NIES
The Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies is devoted to interdisciplinary environmental studies, with a particular ambition to promote work in the environmental humanities. The network is supported by NordForsk.
Since its founding in 2007 NIES has grown from a group of a dozen researchers based in three Nordic countries to its present-day constituency of over 120 researchers based at dozens of colleges and universities in five Nordic countries. These include:
Sweden
Anchoring institutions: Mid Sweden University (primary managing institution) & Uppsala University (national anchoring institution)
Denmark
National anchoring institution: University of Southern Denmark—Odense
Norway
National anchoring institution: University of Oslo
Finland
National anchoring institution: University of Turku
Iceland
National anchoring institution: University of Iceland
NIES consists of researchers whose work addresses environmental questions from numerous disciplinary angles; the fields of literature, history, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, linguistics, geography, art history, architecture, landscape studies and cultural studies are well represented in the network. Research foci include environmental ethics and aesthetics, as well as ecological integrity, stability, change and sustainability, as illumined at the intersection of culture and nature.
NIES has organized numerous international symposia and workshops on specific environmental research focuses since 2006, several of which result in peer-reviewed volumes of articles published by international academic publishers / university presses.
NIES works actively with leading humanities-focused environmental studies associations and research environments to foster theoretical advancement and to build capacity in interdisciplinary humanistic environmental studies and is a charter member of the European Environmental Humanities Alliance.
The network also cooperates closely with the Global Human Ecodynamics Alliance (GHEA) and the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) as part of the Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE). Led by the international project AIMES (Analysis, Integration and Modelling of the Earth System), a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, IHOPE is co-sponsored by PAGES (Past Global Changes) and IHDP (The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change). Soon IGBP, IHDP and other global programs will be further amalgamated within the new Future Earth framework.