Newsletter from the Division of Science, Technology and Environment
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
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Photo: Fredrik Persson, KTH
Newsletter #1 2023
KTH Future Humanities
Welcome to a new year with the Division and the Environmental Humanities Laboratory (EHL). 2023 had a flying start with EHL becoming a KTH centre, new project funding, articles ready to get published and two CFP's. Scroll down to read all about it in the first newsletter of the year.

Sofia Jonsson, on behalf of
the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment
with the Environmental Humanities Laboratory
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
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New projects on Social Engagement in the Climate Transition, and KTH Future Humanities
We are happy to share the news that the Division and the Environmental Humanities Laboratory (EHL) has been granted funding from Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg foundation for two new projects.

The "KTH Future Humanities Initiative", led by Sverker Sörlin, launches a research based educational and outreach effort, to assist climate transformation and sustainable development during the Agenda 2030 decade.

Nina Wormbs was granted funding for the project “The character of social engagement in the climate transition: how arguments work in a social context” together with Maria Wolrath-Söderberg, associate professor at Södertörn University College.
Photo: Unsplash
Publications (refereed)
What is good drinking water?: 41 Years of risk perception on water quality in the vicinity of the Nuclear Research Centre Karlsruhe, 1956–1997
article by Alicia Gutting in Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy. Open access.

Demystifying piped water supply: Formality and informality in (peri)urban water provisioning Article by Vishal Narain, Sumit Vij and Timothy Karpozouglou in Urban Studies. Open access.

Deliberately Destructive Speculative Design article by Lina Rahm & Jörgen Rahm-Skågeby in Postdigital Science and Education. Open access.

Environing media and cultural techniques: From the history of agriculture to AI-driven smart farming article by Adam Wickberg in International Journal of Cultural Studies. Open access.
Popular Science and Discussion
Energy in a historical perspective text by Per Högselius in the anthology Towards the Energy of the Future (KTH Energy Platform) Available Open Access and also in Swedish

Chernobyl as a Post-Soviet Memory Space: How Ideas of Progress and Fear Shaped a Nuclear Heritage Site essay by Achim Klüppelbergs in Baltic World

Why was it so difficult for utopian technologies to become realised? essay by Eric Isberg, translated from Sveriges Radio to the Division blog.

Recognising the complexity of conflict(s) and cooperation is key for the sustainability of urban drinking water provision in the Global South text by Timos Karpouzoglou In the WaterBlog@KTH
Photo: Cover
New Book
Solar Technology and Global Environmental Justice
The Vision and the Reality
Author: Andreas Roos
Building on insights from ecological economics and philosophy of technology, this book offers a novel, interdisciplinary approach to understand the contradictory nature of Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology.

"This book is an essential antidote to the illusion that solar technology can save the planet. Roos’s contribution reveals solar power for what it truly is." Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame
Debatt och kultur på svenska
Så skapade politik och marknad en perfekt storm som stängde reaktorerna, Per Högselius i DN.
Ett tankefel återkommer genom nätläkarnas historia, Erik Isberg i Sveriges Radio.
Brist på is och snö förhöjer värdet på naturen, Erik Isberg i Sveriges Radio.
Nej, "själen" är inte människans framtid, Fredrik Johanzon i SvD.
Sveriges energihistoria: ”Blev först i världen med statligt vattenkraftbolag”, Arne Kaijser i TV4.
Vårt skräpiga digitala samhälle, Nina Wormbs i Forskning och Framsteg.
CFP: Occupy Climate Change! Online School 2023
We are welcoming to an online three-weekend interdisciplinary winter school in April and May, inviting early career researchers (master’s students in their advanced thesis phase, Ph.D. students, and postdocs) to explore climate change and its consequences of loss and damage, for those interested in environmental justice, climate justice, environmental humanities, environmental history, media studies, political ecology, literature/ storytelling.
CFP Deadline: March 15
CFP: Multiple Lives of Subsurface in Decarbonization
This summer school, organized in collaboration with HARNESS Project, will dive into the politics of sub/surface spaces in the energy transition with attention to spatialities, materialities and temporalities of subterranean renewable energy (ie. Geothermal), carbon-capture & storage (CCS), and hydrogen storage technologies.
Participants should hold at least a master degree (or be close to finishing this degree) and show affinity to or interest in engaging with energy transition and subterranean spaces.
CFP Deadlines: 15 April & 15 May 2023
Photo: Unsplash
Seminar
How Sweden was built on fossil fuels
Sweden possesses virtually no coal, oil or gas deposits. Yet the country’s rise to prosperity has historically rested on large-scale combustion of fossil fuels.
Time: 2 March 12.15 - 13.00
Location: South-East Gallery, KTH Main Library, Osquars backe 31
Lecturer: Per Högselius
Higher Seminar:
Caring for our Academic Commons: The Research Seminar as a Community of Practice
Time: 6 March 13.15-14.45
Lecturer: Marie Cronqvist, Associate Professor of Media History and Journalism
Lund University
Location: Big Seminar Room, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, Teknikringen 74D, level 5
Disputation
På spaningen efter vetenskapens självstyre - föreställningar och förhållningssätt i styrningen och organisationen av universitetsforskningen
Den 2 juni 10.00-14.00
Doktorand: Ulrika Bjare
Handledare: Nina Wormbs, KTH, Mats Benner, LU och Eugenia Perez Vico, HH
Opponent: Charlotte Silander, lektor, Institutionen för didaktik och lärares praktik, Linnéuniversitetet
Plats: B2, Brinellvägen 23, KTH
Podcast
World stages: Arctic megaconferences as platforms for governance and geopolitical performance
Beate Steinveg, associate professor at Nord University in Norway, has for many years conducted in-depth research on Arctic conferences. She joins Eric Paglia in the podcast to share her insights into the multifaceted importance of such events in shaping the governance of the region.
Review
Environing Media - One of Those Smart Books
Environing Media, edited by Adam Wickberg and Johan Gärdebo, interrogates the role of media technologies in the formation of environments, understood both as physical spaces and as epistemological constructs about them. Using the concept of ‘environing media’, the book advances a deeper understanding of how media processes – defined here as the storage, process, and transmission of data – influence human-Earth relations. Jussi Parikka reviewed the book for the Leonardo network.
News
What are the Contributions of the Environmental Humanities
to reach the Sustainable Development Goals?
In November 2022 - postdoctor Nuno Marques was invited to do a presentation at a conference at Campus Villarrica UC - Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile answering the question of “What are the contributions of the environmental humanities – or humanities with a focus on sustainability – to reach the Sustainable Development Goals".
Staff Changes
Marco Armiero,associate professor and the director of the EHL, left us on January 31 for a position as ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Luca Thanei, doctoral student at the Chair for the History of Technology at ETH Zurich, visits the Division from January to September
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KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment
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