Dear ,

This is the first newsletter from the Climate Crisis & Affect project: 18th of June 2025. This newsletter contains some updates on the project and an invitation to an open meeting with a related research project on Friday the 27th of June.

When we created the website we had no idea whether there would be any need for or interest in a news letter, but since we do actually have a few subscribers (5), then why not utilize this function and keep you updated. We have also created a Facebook page for the project (which also only have a few subscribers), if you are interested in that.

 Now, to the actual content...

Network

One part of the project is to build a multidisciplinary "network for climate" for people in and outside the University of Iceland who are working on the topic of climate change and social change from different perspectives. We know have about 16 members in the network which is gradually expanding - from philosophers, sociologists and anthropologists, to journalists, musicians, artists and literature scholars, the network covers a broad range of researchers and activists. The hope is that this network can improve the visibility of people doing relevant work and potentially facilitate more communication and collaboration on this urgent topic.

Past events: 

While slowly starting the build-up of the network, the project has also organised and participated in several events in the past year. The first we participated in was the symposion on Arctic Climate Change Communication in October 2024 and more recently we were part of the Other Grounds Film Festival. We've also hosted visiting researchers and students, and invited them to give talks on their research, resulting in the Lunch-time seminar: Why is it important to study climate philosophically? with David Garcimartín from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the seminar on Climate Emotions: Philosophical and Anthropological Perspectives with Petr Vaškovic who was visiting from the Czech Academy of Sciences and Svenja Flügger from the University of Iceland.

Svenja did her masters research in Anthropology at the Programme of Environment and Natural Resources. The thesis is called Eco Anxiety and Contemplative Practices: A Case Study in Iceland and can be read here. 

Several of the network's members have been involved in the ongoing and evolving project Creative Responses, which started as a book, called Creative Responses to Environmental Crises in Nordic Art and Literature, and evolved to a symposium at the University of Copenhagen and an art exhibition in Specta gallery, Copenhagen (May-June 2025) and in Akureyri Art Museum (November 2025-February 2026).

Finally, this project's P.I., Ole Martin Sandberg, gave two interviews about the project. One for the University of Iceland (read it in English or Icelandic) and one for the national broadcasting services RÚV which can be heard in a mix of English and Icelandic here (starting about 19 minutes in).

Finally, we want to invite all of you to an informal meeting with the new British-Icelandic research project, Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition.

This research project utilizes both social science and humanities to get to a deeper understanding of climate justice, climate burdens and climate actions. The principal investigators of the project will come to visit us in Gímli 301 at the University of Iceland on Friday the 27th of June, 10.00-12.00.

Description:

Researchers at the University of Iceland and Brunel University in London recently received a grant from The British Academy to research the role and attitude of Icelandic families regarding climate action. The project is called Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition.

Friday the 27^th of June, members of the research team will present their project in conversation with the ongoing research project Climate Crisis and Affect: An Investigation of Embodied Emotions and Behaviours Regarding Climate Change in Iceland. Everyone is welcome.

When: 27. June 2025, 10.00-12.00
Where: Gímli 301, University of Iceland

Description of the research project:

The Icelandic Government’s action plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 overlooks families as key stakeholders, despite the fact that families are directly impacted by changing climate and the actions taken to achieve carbon neutrality. This interdisciplinary project, co-designed with multiple government agencies across Iceland, addresses this ‘missing link’ in Iceland’s climate action policy. It does so through two interlocking strands. The first strand of the project analyses post-Independence Icelandic literature and films to develop a deeper understanding of how climate change has marked family lives over the years and what lessons can be learned from the past. The second strand adopts an ethnographic approach to capture the impact of climate policy on contemporary Icelandic families. By drawing together historical and contemporary understandings of climate action and family life, the project will identify what additional state support and policy changes are needed to centre families in Iceland’s just transition.

Utsa Mukherjee, associate professor of education at Brunel University, is leading the research. The Icelandic project managers are the director of the University of Iceland’s Research Center in Thingeyjarsveit, Auður Aðalsteinsdóttir, and lecturer in parenting and education, Auður Magndís Auðardóttir. Postdoctoral researcher in education and pedagogy, Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir, and scholar of culture and literature, Sigrún Ölba Sigurðardóttir, will also join the project.

The grant is part of The Knowledge Frontiers which funds projects that develop new international interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences.

Link to article about the project in Icelandic: Rannsaka hlutverk fjölskyldna í loftslagsaðgerðum

Facebook event for the meeting: https://www.facebook.com/events/1286324993147721/