AAE is an interdisciplinary research group situated at IFR. We 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. The group´s main goal is to provide a new interdisciplinary platform at NTNU, enabling members to share, discuss and advance both theoretical and empirical research on these shared topics.

Group members at AAE

The research group in practical philosophy does research in practical philosophy in a broad sense, but with special emphasis on ethics and political philosophy.
The members of the research group have comprehensive proficiency in philosophy and interdisciplinary research. The group’s research interests include value theory, normative ethics, political philosophy, and metaethics, and include topics such as: Animal ethics, bioethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental philosophy, ethics of technology, feminist philosophy, medical ethics, needs, philosophy of education, republicanism, responsible research and innovation, theory of democracy, and trust.
The research group meets regularly to discuss its members’ research. We also organize a yearly workshop with presentations and discussion.

Members of the research group (site in Norwegian).

Research areas/ research interests:

Artificial intelligence is increasingly affecting human and social lives, in diverse domains. As it does so, pressing ethical and political concerns about accountability, responsibility, and power arise. These concerns are connected with, and should be informed by, basic questions about what forms of understanding, intelligence, and communication that AI systems make possible or engender. NTNU’s research group on AI, ethics, and philosophy brings together philosophers, social scientist, and technologists exploring these foundational issues about AI.

From the point of view of ethics and social studies of technology, topics of concern include the liability to bias in AI systems; their role in facilitating surveillance; how they shift the power balance among private citizens, the state, and major corporations; how they enable large-scale, systematic manipulation and deception. Questions of interest here also include the hopes that have been voiced by some for morally salutary role of AI creating so-called moral machines or fostering moral enhancement.

From the point of view of theories of computation, cognition, and communication, in theoretical computer science, cognitive science, and philosophy, questions explored include what forms of meaning, understanding, or representation that can be attributed to AI systems. This bears on the issue of what sorts of explanation or intelligibility increasingly opaque AI systems may admit of. Notably, it bears upon the extent to which such systems properly can be explained in broadly common-sense or agent-like terms, an issue that must inform what notions of accountability that have application.

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

Theoretical-philosophical: Cognition/ philosophy of mind; neuroscience/consciousness; 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.  

The current core group consists of faculty at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, NTNU. Masters students are also very welcome to attend. In addition to providing a forum for discussion of issues within theoretical philosophy, we arrange guest lectures, assist each other in our individual writing projects, and work on collaborative project proposals.

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.

We welcome researchers interested in social and political philosophy with a focus on differences in society. These differences can address class, gender, racialization, disability, sexuality, justice and equality, and global imperialism and can be presented from philosophical perspectives such as phenomenology, political theory, critical theory, critical social theory, existentialism, history of philosophy, or other related schools of thought.
The group seeks to enable and strengthen dialogue within the department, across universities, and with other fields of study working on these questions. The group’s main goal is to provide an organized framework for researchers working on feminist philosophy in a broad sense, enabling members to share, discuss and advance both theoretical and empirical research on these shared topics.

The Research Group organizes workshops, paper presentations, reading sessions and seminars. The group consists mainly of faculty at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, NTNU. Masters students are also very welcome to attend. In addition to providing a forum for discussion of issues within identities of difference and oppression, we arrange guest lectures, assist each other in our individual writing projects, and work on collaborative project proposals. We collaborate with Forum for Feminist Philosophy at the Department, and the interdisciplinary NTNU Gender Hub.

Research Group for Feminist and Decolonial Philosophies (FDP)

The Research Group for Experimental Philosophy of Language is carrying out experimental work to shed light on issues traditionally thought of as falling under philosophy of language. The group is focusing on the theory of reference, both in developing new experimental methods to study semantic reference, as well as carrying out such experimental studies, using a range of different methods.

Core members:
Jussi Haukioja (IFR)
Jeske Toorman (IFR)
Giosuè Baggio (ISL)

Collaborators:
Jussi Jylkkä (Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland)
Daniel Cohnitz (Philosophy, Utrecht University, The Netherlands)

Contact person: Jussi Haukioja (IFR)

Research Group for Experimental Philosophy of Language

CONNOR (Nordic Network of Conspiracy Theories Research)

CONNOR is a network for academic research on conspiracy theories. The group seeks to develop and strengthen the interdisciplinary study of conspiracy theories with a particular focus on the historical and contemporary Nordics (countries of the Nordic Council) within the global flow of conspiracy narratives. We are broadly interested in the expressions, antecedents and consequences of conspiracy theories, as well as re-search into possible remedial activities relating to beliefs. We welcome participants from all relevant academic fields. The network is open to researchers in the Nordics who study conspiracy theories in general, and to international researchers who study conspiracy theories in or about the Nordics.
 
Current research areas

• Mapping the prevalence and predictors of conspiracy beliefs in the Nordic countries.
• The weaponization of conspiracy beliefs in mis- and disinformation ac-tivities, with special focus on Covid-19 and on the Russian war against Ukraine.
• Conspiracy theories and adolescence, relating especially to how to ad-dress conspiracy theories in educational settings.
• Media and conspiracy theories

In order to apply for PhD-positions at the Faculty of Humanities connected to this group, candidates must be hosted by and have a main supervisor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Contact person: Asbjørn Dyrendal

Conspiracy theories have shown to breed distrust and hatred, weaken critical thinking and democractic engagement. They are also tied to social withdrawal and weakened mental health. This research group looks at conspiracy thinking in Norwegian schools and among Norwegian youth.

Contact person: Asbjørn Dyrendal

KONSPISK: Konspirasjonstenkning, skole og ungdom

The project wants to uncover what is required for larger interdisciplinary projects that work with the exploration of technology as a learning tool and department-oriented initiatives to be implemented in learning practices on campus. Specifically, the project will look at the use of low-cost VR as a case study, evaluating how VR technology as a diversifying form of learning can be taken from test to implementation. They will investigate how to benefit from active collaboration between technology, science and the humanities and social sciences when it comes to technology-supported teaching. This will be exemplified by the use of VR.

Potential supervisors:
Martin Callanan
Heidrun Stebergløkken
 

The Environmental Archaeology research group seeks to enhance the knowledge of human animal interactions throughout prehistory and early history, taking a point of departure in the unique collections housed at the NTNU University Museum and bringing together an interdisciplinary node of expertise. The group wishes to advance research on thematic areas, such as:

​​​•    climatic change and environmental variability in spatial and temporal contexts
•    cultural resilience, adaptations, and transformations in changing environments
•    environmental impacts on human societies and animals  
•    human and animal transformations to domesticated lifestyles   
•    resource management and the role of outfield resources in a long-time-perspective
•    foodway dichotomies of rural and urban medieval life   
•    climatic and environmental impact of cultural monuments and sites  

The group explores epistemological and ontological pathways to understand issues of core importance to studying ecological questions of the past such as deep time, adaptability, and resilience.  

Projects and research questions are approached by way of multidisciplinary and/or multiproxy studies, employing methods such as: 14C dating, stable isotope analysis, palaeo-genomics, RNA, proteomics (including ZooMS\peptide fingerprinting), osteology, trace analysis and distribution of raw materials, pXRF with different materials at hand: archaeological sites, features and artifacts, human and animal bones, macro- and microfossil and other sediment analyses.

Contacts at IHK: Martin Callanan; Marek E. Jasinski; Heidrun Stebergløkken; Ingrid Ystgaard.

IAK: James Barrett; Hein Bjartmann Bjerck; Heidi Mjelva Breivik; Axel Christophersen; Merete Moe Henriksen; Torkel Johansen; Birgitte Skar. NLD: Bente Philippsen; Martin Seiler; Helene Svarva. INH: Mike Martin; Sarah Martin  Postdocs: Danni Buss; Katrien Dierickx; Mohsen Falahati Anbaran ; Youri van den Hurk. PhD students: Eleni Diamanti; Monica Nordanger Enehaug; Skule Spjelkavik; Lisa Mariann Strand; Elisabeth Forrestad Swensen.

The group has monthly meetings.

The group is recently established, and is built around the chronological periods of the Stone Age (9500-1700 BCE) and Bronze Age (1700-500 BCE), and seeks to shed light on themes within and across these time periods. The period spans over 9000 years, during which major upheavals of a ritual, social, political and economic nature take place, and the landscape and climatic conditions for settlement and resource exploitation change. Cultural remains from the Old Stone Age in the region primarily include traces of settlement. Towards the end of the period, rock art also becomes a category.

A research focus on the Neolithic may broaden our perspectives on the periods both before and after: knowledge about settlement and resource use/economy can be followed upwards in time from the Old Stone Age, and issues related to ritual and social practices can be drawn back in time. In this way, two slightly different research traditions can enrich each other, while at the same time bringing the really long lines of prehistory to light.

The group consists of researchers at IHK and IAK (NTNU University Museum) and meets about once a month.

Contact person:
Heidrun Stebergløkken

The research group conducts research on political culture and petition culture in the early modern period and modern history. The group collaborates with other universities on future research projects, teaching and seminar series on petition culture in the early modern period and modern history.

Members: Anne Engelst Nørgaard and Magne Njåstad.​​​​​​​

Description and aims:
The Global Europe Research Group encompasses senior and junior academics researching and teaching on modern and contemporary Europe in a global context. The group aims to foster a regular and cross-disciplinary research environment for modernists and political scientists based at IHK but also for those academic outside IHK with strong teaching/research links with us here.

The Global Europe Research Group’s objectives are to:
-    Foster monthly research dialogue among its members,
-    Develop (internal and external) synergies for research/teaching funding applications/collaboration in the near future (e.g. DIKU, Jean Monnet Actions, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions),
-    Provide an intellectual home for PhD candidates to present their research and gain from constructive feedback,
-    Explore Europe (and its historical and contemporary relations with the wider world) through different disciplinary lenses from the 19th century through to the present day.

Initial group membership:
Jennifer Baumann, PhD researcher, IHK
Anna Brigevich, Associate Professor, IHK
Steffi de Jong, Associate Professor, IHK
Madalina Dobrescu, Research Fellow, IHK (REDEMOS)
Michael Geary, Professor, IHK (co-lead)
Carine Germond, Professor, IHK (co-lead)
Kristine Graneng, PhD researcher, IHK
Valentin Lutumbe, PhD Researcher, IHK (REDEMOS)
Monica Miscali, Associate Professor, IHK
Lise Rye, Professor, IHK
Tobias Schumacher, Professor, IHK
Zane Síme, (affiliated) PhD researcher, IHK
Elisabeth Stennes Skaar, PhD researcher, IHK
Synnøve Stølen, PhD researcher, IHK
Ragnar Wieland, Postdoctoral fellow, IHK (REDEMOS)

Jointly agreed collaboration with the ISL-based ‘Anglophone Political Cultures Research Group’, co-led by Gary Love, Professor, ISL and Astrid Rash, Associate Professor, ISL. The collaboration between the two groups will entail, for example, reciprocal invitation to the groups’ research seminar to discuss issues in modern history and politics, joint research activity. This will enable the two groups’ members to increase connections, grow our local networks, exploit new opportunities as they arise, and facilitate graduate and post-graduate students’ access to expertise in both groups,.

External members: Assem Dandashly, Maastricht University (co-supervisor S. Stølen); Christos Kourtelis, Loughborough University (from summer 2023 Athens University).

The group membership is open and may be expanded to new internal/external members beyond those listed above.

Tentative meeting schedule:
Kickstart meeting Monday 19 June 2023, 10:00 and monthly thereafter from August 2023.

Potential supervisors:

Michael Geary, Professor, IHK (co-lead)

Carine Germond, Professor, IHK (co-lead)

Description:
GCRG unites colleagues at the Department of Historical and Classical Studies who focus on local manifestations of the global process of coloniality and decoloniality. Our present focus is on the Transatlantic slave trade, colonial empire, and the colonisation of indigenous peoples. Specifically, our group aims to create new knowledge and understanding of the histories and materiality of Danish-Norwegian coloniality internally and globally. Our multidisciplinary group includes perspectives and methods from archaeology, heritage studies, and history. This disciplinary mix allows the group to empirically explore and analyse colonial relations from different spatial and temporal, as well as post- and decolonial perspectives, for example colonising relationships between Norse and Sami communities in Scandinavia during the Iron Age, Middle Ages, and the Early Modern Period; and between the many groups involved in the Transatlantic slave trade in the early modern to the modern period.

Objectives:
Our group aims to submit a NORPART application in September 2023. NORPART is a Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation. We have already had a NORPART project with Ghanaian HEIs and seek to continue this project in a new form. Although the objective of NORPART is to enhance the quality of higher education, it will also facilitate the research of GCRG. It will allow us to cooperate closely with Ghanaian colleagues in research connected with our shared past. It will provide an arena to discuss and develop larger research projects. Finally, it will allow us to integrate Norwegian and Ghanaian students into our research through MA theses.
In cooperation with colleagues at the University of Ghana, three research group members have already developed a Norwegian Research Council (NRC) application focusing on Danish-Norwegian activities on the Gold Coast during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The group aims to develop further and resubmit this application.
The group aims to continue its focus on the external and internal colonisation processes of Denmark-Norway. This focus would suit a more extensive workshop and publication (anthology or special issue).

Alignment with the department’s strategy:
Research: GCRG plans to apply for external funding from HK-DIR and NFR. It will contribute to the department’s investigation into colonial and, particularly, indigenous history.  
Education: GCRG is internationally oriented, and our NORPART project will have intercultural competence as an essential component in its design. NORPART could also directly contribute to the internationalisation of our study programs. More research on indigenous history and materiality will be a valuable contribution to developing several study programs at the department.
The group also have an ambition to connect with NTNU’s new strategic research area “Fellesskap”. Through its focus on colonialism, it can address “skyggesider ved fellesskap, som nasjonalistisk sjåvinisme, manglende global solidaritet, polarisering, utenforskap og konflikt.”
 

Activities:
The members of GCRG (Callanan, Hove and Osei-Tutu) have a history of cooperation, which includes NORPART projects, several NRC applications and strategic funding from IHS (https://spormagasin.no/2020/08/arkeologisk-geofysikk-pa-vest-afrikas-kyst/). This group have met regularly (but not as a formal group) for several years. (Despite Osei-Tutu’s research leave in 2023/24, the group has stayed in contact, and Hove and Osei-Tutu have met twice in Ghana.) Including Østhus will bring valuable perspectives, insights, and networks to the group.
The group will formalise its activities through regular monthly meetings and more frequent meetings during application writing. These meetings will provide an arena where a potential PhD-candidate can participate. We will also welcome other HF members from IHK and other departments to our activities.
The first milestone for the group will be the NORPART application deadline on the 20th of September 2023.

Members:

John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu

Martin Callanan

Hanne Østhus

Jon Olav Hove

The research group "Museology and Museum Research" is based on grassroots research in the humanities (citizen humanities) and practice research in close collaboration with museums and other cultural heritage institutions. Grassroots research in the humanities produces knowledge about the past and present with the participation of individuals and groups in society. Practice research produces knowledge by uniting the work of the hand and thought as a research method in fields of practice. The research group's focus is grassroots research in the humanities and practice research that takes place in museum work, such as craft work, curatorial work and dissemination and management work.

The purpose of the research group is to support and develop museological research and museum research in the form of 1) grassroots research in the humanities that takes place in the area between the museum sector and the university and university college sector; 2) practical research that takes place in and through various forms of museum work; 3) historical and theoretical investigations of the above research practices.

For more information, see the group's website: https://www.ntnu.no/ihk/museologi-og-museumsforskning

Contacts:

Mattias Bäckström

Insa Müller

The group's main focus is on the intersection of art and politics in the two "classical" eras of antiquity and the 1700s, and develops a common research method around what the group calls recreations of various research objects, primarily music through performances and texts through re-creations, often published in the Kanon series, a collaboration between NTNU and Gyldendal Norsk Forlag under Thorsen's leadership.

Kanon-series

The sister festivals S.P.O.R and Barokkfest function as the research group's combined laboratory and dissemination platform. The group includes a Marie Curie fellow and several fellows and researchers.

Co-leads: Thea Selliaas Thorsen and Martin Wåhlberg.

Contact person at IHK: Thea Selliaas Thorsen

Description and aims:
The research group will focus on perceptions of European mobility and migration within the Scandinavian countries, from a historical and contemporary perspective. Migration is one of the central topics of modern societies and understanding it both from a historical and contemporary perspective is essential. Perceptions of who European migrants are and what European mobility and migration entail are central to how preferences on migration are formed and how policy on migration is developed. The project seeks to contribute to our understanding of these perceptions today, how they have developed over time and their political implications.

The Mimosa’s objectives are to:

• Study the impact of migration on the Nordic model,
• Study the impact the treatment of different migrant groups, for instance with regards to origins and gender,
• Broaden the network to include academics from other disciplines, such as linguistics, ethnology, economy and law,
• Build an international network of researchers,
• Establish new connections internationally,
• Provide an intellectual home for PhD candidates to present their research and gain from constructive feedback,
• Secure external funding both at national (NFR) and European level (Horizon Europe).

Potential supervisors:

Anna Brigevich, Associate Professor, IHK

Monica Miscali, Associate Professor, IHK

Lise Rye, Professor, IHK

Other members:

Anna Gora, Postdoc, IHK
Kristine Graneng, PhD researcher, IHK

The basis for the formation of the research group was a desire to look at the political, economic and social consequences that followed in the wake of changing economic, demographic and environmental conditions in the late Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages have traditionally been portrayed as a time of crisis in which the national elites– in contrast to the rest of the population – were not really able to meet the challenges posed by the demographic decline and the accompanying changes in economic conditions. This has then been linked to political powerlessness, often collectively described as "Norway's decline". This understanding of Norwegian society in the late Middle Ages has been consistently conveyed through reviews, and in schools and popular history for several generations. However, recent research has nuanced this picture.

In line with an international development in which the late Middle Ages are considered an important and "normal" historical period, the research group examines the interaction between the political sphere on the one hand and the economic and social spheres on the other. The relationship between resources, technology and society is also part of this "new" research on the late Middle Ages. The purpose of the research group is to develop projects where we investigate the Norwegian elite's restructuring strategies in the face of changing economic, demographic and environmental conditions in the period ca. 1350-1650. The elite's relationship with the rest of the population will be at the center of the research. Not just contradictions, but just as much the connection – or cooperation – between representatives of different social groups both through political-administrative as well as more personal ties, women as well as men, and for both the Sami and the Norwegian population.

For more information, contact Randi B. Wærdahl, randi.werdahl@ntnu.no, phone no. + 47 73 59 64 37.

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

Southern Sami history has been controversial – and little explored. Our ambition is to analyse the development of South Sami society and its interaction and conflicts with the Norwegian majority society. This includes political governance, management of natural resources, law enforcement, religion, military relations and the development of a South Sami identity.

Potential supervisors: ​​​​​​​

• Pål Thonstad Sandvik
• Espen Storli

The research group is working to understand how war (and civil war) has arisen, the nature of the conflicts and their consequences, in an interaction between political, technological, economic and social phenomena. More than the course of the war, the research is generally concerned with understanding the social conditions and social effects of war in the short and long term. Within this perspective is included memory studies and studies of the function of narratives.

The research activity is linked to several ongoing projects and themes:
•    World War 1 and World War 2 and their effects
•    Occupation studies
•    Norwegian foreign and security policy
•    International organizations
•    Economic warfare: resources and war
•    Blockade as a strategy and its effects

Potential supervisors:

• Maria Fritsche
• Jonas Scherner
• Hans Otto Frøland
• Karl Erik Haug
• George Chabert

Projects in this area study processes and phenomena in Europe after 1945. The activities contribute to increasing knowledge and understanding of trans- and international political, social, economic and cultural processes in Europe and an increasingly interconnected world. The activity therefore covers how European countries and Europe collectively relate to globalisation processes.

1) Transnational activity in the EU (and its precursors):

• Transnational political cooperation after 1945. The research is linked to the project 'Shaping Europe: (ShapEU) – Interdependence, integration and transnational political parties 1945–2020'. The focus of this research is political internationals (Liberal International, Christian democratic and conservative parties, socialist and social democratic parties and green parties) and their role in the post-1945 European integration process.
• Transnational cooperation on environmental and nature protection after 1945
• Great Britain and the European integration process after 1945

2) Other topics within Norwegian and European contemporary history

Potential supervisors:

​​​

• Kristian Steinnes
• Hans Otto Frøland
• Mats Ingulstad

Human activity has significantly altered the geology of our planet. Climate change and human engagement with it will determine the future of life on Earth. The urgency of this predicament, although widely perceived and lamented, has yet to yield the kind of global consensus-based actions that existing science tells us will be necessary to reverse, slow, or even successfully adapt to the changes to our world already underway. The concept of the Anthropocene increasingly figures in humanities reaserch, as more scholars join this vast transdisciplinary project to give this topic its due.

We in the humanities know that narratives are not merely instruments of direct, objective communication. We are proficient in the language of stories: we bring our knowledge of aesthetics, representation, and emotional engagement to this endeavour. The stories we tell about our world are important and deserve all the tools at our disposal as we work to shape a sustainable future. Environmental Humanities at NTNU seeks to establish a network for environmental humanities scholars across the disciplines and departments of our institution, and to enable and support the development of research beyond NTNU.

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.

Our projects cover:
1.    Artists. Under this headline, we discuss what happens to the production of meaning and identity when the authoritative and masculine position of the artist is challenged.
2.    Representations. Under this rubric, we ask ourselves how different kinds of art works, through formal qualities, themes, and production contexts, are shaped by and challenge dominant discourses of identity
3.    Institutions. This refers to studies of how art works by women are valued in critical discourse and represented in public space and cultural narratives.

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

The art-based research group investigates knowledge formation through scenic action, theatre performance processes and aesthetic experiences. Artistic discussions are addressed, such as the documentary in art production and the relationship between artistic activity and lived experience. Performances as well as workshop practice can be the basis for research and for the dissemination of results.

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

The Media, Data, Museums research group is based in the Department of Art and Media Studies, NTNU. Group members pursue collaborative as well as individual research projects that explore the nexus of media, data, and museums from historical as well as contemporary perspectives.

Media, Data, Museums supports research that engages with historical media, cultural data, and/or museum collections and practices. The group offers a capacious and inclusive umbrella for a wide range of research topics and approaches, and a supportive arena in which to practise research in its many stages, with a particular emphasis on enculturing PhD students.

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

This group’s mission is to bridge documentary theory and practice through experimentation. We experiment with theoretical concepts and models to generate new insight into the workings of documentary media in contemporary culture. We engage with creative documentary practices to communicate novel perspectives about the world we live in. At the core of the work conducted at CreaDoc is the idea that creative documentary forms do not only show and tell what has been or what is; they actively shape the limits of the real and push reality to actualise in new ways.

CreaDoc supports the research and creative productions of its members across all documentary media. It hosts symposia, screenings and workshops, and provides an institutional platform for the development of scholarly and artistic projects.

Contact person: Ilona Hongisto

Potential supervisors:

• Anne Gjelsvik
• Anne Marit Myrstad
• Christer Bakke Andresen
• Eva Bakøy

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

The group’s research spans topics from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century with specializations in:
•    Music, culture, identity: feminist, queer, postcolonial perspectives
•    Ecomusicology and music in the environmental humanities
•    Popular music, jazz studies, and music in media
•    Music, health, and well-being
•    Community music
•    Dance, music, and health
•    Western cultivated/concert music: Italian opera and musical theatre; medieval liturgical vocal music; and German Lieder.

Contact: Thomas Hilder

The group focuses on the artistic potential in:

• Cross-genre musical expressions, sound art, new musical instruments and other performance technologies
• New forms of interaction and cooperation for music and art performance

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

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.

The "secret" behind Jazzlinja's success has always been auditory and musical imitation methodology, or what jazz musicians call planking. Planking is learning musical languages by ear, without the use of sheet music, simply by imitating and embodying sounding music.

We welcome project applications in the following areas:
1) practical-pedagogical perspectives on planking and how musical language learning is further developed in ensemble playing.
2) the relationship between planking and artistic research.
3) Planking and auditory ensemble learning as university teaching practices.
4) epistemological aspects of planking and auditory ensemble learning, and the form of knowledge these represent in relation to other forms of knowledge.

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

Projects within ecomusicology address the role and position of music in the mutual relationship between society, nature and culture. A starting point for this field is that music and sound-based art can influence our attitudes and our relationship with the natural world. Ecocritical music research aims to emphasize musical practice as a resource for teaching us to think, live and, not least, act differently to save the planet, e.g. by being co-creators of new and more forward-looking values.

Contact person: Tore Størvold.

AcqVA is a joint UiT/NTNU research group that works on the basis of the following purpose and vision: Humans are seemingly unique in the animal kingdom in that we have language; systems enabling communication about any topic, be it past, present or future. In fact, humans are not limited to one language, but can acquire several under the right conditions. 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.

In the Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab we investigate the cognitive and neural bases of human language competence and use, with a focus on syntax, semantics and pragmatics from words to discourse.

The research falls into two broad intersecting areas:

Language acquisition — studying how language and literacy skills change during cognitive development and throughout the lifespan, and how they are modulated or compromised by developmental deficits.

Language processing — studying how spoken and written language comprehension unfold in real time, how they are realised in multiple brain systems, and how they are affected by neurological conditions.

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. The group consists of scholars based in the English section at the Department of Language and Literature and a network of scholars from other universities in Norway, Denmark, and the United Kingdom who work on Anglophone political cultures in some shape or form.

About Anglophone Political Cultures Research Group.

The research group consists of scholars of literature and culture from ISL, UiO and Centre Georg Simmel, EHESS, Paris. The group investigates 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. The starting point of ‘Buildung’ in the Age of Algorithms is to investigate how collective institutions (law, politics, memorials and museums) deal with such conflicts. Through the analysis of such institutional processes the members of the group 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

Literature, Technology and Media is a research group with a common interest in how literature interacts with its medial and technological environments. The relationship between literature, technology and media is extensive and touches on a number of different areas of study: Materially and historically, the group is concerned with how literature has followed the development of writing and printing technologies. In terms of expression, it examines hybrid forms where text, sound and image are combined. Thematically, it focuses on how literary texts portray the relationship between mankind and its media/technologies.

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 research group explores representations of next of kin in different media, with emphasis on literature and art, and the group's members are interested in investigating which insights literature and art can give us in issues related to health, care and community. The group also looks at what this perspective on literature and art can highlight about these topics. The group’s primary focus is literary texts (including non-fiction, children's and young adult literature and comics), but is also interested in film, visual arts and other media and art forms. The research group is based on literary studies, but works interdisciplinary and enters into dialogue with research fields such as cultural studies, care ethics, narrative medicine, graphic medicine, humanistic health research (Health/Medical Humanities) and educational research.

Norwegian-language website: https://www.ntnu.no/isl/paarorende/litteraturogkunst

The SOCIAL Research group investigates various linguistic and semiotic phenomena, while considering the inherent multimodal, multilingual, semiotic diversity that characterizes systematic as well as emergent practices across various interactional environments. Attitudes towards and ideologies underlying these practices are equally at the heart of what the group discusses. SOCIAL studies these issues using different methods, including but not limited to corpus-based studies, surveys, ethnographic methods like interviews and participant observation, conversation analysis, and discourse analysis.The main aim is to provide a detailed picture of the languaging practices found within and across different interactional settings, while respecting diverse ways of being.

Web site: https://www.ntnu.edu/isl/social-semiotics-of-communication-in-interactive-languaging

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)

The Centre for Medieval Studies is the Faculty of Humanities' strengthened focus on the Middle Ages until 2030. The centre is led by Professor of Medieval History Erik Opsahl, and coordinates research, teaching and dissemination of the Middle Ages in its breadth. The centre has an interdisciplinary approach to the Middle Ages, and researchers from a number of disciplines are affiliated with the centre. These disciplines include history, archaeology, art history, languages, literature, musicology, philosophy and the classical studies. Applications across all these fields are welcomed.

Contact person: Erik Opsahl