New research centre at UiS: The Greenhouse

The Greenhouse was established as a research group in 2017 and quickly distinguished itself worldwide as a leading professional environment for environmental humanities. On its fifth anniversary, The Greenhouse is moving on, now as a research centre at UiS.

– By establishing The Greenhouse as a research centre, the university demonstrates its understanding that the humanities can contribute both values ​​and value creation through a basic way of thinking. It also shows an understanding that green transition is not a final destination, but an ongoing process of change, says Dolly Jørgensen.

The establishment of The Greenhouse as a research centre is a significant contribution to realizing the ambitions of both UiS and the Faculty of Education and Humanities, particularly with regard to green transition.

– Joy and congratulations are my immediate responses to yet another confirmation of the good development of The Greenhouse. This highly competent research environment is an excellent example of how our strategic ambition for a green transition can be broadly embraced, across faculties and professional environments, says Klaus Mohn, rector at UiS.

At the crossroads between nature, technology and social structures

The researchers associated with The Greenhouse interrogate various questions about the interaction between nature and technology, and the research in The Greenhouse is similarly placed at this intersection between nature, technology and social structures and uses several disciplines to cultivate new professional and social connections with nature.

– We quickly discovered when we came to UiS in 2017 that many people were working on issues within the environmental humanities. Surprisingly many, says Finn Arne Jørgensen.

The centre aims to support a growing group of academics who use history, literature, media, religion, philosophy and art to understand how people relate to nature and the environment. As an intellectual meeting place, The Greenhouse wants to build connections between academics, museums, interest groups and the public interested in environmental issues.

Since the research group's inception in 2017, The Greenhouse has offered a way to bring people together, aiming to achieve something more than what they can do individually.

– I think we have succeeded. Many people want to contribute their research to The Greenhouse, says Finn Arne Jørgensen.

Great importance for further work

– The Greenhouse already has significant status within its field, and as a centre, we will continue on the path we have already started. In a way, it is simply about continuing the work we have started, and that we have now formalized the way of working we have built up. As a research centre, international dialogue and collaboration become less complicated, and we will be more clearly part of an international research environment, says Dolly Jørgensen.

She emphasizes that gaining centre status has far-reaching significance when it comes to being able to attract research projects and professional talent. The two centre managers are happy that the establishment of a research centre that works with issues within the environmental humanities has been added to UiS. Non-traditional perspective on highly topical societal challenges

– We see that UiS is a microcosm, it includes contradictions. Carrying out environmental humanities research when we have the legacy of being an 'oil university' makes it incredibly interesting to explore the questions we work on within the environmental humanities precisely from here, says Finn Arne Jørgensen.

Klaus Mohn follows up on this:

– The Greenhouse offers a non-traditional perspective on highly topical societal challenges. This provides valuable contributions to the diversity of knowledge we need to improve our understanding of the world around us.

– The challenges we face as a society are great. We need the humanistic aspect in place, we need to understand why we have arrived where we have, and how we can move forward. Now that The Greenhouse has become a research centre at UiS, it shows an understanding that humanistic research can contribute both values ​​and value creation through a basic way of thinking. It also shows an understanding that green transition is not a final destination, but a process of change, says Dolly Jørgensen.

Text: Kristin Vestrheim Cranner. Photo: Elisabeth Tønnessen.