The research network hosts leading specialists in Islamic studies, conspiracy culture, and south Asian religions, philosophy of religion, along with the only full time position in Judaism and cognitive science of religion in Norway.

More information on the research network in Religious Studies and Philosophy of Religion

AAE is an interdisciplinary research group where members have a joint interest in understanding agency and identity, the role of action and interaction (both at the individual and collective level) as well as embodiment. The group seeks to enable and strengthen the dialogue between the humanities and sciences, bringing together researchers in philosophy, religious studies, interdisciplinary culture studies with psychology, neuroscience, and AI. 

Group members at AAE

The research group in the history of philosophy (FHF) at NTNU studies broadly within the history of philosophy. We study both known and neglected philosophers and topics, which have historical and contemporary significance.

Members of the research group (site in Norwegian)

Practical philosophy in a broad sense, with particular focus on ethics and political philosophy.

Members of the research group (site in Norwegian).

Research areas/ research interests:

Ethics/ applied ethics: Bias in algorithms; Surveillance capitalism; AI/ moral enhancement; Moral machines; Research ethics 

Theoretical-philosophical: Cognition/ philosophy of mind; neuroscienc/conciousness; AI/ language; systems biology; machine learning; AWS 

Empirical, social science: Computerdriven public management; context-dependendence of AI systems; power balance citizen/state

Members of the research group.

CCR is a group of researchers at NTNU working in contemporary theoretical philosophy, mainly in the analytical tradition. We have overlapping areas of interest in philosophy of mind and consciousness, metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. We also discuss meta-philosophical issues (e.g. metametaphysics, experimental philosophy etc.). Our name ‘Consciousness, Cognition and Reality’ reflects a shared conception that, amidst these diverse topics and issues, a central task for theoretical philosophy remains that of elucidating how mind, in the guise of consciousness, cognition, or otherwise, relates to reality, in various senses.

Members of the research group.

The research group in aesthetics and phenomenology consists of researchers and graduate students in aesthetics, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. The aim is to develop and improve the research within these research areas at NTNU, in collaboration with national and international research partners.

Relevant research areas include, but are not limited to:

• Phenomenology versus hermeneutics as methods
• Perception and vision
• Perception, language, and art
• Historicity and experience of time
• Phenomenology in science
• Intersubjectivity and ethics
• Body and self
• Aesthetics, aisthesis and the everyday
• Aesthetics of nature
• Psychoanalysis and Enactivism

About the research group in Aesthetics and Phenomenology.

The Research group for APPlied ethics (RAPP) conduct research in ethics connected to pressing practical challenges. RAPP members contribute to transdisciplinary work in several fields including in biotechnology, medicine, and business. We are particularly interested in ethical challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies, as part of ELSA Norway and RRI clusters. Our current work includes:

• ethics of biotechnology
• data and information ethics
• animal ethics and food ethics
• climate and environmental ethics
• corporate social responsibility
• medical and health care ethics
• military ethics
• professional ethics and research ethics

Group members at RAPP.

The group's thematic focus includes:

• Contemporary archaelogy focusing on the major conflicts of the 1900s and 2000s
• Maritime archaeology
• Climate change and its consequences for cultural heritage sites in coastal and arctic regions
• Glacial archaeology and climate change
• Mountain archeology focusing on the Southern Sami region
• Scandinavian rock art from the Stone and Bronze age in Mid Norway
• Settlement, vegetation and climate of the Iron Age
• Warfare and political organization from the Iron Age to the Viking Period

Potential supervisors:
Martin Callanan
Marek E. Jasinski
Heidrun Stebergløkken
Ingrid Ystgaard

The group covers a well of research from antiquity to early modern period with emphasis on different aspects of political history and social history. Women's history is a research field for large parts of this period.

For more information, contact potential supervisors:
David Bregaint
Erik Opsahl
Leif Inge Ree Petersen
Randi Bjørshol Wærdahl
Hanne Østhus
 

The research group is embedded in the European Studies program at IHK and facilitates collaboration and shared reflection between in-house researchers on issues related to the history and politics of the European Union (EU) and Europe broadly conceived. Characterized by its interdisciplinary nature and outlook, its scholarly focus revolves around the analysis of the process of European integration, political, economic, societal and security developments in Europe and the EU, as well as issues related to cooperation and conflict. 

Drawing on the methodologies, concepts and theoretical schools of thoughts of disciplines and subdisciplines as diverse as Political Science, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Contemporary History, and Area Studies, the Research Group unites expertise on areas such as: political, diplomatic and transnational history of 20th century Europe; history of European integration; democracy and the rule of law after World War II; public opinion towards European integration; party politics; regional and sub-national politics in the EU (minority nationalism and regional economic development); state actors, bilateral relations and European cooperation; differentiated integration (Norway-EU relations; EFTA); transnational societal actors; EU institutions; women in European political integration; European foreign and security policy; EU external relations; global identity of the EU; EU norms diffusion; EU eastern (Eastern Europe and South Caucasus) and southern neighbourhood (Middle East and North Africa).

The European studies research group cooperates with the department’s research group in modern history. 

Potential supervisors:
Anna Brigevich 
Michael J. Geary 
Carine Germond 
Lise Rye
Tobias Schumacher

Other members of the group:
Jennifer Baumann (stipendiat)
Kristine Graneng (stipendiat)

The research group covers both the Greek and Latin tradition, from the classical period (Homer) to the modern era (Hans Skancke), with particular emphasis on antiquity and the Middle Ages. Research includes editing technique, philosophy, historiography, historical linguistics, history of ideas, literature, translation, religion, reception, rhetoric and textual criticism.

For more information, contact potential supervisor:
Thea Selliaas Thorsen

Cultural heritage, history of architecture and buildings, building preservation, the law of cultural heritage and museology are important areas of research. Our perspective spans from the local to the global, for instance in the area of postcolonial perspectives of history and cultural heritage. 

For more information, contact potential supervisors:
Insa Müller
Jon Olav Hove
Mattias Bäckström
Hanne Østhus
Thomas Brandt
 

The research group in modern history studies modern history (after 1750) from various historical perspectives. Our research includes the modern history of democracy, democracy and the rule of law, colonization, imperialism and decolonization, indigenous history, history of technology and science, enviromental history, the history of ideas, history from below, migration, slavery and the colonial history of Denmark-Norway, apartheid and South Africa, work and consumption, gender history, European integration, diplomatic history etc.
 

For more information, contact suggested supervisors:

Thomas Brandt
Michael Geary
Jon Olav Hove
Monica Miscali
Anne Engelst Nørgaard
Lise Rye
Hanne Østhus

The research group's activities are concentrated around three main projects:

1) The early phase of the welfare state.

2) Demographics.

3) Mental health and crime.

Contact possible supervisors for more information:

• Øyvind Thomassen
• Francisco Beltrán Tapia
• Karl Erik Haug
• Maria Fritsche

Research includes several areas and ongoing projects:

1. Political economy/Resource economy/Living standard and education/Poverty and inequality
2. Resources and societal development in a global perspective
3. National regulations ​​​​​​​
4. European integration and international institutions
5. Norwegian multinational companies
6. Raufoss. The Department is working on developing research and projects based around  Raufoss ammunition factory (today NAMMO). Their archives are currently being made available for research.

For more information, contact potential supervisors:

• Hans Otto Frøland
• Pål Thonstad Sandvik
• Jonas Scherner
• Espen Storli
• Francisco Beltrán Tapia
• Mats Ingulstad

In order to be able to solve the sustainability challenges, we must understand how they have arisen, how they have been dealt with in the past, and how current thinking on sustainability has developed. Within this area we look at the interaction between culture, politics, technology and business.

1) Memories and myths on sustainability

2) The ocean and its resources

3) Mission Mjøsa

For more information, contact potential supervisors: ​​​​​​​

• Ingar Kaldal
• Espen Storli
• Mats Ingulstad
• Hans Otto Frøland

Political history concerns power and the exercise of power. What is the basis for and consequences of power, who decides and how is power exercised?

For more information, contact potential supervisors: ​​​​​​​

• Pål Thonstad Sandvik
• Espen Storli
• Karl Erik Haug
• Hans Otto Frøland
• Kristian Steinnes

Part of our task in the environmental humanities is to emphasize that the environment is not only a backdrop for human activities, and thus we are also interested in widening the notion of storytelling to make space for the perspectives of non-humans sharing the planet with us. The group also aims to build bridges from academia to the public arena, and to contribute to telling more varied stories about human relationships with the environment and other species.

For more information and contacts, see the Environmental humanities web page.

The interdisciplinary research group focuses on visual art, primarily Art History, Film Studies and film and art production. We hold that art, the work as well as processes of production and reception, creates, negotiates, and recreates culture. With a focus on gender and diversity, we investigate the complex interactions between the artist, the work of art, and art’s aesthetic and societal impact.

For more information and contacts, see the web site for Gender and the Arts.

Research group focusing on how artistic processes can be used in research and artistic research. The group comes out of Drama and Theatre and mainly studies dramaturgy, interactivity, participation, reception, affective-cognitive theories and aesthetic experiences.

Applications can be connected to areas such as:

• art pedagogical research
• performance and technology

For more information, see the group's Norwegian-language web site.

This year's announcement is only open for scentific doctoral work and must therefore belong within one of the four scientific PhD-programmes: Historical and Cultural Studies, Humanities and the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Language and Linguistics. The doctoral thesis may be written as either a monograph or a compendium of shorter scientific or academic papers that together forms a larger whole (commonly called an article-based thesis) or consist of a written component in combination with a product or production documented in a permanent format which combined must meet the requirements for an independent scientific piece of research.

Potential supervisors:

• ​​​​​​Heli Aaltonen
• Cecilie Haagensen
• Elena Perez
• Ine Therese Berg

Contact the Department for more information.

The Media, Data, Museums research group engages with historical media, cultural data, and/or museum collections and practices. It offers a supportive arena in which to practise research in its many stages, with a particular emphasis on enculturing PhD students.

Current projects and research topics include:

• the collection and preservation of popular music as cultural heritage
• the feminist legacy in art museums
• potentials for imagining other art histories through museum archives
• the impact of digitization on the sources of art history
• the hidden bias of metadata in digitized art collections

More information and contact details on The Media, Data, Museums research group's site

Contact the Department, for more information.

Contact the Department, for more information.

The interdisciplinary project ‘Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice’ (WoVen) brings together a research team dedicated to reimagining the links between women and European operatic culture in the eighteenth century.

WoVen explores the role of operatic women in the construction, representation, and reception of models for women in the eighteenth century. The project contextualizes the activities of female performers, composers, authors, theatre managers, patrons, and audience members within wider contemporary critical discourses about women’s education and place in society.

Project leader: Melania Bucciarelli.

The Research Group in Musicology/Ethnomusicology includes Melania Bucciarelli, Roman Hankeln, Thomas Hilder, John Howland, Nora Bilalovic Kulset, and Tore Størvold.

The group’s research spans topics from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century with specializations in:

• Western cultivated/concert music: Italian opera and musical theatre; medieval liturgical vocal music; and German Lieder.
• Popular music, jazz studies, and music in media
• Music, culture, identity: feminist, queer, postcolonial perspectives
• Music and the social sciences (cognition, psychology, health)
• Community music, well-being, and applied methods
• Ecomusicology and music in the environmental humanities

Research activities within music technology explores fertile meeting points between music performance and technological innovation. The focus is on exploring interaction and communication between digital and acoustic musicians, primarily in an improvisational context.

For more information, see the web site for music technology.

This year's announcement is only open for scentific doctoral work and must therefore belong within one of the four scientific PhD-programmes: Historical and Cultural Studies, Humanities and the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Language and Linguistics. The doctoral thesis may be written as either a monograph or a compendium of shorter scientific or academic papers that together forms a larger whole (commonly called an article-based thesis) or consist of a written component in combination with a product or production documented in a permanent format which combined must meet the requirements for an independent scientific piece of research.

Contact person: Andreas Bergsland

This year's announcement is only open for scentific doctoral work and must therefore belong within one of the four scientific PhD-programmes: Historical and Cultural Studies, Humanities and the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Language and Linguistics. The doctoral thesis may be written as either a monograph or a compendium of shorter scientific or academic papers that together forms a larger whole (commonly called an article-based thesis) or consist of a written component in combination with a product or production documented in a permanent format which combined must meet the requirements for an independent scientific piece of research.

Project leader: Michael Francis Duch

The research group looks at the teaching of instruments from beginner training in the municipal cultural schools to higher education.

For more information, see the group's Norwegian-language web site.

This year's announcement is only open for scentific doctoral work and must therefore belong within one of the four scientific PhD-programmes: Historical and Cultural Studies, Humanities and the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Language and Linguistics. The doctoral thesis may be written as either a monograph or a compendium of shorter scientific or academic papers that together forms a larger whole (commonly called an article-based thesis) or consist of a written component in combination with a product or production documented in a permanent format which combined must meet the requirements for an independent scientific piece of research.

This year's announcement is only open for scentific doctoral work and must therefore belong within one of the four scientific PhD-programmes: Historical and Cultural Studies, Humanities and the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and Language and Linguistics. The doctoral thesis may be written as either a monograph or a compendium of shorter scientific or academic papers that together forms a larger whole (commonly called an article-based thesis) or consist of a written component in combination with a product or production documented in a permanent format which combined must meet the requirements for an independent scientific piece of research.

Contact persons:

• Michael Francis Duch
• Erling Aksdal

Al­though undoub­tedly a cultural object, lan­guage is also a funda­men­tal part of the mind/brain of a human being, the constitution of which we refer to as a mental gram­mar. Changes in states of linguistic knowledge, be it in develop­ment (acqui­sition) or possible erosion over the life­span (attri­tion), exa­mined across complementary populations and multiple lan­guage com­binations (variation), provide crucial know­ledge about the organi­za­tion of mental gram­mars. AcqVA conducts research based on real-life situ­a­tions, re­flect­ing today’s globa­lized world where learning mul­tiple lan­guages at various points in the lifetime has become increasingly common. AcqVA’s vision is to provide ground­breaking data and novel theories that will sub­stan­tially increase our understanding of how mental gram­mars may vary, how they develop in children and adults, and change under condi­tions of reduced input and use.

About AcqVA.

Our group takes a closer look at the interaction between the language system and situational context, common background and various non-linguistic resources in different contexts and with both mother tongue users and second language users. One main goal is to investigate the Norwegian language as it is used in context, collaborate to systematically describe pragmatic functions, discuss various linguistic phenomena in the spoken and written language of first- and second-language users and initiate joint research projects.

Research group in pragmatics (Norwegian-language web site).

Contact persons:

• Pawel Urbanik
• Kaja Borthen

The Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab investigate the cognitive and neural underpinnings of language competence and use, how they change in the course of language development and throughout the lifespan, and how they are modulated, affected or compromised by developmental and other deficits.

The Lab is primarily dedicated to basic experimental research. The goal is to find out how humans develop their abilities to understand and reflect on the world around them and to communicate about it with others. Closely related are the questions of what young children know about language and the world. How do they think? How do they learn to use language?

About the Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab.

Starting from a socio-cultural perspective on language and communication, SKOP's main concern is to understand communicative practices through their context. The research attempts to bridge the gap between communicative practices and the societal discourses that surround them.

SKOP has worked closesly with the health and welfare sector, but projects have also involved industry, the police, higher education, translation and interpreted practice.

 SKOP's Norwegian-language web site.

Contact person:

• Gøril Thomassen Hammerstad

Anglophone Political Cultures is an interdisciplinary research group that combines elements of disciplines like Cultural Studies, History, and Politics to explore national, transnational, and comparative approaches to the history and political cultures of the English-speaking world.

Scholars in the group are involved in individual and collaborative projects on, for example:

• Political Writing and Print Cultures
• Political Parties in Britain and Europe
• Ideologies of Conservatism and Christian Democracy
• The History of the British Empire and Decolonisation
• Life Writing and Autobiography
• Literature and the Politics of the Past in Southern Africa

About Anglophone Political Cultures Research Group.

We are investigating the social construction of roles and norms in the judicial field, in memory politics and in literature.

The group has an interdisciplinary profile and explores decision-making processes related to situations of conflict and politically motivated violence. Our starting point is  to investigate how collective institutions (law, politics, memorials and museums) deal with such conflicts. Through the analysis of such institutional processes we seek to understand the dynamics of decision making and to reflect on the way ‘Bildung’ can be conceived of in our time.

‘Bildung’ in the age of algorithms

The research group has a common interest in how literature interacts with its medium and technological surroundings.

We are currently focusing on the following areas:

• Graphic literature
• Literature geography
• Literature and health
• Digital humanities
• Broadside ballads
• Modernism/modernity
• Media archaeology
• 19th century literature

The Norwegian-language web site for Literature, technology and media

Literary and Cultural Eighteenth-Century Studies» (LACES) is an interdisciplinary research group with interests in the connections between literature and cultural history in Europe (with an emphasis on Britain, France, Italy, and Scandinavia) in the long eighteenth century.  

Scholars in the group are involved in individual and collaborative projects on, for example:

• Literary and cultural representations of European lotteries
• Theatre history
• Transnational histories of the novel (translation, appropriation, adaptation)
• Periodical studies
• Book history and print culture
• Digital archives

About LACES.

The Center for Gender Research conducts interdisciplinary and socially relevant research, teaching and dissemination on gender, equality and diversity. The staff has backgrounds from various social sciences and humanities.

Key research areas at the center are:

•     Biopolitics and reproduction
•     Ethnicity, gender and equality
•     Gender, technology and science
•     ​​​​​​​Sexuality, gender and culture
•     ​​​​​​​Race, Indigeneity and Gender Research Group (RIG).

For more information on the Center for Gender Studies.

With a staff of 40 researchers, the centre is one of the major hubs for Science and Technology Studies (STS) in the Nordic region, and the centre's researchers lead and contribute to major national and international research projects.

A main goal of our research is to illuminate and provide understanding of cultural, political and social features of science and technology in modern society. With this focus we fill a vital scholarly gap overlooked by mainstream humanities and social sciences.

Research areas and interdisciplinary research centres

•     Biopolitics and reproduction
•     Energy, climate and environment
•     History of science and technology
•     Science governance
•     Digitalization and robotization of society

•     CenSES – Centre for Sustainable Energy Studies
•     CINELDI – Centre for Intelligent Electricity Distribution
•     ZEB – Zero Emission Buildings
•     ZEN – Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities

Read more about the Center for Technology and Society (STS)