Local and Historical Knowledge: Keys for Rethinking Contemporary Planetary Issues

On occasion of the annual Nils Klim Committee meeting, we are hosting a reception and academic event at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Four excellent young scholars from the Nordic countries, including three previous Nils Klim Laureates, are invited to reflect upon how the local knowledge they have encountered and the different geographical and historical spaces that they have conducted research within may inspire critical and ethico-politico approaches to tackle some of the great planetary problems we face in our time.

The event is open for all, but registration is required. The registration deadline is 16 January. (Please note: The livestream link is open to all and requires no registration.)

Registration

Abstract

The planet is burning, hard rain is pounding the Earth, epidemics are widespread, wars are fought, fish are gasping for oxygen, societies are divided by new forms of populism on the rise, children’s wellbeing is on the decline, the number of forced migrants is exploding, as exile and diaspora communities are growing. The list of geopolitical problems is extensive, and its scale seems to be worldwide. In addition, and perhaps as frightening, it seems as if we are running out of suggestions for understanding and intervening. Counter-narratives are therefore urgently needed.  

Instead of either shying away from these questions or suggesting to colonize the moon, this symposium aims to “stay with the trouble” and land on the earth. For, in distinct parts of the world, people continue to do important things worthy of our attention. The relationship between the local and the planetary, the now, past and future needs reconsideration. One way ahead, is to ask if and how local and indigenous, situated and historical knowledge may serve as precious frameworks and tools that assist us in understanding and living in the current time.  

The idea is not simply to go back to ways of thinking and handling originating in the past. Neither is the goal to suggest an extractive practice, where ancient or indigenous communities, cosmologies, and habits are conceived as just another source to tap. Rather, the aim is to consult local knowledge production and historical events in their own right, and as inspiring counternarratives to global or world-wide principles celebrated by the interpretative repertoire of modernity. 

This seminar invites four excellent young scholars from the Nordic countries, to reflect upon how the local knowledge they have encountered and the different geographical and historical spaces in which they have conducted research may contribute to inspire critical and ethico-politico approaches towards planetary problems and even contribute to planetary rethinking and solutions to planetary problems.

We ask: How can local and historical knowledge contribute to rethinking current, planetary issues? How may our critiques of the current here-and-know be informed by other times, other places, other cosmologies and alternative epistemologies? How may we foster inspiration, ethical collaboration and exchange across different times and spaces, and thereby recenter the epistemic spaces of the present?

Programme

Opening remarks 

Eco-Dependent: The Bible on Humans and Nature 
by Associate Professor Frederik Poulsen, University of Copenhagen.
2020 Nils Klim Laureate.

To Travel or Not to Travel? Ancient Perspectives on Human Mobility
by Professor Elisa Uusimäki, University of Aarhus.
2022 Nils Klim Laureate.

Lessons from Historical and Local Arctic Indigenous Perspectives
by Assistant Professor Aviâja Lyberth Hauptmann, Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland.

A Humanist Perspective on the Anthropocene: How Fiction Might Inform our Attitude Towards Climate Change   
by Associate Professor Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen, University of Aarhus.
2023 Nils Klim Laureate.

Panel discussion with the speakers 

Q&A

The event is chaired by Professor Dorthe Staunæs, University of Aarhus  
 

Speakers

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Frederik Poulsen

Eco-Dependent: The Bible on Humans and Nature

The climate crisis has urged us to reflect on our place in the world. Throughout history, Christianity has shaped the perception of humans as the centre of the universe and rulers over all other creatures. Nevertheless, the Bible contains many more and different perspectives on the relationship between humans and nature – perspectives that can be a source of inspiration and comfort in our present situation.

Bio

Frederik Poulsen is Associate Professor of the Old Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen. His research interests include migration and diaspora in the Bible, the prophetic literature, biblical theology and reception. In 2020, he was awarded The Nils Klim Prize and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters' Silver Medal. Currently, he is Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader of the project “Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism”.

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Elisa Uusimäki

To Travel or Not to Travel? Ancient Perspectives on Human Mobility

We know the CO2-issues of travel very well, but it also seems difficult to imagine a world in which we would not move around, or to give up the travel practices to which we are used in our everyday lives. In the past, too, people both travelled and thought about the implications and complex issues it entails. In this talk, drawing on my research on Jewish antiquity, I reflect on travel and its conditions, consequences, and ethics in the light of selected literary sources from the Mediterranean region.

Bio

Elisa Uusimäki is the 2022 Nils Klim laureate and works on the literary and cultural history of Judaism in antiquity. She hails from Finland but has been based in Denmark since 2020. Currently, she serves as a professor at the School of Culture and Society at Aarhus University and is the PI of the ERC project “An Intersectional Analysis of Ancient Jewish Travel Narratives” (Feb 2021 – Jan 2026). Uusimäki has published on topics such as early Jewish wisdom literature, lived ancient religion, gender and intersectionality, and cultural interaction in the ancient world.

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Aviâja Lyberth Hauptmann

Lessons from Historical and Local Arctic Indigenous Perspectives 

The Arctic - to some a cold desolate region and a manifestation of the climate crisis - to others home. Engaging with historical and local knowledge embedded in Arctic Indigenous food practices has not only forced me as a microbiologist to think far outside of microbiology, it has also given me a critical perspective on planetary solutions. In this talk I will present the argument, that the Arctic is more than a site of crisis, it is a culture from which we can gain important critical perspectives to dominant assumptions about sustainability and food systems. 

Bio

Aviâja Lyberth Hauptmann, Inuk from Greenland and Danish. I am trained as a biologist from the University of Copenhagen with a specialty in microbiology and a PhD from The Technical University of Denmark. Today I am an assistant professor at Ilisimatusarfik - The University of Greenland as well as UCPH The Globe Institute. My work revolves around the microbial and human cultures of Greenlandic foods, our relationships with our environment, our history and ourselves through food and microbes. I am invested in making spaces in academia that are safe and inspiring for diverse students, with particular focus on Indigenous students and STEM education.

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Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen

A Humanist Perspective on the Anthropocene: How Fiction Might Inform our Attitude Towards Climate Change   

This paper argues that since the current climate crisis is caused by humans, the problem should also be addressed by the humanities. Despite our knowledge about the devastating and escalating climatic situation we fail to act accordingly. In this paper, I suggest that fiction is a powerful tool of enlightenment and persuasion which might be a means to change attitudes towards the enormous challenges that stand before us.   

Bio

Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen is associate professor of Scandinavian literature at Aarhus University. She is the 2023 Nils Klim laureate. Her publications center on fiction and the 18th century, and she is currently running a research project on the relationship between science and fiction in the enlightenment. 

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Dorthe Staunæs 

Dorthe Staunæs will chair the event. Staunæs is Professor of Social Psychology at the Danish School of Education, Emdrup, Aarhus University. Her research focus on human becoming/subjectivity in the intersection of affects, diversity and educational organisation and politics.  Staunæs is also a member of the Nils Klim Committee.