Job alert! We are looking for talented PhD researchers to write a dissertation on Benzaiten worship in modern Japan or Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan, as part of the ERC project "Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia" (MARGO).

Exciting research news! I have received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for my project "Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East- and Southeast Asia." Looking forward! More info about the project: www.hf.uio.no/english/abou...

Great text! What if AI is not here to stay?"Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful" : www.universitetsavisa.no/fremtidsscen...

Very much looking forward to my upcoming trip to Japan! 🇯🇵 Four weeks in Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Kansai, and Kyushu. A full schedule, with work meetings, excursions, and three academic events. Please join if you are in town: ⬇️

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

In Kraków for the #IAHR2025 conference. Started today with a city walk, Catholic Mass, and Polish folk dance performance. Looking forward to the conference! I will be on two panels: "Recentring fear in the study of religion" (Tu, 9am) and "Religion and heritage-making in Japan and beyond" (Th, 1pm).

Ja, dette viser at vi er et land uten kontroll på oljesektoren. Og det miljøbevegelsen så forsiktig ber om, er en PLAN for utfasingen av denne forurensende næringa, på en måte som også ivaretar arbeidere i sektoren. Men noen krever full gass mot stupet www.nrk.no/klima/norge-...

What is the relationship between whaling, heritage, tourism & community? Through ethnographic research, @aikerots.bsky.social examines festivals in 3 Japanese towns as case studies of whaling as a social imaginary and reveals how heritage-making is a future-oriented endeavor doi.org/10.1080/1869...

One week left to apply for this tenured #envhist job!

Just published: my article "Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking 'Japanese Religion' in the Anthropocene." A great honour to have been invited to contribute to the 50th anniversary issue of @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social. Many thanks @mcmullen.bsky.social, @jolyonbt.bsky.social, and @kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social.

A short article on CORDIS, the research dissemination website of @erc.europa.eu, about our Horizon 2020 research project "Whales of Power" (2019-2025) 🇪🇺🐳🙏. In six languages 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇪🇸🇮🇹🇵🇱! Many thanks again to the European Research Council for making this project possible. cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4...

What does it really mean to transform society toward sustainability? On June 3, the RESULTS Symposium brings together researchers, activists, and professionals in Oslo for a day of conversations, collaboration, and reflection. 🕒 Today’s the last day to register! 🔗 shorturl.at/LZCV1 #Sustainability

My article "Whales of Hope: Whaling Heritage, Tourism, and Community Belonging in Twenty-First-Century Japan" has just been published. It is part of the special issue "Japan Futures" (eds. Fabio Gygi and Iza Kavedžija). Many thanks to the editors and reviewers. 🐳 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My article "Whales of Hope: Whaling Heritage, Tourism, and Community Belonging in Twenty-First-Century Japan" has just been published. It is part of the special issue "Japan Futures" (eds. Fabio Gygi and Iza Kavedžija). Many thanks to the editors and reviewers. 🐳 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I will forever be haunted by this footage. Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity. What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives. 🌎🦑🧪

Akademiet for yngre forskere leter etter 10 nye medlemmer! AYF samler fantastiske forskere i tidlig karriere der brenner for forskningspolitikk, forskningsformidling og vitenskapelig debatt. Søknadsfristen er 15. juni Mer info ⤵ akademietforyngreforskere.no/vil-du-bli-m...

Very proud of my partner Nhung Lu Rots, who has submitted her PhD dissertation "Engaged Buddhism and Environmentality among Buddhist Minorities in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam" @uio.no. A great achievement! One of the dissertation's articles was published recently: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Very proud of my partner Nhung Lu Rots, who has submitted her PhD dissertation "Engaged Buddhism and Environmentality among Buddhist Minorities in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam" @uio.no. A great achievement! One of the dissertation's articles was published recently: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New on Bluesky! We’re OCEH - a research hub at the University of Oslo @uio.no, exploring climate, nature & culture through the humanities. Follow for research highlights, events, reading tips & snapshots from the OCEH Lab. 📸 OCEH Lab hf.uio.no/oceh #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentalHumanities #envhum

THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social. The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Sharing this video of excited people and wrestling spiders mostly to give you all a short break from doomscrolling. It may be hard to believe these days but there are still fun and interesting things happening in the world. Cherish them. 🕷️

RIP Hatakeyama Shigeatsu (1943-2025), an oyster fisherman from Tohoku who started a reforestation project to improve the coastal environment under the slogan "the forest is the lover of the sea" (森は海の恋人). In 2012, he was awarded a UN Forest Hero award for his work. 🦪🌱 www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.

Mijn scriptie ging over Karl Popper’s Open Society: over de fundamenten van de democratie en de pijlers waarop ze rust. Zoals onafhankelijke pers en wetenschap. Vanavond lees ik over de uitholling vd publieke omroep en de aanval op academische vrijheid. Het kan snel gaan… nos.nl/artikel/2562...

What did 14 years of autocratic populism produce in Hungary? Poverty and corruption www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

My colleagues and I at the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Uni Oslo) have written a statement of support for our colleagues at Columbia University. In solidarity with them - and others in the US who face censorship and oppression. www.khrono.no/in-solidarit...

It's now called a centre instead of a school, but we still do environmental humanities in Oslo.

ALL universities should protest this. My university @uio.no (and Norwegian authorities) should raise this immediately with US counterparts. Nobody can send students or faculty to stay with US institutions if this is how they are treated!

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

Hi @aarweb.bsky.social, maybe it's time to reconsider the locations of some of your future meetings if you want international AAR members to be able to attend. It's not safe for us to travel to the US anymore. Canada has good conference venues, I've heard.

Deadline extended ⏩️ 25 March!

As part of the celebration of the 2025 Holberg Prize Laureate Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, on 4 June in Bergen we are hosting a PhD Masterclass, i.e. anyone currently a PhD student in the Nordic countries, regardless of citizenship: holbergprize.org/news/call-fo... @holbergprize.bsky.social

A looming public health crisis and environmental catastrophe in Vietnam, because the fascists in Washington abruptly halted a USAID project to clean up Agent Orange, leaving toxic soil exposed for weeks. The evil of this regime knows no bounds.

To all European and Asian colleagues who still think it's OK to travel to Trump Land to attend conferences: maybe it's time to reconsider your travel habits? Next time they may arrest and detain you. Instead, we can meet at conferences in democratic countries, where academic freedom is protected.

Finally some good news. Congratulations to both prize winners!

La oss selge Tesla-aksjene og bli ferdig med det.

Shocking. A majority of Dutch parliament has voted to opt out of the ReArm Europe plan, meant to protect Ukraine and the rest of Europe from Russian aggression. There are two EU member states ruled by Putin puppets: Hungary and the Netherlands. Deeply embarrassing to be a Dutch citizen right now.

JOBS: At the Study of Religions in beautiful Bergen, we are looking for 2 PhD Fellows and 1 Postdoctoral Fellow in HB/Second Temple + ancient forms of Christianity for the RADHEART project: www.linkedin.com/posts/laura-... Deadline: April 22 Read more about RADHEART: www.uib.no/en/ahkr/1760...

We are excited to announce the publication of a special issue ": Searching for Legitimacy: Tenrikyo, Omoto, and 'Marginalized' Religions of Modern Japan." The complete issue as well as individual articles can be accessed free of charge on our website.

Our @erc.europa.eu project "Whales of Power" has come to an end. There are still some important publications in the pipeline; they will come out soon, but the funding period has ended. Many thanks to ERC for the support! A summary of recent activities and publications: www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

Når Trump-administrasjonen svikter må støtten fra Norge oppskaleres raskt! Norge er det eneste landet i Europa med enorme ekstrainntekter som følge av krigen. Det er på tide å dele dette for å sikre vår felles trygghet. Signer på mdg.no/ukraina.

Det finnes øyeblikk hvor historien står og vipper. Nå er et slikt øyeblikk. Skriv under for å gi tusen milliarder til Ukrainas forsvar og et tettere europeisk forsvarssamarbeid: 🇺🇦 mdg.no/ukraina 🇺🇦

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

- Nå må Tangen og Stoltenberg våkne. Oljefondet kan ikke være medeier med 160 milliarder investert i selskapet til en person som aktivt forsøker å styrte frie demokratier til fordel for Putin, sier @arildher.bsky.social

🔔 PhD seminar "China and the Future of Geopolitics", U Oslo, 10-12 June '25. 🌏 Open to all academic disciplines. No fee, but students will need to cover their travel and accommodation expenses; some stipends for participants from ODA countries available. More: www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english...

Oxford and Tübingen are two of Europe's oldest and most charming university towns. These days, most people who travel between these towns do so by airplane. But would a train journey be possible as well? Today, I am giving it a try! 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪➡️

Excellent thread, and not just for those of us who live in the US. The neofascists are gaining power in Europe as well, including my country of origin, the Netherlands. But fatalism and escapism won't help us. Grassroots organising is crucial. Makes me want to become more active in local politics.

Skavlan på ballen i dag.