Recent publications

What is the imagined north? Ethical principles

by Daniel Chartier

Published on 8 August 2018

If we wish to understand what the “North” is in an overall perspective, we must ask ourselves two questions: how do images define the North, and which ethical principles should govern how we consider Northern cultures in order to have a complete view (including, in particular, those that have been undervalued by the South)? In this article, I try to address these two questions, first by defining what is the imagined North and then by proposing an inclusive program to “recomplexify” the cultural Arctic.

Multilingual edition in English, but also in Yakut, Norwegian, Russian, Danish, French, Swedish, and Northern Sami.

Arctic Modernities. The Environmental, the Exotic and the Everyday

by Heidi Hansson and Anka Ryall (eds.)

Published on 1 November 2017

Less tangible than melting polar glaciers or the changing social conditions in northern societies, the modern Arctic represented in writings, visual images and films has to a large extent been neglected in scholarship and policy-making. However, the modern Arctic is not only a natural environment dramatically impacted by human activities. It is also an incongruous amalgamation of exoticized indigenous tradition and a mundane everyday. The chapters in this volume examine the modern Arctic from all these perspectives.

Ice: Nature and culture

by Klaus Dodds

Published on 15 July 2018

In Ice: Nature and Culture Klaus Dodds provides a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural, natural and geopolitical history of ice, revealing how throughout history human communities have made sense of ice. For those who are intrigued about our relationship with ice, this book will provide an informative and thought-provoking guide.

arctic environmental modernities: from the age of polar exploration to the era of the anthropocene

by Lill-Ann Körber, Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerståhl Stenport (eds.)

Published on 20 February 2017

This book offers a diverse and groundbreaking account of the intersections between modernities and environments in the circumpolar global North, foregrounding the Arctic as a critical space of modernity, where the past, present, and future of the planet’s environmental and political systems are projected and imagined.

LITERARY SECOND CITIES

by Jason Finch, Lieven Ameel and Markku Salmela (eds.)

Published on 24 November 2017

This book brings together geographers and literary scholars in a series of engagements near the boundaries of their disciplines. In urban studies, disproportionate attention has been given to a small set of privileged ‘first’ cities. This volume problematizes the dominance of such alpha cities, offering a wide perspective on ‘second cities’ and their literature.

contesting the Arctic: politics and imaginaries in the circumpolar north

by Philip E. Steinberg, Jeremy Tasch and Hannes Gerhardt

Published on 30 March 2015

As climate change makes the Arctic a region of key political interest, so questions of sovereignty are once more drawing international attention. Contesting the Arctic provides a map of potential governance options for the Arctic and addresses and evaluates the ways in which Arctic stakeholders throughout the region are seeking to pursue them.

films on ice: Cinemas of the arctic

Published on 19 December 2014

by Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerstål Stenport (eds.)

The first book to address the vast diversity of Northern circumpolar cinemas from a transnational perspective, Films on Ice presents the region as one of great cinematic diversity. Challenging dominant notions of the region in popular and political culture, it demonstrates how moving images have been central to the very definition of the Arctic since the end of the nineteenth century.

stories in a new skin: approaches to inuit literature

by Keavy Martin

Published on 1 November 2012

In an age where southern power-holders look north and see only vacant polar landscapes, isolated communities, and exploitable resources, it is important to note that the Inuit homeland encompasses extensive philosophical, political, and literary traditions. Stories in a New Skin is a seminal text that explores these Arctic literary traditions and, in the process, reveals a pathway into Inuit literary criticism.

The postcolonial north atlantic: Iceland, Greenland and the faroe islands

by Lill-Ann Körber and Ebbe Volquardsen (eds.)

Published on 4 November 2014

The complex aftermaths of Denmark’s sovereignty over its North Atlantic territories and their ongoing nation building processes lie at the core of this book. By examining the region from cultural, literary, historical, political, anthropological and linguistic perspectives, the articles in this book shed light on Nordic colonialism and its understanding, and challenge and modify established notions of postcolonialism.

Å Finne sted: Metodologistke perspektiver i stedsanalyser

by Anniken Førde, Britt Kramvig, Nina Gunnerud Berg and Britt Dale (eds.)

Published in 2013

Denne vitenskapelige antologien presenterer ulike inntak til studier av steder. Å forstå komplekse stedlige sammenhenger krever mange og tverrfaglige tilnærminger. Boka gir en gjennomgang av forskjellige stedsteorier samt hvordan disse anvendes i praksis. Metodologiske utfordringer for ulike forskningstradisjoner adresseres eksplisitt.