i Den Fries arkiver, resonerede på nye måder med samtidens kunstneriske undersøgelser. Ved at identificere og udfolde forbindelser i kunstnerisk materiale fra adskilte historiske momenter, åbner ph.d.-projektet og de udstillinger det gav anledning til nye perspektiver på både fortidige og nutidige kunstneriske strategier og fænomener. Den internationale surrealistiske udstilling kubisme = surrealisme fra 1935 udgjorde grundlaget for den nye udstilling En anden surrealisme i 2022. Tilsvarende blev Kvindelige Kunstneres Retrospektive Udstilling fra 1920 genaktiveret i udstillingen Bad Timing – Or How to write History without Objects i 2023. Kurateringen af disse udstillinger involverede omfattende konceptuelle og performative udstillingsgreb, som var baseret på kunstneriske strategier og udstillingsiscenesættelser med forlæg i de historiske udstillinger, de nye udstillinger var i dialog med. Herigennem blev det muligt at sætte fokus på oversete immaterielle, relationelle og installatoriske praksisser, og forbinde det historiske materiale til nye bevægelser i samtidens kunst. Parallelt med, at projektets udstillinger tog form, udviklede projektet en kuratorisk tilgang til materialet. Denne tilgang bygger blandt andet på Walter Benjamins begreb om det dialektiske billede, om hvordan nye forståelsesbilleder og ny betydning kan opstå i eksplosive øjebliksforbindelser mellem ellers adskilte fænomener og billeder fra forskellige tider. Abstract (på engelsk) Wormholes – When Times Collide is a practice-based curatorial PhD project that aims to develop an anachronistic curatorial method from the work with an exhibition series at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen. Two historical exhibitions found within the archives, resonating anew with today’s artistic landscape, provided the framework for new artistic intervention and curatorial exploration. By identifying and unfolding connections in artistic material from separate historical moments, the PhD project and the exhibitions it gave rise to, open up new perspectives on both past and present artistic strategies and phenomena. The international Surrealist exhibition kubisme = surrealisme from 1935 served as the foundation for the exhibition Another Surrealism in 2022. Similarly, the Kvindelige Kunstneres Retrospektive Udstilling from 1920 was reactivated in the exhibition Bad Timing – Or How to Write History without Objects in 2023. The curatorial work with these exhibitions involved extensive conceptual and performative exhibition approaches, which were based on artistic strategies and exhibition settings based on the historical exhibitions that the new exhibitions were in dialogue with. This made it possible to focus on overlooked immaterial, relational and installation practices, and with that connect the historical material to new movements in contemporary art. In parallel with the project's exhibitions taking shape, the project developed a curatorial approach to the material. This approach is based, among other things, on Walter Benjamin's concept of the dialectical image, how thought images and new meaning can arise in explosive momentary connections between otherwise separate phenomena and images from different times. Bedømmelsesudvalg Professor Mikkel Bogh, Københavns Universitet, Danmark (forperson) Lars Bang Larsen, Art Hub Copenhagen, Danmark Sarah Lookofsky, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norge Leder af forsvaret Lektor Amalie Skovmøller, Københavns Universitet, Danmark Kopi af afhandlingen vil være tilgængelig på Det Kgl. Biblioteks Fakultetsbibliotek for Humaniora."
"School of Archaeology – Sapere Aude Workshop";"Saxo Institute / School of Archaeology";"2026-06-16";"09:30";"";"11:30";"South Campus, room 12-3-07";"School of Archaeology invites you to a workshop on writing a DFF: Sapere Aude grant application. The workshop is hosted by three recipients: Laurine Albris (Saxo), Frido Welker (Globe) and Luise Ørsted Brandt (Globe).";"School of Archaeology invites you to a workshop on writing a DFF: Sapere Aude grant application. The workshop is hosted by three recipients: Laurine Albris (Saxo), Frido Welker (Globe) and Luise Ørsted Brandt (Globe). Tips for the application and a Q&A will be provided. Please register by emailing Marie Yoshida"
"Hvordan ser demokratisk deltagelse ud i en tid, hvor vores fællesskaber i høj grad leves online?";"Nordic Humanities Center";"2026-06-16";"10:00";"2026-06-16";"15:30";"Søndre Campus, Njalsgade 76, lokale 4A.1.60";"Åbent seminar.";"Åbent seminar. Keynote, Henry Jenkins Vi står midt i en markant forandring: Den måde, vi engagerer os politisk og aktivistisk på, er ikke længere kun knyttet til fysiske møder og traditionelle fora. I dag formes civilsamfundets handlinger ofte af digitale platforme – lige fra deling af valgsteder til mobilisering gennem hashtags. Det rejser vigtige spørgsmål, som fellow ved Nordic Humanities Center Line Nybro Petersen og forskningsgruppen Mediekultur og Mediebrug på Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab sætter til debat på dette seminar 16. juni på Københavns Universitet. Med afsæt i begreber som civic imagination (keynote ved Henry Jenkins, Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, Education, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California) ser forskerne nærmere på, hvordan populærkulturelle fortællinger bliver en del af vores politiske virkelighed. Når referencer fra f.eks. Harry Potter eller symboler fra en serie som One Piece dukker op i protestbevægelser – som set i Jakarta i Indonesien – er det ikke tilfældigt. Det er udtryk for, hvordan kultur, identitet og politisk handling smelter sammen på nye måder. Skaber de nye deltagelsesformer større engagement – eller øger de polariseringen? Seminaret foregår på engelsk. Se hele programmet og tilmeld dig gratis her."
"Fictional Documentarism: The Conceptualization of a Genre";"Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics";"2026-06-17";"13:00";"2026-06-17";"";"South Campus, Auditorium 23.0.49 ";"Public PhD defence by Jeppe Barnwell.";"Public PhD defence by Jeppe Barnwell. Abstract This dissertation introduces fictional documentarism as a genre that mimics factual documents while openly signaling its invented nature. Tracing the origin of the concept in the work of the Danish author Peter Seeberg (1925–1999) and extending it across various traditions of European literature, it shows how such texts challenge the boundaries between fiction and documentation. Through analyses of literary works and media ranging from the historical avant-garde to contemporary examples of AI-generated images on social media, the dissertation demonstrates how fictional documentarism reshapes questions of representation, authenticity, and ethics, underscoring its relevance in a media landscape where the distinction between fact and fiction is increasingly unstable. Assessment committee Professor Søren Frank, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair) Professor Françoise Lavocat, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France Professor Kristina Malmio, University of Helsinki, Finland Supervisors Associate Professor Torben Jelsbak, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Senior Researcher Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, Society for Danish Language and Literature, Denmark Moderator of the defence Associate Professor Tobias Skiveren, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Email to gain access to the thesis: jb@dsl.dk. You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy."
"Debat om NCFFs anbefalinger til styrkelse af fremmedsprog";"Center for Internationalisering og Parallelsproglighed (CIP)";"2026-06-18";"15:00";"2026-06-18";"18:00";"Auditorium 4A.0.69, Søndre Campus, Københavns Universitet";"CIP inviterer til debatarrangement om NCFFs anbefalinger til styrkelse af fremmedsprog i uddannelserne. ";"Nye anbefalinger fra NCFF – styrkelse af fremmedsprog i uddannelsessystemet I slutningen af juni udkommer det Nationale Center For Fremmedsprog (NCFF) med sine afsluttende og samlede anbefalinger til, hvordan vi kan arbejde med at styrke sprogfagene i hele det danske uddannelsessystem. Anbefalingerne er baseret på mere end 7 års arbejde i centeret, og udgør således et empirisk velfunderet bud på, hvor og hvordan der kan tages fat i det fortsatte arbejde med at sikre og udvikle fremmedsprogsfagene i Danmark. NCFF afvikles endeligt med udgangen af juni 2026, så centeret kan ikke selv arbejde for at få omsat anbefalingerne til handling. Der er brug for, at andre griber stafetten og viderefører arbejdet. Til dette debatarrangement inviterer vi derfor en række af de relevante aktører i uddannelseslandskabet til en faglig debat om NCFF’s anbefalinger. Arrangementet indledes med en præsentation af anbefalingerne og deres baggrund ved centerlederne for NCFF, Mette Skovgaard Andersen og Hanne Wacher Kjærgaard. Herefter faciliteres en samtale om anbefalingerne med en række inviterede gæster. Debatarrangementet afholdes torsdag den 18. juni 2026 på Københavns Universitet, Søndre Campus, fra klokken 15.00 til 18.00. Der bydes på kaffe i pausen samt en sandwich og lidt at drikke efter arrangementet. Vi vil gerne bede om din tilmelding senest fredag den 12. juni kl. 15.00 via boksen til højre. Endelig program følger. "
"Living Stones and Talking Trees. Agency and Worldbuilding in Palestinian Stories";"Beate Skakkebæk Lindegaard and Rasmus Krogh Løvschal, HUM:Global";"2026-06-18";"17:00";"";"18:15";"Aula, The Union, Nørre Allé 7, København N";"Talk by Sanabel Abdel Rahman, researcher and literary critic.";"Public lecture by Sanabel Abdel Rahman. Palestinian magical realism holds entire worlds in which imagining other futures trespasses the stiff parameters of the ‘real’, which grows more brutal every day. This session will explore the agential powers of Palestinian ‘objects’ and their capacity for magical and affective acts via sentience and animism. ‘Living’ objects that respond to Palestinian will and critical times recur in Palestinian folktales. They also appear in everyday Palestinian life, such as the ‘key of return’, which holds revolutionary and magical powers. Sanabel Abdel Rahman will delve into how looking at forms of agency outside ‘living’ spheres creates alternative realities/materialities/futures, especially as Palestinian life continues to be relegated to death spaces or is rendered non-human. How do ‘living’ objects and more-than-human creatures in Palestinian landscapes provide a non-positivist approach to recounting and archiving Palestinian histories? How does this approach offer a refreshing and dynamical engagement with Palestinian history and its unfolding realities? How do these instances communicate a refusal to engage with colonial tools of ‘informing’ history while partaking in critical and innovative practices of worldbuilding? No registration is necessary. Bio Sanabel Abdel Rahman is a researcher and a literary critic. She holds a Ph.D. in Arabic literature with a focus on Palestinian magical realism. She is interested in folktales, magical-realist modes, indigenous spaciotemporalities, and speculative approaches. Making literary tools accessible within academic and public spaces is a driving force in her work. In addition to her academic work, she designs and leads workshops around Arabic magical realism in film and literature, folktales, and speculative writing. Sanabel is interested in practices of liberatory and collective imagination(s), (re)connecting to the land, decolonial writing, and activating alternative realities. Her texts have appeared in e-magazines, zines, and art exhibitions. This lecture is supported by HUM:Global Seed Money and is part of the open lecture series New Histories of Ideas. The lecture was earlier announced for March 2026, but has been postponed."
"Gratis workshop – Polish Your English Pronunciation: Small Sounds, Big Differences";"Center for Internationalisering og Parallelsproglighed";"2026-06-19";"09:00";"2026-06-19";"11:00";"Søndre Campus, bygning 23, lokale: 23.4.39";" Har du lyst til at arbejde med din engelske udtale? Så tilmeld dig denne workshop som er målrettet ansatte på KU, der ikke har engelsk som modersmål, og som bruger engelsk i møder, undervisning og andre situationer, du møder i hverdagen på arbejdet.";"“If there is one thing certain about English pronunciation, it is that there is nothing certain about it.” (Bill Bryson)Klar og tydelig udtale spiller en vigtig rolle i effektiv kommunikation i både akademiske og administrative sammenhænge. I denne to-timers workshop får du en praktisk introduktion til engelsk udtale og større bevidsthed om sprogets lydmønstre. Workshoppen er målrettet universitetsansatte, der ikke har engelsk som modersmål, og som bruger engelsk i møder, undervisning, vejledning og andre hverdagssituationer på arbejdet.Fokus er ikke på at opnå en modersmålslignende udtale – det er hverken forventet eller realistisk. I stedet handler workshoppen om at forstå, hvilke aspekter af udtale der er vigtigst for at være let forståelig, og hvilke typer udtaletræk der typisk skaber forvirring eller virker distraherende.Workshoppen kombinerer korte oplæg fra underviseren med input fra deltagerne, diskussion og praktiske øvelser. Du får rig mulighed for at udforske og øve problematiske lyde, trykmønstre og intonation i et støttende og afslappet læringsmiljø. Workshoppens fokus Denne intensive to-timers workshop koncentrerer sig om de udtaletræk i engelsk, der har størst betydning for klarhed og forståelighed, herunder: vigtige engelske konsonant- og vokallyde, og hvordan små udtaleforskelle kan føre til store betydningsforskelle ord- og sætningsaccent, og betydningen af reducerede stavelser for engelsk rytme tonegrænser og hvordan de strukturerer det talte sprog grundlæggende intonationsmønstre og deres kommunikative effekt udvalgte variationer i talelyde, der påvirker klarhed og naturlighed (fx vokalforkortelse før bestemte konsonanter) udtale af almindelige grammatiske endelser (-ed og -s) Workshoppen er åben for alle medarbejdere ved KU (VIP og TAP) og afholdes på engelsk. "
"Thirty years as Professor ";"Engerom";"2026-06-19";"12:45";"";"18:30";"South Campus, room 23.0.49";"Professor Charles Lock’s Symposium.";"Professor Charles Lock’s Symposium. A Celebration of his thirty years as Professor of English at the University of Copenhagen, on the occasion of his retirement.Please join us at EnGeRom for lectures, memories, smiles, and a reception: all are welcome. See programme and sign up. "
"Henrik Pontoppidans arbejdsmåde: En genetisk analyse af Lykke-Per og De Dødes Rige";"Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab";"2026-06-19";"13:00";"2026-06-19";"16:00";"Søndre Campus, Auditorium 22.0.11";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Josefine Hilfling Hjort Hansen.";"Offentligt ph.d.-forsvar af Josefine Hilfling Hjort Hansen. Abstract (på engelsk) Henrik Pontoppidan (1857–1943) repeatedly revised his printed works and destroyed his manuscripts. His revisions offer insight into his working method and their consequences for the narratives. This interest belongs to the field of genetic criticism. However, because the traditional research object in genetic criticism is manuscripts, the dissertations empirical material places new demands on its methodology. This dissertation investigates: what the variants in Lykke-Per (1898–1904) and De Dødes Rige (1912–16) reveal about Pontoppidan’s working method; and how to conduct a genetic analysis when the writing process is invisible. Bedømmelsesudvalg Lektor Jens Bjerring-Hansen, Københavns Universitet, Danmark (forperson) Lektor Ane Grum-Schwensen, Syddansk Universitet, Danmark Professor, Dr. Klaus Müller-Wille, Universität Zürich und Basel, Schweiz Vejleder Professor Johnny Kondrup, Københavns Universitet, Danmark For at få adgang til ph.d.-afhandlingen kan du kontakte: jh@dsl.dk. Du vil enten modtage en kopi af afhandlingen eller få oplyst, hvor du kan læse en fysisk kopi."
"Summer School 2026";"Center for Subjectivity Research";"2026-06-22";"";"2026-06-26";"";"South Campus, room 4A.0.69";"Copenhagen Summer School in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind.";"Copenhagen Summer School in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind The Copenhagen Summer School in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind is an annual PhD course organized by the Center for Subjectivity Research and co-funded by the PhD School at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. The Summer School will provide essential insights into central themes within the philosophy of mind, viewed from a phenomenological perspective. It will consist of a mixture of keynote lectures, PhD presentations and seminars (32 hours total), aimed at PhD students. Advanced MA students and Post Docs are also encouraged to apply. Topics Consciousness, time, meaning, metaphysics, French phenomenology, Husserl, AI, Large Language Models, information processing, thinking, subjectivity, relevance, living being, self-sustainment, socially mediated self-understanding, collective identity, self-other intertwining. Keynote speakers Thomas Fuchs, University of Heidelberg Inga Römer, University of Freiburg Louise Richardson, University of York. Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Søren Overgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark ECTS Participation in the summer school gives 2,5 ECTS points, 4,0 if you give a talk. We will provide participants with diplomas on the condition that they are present at least 80 % of the time and fill in an evaluation form the last day of the summer school. Abstracts The summer school programme will include ten presentations selected from submitted student abstracts. Registration Registration is now closed. Programme Monday 22 June 8:30 - 9:30 Registration and coffee 9:30 - 9:40 Introduction 9:40 - 10:50 Keynote lecture: Søren Overgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark The Presentational Character of Experience 10:50 - 11:15 Q & A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 12:10 Giulia Santelli (LMU Munich, Germany) Agency and the Limits of Empirical Justification: Toward a Translational Account 12:10 - 13:10 Lunch break 13:10 - 13:50 Niklas Noe-Steinmüller (Heidelberg University, Germany)Are virtual worlds really worlds? Using Husserl’s notion of “world” to describe differences in the constitution of virtual and non-virtual environments 13:50 - 15:00 Discussion groups 15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break 15:30 - 16:10 Q & A in plenum 16:10 - 16:30 Introduction to the Center for Subjectivity Research 16:30 Reception at CFS (room 16-1-16) Tuesday 23 June 9:30 - 10:45 Keynote lecture: Thomas Fuchs, University of Heidelberg, Germany Can machines think? 10:45 - 11:15 Q & A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 12:10 Elisabetta Angela Rizzo (University of Dundee, Scotland) How Phenomenology Challenges Neurotypical Perspectives on Autism 12:10 - 13:10 Lunch break 13:10 - 13:50 Shiho Sugiura (Hokkaido University, Japan) Beyond Self-Care: The Intersubjective Disturbance of Self-Love in Survivors of Childhood Abuse 13:50 - 14:50 Discussion groups 14:50 - 15:20 Coffee break 15:20 - 16:00 Q & A in plenum 16:00 - 16:30 Travel time to excursion 16:30 Harbour Tour in Copenhagen: Leaving From: Havnebadet, Islands BryggeArriving at: Havnebadet, Islands Brygge (approx. 17:30) Wednesday 24 June 9:30 - 10:45 Keynote lecture: Inga Römer, University of Freiburg, Germany The Ambiguity of Time 10:45 - 11:15 Q & A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 12:10 Simon Tardif (École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France) Was Dasein extended or scaffolded all along? 12:10 - 13:10 Lunch break 13:10 - 13:50 Philipp Quell (University of Vienna, Austria) Beyond Epistemic Normativity – Essay on (an)other apodictic evidence 13:50 - 14:50 Discussion groups 14:50 - 15:20 Coffee break 15:20 - 16:00 Q & A in plenum Thursday 25 June 9:30 - 10:45 Keynote lecture: Louise Richardson, University of York, UK Grief and memory 10:45 - 11:15 Q & A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 12:10 Sofia Livi (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy) Background Taste 12:10 - 13:10 Lunch break 13:10 - 13:50 Kelvin Li (Boston College, USA) Anhedonia and the Structure of World-Disclosure: A Phenomenological Challenge to the Dissociability Model 13:50 - 14:50 Discussion groups 14:50 - 15:20 Coffee break 15:20 - 16:00 Q & A in plenum (until approx. 16:00) 19:00 Common dinner at Riz Raz (Store Kannikestræde 19) Friday 26 June 9:30 - 10:45 Keynote lecture: Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Self-consciousness, self-knowledge, and knowledge of and with others 10:45 - 11:15 Q & A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee break 11:30 - 12:10 Wanda von Knobelsdorff (University of Oxford, UK) Afraid of the Other: A Sartrean Account of Social Anxiety 12:10 - 13:10 Lunch break 13:10 - 13:50 Shahd Omar (Middlesex University, UK) Being-With the artificial Other: Rethinking Intersubjectivity in human-AI Romantic Relationships 13:50 - 14:50 Discussion groups 14:50 - 15:20 Coffee break 15:20 - 16:00 Q & A in plenum 16:00 Concluding remarks Video from the summer school Din internetbrowser understøtter ikke iframes. Det betyder, at videoen CFS Summer School 2017 ikke kan afspilles. "
"Reading Group";"";"2026-06-23";"14:00";"";"16:00";"South Campus, room 11B-2-29";"Centre for Sustainable Futures invite researchers and students at UCPH humanities and other interested parties to join our reading group on Timothy Mitchell’s The Alibi of Capital (2026).";"Centre for Sustainable Futures invite researchers and students at UCPH humanities and other interested parties to join our reading group on Timothy Mitchell’s The Alibi of Capital (2026). Timothy Mitchell is a political theorist, historian, and author of Carbon Democracy (2011). His new book seeks to conceptualise finance, technology, the economy, and growth as alibis that conceal devastating forms of extraction. Please write to Rune Korgaard if you would like to participate."
"Making Listening Audible";"Sound Studies Lab";"2026-06-23";"15:15";"";"16:30";"Online on Zoom";"Talk by Lílian Campesato (Copenhagen, DK). Colloquium Sound & Sensory Studies.";"Talk by Lílian Campesato (Copenhagen, DK). Colloquium Sound & Sensory Studies. Making Listening Audible is an ongoing research-creation project that investigates inaudible dimensions of listening experience by engaging with non-verbal forms of knowledge within music and sound art. I start from the assumption that there is a gap between what sounds and what is heard. This space, this in-between, unfolds a series of relationships, experiences, memories and affections that resist a direct description based on causal relationships and logocentric constructions. To make the inaudible audible implies discovering hidden layers of what we can feel, imagine and understand through sounds. For this, I propose a methodology that involves two layers: the first refers to the exercise of listening to listening through the realization of a cartography of induced/suggested listening experiences. The second layer is the sharing of listening through sonification exercises, that is, by recreating listening experiences in the form of sound artworks. By sharing these initial inputs, I invite us to imagine together how different—or similar—our listening experiences can be, and to explore what happens when we attempt to make them visible, audible, and open to discussion. "
"Cotton Terminology, Cultural Economy, and Political Communication in Zoroastrian-Iranian Networks";" Centre for Textile Research";"2026-06-24";"15:00";"";"";"South Campus, room 11B-1-05. Participation via Zoom is available. Please register here";"Talk by Azadeh Pashootanizadeh on the study of Shah Jahan Trading House (1900–1913).";"Talk by Azadeh Pashootanizadeh on the study of Shah Jahan Trading House (1900–1913). This study examines the Shah Jahan Trading House (1900–1913), a Zoroastrian commercial enterprise primarily engaged in the cotton trade. Cotton functioned not only as a significant indigenous Iranian commodity embedded in everyday material culture and local economies but also as a ritual material within Zoroastrian religious life, particularly in the production of sacred garments such as the sudreh. Portrait of Shah Jahan Drawing on surviving commercial records – including invoices, telegrams, bills of lading, and correspondence – the project demonstrates how cotton shipments were, during certain phases of the Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911), used as covert channels for the transportation of weapons and ammunition destined for constitutionalist forces. In addition, the study highlights the emergence of a specialised cotton-related commercial terminology that constituted a coded linguistic system. This system was designed to prevent non-Zoroastrian actors from discerning the nature of shipments and to ensure that consignments remained exclusively managed within Zoroastrian mercantile networks. Notably, elements of this terminology continue to be used, in adapted forms, within contemporary cotton trading practices across parts of Asia."
"Musicology Colloquium";"Jessica Holmes and Mikkel Vad";"2026-06-26";"12:30";"2026-06-26";"17:00";"South Campus, room 16.4.11";"Join us for an afternoon of presentations of current research from scholars at the musicology section.";"Join us for an afternoon of presentations of current research from scholars at the musicology section at the University of Copenhagen. After the end of the day's programme cold drinks will be served. The Musicology Colloquium (Musikvidenskabeligt Fagligt Forum) is the recurring meeting in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies’ musicology section with papers across the entire field of music studies, including historical musicology, anthropology of music, music theory and analysis, and sound studies. Programme 12:30–13:30 Erik Steinskog: Missionaries and Modernism: Fartein Valen between Madagascar and West-Norway. Jens Hesselager: The Vaudeville and Anti-Rossinism in Copenhagen, 1826-29 13:45–14:45 Rasmus Riegels: Attuning to the Rumble: Techno, Sonic Tactility, and Agential Ecologies Lílian Campesato: Making Listening Audible: On Displacement, Alterity, and the Inaudible 15:00–16:00 Mikkel Vad: Moseholm & Pettiford’s Jazz Bass Facing (1962): Writing Music Theory across Transatlantic Colorlines Sebastian Bank Jørgensen: The Visual Exemplarity of a Musical-Theoretical Mnemonic in the Early Sixteenth Century 16:15–17:00 Jessica A. Holmes: Girlhood and Trauma in Princess Nokia’s GIRLS (2025) All are welcome. No registration is necessary."
"Ph.d.-forsvar Dea Jespersen";"Center for Internationalisering og Parallelsproglighed (CIP)";"2026-06-26";"13:00";"2026-06-26";"16:00";"Auditorium 22.0.11, Søndre Campus, Københavns Universitet";"Dea Jespersen, CIP forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling ""Young learners’ response processes when writing with web access in L2: An exploratory study""";"Young learners’ response processes when writing with web access in L2: An exploratory study Dea Jespersen forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling: I min ph.d.-afhandling undersøger jeg, hvordan 12- til 15-årige elever griber engelsk skriftlighed an med og uden internetadgang. Dette gør jeg ved at sammenligne præstationer, adfærd og opfattelser hos 141 elever under de to betingelser. Fund viste, at internetadgang ikke umiddelbart påvirkede præstationen, men syntes at påvirke processen og opfattelsen. Jeg vil diskutere, hvad disse resultater betyder for undervisning og bedømmelse af skriftlighed i en uddannelsesmæssig kontekst, hvor generativ kunstig intelligens udfordrer nuværende forståelser og praksis for skriftlighed i den danske udskoling. Bedømmelsesudvalg Lektor Sanne Larsen, CIP - forperson Professor Jeppe Bundsgaard, Aarhus Universitet/DPU Professor Gudrun Erickson, Göteborgs Universitet Leder af forsvarshandlingen Professor Janus Mortensen, CIP Praktiske informationer Et eksemplar af afhandlingen vil blive lagt til gennemsyn i CIPs sekretariat, bygning 23, 4. sal, Søndre Campus i ugen op til forsvaret. Bemærk, at dørene lukkes præcis kl. 13.00. Forsvaret finder sted på engelsk. CIP inviterer til reception efter ph.d.-forsvaret.Vi glæder os til at se så mange som muligt på dagen."
"Young learners’ response processes when writing with web access in L2: An exploratory study";"Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP)";"2026-06-26";"13:00";"2026-06-26";"16:00";"South Campus, building: 22, auditorium 22.0.11";"PhD defence by Dea Jespersen.";"PhD defence by Dea Jespersen. Abstract In my PhD dissertation, I explore how young learners (ages 12-15) approach writing in English with internet access versus without. I do this by comparing the performances, behaviours, and perceptions of 141 students across the two conditions. The findings showed that, on the one hand, internet access did not seem to affect performance; on the other hand, however, it did seem to affect the processes and perceptions. I will discuss what these findings mean for teaching and assessment of writing in an educational context where generative artificial intelligence challenges current understandings and practices related to writing in lower secondary education in Denmark. Assessment committee Associate Professor Sanne Larsen, University of Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen (chairperson) Professor Jeppe Bundsgaard, Aarhus University/DPU Professor Gudrun Erickson, University of Gothenburg Supervisor Professor Slobodanka Dimova, University of Copenhagen Email address to gain access to the thesis: dea.jespersen@gmail.com. You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.Recipients of copies of the thesis are not allowed to share or distribute it due to copyright compliance."
"Tenth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions (ISRRI 10): Past, Present and Beyond";"Rikke Steenholt Olesen, NorS, Lisbeth M. Imer, National Museum of Denmark. Frederikke Reimer, National Museum of Denmark/Aarhus University, Michael Lerche Nielsen, NorS, and Julia-Sophie Heier, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Co-organizers: Professor emeritus Bent Jørgensen, NorS, and Professor emeritus Henrik Williams, Uppsala University/Runforum";"2026-08-17";"";"2026-08-21";"";"South Campus, Auditorium 4A.0.69 and 4A.0.68";"Conference.";"Conference. Runological research is a complex discipline with long and proud traditions, yet it is also a field that continues to evolve, driven by new methodological approaches, advances in digital analysis, and an increasing awareness of the linguistic, material and social contexts in which runic writing emerged and continues to be reinterpreted. The Tenth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Past, Present and Beyond, seeks to bring together scholars of runology to foster dialogue across adjacent disciplines and to explore future trajectories of runic research. Programme Monday 17 August Time Event 10:00-12:30 Arrival and registration at Søndre Campus, Copenhagen University 12:30-12:55 Light Lunch (sandwich) 13:00-13:30 Plenary sessionWords of welcome by the Head of Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Anne JensenWords of welcome by the organisers 13:30-14:25 The legacy of Lis Jacobsen Invited speaker: Michael Lerche Nielsen, Name Research Archive, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics: Between Method and Misogyny: The Runological Career of Lis Jacobsen 14:30-15:00 Coffee break End of Monday’s program 17:30-19:00 Evening excursion by foot in the city center: Runes in the Round Tower (Købmagergade 52A, 1150 København K). Rasmus Agertoft will give us a guided tour in the tower 19:00- Dinner at own exåense Tuesday 18 August Time Event Auditorium 4A.0.69 Plenary Session: Presentation of new finds and a new clue to the transition from Elder to Younger Futhark 9:00-9:25 Tineke Loijenga, Guus Kroonen: A new runic inscription from the Netherlands 9:30-9:55 Jasmin Higgs: Some New Runic Finds from England 10:00-10:25 Magnus Källström: Det runristade blyblecket från Binge i Alva på Gotland – En ny ledtråd till övergången mellan den äldre och yngre runraden 10:30-10:55 Coffee break Auditorium 4A.0.69 Plenary session 2: Methods and Methodologies 11:00-12:00 Frederikke Reimer: Doubtful tales. Unverified inscriptions in antiquarian and other non-epigraphic primary sources for North Atlantic epigraphy 11:30-11:55 Lilla Kopár: The frustrating font of Bingley: The story of a ‘retired’ runic object 12:00-12:55 Lunch 13:00-13:25 Henrik Williams: The importance of Runology in Runic Studies 13:30-13:55 Kristel Zilmer: More than one face: Working with different sides of runic script-bearers 14:00-14:25 Maja Bäckvall: Context clues: reading a multiple inscription monument 14:30-14:55 Elise Kleivane: Hvor ble det av alle runepinnene? 15:00-15:25 Coffee break Auditorium 4A.0.69 Parallel session A: Digital methods 15:30-15:55 Jenny Wallensten & Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt: The Digital Piraeus Lion Project 16:00-16:25 Elisabeth Magin: Framing Runes: Digital Frameworks for Describing Visual Properties 16:30-16:55 Vadim Frolov: AI in the service of Runology: An easy way of searching for information in The Scandinavian Runic Database Room 4A.0.68 Parallel session B: Digital tools 15:30-15:55 Guus Kronen & Marie Hugny: Towards a linguistically annotated Runic corpus 16:00-16:25 Wout Sinnaeve & Michelle Waldispühl: Automated comparison of spelling variation in runic personal names and appellatives: NLP methods for low-resource historical data 16:30-16:55 Marcus Smith: The State of Unicode Runic in 2026: Progress and Challenges End of Tuesday’s program Evening: Dinner at own expense Wednesday 19 August All day excursion by bus to Skåne/Lund. Thursday 20 August Time Event Auditorium 4A.0.69 Plenary Session: Runes in context 2 9:00-9:55 Invited speaker: Eric Lander: How do we do runic dialectology? 10:00-10:25 Coffee break Auditorium 4A.0.69 Parallel session A1: Runes in context 2: Language, script & dialect 10:30-10:55 Michael Schulte: Die Sprache der älteren Runeninschriften im Überlieferungskontext: Urnordisch, Nordwestgermanisch oder noch etwas anderes? 11:00-11:25 Robert Nedoma: Die ostgermanischen Runeninschriften 11:30-11:55 Gaby Waxenberger: The Old English runic inscriptions found in the dialect area of Mercia 12:00-12:50 Lunch 13:00-13:25 Jackie Nordström: Maltstenen, en nytolkning Parallel session A2: Runes in context 2: Graphematics 13:30-13:55 Sophie Heier: Simris 1 (Sk 46) revisited: Graphematic Evidence in the Debate over Torgöt Fotsarve’s Attribution 14:00-14:25 Magnus Green: Half-inscribed-runes and their value as criteria in carver attributions 14:30-14:55 James E. Knirk: Special Greenlandic runic forms and their appearance elsewhere: Dotted u and Greenlandic r Coffee break 15:30-15:55 Stefan Jacobsson: Bindrunor i dalruneinskrifter 16:00-16:30 Christiane Zimmermann: Classification of formal variation: Challenges of a comprehensive description of runic graph types and variants Room 4A.0.68 Parallel session B1: Runes in context 1: Monument & meaning making 10:30-10:55 Per Holmberg & Sonia Pereswetoff-Morath: Landscape as semiotic resource for runestone meaning making: The case of Västergötland 11:00-11:25 Per Holmberg & Sonia Pereswetoff-Morath: The Rök and Sparlösa inscriptions in mythological, multimodal and landscape context 11:30-11:55 Johan Bollaert: Inscribed Tombstones in Medieval Sweden and their Layout 12:00-12:55 Lunch 13:00-13:25 Simon Nygaard: Monumentalised Placement and Monumentalising Language in Danish, Viking-Age Runic Poetry Parallel session B2: Runes in context 2: Hybridity & multiscriptality 13:30-13:55 Judith Jesch: Hybridity in epigraphic inscriptions from England 14:00-14:25 Ema T. Rimstad: Multiscriptality and Multilingualism during the Middle Ages on the British Isles 14:30-14:55 S. Beth Newman Ooi: Use of runic or roman script for magical inscriptions in early medieval England 15:00-15:25 Coffee break 15:30-15:55 Anna Blennow & Alessandro Palumbo: Epigraphic centres of medieval Scandinavia: Latinization and re-vernacularization of the linguistic landscape 1050–1550 (EpiCentres) End of Thursday’s program Evening: Dinner at own cost Friday 21 August Time Event Auditorium 4A.0.69 Plenary Session: Modern use(s) of runes 9:00-09:55 Invited speakers: Kerstin Majewski & Verena Höfig: Modern Runes in Context: Methodology, Reception and Cultural Reuse 10:00-10:55 Coffee break & poster session Parallel session A1: Runes in a modern world 11:00-11.25 Angie Padilla: Runes in Contemporary Heathenry: Identity, Authenticity, and Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age 11:30-11:55 Karen Langsholt Holmqvist: Formidling av runer i skolen 12:00-12:55 Lunch Auditorium 4A.0.69 Parallel session A2: Runes in context 2: Runes in literature and manuscripts & conceptions of runes 13:00-13:25 Annette Lassen: Forestillinger om runekundskab i saga og edda 13:30-13:55 Alessia Bauer: The interaction between Runica manuscripta and epigraphy 14:00-14:25 K. Jonas Nordby: Creating Runes in a Roman Script Environment Parallel session B1: Runes in context 1: Views on production 11:00-11.25 Sebastien Zimmermann: The Illerup-Vimose-Øvre Stabu connexion, a case of weapons mass production 11:30-11:55 Nancy L. Wicker: Material evidence of social status conveyed by runic inscriptions on Scandinavian gold bracteates 12:00-12:55 Lunch Room 4A.0.68 Parallel session B2: Runes in context 1: The role of women & self 13:00-13:25 Bailey Watson & Ragnhild Ljosland: Between Tradition and Individualism: Self-Commemoration in the Swedish Runestone Corpus 13:30-13:55 Jaron Rochon & Ragnhild Ljosland: The Roles of Women in Trade During the Scandinavian Middle Ages. Insights from Small Inscribed Objects 14:00-14:25 Nanna Friis Hellström: She came to inherit from her children 14:30-14:55 Coffee break 15:00-15:25 Torun Zachrisson: A high-ranking lady, royal household and landed property as a background for a renewed discussion of the Hedeby runestones, DR2 and DR4 15:30-16:00 Final session and closing remarks End of Friday’s programme and of ISRR!10 19:00- Conference dinner at Restaurant Kanalhuset (Address: Overgaden Oven Vandet 62A, 1415 København) List of posters AI in the service of Runology: An easy way of searching for information in The Scandinavian Runic Database, Vadim Frolov, Sonia Pereswetoff-Morath The application “Runstenar” (Runestones): an easy way to find runestones around you, Magnus Carlsson, Sonia Pereswetoff-Morath The creation of the Anglo-Saxon rune e͡a ᛠ: assessing the hypotheses against the background of grapho-phonological developments and epigraphic and manuscript evidence, Stefan Vujić A Pilot Study on Textual Restoration of Medieval and Viking Age Runic Inscriptions Using Natural Language Processing Methods, Wout Sinnaeve, Johan Bollaert; Michelle Waldispühl Power made Metal. A New Corpus of Inscribed Lead Amulets and Their Contexts, Clara Dalgaard Rievers Reading the Piraeus Lion: a prototype of a 3D digital edition of its runic inscriptions, Paola Peratello Runebrevet: the runic newsletter, Kerstin Majewski, Elisabeth Magin, Sophie Heier, Jasmin Higgs and Frederikke Reimer Runor, Marcus Smith Working theories on the origins of Dalecarlian runes, Willem Koen List of abstracts Find list of abstracts and poster presentations (pdf) Call for papers First call for papers - closed Two special sub-themes are outlined as individual plenary sessions: The Centenary of Danmarks Runeindskrifter: Celebrating Lis Jacobsen and her Work Epigraphy in the Medieval North Atlantic The following general thematic strands have been preliminarily outlined: Runes in Context (1: materiality, physical landscapes. 2: linguistic landscape, variation, orthography, dialects, multilingualism, multiscriptuality) (not restricted to any certain time periods) Runes and Power (manifestations of power, social strata) (not restricted to any certain time periods) Runes and Renaissance (post-medieval use of runes, manuscript runes, national romanticism) Digital Runology (digital platforms for epigraphic research, AI in runic studies, 3D and other imaging technologies) We encourage submissions of papers and posters, to be aligned with a sub-theme/and or thematic strand, as well as project reports. Proposals that address theoretical and methodological aspects or new approaches or techniques are particularly welcome. The preliminary program provides room for approximately 40 papers in addition to keynote lectures, poster presentations and project reports. The program will be organised based on submitted proposals. Details Scholars interested in presenting a paper or poster/project at the symposium should submit their proposals to ISRRI10_2026@ku.dk by 15 September, 2025. Proposals should include: Presenter’s name Affiliation (if applicable) Contact information Type of presentation (poster/project or paper) Working title Abstract in English (max 300 words) Submission guidelines and presentation format Please submit your contributions as standard text documents (e.g., Microsoft Word, Pages, or OpenOffice) using Unicode-compatible characters. We recommend using fonts that support runic characters, phonetic symbols, and relevant diacritics. For runes and transliterations, suitable fonts include Runlitt A and Futhark A by Svante Lagman, as well as the Bergen fonts Gullskoen and Gullhornet. Each presentation will be allocated 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Presentations in Danish, English, German, Norwegian, and Swedish are accepted. If you intend to present in a language other than the one used in your abstract, please indicate this clearly upon submission. Second call for papers - closed As previously stated, the symposium will open with the plenary session The Centenary of Danmarks Runeindskrifter: Celebrating Lis Jacobsen and Her Work. An important adjustment is that a plenary session focusing on methods and methodologies will replace the originally planned session on epigraphy in the Medieval North Atlantic. The thematic strands have been slightly adjusted to reflect the contents of the submitted paper proposals, as communicated in the first circular, but they remain broadly as originally outlined, although some papers naturally overlap in content: Runes in Context 1 (main focus: lingustics) Runes in Context 2 (main focus: materiality/landscape/mythology) Runes and Power (social status/women) Modern runes & Runes and Renaissance Digital Runology (digital tools) There is room for a few additional papers and several more posters. All thematic strands are still open for paper proposals. New proposals must align with the thematic strands. Scholars interested in presenting a paper or poster/project at the symposium should submit their proposals to ISRRI10_2026@ku.dk no later than 1 March, 2026. Registration without submitting an abstract or a poster is also possible. Please write to: ISRRI10_2026@ku.dk no later than 1 March, 2026. Proposals should include Presenter’s name Affiliation (if applicable) Contact information Type of presentation (poster/project or paper) Working title Abstract in English (max 300 words) Submission guidelines and presentation format Please submit your contributions as standard text documents (e.g., Microsoft Word, Pages, or OpenOffice) using Unicode-compatible characters. We recommend using fonts that support runic characters, phonetic symbols, and relevant diacritics. For runes and transliterations, suitable fonts include Runlitt A and Futhark A by Svante Lagman, as well as the Bergen fonts Gullskoen and Gullhornet. Each presentation will be allocated 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions, discussion, and speaker transition. Presentations in Danish, English, German, Norwegian, and Swedish are accepted. If you intend to present in a language other than the one used in your abstract, please indicate this clearly upon submission. Please note: The deadline for the revision and adjustment of already submitted and accepted papers and posters is 1 May, 2026. Adjustments should also be submitted to ISRRI10_2026@ku.dk. Registration fee and accommodation We aim to keep the symposium registration fee as low as possible with reduced rates available for students and doctoral candidates. Efforts are currently underway to secure funding that may help subsidise participant expenses. However, attendees should be prepared to cover their own travel, accommodation, and meals. The estimated total fee is 1500 DKK / 200 EUR. The final symposium fee is expected to be set around 1 July, 2026. A payment method will be established by the university. Please be advised that payment will only be possible by credit card. Practical information Welcome to Copenhagen Copenhagen is a wonderful city with a relaxed atmosphere, and it is easy to get around on foot, by bicycle, or by public transportation. In August, there is a good chance of warm summer days, but be prepared for wind and rain as well! Many of the city’s main transport hubs and tourist attractions are located within the city centre (Indre By) — for example, the Little Mermaid, the Round Tower, and the National Museum — all within reasonable walking or cycling distance. Hotels in all price categories can also be found here. The University’s South Campus is located just outside the city centre on the island of Amager (pronounced [ˈama̰ː]). From the main train station, it is approximately a 30‑minute walk. Fortunately, Copenhagen offers an efficient and easy-to-use public transportation system. The Metro is especially recommended. For general visitor information, we suggest Visit Copenhagen. Maps Google Maps is always an option, but several other digital map providers exist for example, the commercial Danish provider www.krak.dk or the state map service Kortoverblik, which is ideal if you enjoy comparing present-day maps with historical ones. Public transportation Metro: To travel from the city centre to South Campus, take the M1 line (Vanløse–Vestamager) towards Vestamager. The closest stop to the campus is Islands Brygge Station (not DR Byen/Universitetet!). M1 connects with all other metro lines (M2, M3, and M4) at Kongens Nytorv. Bus Bus line 33 (Københavns Rådhusplads–Dragør Stationsplads) connects to Islands Brygge Station ca. every 25 minutes. Useful links: Din offentlige transport: Map of lines for Trains, MetTrains, Metro and Light railro and Light rail Maps of lines for busses in Copenhagen Journey planner: All types of public transportation Tickets & prices Taxi Bolt DanTaxi Taxa 4x35 Hotels Guide to hotels & accommodation in Copenhagen Suggestions: Travelling on budget: Cabinn-hotels Midrange/Uppermid-range: Hotel Alexandra Uppermid-range/high end: 1 Hotel Copenhagen "
"Reading of “En Jøde” by Meïr Aron Goldschmidt";"TRANSITION";"2026-08-18";"10:00";"";"11:30";"South Campus, room 4A.2.78";"A TRANSITION Culture Club event. ";"A TRANSITION Culture Club event. For the next TRANSITION Culture Club, we will read Meïr Aron Goldschmidt’s novel En Jøde from 1845 (find the English translation) – a central work in Danish literary history and an early literary exploration of Jewish life, belonging, and exclusion in 19th-century Denmark. The novel follows Jacob Bendixen, a young Jewish man who tries to find his place in Danish society. Torn between his Jewish background and his wish to be accepted by the surrounding Christian majority, Jacob moves through a world shaped by prejudice, social expectations, and fragile possibilities of belonging. Through his story, Goldschmidt offers both a social critique and a psychological portrait of what it means to live between communities and identities. TRANSITION Culture Club is a shared reading format where we gather to read a selected literary text and explore how fiction can inform reflections on rural–urban transitions and historical change. Everyone with an interest in literature and societal transformation is welcome to join. Sign up for the event."
"Sociolinguistics and AI 2026";"Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) and the AI-UNI research project";"2026-08-19";"12:00";"2026-08-21";"16:00";"University of Copenhagen, South Campus. Room tba.";"On 19-21 August 2026 the AI-UNI research project and Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) will host the conference Sociolinguistics and AI at the University of Copenhagen, South Campus. ";" On 19-21 August 2026 the AI-UNI research project and Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) will host the conference Sociolinguistics and AI. The conference will take place at the University of Copenhagen, South Campus. Download the second circular here. See more information about the conference below. Conference theme As we write this, in November 2025, three years after ChatGPT was made available to the general public, ‘AI’ seems to be everywhere. Strong in connotation, weak in denotation, and deeply entangled in contradictory discourses of desire and anxiety, profit and prejudice, power and injustice, capitalism and environmentalism, ‘AI’ has – for better and for worse – become a keyword of our times. A range of different technologies branded indiscriminately as ‘AI’ have acquired a discursive and material presence in the social world, affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe, in different ways and with different consequences. Though not the only form of ‘AI’ around, large language models and their deployment as part of text-generative tools have come to be seen as prototypical exemplars of ‘AI’. Language plays a central role in ‘AI’ – not only as part of the discourses surrounding the technology, but also as part of the technology itself. It is therefore not surprising that sociolinguists have been keen to explore ‘AI’ from a range of different perspectives. Many important insights have started to emerge, but a seemingly endless list of questions concerning the interface between sociolinguistics and ‘AI’ nevertheless remains to be explored: If ‘AI’ is indeed a keyword of our times, then what does sociolinguistics have to say about it? How can sociolinguistics as a discipline help us understand the ‘new’ technologies that are being introduced at breakneck speed? And what about the implications of the technologies for fundamental human concerns such as identity, social relations and, indeed, humanity? Is ‘AI’ changing the way we use language, think about language or think about humans as a languaging species? Is it changing language itself? Do we need new ways of conceptualizing the relationship between language, technology and the environment? Do we need new methods and theories to bring sociolinguistics into the era of ‘AI’ – or will established approaches suffice? Against this background, we are pleased to invite submissions for the conference Sociolinguistics and AI, hosted by the AI-UNI group at the University of Copenhagen, 19–21 August 2026. The conference is an in-person event. We welcome contributions from all research traditions associated with the field of sociolinguistics, including but not limited to (and in no particular order): sociocultural linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, linguistic ethnography, linguistic anthropology, (critical) discourse studies, language policy and planning, social semiotics, variationist sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, and ecolinguistics. Contributions should address ‘AI’ in some respect while clearly relating it to themes and issues commonly addressed within sociolinguistics, including but not limited to: multilingualism, social interaction, language and power, agency, identity, language and education, (language) ideologies, minoritised languages, heritage languages, linguistic diversity, language policy and planning, language variation and change, (de)standardisation, (de)coloniality, language policy and planning, the Anthropocene, mediatisation and sociolinguistic change. We particularly encourage submissions that report on empirical work, but we also welcome papers that are methodological or theoretical in nature. Keynote speakers Nicole Holliday Nicole Holliday is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Berkeley in 2024, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Pomona College. She received her Ph.D. in linguistics from New York University in 2016, where she wrote a dissertation entitled “Intonational Variation, Linguistic Style and the Black/Biracial Experience”. Her research focuses on sociophonetic variation, prosody, and identity construction and performance. She is especially focused on how both human listeners and machines make social judgments about voices, and how these judgments influence social inequality. Her work has appeared in scholarly venues such as Journal of Sociolinguistics, Laboratory Phonology, and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. She has made media appearances in outlets such as the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Washington Post. She also runs a popular Tiktok account where she posts about linguistics and current events. Rodney H. Jones Rodney H. Jones is Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include language and digital media, health communication, language and sexuality, and language and creativity. His recent books include Understanding Digital Literacies: A practical introduction, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2021) Viral Discourse (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and Introducing Language and Society, (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His newest book, Innovations and Challenges in Digital Literacies: Literacies of repair (2026) is available open access from Routledge. Britta Schneider Britta Schneider is Professor of Applied Linguistics of Contemporary English at University of Vienna, Austria. Her main research interest are language ideologies, with a focus on the discursive and material construction of languages in transnational, multilingual settings and in digital and machine-learning culture. She hosts the Critical Language and AI Literacy Lab at University of Vienna and received a PhD from Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and from Macquarie University Sydney, Australia. Publications include Salsa, Language and Transnationalism (2014), “Methodological nationalism in linguistics” (Language Sciences, 2019), “Multilingualism and AI – the regimentation of language in the age of digital capitalism” (Signs and Society, 2022) and “The material making of language as practice of global domination and control: continuations from European colonialism to AI” (with Bettina Migge, AI & Society 2025). Abstract submission Abstract submission The deadline for abstract submission was 15 February 2026 at 23.59 (UTC + 01:00). Abstracts must be submitted in English. Notifications of the outcome of submissions will be sent out within a month of the submission deadline. Read more about the different types of abstracts below. Paper abstracts Abstracts for papers must not exceed 1,800 characters with spaces, including references (if any). Titles are counted separately and must not exceed 150 characters with spaces. Presentations will be organised in 30-minutes slots (20-minute presentation; 5-minute Q&A and 5 minutes for change of presenters/ rooms). Poster abstracts Abstracts for posters must not exceed 1,800 characters with spaces, including references (if any). Titles are counted separately and must not exceed 150 characters with spaces. Conference delegates at all career stages are encouraged to submit poster abstracts. Posters will be displayed for the duration of the conference and delegates will be invited to interact with the posters throughout. A dedicated session for discussing posters will be part of the conference programme. Presenters are responsible for printing their own posters (Size: A0). Number of contributions Contributors may submit a maximum of two abstracts (for papers/posters) and only be the first author and presenter of one of them. In addition to being an author/presenter of papers or posters, delegates may act as panel conveners and/or discussants. Panel abstracts Panel proposals must be submitted as packages consisting of an overall panel abstract plus abstracts for each individual paper in the panel. Each abstract in the package, including the overall panel abstract, must not exceed 1,800 characters with spaces, including references (if any). Titles for each abstract are counted separately and must not exceed 150 characters with spaces. Panel conveners chair their own sessions and are encouraged to schedule the contributions in a way that follows the rhythm of regular paper sessions (allowing 5 minutes for changing rooms before the end of each 30-minute interval). Regular panels will be allocated 90 minutes and must have at least three individual contributions. Individual contributions must not exceed 20 minutes each. Within the allocated timeframe, panel conveners may consider making a short introduction and inviting a discussant. A discussant slot may (but need not) count as one of the three required individual contributions. Double panels will be allocated 180 minutes and must have at least six individual contributions. Individual contributions must not exceed 20 minutes each. Within the allocated timeframe, panel conveners may consider making a short introduction and inviting a discussant. A discussant slot may (but need not) count as one of the six required individual contributions. Registration and conference fee The conference takes place at the University of Copenhagen. It will not be possible to participate remotely. Registration can be completed by filling in the online registration form. Immediate payment upon registration is required. For delegates from the University of Copenhagen, internal transfer of payment is available. The conference fee is €130. The fee includes all lunches and coffee breaks during the conference programme. Questions for the organising committee can be sent to ai-uni@hum.ku.dk. Scientific committee Scientific committee members review abstract proposals and offer advice to the organising committee on matters related to the academic profile of the conference. Alfonso Del Percio FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northewestern Switzerland, Switzerland Amy Wanyu Ou University of GothenburgDepartment of Languages and Literatures Anne Larsen University of Copenhagen, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics Ashraf Abdelhay Doha Institute for Graduate Studies,School of Social Science and Humanities Beatrice Zuaro University of Copenhagen,Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use Bettina Migge University College Dublin, School of Languages Cultures and Linguistics Charlotte Sun Jensen University of Copenhagen,Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies Daniel Silva Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Dave Sayers University of Jyväskylä, Department of Communication and Language Studies Elisabetta Adami University of Leeds,School of Languages, Cultures and Societies Francis Hult University of Maryland, Baltimore County,Department of Education Gavin Lamb NHH Norwegian School of Economics,Department of Professional and Intercultural Communication Hartmut Haberland Roskilde University, Department of Communication and Arts Ico Maly Tilburg University,Department of Culture Studies Janus Spindler Møller University of Copenhagen,Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics Joana Plaza Pinto Federal University of Goiás Joyce Kling Lund University, Centre for Language and Literature Karin Tusting Lancaster University,School of Social Sciences Kristin Vold Lexander University of Inland Norway,Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature Magda Pischetola University of Copenhagen,Department of Communication Magdalena Madany-Saa University of Oslo,Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies Manuel Padilla Cruz University of Seville,Department of English Philology (English Language) Marella Tiongson University of Copenhagen,Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use Marian Flanagan University of Copenhagen,Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies Martha Sif Karrebæk University of Copenhagen,Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics Miguel Pérez-Milans UCL, UK Maartje De Meulder University of Applied Sciences Utrecht Nicolai Pharao University of Copenhagen,Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics Nikolas Coupland Cardiff University Ron Darvin The University of British Columbia,Department of Language and Literacy Education Sari Pietikäinen University of Jyväskylä, Department of Language and Communication Studies Shaila Sultana BRAC University, Bangladesh Sibonile Mpendukana University of Cape Town,Department of African Studies and Linguistics Slobadanka Dimova University of Copenhagen, Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use, Spencer Hazel Newcastle University,School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences Sune Sønderberg Mortensen Roskilde University, Department of Communication and Arts Tanya Karoli Christensen University of Copenhagen,Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics Virginia Zavala Cisneros Pontifical Catholic University of Peru,Academic Department of Humanities Viviane de Melo Resende University of Brasília, Brazil Organising committee The conference is organised by the AI-UNI research group, based at the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP), at the University of Copenhagen: Sam Goodchild, Kasper Engholm Jelby, Jens Christian Borup Green Jensen, Sanne Larsen, Rafael Lomeu Gomes, Sofie E. A. Søndergaard and Janus Mortensen. Questions for the organising committee can be sent to ai-uni@hum.ku.dk. Keynote presentations Evaluative Speech AI and the Devaluation of Sociolinguistic Competence Nicole Holliday Linguists take it as axiomatic that speakers are experts on their languages, both in grammar and usage. However, as Large Language Models (LLM) trained on text and speech become ubiquitous in domains from daily tasks to education and employment, human expertise about language is increasingly devalued. This talk will present the results of three studies that focus on LLMs that are designed to evaluate and “improve” the speech of human talkers; these systems are known as Socially Prescriptive Speech Technologies (SPSTs). The first study shows how the Amazon Halo, a wearable device that claims to evaluate “tone of voice” does not function as advertised, and in fact systematically negatively evaluates the speech of Black talkers and women. The second study focuses on systems such as Read. AI and the Zoom Revenue Accelerator, which claim to evaluate communicative effectiveness in videoconferencing contexts. Results of a laboratory experiment comparing these products’ evaluations of speakers show evidence of systematic bias against black speakers and individuals who identify as neurodivergent, while also reinforcing “standard” language ideologies and failing to provide consistent, actionable feedback to users. Finally, the third study analyzes the outputs of “accent translation” programs marketed by companies such as Sanas and Krisp, showing that such programs do not functionally “translate”3 accents but rather transform speech to an imagined “American” style that is poorly evaluated by human listeners. Taken together, these studies show that “AI”-based programs that purport to evaluate human speech do so without consideration of linguistic principles or acknowledgement of speakers’ sociolinguistic competencies. Such systems also act without transparency for both designers and users by design, reproducing social stereotypes inherent to their training data. As a result, they advise humans to produce unnatural speech, and they punish speakers who do not conform to the narrow targets established by an LLM’s training data. As such technologies are already being used to make employment decisions, provide speech therapy, and even draft police reports, the fact that these systems systematically misevaluate speech represents a significant threat to all people, but most especially those from marginalized groups. Animating AI Rodney Jones In this talk I will explore the ways humans ‘animate’ AI – or ‘call it into being’ – through language, drawing on work in linguistic anthropology on animism, animation and the performative nature of speech genres (Bird-David, 1999; Bauman, 2004; Silvio, 2010). While ‘calling AI into being’ is a complex, distributed process involving multiple social actors and multiple genres (from the databases on which models are trained to the demos that AI companies stage to market their products), in this talk I focus on the prompt as a foundational genre through which users participate in animating AI chatbots, transforming them into legitimate participants in recognisable social practices. The prompt, I will argue, is a hybrid genre that functions simultaneously as a set of machine instructions and as a performative utterance deeply affected by human social imaginaries. As such, it inherits two seemingly incompatible lineages: the procedural pragmatics of programming and the more ‘mystical’ pragmatics of spells, invocations, and magic tricks. Through an analysis of a corpus of ‘metapragmatic artefacts’ on prompting (consisting of things like industry manuals, commercial course materials, media stories, TikTok videos and conversations on Reddit), I examine how these two lineages collide in contemporary prompting repertoires across three sites: the professional discourse of ‘prompt engineering’; the collaborative experimentation of everyday users; and the more ‘magical’ prompting practices promoted by influencers and entrepreneurs who offer ‘secret’ prompts which they promise followers will help them to ‘wake up their AI’. These three repertoires index radically different ideologies of language and communication, with industry manuals and ‘prompt engineering’ courses constructing prompting as a high-stakes form of linguistic optimisation, ordinary users treating it as an experiential social practice, and ‘prompt gurus’ depicting it as performative and transformational. They also index different socio-technical imaginaries regarding human relationships to technology. As users engage in these different (often intersecting and overlapping repertories), they don’t just animate AI, but are also animated by it, transformed into different ‘kinds of humans’, such as ‘elite language workers’, ‘tech-savvy tinkerers’, ‘adversarial hackers’, and ‘AI whisperers’ able to coax models into consciousness. What unites all of these approaches, though, is an understanding that prompting is not simply a matter of formulating instructions or commands but an inherently anticipatory and improvisational activity deeply embedded in what Bird-David (1999) calls the ‘relational epistemologies’ of animism. It is a form of ‘languaging’ through which users learn what AI can do and what AI can be by trying to make it do things and ‘be’ things. Prompts are probes, wagers, world-building moves, which call forth identities, scenarios and imaginaries both for technologies and for the humans that use them. References Bauman, Richard. 2004. A world of others’ words: Cross‐cultural perspectives on intertextuality. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470773895 Bird-David, Nurit. 1999. ‘Animism’ revisited: Personhood, environment, and relational epistemology, Current Anthropology 40(S1). S67–S91. https://doi.org/10.1086/200061 Silvio, Teri. 2010. Animation: The new performance? Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 20(2). 422–438. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2010.01078.x The Ungrounded Sign. Meaning-Making, Community and Democracy Under Machine Influence Britta Schneider In this talk, I ask what happens to linguistic signs in societies that make use of algorithmic language technologies and what this may imply for community formation and democratic culture. The discussion is based on theoretical considerations concerning sign making and semiotic ideology from linguistic anthropology (Gal & Irvine 2019, Keane 2018, Silverstein 2014), where shared meanings of linguistic signs and human communities are understood as dialectically producing each other. In this sense, the development and sharing of linguistic signs is a collective process that produces human sociality. The linguistic signs generated by LLMs are not based on procedures of human interactive meaning-making and seem to be generated simultaneously within and across communities and integrate machine-learning logics into human interaction. LLMs thus manufacture signs but have no community grounding. Which kinds of signs and communities come into being where commercial algorithmic and big data logics interfere with the ability of humans to create signs, meanings and community? What happens if non-accountable signs circulate in so far unidentified forms across communities? Who has the power to define the meaning of signs in such techno-linguistic formations? And how can meaning, trust and truth – and thus democratic discourse culture – be ensured where signs are co-produced by algorithmic machines? In order to shed light on these questions, I discuss examples of public debates and current policies concerned with governing language technology. Traditional national language-norming institutions often react to new language actors by claiming that signs created by machines are ‘inauthentic’ and thus reinvoke traditional epistemologies of humans as autonomous, rational beings and communities and linguistic signs as stable and territorially ordered. Big Tech leaders exploit collective, community-based human semiotic resources at global scales and produce discourses that construct an image of language technologies as isolated from society, freeing them from social responsibility. At the same time, populist politicians dream of determining the meanings generated by machines and simultaneously engage in individualistic strategic appropriations of linguistic signs that remind of Orwell’s Newspeak. They thus contribute to the era of post-truth and promote totalitarian meaning-regimes that are envisioned for the entire planet. Drawing on these observations of public contestations over meaning, power and responsibility, I develop thoughts on which literacies are needed to support democratic institutions and community-based agency in societies shaped by unaccounted-for machine-created signs. References Gal, Susan & Judith T. Irvine. 2019. Signs of difference: Language and ideology in social life. Cambridge University Press. Keane, Webb. 2018. On semiotic ideology. Signs and Society 6(1). 64–87. https://doi.org/10.1086/695387 Silverstein, Michael. 2014. Denotation and the pragmatics of language. In N. J. Enfield, Paul Kockelman & Jack Sidnell(eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology, 128–157. Cambridge University Press. "
"Carousels and other colonial spectacles";"Emil Elg and Konrad Krčal";"2026-08-20";"";"2026-08-21";"";"TBA";"International conference about performing race and racialization at European courts c. 1500–1700.";"International conference about performing race and racialization at European courts c. 1500–1700. The central role of performance in the development and practice of racial categorization and discrimination in Early Modern Europe has found much needed attention in recent scholarship. Within this larger framework, the two-day international conference is dedicated to the “race-making” practiced as part of court spectacles and publicly organized festivities as it had profound impact on the dissemination of racist ideas and stereotypes in Europe. Read more about the conference. Call for papers - closed We encourage proposals for papers from various disciplines including art history, cultural studies, history, literature, and performance studies that engage with the intersections of race and court spectacles across the historical frame and their European and imperial scope. Questions that this conference aims to address include: Exoticism, “race-making” and colonial representation at the Danish court Historical perspectives on carousel performances in Europe The construction and performance of blackness at court over time in relation to the transatlantic slave trade Performing race and the ethnographical gaze: interplays of exhibiting racialized people and the performance of race at court spectacles A European subaltern? The dehumanization and stereotyping of peasants, religious, and other minorities in spectacles in relation to colonial racialization Performative intersections of race and gender in Early Modern spectacles The circulation and use of non-European objects for European court spectacles Public spectacles and their aesthetics in the European colonies: similarities, differences, subversion The court spectacle as template and aesthetic norm for colonial visual culture and texts The popularization and longue-durée of the racist court spectacle We invite individual and group proposals for 20-minute papers with a special encouragement for contributions by PhD-students and early career researchers. Please upload a 250–300-word abstract with a title, up to seven keywords, and a maximum 150-word biographical note in one document by 15 December 2025. The conference language will be English. Travel costs and accommodation can’t be covered by the conference. Participation and attendance are free of charge. The conference will take place at Copenhagen University, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. "
"CANCELLED: Call for papers: Ghosts of Empire in the North Sea";"Karl Emil Rosenbæk Reetz in collaboration with the research collective Ghost of Empire in the North Sea";"2026-08-20";"";"2026-08-21";"";"Copenhagen";"Workshop.";"Workshop. Unfortunately the workshop is cancelled. The North Sea is one of the most industrialized seas in the world. Notwithstanding the Russian shadow fleet transporting crude oil and other goods up through the Baltic Sea and further out into the world oceans via the North Sea, oil and gas extraction, offshore wind farms, and extensive fishing comprises the industrial North Sea. Contextualizing the present North Sea endeavors, this workshop explores the geo-political, infrastructural, imperial and cultural heritages that aided the North Sea’s emergence as an extractive frontier. It aims to shed light on imperial logics embedded in extractive activities within the North Sea in order to rethink the North Sea as a space for Northern European imperial ambitions. This reconsideration is prompted by the perplexing narrative portraying North Sea oil and gas as a cleaner and greener fossil fuel. The workshop wishes to explore how North-Sea activities are deeply influenced by imperial logics and practices, necessitating a re-evaluation of the North Sea as a frontier space intimately connected with the exploitation and expropriation that took place in the former European colonies. These imperial logics, practices, and actors laid the foundation for transforming the North Sea into an extractive frontier. How can we confront and rethink the concept of imperialism in the context of the North Sea's extractive history? How are the region's activities connected to imperial powers around the world? Call for papers We are inviting abstracts of maximum 3000 characters (including spaces) that fall within the scope of the workshop either by focusing geographically on the North Sea or by providing perspectives from other parts of the world – historical and present that shed light on imperial logics, practices, and actors. Abstracts should be submitted by 1 May, 2026, to kerr@hum.ku.dk. Selected abstracts will be invited to a workshop in Copenhagen 20-21 August, 2026. If selected, you are expected to present a 15–20-minute paper. We have a limited budget for travel. If you require travel funds to join the workshop, please indicate this when you submit your abstract. "
"Muslimers tilstedeværelse i Danmark og møde med det danske";"Institut for Tværkulturelle og Regionale Studier og Islamisk-Kristent Studiecenter/Center for Sameksistens";"2026-08-21";"14:00";"";"17:00";"Søndre Campus, lokale 8B-3-03";"Åbent seminar.";"Åbent seminar. 14.00 Kaffe 14.15 Velkomst v/ IKS-formand Arngeir Langås og lektor emeritus Ehab Galal, Institut for Tværkulturelle og Regionale Studier, Københavns Universitet 14.20 Historiske perspektiver på indvandring og holdninger hertil, herunder muslimer, v/ professor Garbi Schmidt, Institut for Kommunikation og Humanistisk Videnskab, Roskilde Universitet 14.50 Ikke-muslimske holdninger til islam og muslimer, v/ lektor Jesper Petersen, Afdeling for Bibelsk Eksegese, Københavns Universitet 15.20 Fra Halima Giftekniv til MuzzMatch: Om muslimsk datingkultur og kønsroller i 2026, v/ Fatema Juriah, CULTUR 15.50 Pause 16.00 Paneldebat m/ Garbi Schmidt, Jesper Petersen og Fatema Juriah Kontakt: Ehab Galal"
"INSPIRE Summer School 2026: Thinking in Many Forms: Gender, Genres, and Practices";" The Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women in the History of Philosophy (INSPIRE) ";"2026-08-24";"09:00";"2026-08-28";"";"South Campus, room 15A-0-13 ";"The INSPIRE Summer School 2026 is an initiative organized by The Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women in the History of Philosophy (INSPIRE).";"The INSPIRE Summer School 2026 is an initiative organized by The Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women in the History of Philosophy (INSPIRE). Odilon Redon, The Book of Light, 1893. The drawing shows a woman immersed in a book. The title evokes light as a metaphor for the Enlightenment. Questions about philosophical and literary genres are of the essence: Throughout Western history, unconventional thinkers, in particular women, have participated in philosophical debates through genres and rhetorical practices that differ from those associated with more canonical (and typically male) philosophers. As an alternative to systematic treatises, they wrote poetry, exchanged letters, authored essays for moral periodicals, composed dedications, and crafted elegant prose. In this way, they practiced philosophy. However, deviating from the norm often came at a price, and exclusion from the canon was usually the result. Nevertheless, focusing solely on genre is still insufficient for understanding the pitfalls of a rigid conception of philosophy. A deeper understanding of the practices through which different forms of critical thinking emerge and take shape is equally important. Through keynote lectures, seminar discussions, and field excursions – including a visit to the University town Lund, Sweden – participants will engage with fundamental philosophical questions and methodological challenges. They will critically reflect on philosophical traditions, genres, and practices that lie beyond conventional definitions of philosophy. In addition, the Summer School will offer a dedicated career development module for early-career scholars in philosophy and related disciplines. Learning objectives Participants in the Summer School will: engage in interdisciplinary dialogue on key conceptual and methodological questions in philosophy and literary studies, with, but not exclusive, attention to Northern European intellectual traditions. develop a critical understanding of philosophical genres and intellectual practices. acquire methodological tools for analyzing non-canonical philosophical texts through approaches drawn from literary studies, gender studies, and the feminist history of philosophy. explore current debates in the humanities concerning authorship, genre, intellectual authority, and the historical codification of a canon. interact with leading international scholars working at the intersection of philosophy, literary studies, and intellectual history. build lasting academic networks and receive professional guidance, including opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and mentoring through a career development module for early-career researchers. Keynote speakers (confirmed) Christian Benne (professor, University of Copenhagen) Katie Ebner-Landy (assistant professor, Utrecht University) Alberto Frigo (associate professor, University of Milan) Gunilla Hermansson (professor, University of Gothenburg) Irina Hron (docent, University of Copenhagen) Mats Malm (professor, University of Gothenburg) Sina Dell'Anno (senior researcher, UC Berkeley/University of Vienna) Target group The Summer School is explicitly aimed at doctoral students interested in innovative approaches to European and Northern European philosophy, history, literary studies, and the history of philosophy and ideas more broadly. The program is also open to postdoctoral researchers, more advanced scholars, and highly motivated master's students who are interested in the Summer School’s areas of study. ECTS Participation in the summer school gives 3.0 ECTS points, 4,5 if you give a paper presentation. When registering for the Summer School, you will be given the option to apply to give a presentation or to attend without presenting. A maximum of eight presentations will be selected. You can read more about this under “Registration”. We will provide participants with diplomas on the condition that they are present at least 80 % of the time and fill in an evaluation form. Registration Registration closes on 15 June 2026 (OBS: deadline is moved from 1 June to 15 June). Read more about how you register for the summer school. "
"13. Nordiske Dialektologkonference";"Center for Dialektforskning ved Københavns Universitet";"2026-08-24";"";"2026-08-26";"";"Dalum Landbrugsskole, Odense, Danmark";"Konference";"Den 13. Nordiske Dialektologkonference afholdes på Dalum Landbrugsskole tæt ved Odense i Danmark og arrangeres af Center for Dialektforskning ved Københavns Universitet. Konferencens tema er som sædvanlig dialektologi i bred forstand. Plenartalere Professor Henrik Rosenkvist (Göteborgs Universitet): Dialektsyntaktisk variation i Norden – metoder, material och resultat Professor emeritus Brit Mæhlum (Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet): Norsk språkvirkelighet. Et blikk i bakspeilet Indkaldelse af konferencebidrag Bidrag til konferencen består af en præsentation på 20 minutter med efterfølgende diskussion. Deadline for forslag til konferencebidrag i form af abstracts er 5. januar 2026. Alle emner inden for dialektforskning er velkomne. Eksempler på emner er: strukturelle dialektbeskrivelser dialektal variation sprogholdningsstudier sproglige ideologier sprogpolitik dialekt på skrift leksikografi sproghistorie sprogforandring. Abstracts må maksimalt være på 300 ord eksklusive titel, forfatter(e), institution og referencer. Bidrag kan afholdes på skandinaviske sprog (svensk, dansk, norsk) eller på engelsk. Indsend konferencebidrag her. Tilmelding Tilmeld dig konferencen. Pris: 4035 kroner for et enkeltværelse og 3635 kroner for delt dobbeltværelse. Begge inkluderer fuld forplejning. Tilmeldingen lukker den 15. juni. Vigtige datoer 5. januar 2026: Frist for indsendelse af abstracts 1. februar 2026: Besked om antagelse af foredrag udsendes 15. februar 2026: Tilmelding åbner 15. juni 2026: Deadline for tilmelding 23. august (ankomst aften) til 26. august 2026: Konference på Dalum Landbrugsskole, Odense Spørgsmål? Kontakt arrangørerne Asgerd Gudiksen (gudik@hum.ku.dk), Malene Monka (Monka@hum.ku.dk), Marie Maegaard (mamae@hum.ku.dk), Janus Spindler Møller (janus@hum.ku.dk)"
"Epistemic Equity";"Organized by PASS – Center for Practice-based Art Studies, on behalf of the European Summer School for Cultural Studies (ESSCS)";"2026-08-24";"";"2026-08-28";"";"";"Organized by PASS – Center for Practice-based Art Studies, on behalf of the European Summer School for Cultural Studies (ESSCS), University of Copenhagen 24-28 August 2026.";"What counts as knowledge and what knowledge counts? European Summer School for Cultural Studies (ESSCS), 2026. Epistemic injustice haunts so much of history, especially in its progressivist and modernist forms. What knowledge is valued, and whose knowledge is discarded or discounted across the longue durée of what we now call 'knowledge producing practices'? In what ways can this lost and repressed knowledge be surfaced and explored, articulated and legitimated – even deployed? To explore epistemic equity is to invite just thoughts, and to imagine new forms of collaboration, knowledge production, and care. What kinds of worlds would be made if the western canon began to meaningfully accommodate traditional and indigenous environmental knowledge-ways? Or if the findings and assertions of artists were taken to be as significant as those of art historians? As we reckon with the legacies of epistemic injustice across disciplines, cultures, and institutions, this conference invites critical reflection, speculative thinking, and practice-led research on the persistent asymmetries that structure knowledge production. We explore the concept of epistemic equity as both a critical framework and a hopeful method for reimagining what could and should count as knowledge, whose voices are heard, and how alternative forms of knowing can take root within – and transform – our fields. This conference seeks to elucidate and amplify research that pushes at the edges of disciplinary norms, artistic hierarchies, and institutional authority. The field of Cultural Studies has long been at the forefront of these inquiries, not only diagnosing the colonial, racial, gendered, and disciplinary exclusions embedded in institutions of knowledge, but also modeling new methods for intellectual and artistic production. From feminist theory and Black radical thought to decolonial praxis and indigenous epistemologies, to the experimental, creative and embodied forms of knowing often associated with practice-based research. Fundamental questions in the understanding of humanity, of culture, and of history are tied up in epistemic asymmetries, many of which are now wide open to correction. Feminist theory for 250 years has grappled not only with achieving gender equality, but with asserting the validity of thought that emanates from worldly experiences of women. Black studies as a field attends meticulously to the recursive nature of slavery in undereducation and carceration, and also to the fundamental interdisciplinarity and radicality of Black thought and aesthetics. Literary studies and art history are productively decentered by sustained problematisations of Western notions of genre, convention, periodisations and the genealogies of aesthetics. Decolonial theory and methods addressing the coloniality of knowledge itself are now operative in almost all fields of cultural studies, from anthropology through archives and collections, from geography to literary studies, from artistic practices to curatorial thinking. This too is ultimately a project attempting the complete recalibration of what we understand to be knowledge, and of knowledge institutions such as universities, museums, art schools, publishers and the press. The concept of 'epistemic equity', and blueprints for achieving its promise of repair, are clearly among the most significant fruits of cultural studies over the past fifty years. Keynote speakers At ESSCS 2026 Copenhagen, keynote speakers will spend at least one full day at the School on the day before or after their keynote address, participating actively in the School's activities and in discussions around student presentations on that day. Lauren M. Cramer, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto Chiara de Cesari, Professor of Heritage, Memory and Cultural Studies, University of Amsterdam DAAR – Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti: DAAR Decolonising Architecture Art Research / Lund University and Royal Institute of Art Stockholm Core questions Core questions include: How does this project, these methods, and this aim of 'total recalibration' manifest in the kinds of cultural productions that are the objects and subjects of cultural studies? Above, beyond and alongside this, how do these questions also manifest in our own ways of making and doing knowledge as critical thinkers? How does epistemic asymmetry, and its hopeful counterpart epistemic equity, infuse our thinking, our working lives and our contexts of practice – and ultimately our very sense of purpose? What does epistemic equity look like across diverse contexts and disciplines? How do artistic, embodied, and/or non-Western epistemologies contest dominant academic paradigms? What are the risks and potentials of de-centering the Western canon within cultural studies? How do our practices of research, curation, and pedagogy reflect or resist epistemic asymmetry? What might a museum, a syllabus, a research project, or a community archive look like if epistemic equity were its foundation? How might cultural formulations of epistemic equity inform urgent debates around Artificial Intelligence and digital hegemonies? Key thinkers: Historicity & lineages This conference draws inspiration from the intellectual and artistic legacies of figures including (but not limited to): Sara Ahmed, Gloria Anzaldúa, Pia Arke, Hans Belting, Pierre Bourdieu, Rachel Carson, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Natalie Davis, Michel Foucault, Carlo Ginzburg, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, Audre Lorde, Walter Mignolo, Fred Moten, Helio Oiticica, Mary Louise Pratt, Carolee Schneemann, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Mary Wollstonecraft and Sylvia Wynter. Call for papers - closed Suggested topics Practice-based approaches to decoloniality, feminist theory, or radical pedagogy Artistic research that challenges disciplinary boundaries Intersectional critiques of institutional knowledge (museums, universities, media) Transdisciplinary and/or situated knowledge practices Articulations of representations that either foreground epistemic asymmetries or model epistemic equity (literary, dramatic, artistic, filmic, photographic, philosophical, etc.) Curatorial strategies as epistemic intervention Reimagining archives, collections, or historiography Cultural work and environmental knowledge (including indigenous and traditional) The politics of citation, authorship, and intellectual property Reflections on epistemic justice and precarity in academic labor Formats encouraged We welcome a broad range of formats and cross-format collaborations, including: Academic papers Practice-led presentations Curatorial case studies Visual or performative talks Collaborative panels Workshops Audio-visual submissions Experimental or dialogic formats We especially encourage participation from those working across practice and theory, and from scholars, artists, and curators engaging with or deploying underrepresented knowledge traditions. Submission details Abstract Deadline: 15 February 2026 Notification of Acceptance: 1 April 2026 Conference Dates: 24-28 August 2026 Location: The University of Copenhagen + other venues in the city Submit a single-page proposal of 300–400 words, along with a short biographical statement (100–150 words) by email to pass@hum.ku.dk using the subject line 'ESSCS 2026 Proposal'. If submitting a non-conventional format, please also include a brief description of any technical or spatial needs on a separate page. Researchers wishing to participate and who may require financial assistance to do so are invited to outline their needs as part of their proposal. Limited funds can be made available to support participation in special circumstances. About ESSCS & PASS The European Summer School for Cultural Studies (ESSCS) is a collaborative consortium of institutions dedicated to the advancement of cultural theory, transdisciplinary methodologies, and inclusive intellectual exchange. The 2026 conference is hosted by PASS – Center for Practice-based Art Studies, a hub for critical and artistic exploration of how knowledge is made, shared, and transformed across disciplinary and institutional borders."
"Dansk Historikermøde 2026";"Den Danske Historiske Forening";"2026-08-25";"10:00";"2026-08-26";"17:00";"Søndre Campus, ankomst i JUR-kantinen, bygning 6A";"To dages konference.";"Konference. Dansk Historikermøde 2026 afholdes på Københavns Universitet med Saxo-Instituttet som vært. Programmet er bygget op i fem parallelle spor, så man kan følge sin lyst og opleve dilemmaer. Der er også to keynoteforelæsninger ved professor Peter Fibiger Bang (KU) og førsteamanuensis Rosanna Farbøl (UiO) samt ikke mindst solide kaffepauser og en festlig middag, så man også kan få tid til det, et historikermøde ikke mindst handler om: møde gamle venner, lære nye at kende, netværke, snuse og inspireres. Vel mødt! Program Program Historikermøde 2026 (pdf) Abstracts Abstracts Dansk Historikermøde 2026 Tilmelding Du tilmelder dig via linket her. Tilmeldingsfrist 17. august 2026. Kontakt Morten Fink-Jensen, Saxo-Instituttet, "
"Experiencing transition in modern urbanization";"The European Association for Urban History (EAUH)";"2026-09-04";"11:15";"2026-09-04";"15:45";"Barcelona, Spain";"TRANSITION Session at the 17th conference of the European Association for Urban History, Barcelona, Spain.";"TRANSITION Session at the 17th conference of the European Association for Urban History, Barcelona, Spain. https://unsplash.com/ How can we understand urbanization not only as a story of growth, planning, and modernization, but as something people lived through, sensed, negotiated, and remembered? At this year’s European Association for Urban History conference in Barcelona, we are organizing the session Experiencing Transition in Modern Urbanization. The session explores transition as a perspective for studying urban–rural change in the twentieth century and beyond. Rather than following a simple narrative from countryside to town, city, and metropolis, the session opens up more varied histories of urbanization. It brings together papers on everyday life, migration, welfare, sensory experience, belonging, architecture, urban fringes, and spaces in between. The session is organized by TRANSITION Lead Investigator Mikkel Thelle and Junior Investigator Kristian Aarup together with TRANSITION Collaborative Investigator Tanja Vahtikari. The following people are presenting their papers in our session: Stephanie Weismann, Dr.Sniffing Out the Urban Stairwell: Olfactory Experiences of Socialist “Urbanization” Christian Steentofte Andersen, Postdoc & Junior InvestigatorThe Welfare City in Transition: Copenhagen Gentrification Narratives as Source of Experience Gergely Baics, Professor“Transitional City”: The Built and Social Environments of 19th-Century New York’s Irregular Settlements Pia Quist, Professor & Director of CentreConceptualizing Transition: Mobility, Place, and Everyday Life Lisbeth Hollensen, Museum Curator & Bitten Larsen, Museum CuratorDreams of Welfare and Liveability in the Golden Age of Danish Architecture: An Investigation of How the Welfare Society Changed Lives in the Transitioning Suburbs in Early Post-War Denmark Joseph Prestel, LecturerMigration to Europe as Rural–Urban Transition: The Experience of Palestinians in West Berlin, 1970s–90s Ida Ograjsek Gorenjak, Asst. ProfessorTraveling Through Transitions: The Perception of the Balkans in Helen Franklin’s Diaries (1910–1912) Dorothee Brantz, ProfessorUrbanizing the Seaside: Summer Vacation as Seasonal Transition in Europe in the Early 20th Century Marjaana Niemi, ProfessorBeyond the Grand Narrative: Urban Fringe as a Site of Transition and Belonging in Helsinki 1900–1930 Norman Frazier, PhD studentThe Home of Heinrich Zille: Tenements in Working-Class Berlin, 1853–1926 "
"The Given";"Center for Subjectivity Research (CFS)";"2026-09-10";"";"2026-09-11";"";"TBA";"International conference at the Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.";"International conference at the Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Confirmed speakers Elijah Chudnoff (Miami) Laura Gow (Liverpool) Mads Gram Henriksen (Copenhagen) Neil McDonnell (Glasgow) Umrao Sethi (Brandeis) Mats Wahlberg (Umeå) Perceptual experiences seem to present, make manifest, or ‘give’ the world to us. Such experiences have ‘presentational phenomenology’, or ‘presentational feel’; they seem to offer ‘scene immediacy’ or ‘givenness in-the-flesh’. And perhaps perceptual experiences are not unique in this regard: similar expressions have been used to articulate, for instance, mathematical intuitions and certain religious experiences. However, most attempts to characterise presentational phenomenology revolve around striking yet unexplained metaphors. This conference aims to move beyond metaphor, exploring presentational phenomenology in a variety of different contexts and from a variety of different perspectives, including epistemology, philosophy of perception, philosophy of religion, psychopathology, and VR research. The event is an in-person event and open to all."
"Fænomenologi og psykiatri";"CFS";"2026-09-15";"15:15";"";"16:30";"TBA";"CFS forelæsning af Professor Mads Gram Henriksen, Københavns Universitet ";"Mads Gram Henriksen tiltrådte i foråret 2026 som professor i klinisk og teoretisk fænomenologi ved Institut for Kommunikation. Hans officielle tiltrædelsesforelæsning fandt sted d. 30/4 på Midt- og Vestsjællands Hospital, Psykiatrien i Roskilde. Mads Gram Henriksen vil d. 15/9 præsentere sit forskningsområde for studerende og ansatte. Alle er velkomne. "
"The Ambient Music Conference";"Ulrik Schmidt (RUC) & Holger Schulze (KU) in Collaboration with the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen.";"2026-09-15";"";"2026-09-17";"";"Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Leo Mathisens Vej 1, 1437 Copenhagen, DENMARK";"Conference.";"Why is everybody listening to ambient music these days? Beatless music, or music with almost inaudible percussion or beats, seems to be one of the hidden champions these days. It finds its audience all across the spectrum of age, gender, race and ability. Dalmeny Beach, New South Wales, January 4, 2020. Used with kind permission of Ruth Wynn-Williams. Collage by Ulrik Schmidt Ambient music has a clearly soothing and healing quality – but also oozes into all sorts of other genres, styles and artistic movements: its roots and offshoots range from Minimal Music to Krautrock, from Gamelan to Soundscape Composition, from radiophonic composition to noise music, from film music to neoclassic, from hauntology to lofi hip hop beats to relax/study to. Ambient is a truly planetary genre of music – with an endless range of local traditions and highly diverse scenes. Is ambient even becoming the dominant model for popular music production in the 21st century, replacing the backbeat of rock'n'roll, the percussive patterns and loops of EDM, and taking its place alongside hip-hop and R'n'B? Is the ambient music genre simply tailor-made for perfect playlist adaptability, workplace mood regulation, and spotifycore? A few decades ago, listening to this genre was considered embarrassing, or at the very least, clichéd by many: today, it is a widespread preference of countless artists, music lovers and streaming platforms across the globe. This international conference is the first of the 21st century to examine ambient music through the lens of local scenes, aesthetic practices, and cultural contexts worldwide.Over 30 leading and early career scholars and performers from 17 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas will present research papers, audio papers, and performances. It is a starting point for developing an academic handbook and a special issue of Seismograf. Programme and registration Please read on the programme and register here. Call for papers - closed For this conference we are looking for local histories, practices and reflections from all areas on this planet, focusing on labels and scenes, producers and their list of aliases, performers and their practice of crafting ambient music on the spot or for an online label. We especially encourage contributions engaging with ambient music from outside the well-known cities and cultural hubs in Europe and the US. We invite contributions especially from Africa and Asia, from South America and the Middle East. We hope to hear introductions into production techniques and compositional approaches, new technologies and surprising references, local interpretations and hybrid genre bends. We invite you to present significant use cases of ambient music that are very common in one local scene - but unheard of in another scene. We welcome your investigations into the health benefits or the complete irrelevance of listening to ambient music as well as into the role that the sounds of a given environment and a landscape play. Celebrations and critical explorations, big questions and small wonderments. This is the first international academic conference in this decade to focus on contemporary and future ambient music. We expect this research field to be investigated in sound studies and musicology, in cultural studies and media studies, in musical anthropology and sociology, in performance studies and popular music studies, and in artistic research and practices, but we welcome all relevant fields, including research areas and methods we as organizers may not yet be aware of. Possible topics for consideration could be (but are not limited to): Local variants and approaches to ambient music all around the planet Ambient music scenes and social music practices in diverse regions and societies Ambient music, digital streaming platforms, and the environment Listening technologies and production networks for ambient music – including immersive sound formats Historical, current, and future approaches in the distribution of ambient music Ambient music, mood regulation, and affective control Ambient music subgenres and hybrids such as Dark Ambient, Lowercase Ambient, Witch House, Isolationist Ambient or Goblincore Ambient uses of music and ambient listening strategies in architecture, art, design and film Ambient music in social media and audiovisual media genres Research paper Please send us your abstract (100-150 words, excluding references) and your short CV. Your presentation can be 20 minutes long – including all your audio examples. Audio paper Please send us your audio abstract (60-90 seconds, as mp3-file) together with your written abstract (100-150 words, excluding references) and your short CV. Your audio paper can be 12-15 minutes long. What is an Audio Paper? The Audio Paper, a format first proposed in 2016, is a 12-15 minute short audio production that presents a research question or inquiry. It combines speech and narrative with a 'sonic argument': this sonic argument can be composed through sound recordings, sound productions or other sonic practices, vocal practices, the audible use of the body, everyday tools, gadgets, musical instruments, computer software, or any kind of object or agent. Our assessment criteria are: a clear and contextualised research question or focus; a clear and vivid argument and exploration of that question or focus; the meaningful and original use of sound as a medium and content to convey the argument; coherence between dramaturgical composition (tempo, density, narrative structure) and content; appropriate references in an accompanying bibliography or in the audio production. In the special issues listed you can listen to recently produced audio papers. Performance Please send us the outline of your performance (100-150 words, please list the hardware you will bring and the hardware or software you may need) and your short CV. Your performance can last 20-30 minutes. In addition to a standard projector and audio system, Akvariet features a complete Meyer PA and monitor setup, including a 16-channel/quad immersive system with space map panner. We strive to accommodate all types of performances and artistic inputs, and we welcome you to get in touch if you require further specifications. Applications for the conference are closed. We plan to notify all applicants of our decision in September 2025. See Call for papers (pdf) Organisers and institutions Organisers Ulrik Schmidt is associate professor in media and communication at Roskilde University, Denmark. Working in the intersection between sound studies, media philosophy, contemporary art and audiovisual aesthetics, he explores the material, technological and environmental conditions for perception, art and the production of subjectivity in modern and contemporary culture. His latest books are A Philosophy of Ambient Sound: Materiality, Technology, Art and the Sonic Environment (Palgrave Macmillan 2023), and A Proposal for an Aesthetics of Production [Forslag til en produktionsæstetik, in Danish, co-written with Honza Hoeck] (2024). Holger Schulze is full professor in musicology at the University of Copenhagen and principal investigator at the Sound Studies Lab. His research moves between a cultural history of the senses, sound in popular culture, and the anthropology of media. He was visiting professor at the Musashino Art University Tokyo, at the University of New South Wales Sydney, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Currently he works on The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Sound Studies (with Jennifer Stoever and Michael Bull) and on The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound in Museums (with Alcina Cortez, Eric de Visscher and Gabriele Rossi Rognoni). Selected Publications: The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Anthropology of Sound (2021, ed.), Sonic Fiction (2020), The Sonic Persona (2018), Sound as Popular Culture (2016, co-ed.). Institutions The Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) offers advanced education in contemporary music, encompassing genres like rock, pop, jazz, urban, metal, and electronic music. RMC embraces creativity, openness, and diversity, fostering a critical and dynamic approach to music. Beyond education, the institution leads research and development projects in its core areas, contributing to the promotion of musical cultures in Denmark. Located at Holmen in Copenhagen, RMC benefits from a vibrant artistic community alongside other institutions like the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the National Film School. The Conservatory’s modern facilities support its commitment to high international standards in music education, and academic as well as artistic research. The Sound Studies Lab is now based at the University of Copenhagen, having been established at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 2011. Its aim is to support and facilitate research by early-career and experienced scholars and artists working on the sonic and sensory aspects of individual lives and across heterogeneous societies, cultures and historical periods. The Lab's projects operate in mobile, experiential and field-based research environments, through fieldwork, critical analysis and the production of sonic artefacts. In recent years it has hosted research assistants, visiting researchers and collaborators from Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the UK. We have also welcomed participants and contributors to our fortnightly online colloquium and workshops from the United States, India, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Romania, New Zealand, Latvia and Cyprus. Roskilde University "
"Experiencing Value – perspectives from moral psychology and phenomenology";": Line Ryberg Ingerslev (Center for Subjectivity Research), Johan Gersel (Copenhagen Business School), Morten Thaning Sørensen (Copenhagen Business School)";"2026-09-17";"";"2026-09-18";"";"South Campus, room TBA";"Workshop";"Workshop. By bringing perspectives from moral psychology and phenomenology into dialogue, the workshop focuses on the social dynamics of identity, on practical reasoning and freedom. Keynote speakers Minna-Kerttu Kekki (University of Helsinki) Sanna Tirkkonen (University of Helsinki) Fredrik Westerlund (University of Helsinki) In-person participation only - open to all, please register in advance (link for registration will come soon). Programme will be added. "
"RELIGIONSVIDENSKAB - mellem isolation, integration og interaktion";"Institut for Tværkulturelle og Regionale Studier / Religionsvidenskab";"2026-10-01";"13:15";"";"17:00";"Søndre Campus, auditorium 4A-0-69";"Seminar.";"Spørgsmålet om religionsvidenskabens opgaver og roller, og råderum i offentlighedens diskurser står til diskussion. Skal religionsvidenskabens opgaver udelukkende afgrænses til academia eller bør dens rolle alene fastlægges uddannelsesinstitutionelt, eller skal religionsvidenskaben også betragtes som en aktør, der bør gøre synspunkter gældende i offentlighedens forskellige diskurser – indenrigs-, uddannelses-, kultur-, miljø- og udenrigspolitisk? Dagens oplægsholdere giver hver deres bud på religionsvidenskabens opgaver, roller og råderum – og bud på balancen mellem akademisk isolation, uddannelsespolitisk integration og involverende interaktion i samtidens spørgsmål og udfordringer. Eftermiddagens program afsluttes med en paneldebat om emnet. Program 13.15 Intro Peter K. Westergaard, Københavns Universitet 13.35 Ned fra elfenbenstårnet – eller på markedet for aktivisme og samfundsmæssig relevans? Jørn Borup, Aarhus Universitet 14.05 Religionsvidenskaben – et bærende element under det sekulære demokrati? Niels Reeh, Syddansk Universitet 14.35 Tværfaglighed og politik i en multireligiøs sammenhæng Safet Bektovic, Universitetet i Oslo 15.05 Pause 15.20 Kamæleon, ål eller panda? Religionsvidenskabelig vidensproduktion i dag? Astrid Krabbe Trolle, Københavns Universitet 15.50 Pause 16.00 Paneldebat Tim Rudbøg, Københavns Universitet 16.55 Finis Peter K. Westergaard Ingen tilmelding. Alle er velkomne. Ved spørgsmål om arrangementet ret henvendelse til Peter K. Westergaard."
"Queen Christina and Her Legacy in the Nordic Countries";"Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women in the History of Philosophy (INSPIRE)";"2026-10-01";"";"2026-10-02";"";"TBA";"In celebration of Queen Christina's 400th anniversary, this symposium focuses on Christina of Sweden’s impact on the politics and philosophy of the Nordic Enlightenment.";"In celebration of Queen Christina's 400th anniversary, this symposium focuses on Christina of Sweden’s impact on the politics and philosophy of the Nordic Enlightenment. Painting of Queen Christina by David Beck (1621-1656) / SMK Open Educated as a female ruler, Christina of Sweden is often regarded as the first influential female Nordic intellectual. Her interest in the arts, philosophy, and religion made Scandinavia a centre of artistic and scientific development. Furthermore, she intertwined politics and aesthetics in her rule, strategically re-distributed power, and mastered the art of self-representation in her writings. Throughout her more than twenty years on the throne, she surrounded herself with the most prominent artists, philosophers, and theologians of her time. Yet, the full extent of her legacy remains to be explored."
"1st Workshop on Critical AI Safety";"Bokar N'Diaye, University of Amsterdam, and Ninell Oldenburg, Nina Rajcic, Filippos Stamatiou and Anders Søgaard, University of Copenhagen";"2026-10-01";"";"2026-10-02";"";"Center for Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence";"";"This workshop aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines who are working to characterise, map, and critique the field of AI Safety and AI Existential Risk research. Find more information about the workshop. Keynote speakers Adam Becker, Journalist and Author of More, Everything, Forever Shazeda Ahmed, University of California, Los Angeles Mollie Gleiberman Call for papers See the call for papers. Submission deadline: 1 July, 2026."
"Digital Identities in the Age of AI: Qualitative methods in Media Studies ";"Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics / Helle Kannik Haastrup and Katrine Sommer Boysen";"2026-10-02";"08:00";"2026-10-02";"16:00";"South Campus, room 4A.0.68";"Research seminar.";"Research seminar. The research seminar aims to explore and exchange ideas concerning qualitative research into AI in media studies. We want to address the challenges that AI represents for the audiovisual performed labour, for filtered images and memetic videos of celebrities and politicians and for synthetic influencers and chatbots. Moreover, we discuss how AI influences qualitative empirical research online practices and affordances and how AI interfaces and technologies are negotiated, revealed and shared by audiences. Programme will follow. Registration The seminar is for open for registered participants only (register: h.k.haastrup@hum.ku.dk). "
"Gratis workshop: Dansk til møder";"Center for Internationalisering og Parallelsproglighed";"2026-10-02";"10:00";"2026-10-02";"12:00";"Søndre Campus: oplyses senere";"I denne workshop vil du blive bekendt med typisk møde-ordforråd og sætninger, der vil gøre det muligt for dig at deltage mere aktivt i møder på dansk.";"Vil du gerne være mere aktiv i møder, der holdes på dansk? Hvis ja, så kom til CIPs gratis workshop om møder på dansk. I denne intensive workshop på 2 timer vil du blive introduceret til typisk møde-ordforråd som “dagsorden”, “ordstyrer” og “referat” samt sætninger, der vil gøre dig i stand til at deltage mere aktivt i møder, der holdes på dansk. Vi vil gennemspille vores egne “møder” i grupper for at øve forskellige situationer som at bede om præcisering og gentagelse, give din mening om et emne, tage ordet, afbryde, undskylde - og selvfølgelig smalltalke i kaffepausen. Desuden får du mulighed for at dele erfaringer med andre internationale KU-medarbejdere, og sammen vil vi udveksle strategier, tips og tricks, der kan gøre møder på dansk mindre overvældende og mere givende. Workshoppen vil indeholde en blanding af lærerforklaringer, deltagerinput og diskussioner, og du vil få mulighed for at afprøve dine nye færdigheder og viden gennem praktiske øvelser. Hvem kan deltage i denne workshop: Internationale ansatte ved KU, der ønsker at forbedre deres dansk til møder og som allerede forstår og taler lidt dansk."
"Spirits, Elementals, Ghosts, Vampires, Fairies, and Other Occult Beings in Modern Theosophy and Related Esoteric Currents";"Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE)";"2026-10-03";"";"2026-10-04";"";"The Rembrandt Hotel 11 Thurloe Pl, South Kensington, London SW7 2RS, United Kingdom ";"International Theosophical History Conference.";"Call for papers: Spirits, Elementals, Ghosts, Vampires, Fairies, and Other Occult Beings in Modern Theosophy and Related Esoteric Currents International Theosophical History Conference. From the late nineteenth century onward, the Theosophical Society and related occult milieus reimagined beings drawn from ancient traditions, séance culture, folklore, and occult revivalism and integrated them into new expanded esoteric worldviews and practices connected to spiritual evolution, subtle bodies and multiple planes of nature. This call for papers seeks historically grounded papers that analyse how such beings were defined, understood, classified and ranked in esoteric cosmology or how they were operationalised as relational or explanatory agents in spiritual practice (e.g., ""obsession,"" inspiration, “astral” influence). See the full call here (PDF). Keynote speaker: Associate Professor Manon Hedenborg White, Malmö University, President of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Conference committee Conference Chairs: Jenny Butler, PhD and Tim Rudbøg, PhD. Jenny Butler, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Study of Religions at University College Cork and President of The Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR). Prof Tim Rudbøg, PhD, Associate professor, Study of Religion, chair and director of the Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism, University of Copenhagen. Prof. James Santucci, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Olivia Cejvan, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher at Malmö University, Sweden. Bjarke Stanley Nielsen, PhD, Denmark. Ethan Doyle White, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Erica Georgiades, MRes Religious Experience, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Call for papers Possible paper topics within this CFP theme: Taxonomies of the dead: ghosts, “shells,” and post-mortem states in theosophical afterlife geographies “Elementals” and nature spirits: fairy-lore as comparative esoteric classification Vampires, “astral feeding,” and moral discourse around desire, addiction, and exploitation Thought-forms and “artificial” entities: imagination, affect, and quasi-material psychology Clairvoyance as method: authority, verification, and pedagogy in esoteric knowledge-making Boundary-work with spiritualism and psychical research: séance risks, obsession, and expertise claims Translation and circulation: how terms (astral, deva, kama-loka, etc.) reorganised vernacular beings Media and aesthetics: illustration, colour theory, music, and architecture as “evidence” of unseen beings Colonial and global entanglements: “comparative religion” approaches to spirits across empires and cultures Reception history: how these creature-categories migrate into twentieth-century occult, Pagan and New Age repertoires, including occulture Visualising the unseen: diagrams, clairvoyant illustration, and the visual epistemology of occult beings To be considered as a presenter in the Conference, please submit an abstract of approx. 300 words with a 50-word biography to Erica Georgiades, via email. All proposals will be evaluated by the conference committee. Presentation time is max 20 minutes. Deadline for submission of paper proposals: 20 June 2026 Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2026 All submissions should be in PDF format and must include a short biographical note in the same document. Theosophical History Conference & The Theosophical History Journal The purposes of holding the International Theosophical History Conferences are practical in nature: to maintain interest in the subject, to assess the status of research in the area, and finally to provide material for publication within the Theosophical History journal. If the presenter wishes to publish in the journal, we advise that the style of the final text and endnotes conform to Chicago Style and that a digital submission be sent for review to the editor (Tim Rudbøg) in Word format no later than two months following the Conference. Registration & fees Students: £50 per day (includes coffee breaks and buffet lunch) Non-students: £75 per day (includes coffee breaks and buffet lunch) "
"Ecocritical Potentials of Lithomateriality ";"Grey Matters ";"2026-10-08";"";"2026-10-09";"";"Aarhus University ";"Conference by Grey Matters. ";"Conference. This conference is part of the Carlsberg Semper Ardens research project Grey Matters: Ecocritical Potentials of Lithic Aesthetics. Aiming at an expansion of the green transition by a ‘grey turn’ to rocks and stones, Grey Matters seeks new aesthetic approaches to the lithosphere, which is a major site of environmental destruction. We are especially interested in approaches that take into account material peculiarities of rocks and stones and acknowledge their difference and separation from humans and other living beings. The project embraces a twofold emphasis: 1) attempting to unsettle cultural imaginaries that devaluate rocks and stones based on strictly drawn hierarchical dualisms between living and non-living entities through investigations of art and literature, while 2) insisting on differences between organic and inorganic matter in dialogue with questions of aesthetics. By fleshing out genuinely inorganic aesthetics, Grey Matters seeks to develop and conceptualize less anthropocentric, non-appropriative, ethical sensitivities for stones through works of art and literature. We are especially interested in the question of how specific aesthetic approaches enable relationalities that secure distance. To foster “stonier” aesthetic sensitivities and grasp the sensory impact of works of art and literature, it is not sufficient to focus on thematizations of lithic matter. We thus center on potentially defamiliarizing moments in which literature/art and lithic matter intersect based on structural, processual, or material qualities, and are interested in overlaps of what Caitlin DeSilvey designates as artefacts (“relic[s] of human manipulation of the material world”) and ecofacts “relics of other-than-human engagement with matter, climate, weather”. At the conference, we want to negotiate different ways in which lithic artefacts and ecofacts are made (by different forces and agents, from human creativity or human exploitation of mineral resources, to weather, time, or geological processes), and how intersections of such literal poieses can amount to a specific aesthetics. In a further step, we invite explorations of the ecocritical potentials of such lithic aesthetics. Within this framework, this conference especially focuses on lithomateriality (three further conferences will be dedicated to lithomorphology, lithonarration, and lithoaisthesis). Lithomateriality designates relations and intersections of lithic and artistic materialities. Such intersections can, for example, involve the following: Lithic matter used as a material basis of literature or art (e.g. chalk or graphite used for writing, coal or pigments used for painting, rocks used for sculpture, minerals used in digital media); artworks made of stone or including lithic matter, artistic practices engaging with stone; lithic matter as writing tool or writing surface. We are especially interested in works that in some form reflect the specifically lithic qualities of their basic material and analyses that explicitly negotiate such relations or explore material histories that can be put in conversation with the aesthetic qualities of a specific work. Shared or overlapping qualities of lithic matter and material qualities of visual art and literature: stony traits of art and literature, and literary or artistic traits of stone (e.g. similarities and differences between the ways in which stone and writing function as archives; painterly, writerly, or sculptural qualities of stone as Roger Caillois attempts to describe; artworks and texts that assimilate lithic traits, behave or look like stone). Lithic matter that is negotiated poetologically (e.g. when a text reflects on writing with graphite or chalk, on what kind of writing is produced by specific lithic writing materials, and relates this to the way in which the text itself works, like Esther Kinsky’s Schiefern) and poetological readings of lithic artworks or artistic practices. Lithic qualities and phenomena as metaphors for linguistic or artistic qualities or phenomena (e.g. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase “language is fossil poetry”, Paul Celan’s description of the poem as “erratic language block”, Samuel Beckett’s comparison of sucking stones to the voice, Jacques Lacan’s “lituraterre”, words compared to crystals, pebbles or stones, etc.), including dead metaphors (“written in stone”). Lithic phenomena as images for approaches to literature and art (e.g. Victor Shklovsky’s claim “art exists ... to make the stone stony”, etymology understood as an act of excavating words). Instances in which lithic and aesthetic qualities influence, determine, or interrupt each another, especially when properties of stone impact the material dimensions of literature and visual art; aesthetic affordances of stone (e.g. lithic artefacts like statues that are subject to erosion and weathering; certain artworks or artistic forms that lend themselves to certain types of stones; sans serif fonts which lend themselves to carving, etc.). Call for papers - closed We are looking for contributions that address these (or related) points from an ecocritical perspective; this can be through a discussion of works and artistic practices that that explicitly negotiate lithic matter in relation to unsettled environments, climate crisis or the Anthropocene, or through ecocritical readings. Each contribution should address the ecocritical potentials inherent in the specific form or instance of lithomateriality focused on. Such potentials might, for example, lie in a certain inoperativity, when art and literature detach lithic matter from the way it is commonly utilized (handled as a resource and subject to extraction), and open the possibility of a different use. Along similar lines, we would like to address questions of aesthetic disinterestedness as a possible resistance to extractive utilization of rocks and stones. We are also interested the ecocritical awareness that emerges when an attention to the basic materials of art and literature is linked to questions of where a specific material is from and under which conditions it has been produced. We invite reflections on interlinked aesthetic and extractive practices that address the problematics involved in both—on the side of artists and recipients. Moreover, we are interested in discussions about how climate changes impact the lithic basic materials of art, and how this effects reflections on aesthetics. Then, we encourage participants to think about what ecological awareness might add to poetological reflections of lithomateriality, and we are curious about potentially redeeming qualities of “dead” or “fossilized” metaphors, their possible ecological merit (compared to qualities of animation and vitalization that are not only linked to “creative” metaphors but also became signature values in contemporary ecocriticism). Please send abstracts of no more that 400 words to Stefanie Heine (stefanie.heine@hum.ku.dk) by February 28, 2026. "
"Only Life";"CFS";"2026-10-09";"15:15";"";"17:00";"TBA";"CFS lecture by Evan Thompson, Professor of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, Canada";"CFS lecture by Evan Thompson, Professor of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, Canada The lecture is open to all and all are welcome. Abstract to follow"
"Models of Consciousness 2026";"Organising institutes and centres";"2026-10-12";"";"2026-10-16";"";"The HC Ørsted Institute, North Campus, Universitetetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø";"Five day conference.";"Five day conference. By the kind invitation of the Centre for the Philosophy of AI, Centre for Subjectivity Research, Department of Computer Science and the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, we, the Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science, and all of our organising and supporting institutions, are delighted to announce the seventh Models of Consciousness conference (MoC7) 2026. This year, the conference is dedicated to bringing together researchers on the following core themes: Philosophical foundations Methodologies and measurements AI, LLMs, and consciousness science Phenomenology and applied phenomenology As in previous years, we will gather dedicated discussion sessions on open questions. Inspired by the historical achievements, the Copenhagen interpretation in physics, we will organise collaborative work to achieve a common understanding “towards a methodological and conceptual consensus”. Programme and registration Read more on programme and registration on the conference website."
"Jazz Movements";"Mikkel Vad, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies";"2026-10-16";"";"2026-10-17";"";"TBA";"12th Nordic Jazz Conference.";"12th Nordic Jazz Conference. We invite you to submit paper proposals for a conference on the theme “Jazz Movements.” The conference theme can be interpreted in a multitude of ways and approached from a variety of different angles. Topics include but are not limited to: Movements across geographic space and place Movements and changes across time and history Jazz as part of political, cultural, and artistic movements Bodily, affective, and performative movements and gestures Movements in musical structure, form, and rhetoric We also welcome any new jazz research by Nordic scholars or any research on Nordic jazz. The event is a part of Jazz Danmark’s celebration of “Danish Jazz 100 Years” in 2026. Call for papers and proposals - closed We welcome proposals for: Papers (20 minutes with 10 minutes of questions and answers) Panels (2–4 related papers on a shared theme, totalling 45–120 minutes) Roundtables (3–5 shorter presentations, max. 10-15 minutes each, followed by a chaired discussion, totalling max. 60 minutes) Performance-based presentations, lecture-recitals, or workshops, including collaborative presentations (20–50 minutes with 10 minutes of questions and answers). Please contact Mikkel Vad to discuss possibilities before submitting the proposal. Abstracts for individual papers should be no more than 250 words. For panels, please submit an abstract for the panel (up to 250 words) along with abstracts for each individual paper (up to 250 words each). For roundtables, please submit an abstract for the session (up to 400 words) that includes some indication of each presenter's contribution. For performance-based presentations, please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words. For all formats, please also submit a short biography (up to 75 words) for all presenters. Abstracts should be sent to mkv@hum.ku.dk in docx or pdf format by the 1st of February 2026. Programme committee Þorbjörg Daphne Hall, Iceland University of the Arts Mischa van Kan, Linnæus University Ari Poutiainen, University of Helsinki Mikkel Vad, University of Copenhagen "
"Call for papers: Connections: Mobility and Community in the Early Modern World";"Radical Pietism in Northern Europe";"2026-10-21";"";"2026-10-23";"";"University of Copenhagen";"We invite early career researchers to send proposals for a seminar at the University of Copenhagen on early modern (c. 1500-1800) mobility and community. ";"We invite early career researchers to send proposals for a seminar at the University of Copenhagen on early modern (c. 1500-1800) mobility and community. Mobility in its essence can break or alter existing connections, but in its wake follows the creation of new communities crossing landscapes and media. Together, they are two of the most basic concepts that form the backbone of society. By focusing on one or both of these concepts, we can unearth new sides of lived life in the early modern world. The seminar aims to give early career scholars an opportunity to discuss and further develop their research within early modern history in the company of their peers and experienced scholars. Keynote: Dr. Mathilde Monge, Université de Toulouse Call for papers Possible themes include, but are not limited to, aspects like: Networks (for example personal, business or religious) Structural connections (for example kinship, social and organisational connections) Travelling (for example logistics or the maritime) Migration and colonialism (for example diasporas) Methodological considerations PhD-students and recent PhD-graduates with interests in these areas are encouraged to apply. If you would like to attend, please send a short description of your presentation as well as yourself to Elisabeth Björkenheim Andersen no later than 1 July 2026. There is a limited budget for travel and accomodation. Please reach out if you have any questions. "
"The Tingbjerg Experiment";"Centre for Changing Urban and Rural Lives (TRANSITION)";"2026-11-02";"14:00";"";"16:00";"South Campus ";"A TRANSITION Culture Club event: film screening and conversation with Louise Detlefsen, director, Jon Helt Haarder, University of Southern Denmark, and Mette Mechlenborg, Aalborg University.";"A TRANSITION Culture Club event: Film screening and conversation with Louise Detlefsen, director, Jon Helt Haarder, University of Southern Denmark, and Mette Mechlenborg, Aalborg University. Din internetbrowser understøtter ikke iframes. Det betyder, at videoen ikke kan afspilles. Documentary trailer (in Danish) We invite you to a screening of the Danish documentary The Tingbjerg Experiment (Tingbjerg-Eksperimentet), followed by a conversation with director Louise Detlefsen, literary scholar Jon Helt Haarder and housing researcher Mette Mechlenborg. The conversation will be moderated by Pia Quist, Director of TRANSITION. The Tingbjerg Experiment is a portrait of a neighbourhood in change. The film follows everyday life in Tingbjerg at a time when the area is being reshaped through new housing, changing population patterns and political ambitions for social transformation. Private homes are being built among existing public housing, while residents, newcomers, planners and researchers are left to ask what kind of neighbourhood may emerge from this process. Tingbjerg was originally designed in the 1960s as a modern “dream city” for families with children, but later came to be understood and discussed as a socially vulnerable housing area. Through character-driven stories, the documentary moves beyond simplified images of Tingbjerg and opens up questions about architecture, belonging, community, and the lived experience of urban change. After the screening, Pia Quist will be in conversation with Louise Detlefsen, Jon Helt Haarder and Mette Mechlenborg. Together, they will reflect on the documentary and the questions it raises: How can film make neighbourhood change visible? How are places shaped through policy, stories, buildings and everyday practices? And what can Tingbjerg tell us about broader urban transformations in Denmark today? Louise Detlefsen is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. Her films include Fat Front and It’s Not Over Yet, and she is the director and screenwriter of The Tingbjerg Experiment. Jon Helt Haarder is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Southern Denmark. His research includes literary representations of housing estates, “ghetto” narratives and Danish welfare landscapes. Mette Mechlenborg is Senior Researcher at Aalborg University. Her work focuses on housing culture, home-making, place and everyday practices, including public housing, suburban life and vulnerable housing areas. TRANSITION Culture Club is a format where we explore how literature, film, museums and other cultural forms can inform reflections on rural–urban transitions and historical change. Everyone with an interest in documentary film, housing, urban transformation and the cultural life of places is welcome to join. Registration Sign up here for the event. "
"CIP symposium 2026";"Center for Internationalisering og Parallelsproglighed (CIP)";"2026-11-06";"10:00";"2026-11-06";"16:00";"Auditorium 23.0.50, Søndre Campus, Københavns Universitet";"CIP inviterer til sit årlige symposium fredag den 6. november 2026 med titlen: Inclusion through linguistic and cultural diversity: opportunities and challenges. Sæt derfor kryds i kalenderen allerede nu.";"CIP symposium 2026 Inklusion gennem sproglig og kulturel mangfoldighed: muligheder og udfordringer CIP inviterer til sit årlige symposium fredag den 6. november 2026. Tema for årets symposium Københavns Universitet har ligesom mange andre universiteter for nylig prioriteret “diversitet, lighed og inklusion” (DEI) i universitetets strategiske arbejde. Det øgede fokus på DEI på universitetet er med til at fremhæve vigtige spørgsmål om, hvem der kan deltage i akademiske praksisser. Men betydningen af sproglige og kulturelle ressourcer for denne deltagelse bliver ofte nedtonet. Derfor sætter årets CIP symposium fokus på den rolle, som sprogpolitik spiller i forhold til at understøtte sproglig og kulturel diversitet på universitetet: Hvordan forstås og opleves begreberne “diversitet, lighed og inklusion” i den daglige praksis på universitetet? I hvilket omfang skaber eller begrænser eksisterende praksis indenfor undervisning og forskning muligheden for at anerkende sproglig og kulturel diversitet? Hvordan kan sprogpolitik understøtte deltagelse i den daglige praksis på universitetet? Kan AI anvendes på meningsfulde måder til at håndtere nogle af udfordringerne ved sproglig diversitet, eller er det en blindgyde? Vær med, når vi diskuterer disse (og andre) spørgsmål med oplæg fra studerende, undervisere og forskere fra Danmark og resten af verden. Program Program offentliggøres snarest muligt. Tilmelding Tilmelding er åben fra nu og frem til den 30. oktober via linket i boksen til højre. "
"Oversættelsesarbejdet ude i den virkelige verden";" Oversættelse og kulturel transfer";"2026-11-27";"11:00";"";"15:00";"Søndre Campus, lokale 24.2.07 ";"Paneldebat med oversættere fra forskellige dele af oversættelsesbranchen. ";"Paneldebat. På denne branchedag får Engerom besøg af professionelle oversættere fra forskellige dele af oversættelsesbranchen, som deler erfaringer fra deres daglige arbejde og fortæller om de mange former, oversættelse kan tage i praksis. Gennem paneldebat sætter vi fokus på oversættelse som både fag, håndværk og profession. Dagen giver indblik i arbejdsformer og aktuelle udfordringer i branchen."
"TRANSITION Winter School 2027: Urban–Rural Space: Culture, Language, History ";"Centre for Changing Urban and Rural Lives (TRANSITION)";"2027-01-12";"";"2027-01-15";"";"South Campus ";"TRANSITION invites PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to join an intensive Winter School in Copenhagen.";"TRANSITION invites PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to join an intensive Winter School in Copenhagen. Photos by The Royal Danish Library on Unsplash Our Winter School explores how urban and rural spaces are shaped, imagined, and experienced across culture, language, and history. Across Europe and beyond, relations between urban and rural areas are being reconfigured in ways that are economic, cultural, political, and deeply personal. Questions of mobility, belonging, identity, and inequality are often articulated through ideas of “the urban” and “the rural” – yet these categories are far from stable. Rather than treating urban and rural as fixed opposites, we want to bring them into conversation across disciplines. Therefore we ask how different fields approach, define, and study these spaces – and what becomes visible when perspectives from human geography, urban studies, literary studies, cultural analysis, and sociolinguistics are combined. Throughout the Winteer School, we will move between conceptual discussions, methodological exploration, Data Labs, group work, and informal exchanges as well as a joint museum visit in Copenhagen. You will engage closely with leading international scholars and collaborative reflect on how different approaches can inform your own research projects. We have invited Michael Woods (Aberystwyth University), Dorothee Brantz (TU Berlin), Ruth King (University of York), Jason Finch (Åbo Akademi University), and Esther Peeren (University of Amsterdam) to join us as lecturers for our Winter School. Together, they bring perspectives from rural geography, urban history, sociolinguistics, literary urban studies, and cultural analysis. Throughout the week, you are invited to connect your own research to the themes of the Winter School and to learn from each other’s perspectives. The program culminates in a small conference, where you present your research in dialogue with the Winter School’s themes and receive feedback from other participants and of course from our invited lecturers as well as TRANSITION’s Lead Investigators. You will gain new conceptual tools for thinking beyond simple urban–rural distinctions, get insight into methodological approaches across disciplines, receive structured feedback on your research, will experience presenting your work in an interdisciplinary setting, and gain a network of peers and senior scholars working on related questions. We are looking for early-career researchers who are interested in engaging critically with urban–rural relations and in developing their work in dialogue with other disciplines and perspectives. Practical information Dates: 12–15 January 2027 Who can apply: PhD students and postdoctoral researchers Application deadline: 15 November 2026 Notification of acceptance: 25 November 2026 Participation fee: DKK 800 for accepted participants We will provide refreshments and lunch on all days, as well as an opening and a closing dinner. Applications must include a description of your research project, max. 500 words a one-page CV Please send your application to transition@hum.ku.dk no later than 15 November 2026."
"Copenhagen Winter School in Phenomenology";"CFS";"2027-01-28";"";"2027-01-29";"";"TBA";"PhD course on phenomenology";"The Copenhagen Winter School in Phenomenology is a PhD course that offers a close reading of a classical work in phenomenology. In 2027, the selected text is Gerda Walther's Ein Beitrag zur Ontologie der sozialen Gemeinschaften (1923)(Toward an ontology of social communities, trans. S. Luft & R.K.B. Parker, De Gruyter, 2025). The Winter School will consist in two keynote lectures, 6 presentations by participating PhD students, and sessions devoted to a close reading of Walther's text. The two keynote lectures will discuss Walther's text and PhD students who wish to present will be expected to also engage with the work in question. Although Walther’s (recently translated) work will constitute the point of departure, the systematic focus of the winter school will be broader. It will also engage with questions pertaining to social phenomenology, phenomenology and social ontology, and the application of phenomenology in the social sciences The two keynote speakers will be Alessandro Salice (University College Cork) and Dan Zahavi (CFS - University of Copenhagen). More information to follow "
"CFS 25 years";"CFS";"2027-03-02";"13:00";"2027-03-02";"17:00";"TBA";"Celebrating 25 years of Center for Subjectivity Research";"Center for Subjectivity Research was established on March 1, 2002 on the basis of a generous grant from the Danish National Research Foundation. 1/4 of a century later, there are many reasons to celebrate the accomplishments of CFS. The full program of the workshop will be published in the fall of 2026"
"Call for papers: Dress and the material culture of the self along the Nile valley";"Fashioning Sudan and Centre for Textile Research";"2027-03-16";"";"2027-03-17";"";"Cairo (at Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale & Danish Institute at Beyt Yakan) and online";"Fashioning Sudan and Nubia international conference 2027.";"Fashioning Sudan and Nubia international conference 2027. For millennia, people living in Sudan and Nubia have developed rich traditions to dress and adorn their bodies. This includes garments made of animal skin (leather and fur) and textiles, jewellery built of extremely diverse materials, hairdoes, make up and other skin modifications such as tattooing, etc., assembled in ever-changing compositions. These practices are shown on the numerous images - carved or painted on monuments, rocky outcrops, vessels, and a myriad of other objects - created by the different inhabitants of Sudan and Nubia. They are also attested by an extremely rich material culture, preserved to a unique degree thanks to the arid conditions that prevail across this vast region. Today, these different sources offer a formidable field of inquiry to study and understand important body practices, which, renewed every day by every member of the society, cemented personal and group identities. This conference will include academic presentations and discussions, a keynote lecture, hands-on demonstrations, and an exhibition. It is conceived as the final event for the Fashioning Sudan project (ERC 101039416) and we hope to welcome interested colleagues and participants working on connected topics and multidisciplinary perspectives, in a celebration of Sudanese heritage. More information and programme forthcoming. Call for papers This conference aims at exploring the diversity of dress, adornment, and other body practices along the Middle Nile valley and its neighboring regions, across time periods. Topics of interest can include (but are not restricted to): Material, iconographic, and textual sources for body-related practices Methods to identify and characterise raw materials People-environment relationships and past body conceptions Developments and meanings of dress and body ornaments, including non-permanent and permanent body modifications Experiential approaches to craft and body-related practices Archaeological, historical, art historical and ethnographic approaches are all welcome. We invite submissions for presentations. Please submit a title and abstract (max. 250 words) before 31 August 2026. For information, registration, and/or submission, contact Rayan Alhaj. Please state your name, institution (if relevant), and whether you wish to join in person or online. "
"Ecocritical Potentials of Lithonarration";"Grey Matters";"2027-05-26";"";"2027-05-27";"";"University of Washington";"Conference by Grey Matters. ";"Conference. This conference is part of the Carlsberg Semper Ardens research project Grey Matters: Ecocritical Potentials of Lithic Aesthetics. Aiming at an expansion of the green transition by a “grey turn” to rocks and stones, Grey Matters seeks new aesthetic approaches to the lithosphere, which is a major site of environmental destruction. We are especially interested in approaches that take into account material peculiarities of rocks and stones and acknowledge their difference and separation from humans and other living beings. The project embraces a twofold emphasis: 1) attempting to unsettle cultural imaginaries that devaluate rocks and stones based on strictly drawn hierarchical dualisms between living and non-living entities through investigations of art and literature, while 2) insisting on differences between organic and inorganic matter in dialogue with questions of aesthetics. By fleshing out genuinely inorganic aesthetics, Grey Matters seeks to develop and conceptualize less anthropocentric, non-appropriative, ethical sensitivities for stones through works of art and literature. We are especially interested in the question of how specific aesthetic approaches enable relationalities that secure distance. To foster “stonier” aesthetic sensitivities and grasp the sensory impact of works of art and literature, it is not sufficient to focus on thematizations of lithic matter. We thus center on potentially defamiliarizing moments in which literature or art and lithic matter intersect based on structural, processual, or material qualities, and are interested in overlaps of what Caitlin DeSilvey designates as artefacts (“relic[s] of human manipulation of the material world”) and ecofacts “relics of other-than-human engagement with matter, climate, weather”. At the Grey Matters conferences, we aim at negotiating how lithic artefacts and ecofacts are made (by different forces and agents, from human creativity or exploitation of mineral resources to weather, time, and geological processes), and how such literal poieses in their intersections can amount to a specific aesthetics. In a further step, we invite explorations of the ecocritical potentials of lithic aesthetics. Within this framework, this conference especially focuses on lithonarration (three further events will be dedicated to lithomateriality, lithomorphology, and lithoaisthesis). Lithonarration designates relations and intersections between histories and stories archived in rocks on the one hand, and literary or artistic storytelling on the other. Such intersections can, for example, involve the following: Overlaps or tensions between lithic and literary or artistic archiving and storytelling on a material, medial, and metaphorical basis: How do rocks record (hi)stories (e.g. stone as “storied matter” [Jeffrey Jerome Cohen]), how does literature do so (on paper and in digital forms)? And what about different visual artforms (painting, sculpture, film, etc.)? What about Indigneous earthworks as “forms of Indigenous writing” (Chadwick Allen)? How are lithic archiving and storytelling used as metaphors for forms of writing and artistic creation (e.g. Walter Benjamin’s comparison of the transformation of epic forms to geological transformations), or the other way round (e.g. writing as metaphor for rock records, Thomas H. Clark and Colin W. Stern’s image of earth history as a book with torn and missing pages)? Questions of narrative, dramaturgy, plot: What stories do rocks tell, trigger, or block? What stories are stones involved in, and what function do they have in these stories? What narratives are tied to lithic matter? If stone is an archive that contains stories, how are these structured in terms of tempo (acceleration, deceleration) and narrative gaps? How can one read lithic landscapes in terms of sequence and events? Questions of perspective and gaze: What points of view do rocks elicit? What kind of gazes, perspectives and visibilities are negotiated in relation to stone? Can we imagine stone returning the human gaze (cf. Jacques Lacan, Maurice Merleau-Ponty)? In some cases, rocks seem to go hand in hand with an indifferent narrative perspective (i.e. Cormac McCarthy) or a dull gaze (comparable to what Peter Szendy observes about the animal gaze in Béla Tarr’s films), in others their visibility is marked by hyperclarity (cf. the cut and polished stones of Roger Caillois). Questions of voice: What kind of voice do rocks call for? Inscriptions on stones often take the form of prosopopoeia, giving voice to the stone, or apostrophe, addressing the stone. Is this pure anthropomorphizing? Could we imagine the circumscription of the stone’s voice as something like a mute tone, or a voice that does not tell (cf. Esther Kinsky’s Rombo)? We are looking for contributions that address these (or related) points from an ecocritical perspective; this can be through discussion of works that that explicitly negotiate lithic matter in relation to unsettled environments, the climate crisis or the Anthropocene, or through ecocritical readings. Each contribution should address the ecocritical potentials inherent in the specific form or instance of lithonarration focused on. Such potentials might lie in stone’s alternative, non-anthropocentric stories, temporalities, points of view and voices—or the mute “Mitlaut” (con-sonance, or sounding together) negotiated by Paul Celan, opening to conversations with alterities, remote times, and unspeakable losses. Moreover, tracking the “unsettled inscriptions” of mineral matter in a time when “the lapidary” becomes “increasingly erratic” (Jason Groves) enables other ways of “staying with the trouble” (Donna Haraway). Those forms of trouble might include the exploration in queer and trans studies of “trans/material attachments” to stone (Dana Luciano and Mel Y. Chen) or the contestations by Black and Indigenous Studies of the settler colonial division between sea and land, as in Tiffany Lethabo King’s analytic of the Black shoal. We encourage participants to think about what ecological awareness might add to poetological reflections of lithonarration, and we are interested in potentially redeeming the non-animated and non-vital qualities of lithic matter as an alternative to stories of action and vital growth."
"Ecocritical Potentials of Lithomorphology";"Grey Matters ";"2027-09-23";"";"2027-09-24";"";"University of Bergen";"Conference by Grey Matters. ";"Conference. This conference is part of the Carlsberg Semper Ardens research project Grey Matters: Ecocritical Potentials of Lithic Aesthetics. Aiming at an expansion of the green transition by a ‘grey turn’ to rocks and stones, Grey Matters seeks new aesthetic approaches to the lithosphere, which is a major site of environmental destruction. We are especially interested in approaches that take into account material peculiarities of rocks and stones and acknowledge their difference and separation from humans and other living beings. The project embraces a twofold emphasis: 1) attempting to unsettle cultural imaginaries that devaluate rocks and stones based on strictly drawn hierarchical dualisms between living and non-living entities through investigations of art and literature, while 2) insisting on differences between organic and inorganic matter in dialogue with questions of aesthetics. By fleshing out genuinely inorganic aesthetics, Grey Matters seeks to develop and conceptualize less anthropocentric, non-appropriative, ethical sensitivities for stones through works of art and literature. We are especially interested in the question of how specific aesthetic approaches enable relationalities that secure distance. To foster “stonier” aesthetic sensitivities and grasp the sensory impact of works of art and literature, it is not sufficient to focus on thematizations of lithic matter. We thus center on potentially defamiliarizing moments in which literature/art and lithic matter intersect based on structural, processual, or material qualities, and are interested in overlaps of what Caitlin DeSilvey designates as artefacts (“relic[s] of human manipulation of the material world”) and ecofacts “relics of other-than-human engagement with matter, climate, weather”. This second Grey Matters conference aims at negotiating how lithic artefacts and ecofacts are made (by different forces and agents, from human creativity or exploitation of mineral resources to weather, time, and geological processes), and how such literal poieses in their intersections can amount to a specific aesthetics. In a further step, we invite explorations of the ecocritical potentials of lithic aesthetics. Within this framework, this conference especially focuses on lithomorphology (three further con-ferences will be dedicated to lithomateriality, lithonarration, and lithoaisthesis). Lithomorphology designates relations and intersections of lithic and artistic processes of formation and deformation, for example correspondences between geological processes (e.g. erratics, teconics, stratification, crystallization, erosion) and aesthetic forms, creative processes and literary composition. The premise of “lithomorphology” turns against a set of ideas about rocks which precede the emergence of geology as a science in the late 18th century (but which in transformed manners sometimes still tinge the way in which rocks are thought): the notion that rocks and stones lack form, that their forms are random or emerged without any structuring principles, and the argument that morphology is reserved for living organisms (e.g. Goethe). Rocks are formed according to structural principles, but their morphology is different from that of organic entities. Combining questions of morphology and poieisis—how forms come to be, and how artefacts and ecofacts are made—is crucial for fleshing out distinctions between aesthetics informed by inorganic matter and aesthetics based on organic entities. Organicist aesthetic theories are often based on proliferation and harmonic and dynamic relations between connected parts. In contrast to living beings, rocks do not procreate and geological processes “neither create nor destroy” materials (LaBerge); they operate in very slow cycles of formation, layering, and deformation. Whereas aesthetic forms modelled on the organic tend to be tied to principles of growth, lithic morphologies of breaking down and decomposition are central for inorganic aesthetics. When it comes to rocks and stones, decomposition and form-building processes cannot be neatly distinguished. Hence, lithomorphology upsets the dualisms of formation and deformation, creation and decreation, composition and disintegration. The conference will focus on the following intersections between geological and aesthetic formation and deformation processes: Relations between writing processes or artistic creation processes and geological processes. E.g. Cormac McCarthy’s tectonic composition of desert descriptions; Per Kirkeby’s layering technique in painting that imitates stratification and sedimentation; coagulation in painting and petrification; sculpting (removing material) and erosion or weathering, or erosion and weathering as sculpting forces (Marguerite Yourcenar). Overlaps or tensions between lithic forms and formal aspects of visual art and literature: artworks and texts formed like rocks or minerals (e.g. Inger Christensen’s “Frostkrystal”, petrification and composite composition in Annette von Droste Hülsthoff’s “Mergelgrube”), or rocks formed like texts or works of art (e.g. Roger Caillois). Lithic morphologies that are negotiated poetologically, i.e. when a text or artwork reflects on geological processes and relates them to the form or composition of the work, or poetological readings. E.g. metamorphism and fracturing in Esther Kinsky’s Schiefern; quaking, breaking and crystallization in Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty; Samuel Beckett’s “lithic vocabulary” drawing attention to textual stratifications like compositional layers, etymology and intertextuality (as analyzed by Mark Byron). Lithic morphologies as metaphors for linguistic or artistic processes, or for approaches to literature and art. E.g. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase “language is fossil poetry”; etymology or interpretation understood as in geological terms, for example as excavating; petrification and crystallization as descriptions for creative processes. We are looking for contributions that address these (or related) points from an ecocritical perspective; this can be through discussion of works that that explicitly negotiate lithic matter in relation to unsettled environments, the climate crisis or the Anthropocene, or through ecocritical readings. Each contribution should address the ecocritical potentials inherent in the specific form or instance of lithomorphology focused on. Such potentials might lie in the non-anthropocentric gesture of looking at how geological processes form or inspire cultural products, in contrast to human acts of forming and utilizing rock. We aim at an inorganic expansion of the current ecocritical vocabulary, which is heavily informed by organic forms and morphology, and seek alternatives to prevalent eco-aesthetic models centered on life and movement: what, for example, could be gained from focusing on phases of immobility? We are interested in expanding questions of form with questions of formlessness, for instance in potentially redeeming qualities of arrested form, immobility, and stillness. Thus, we invite contributions exploring the ecocritical potentials of desoeuvrement, i.e. uneconomic aesthetic forces of inertia, passivity, decomposition, destruction, or undoing in lithic artworks. Finally, we want to negotiate the forms of resistance to production- and progress-oriented capitalist logics that might emerge from a lithomorphology that involves transformation but is unconcerned with creating something new."