Hilde Kristin Røsstad

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin & Ruhaven, Ingvild (2026). Historiebevissthet og bærekraftdidaktikk. In Trysnes, Irene & Skjølberg, Katja H-W (Ed.), Kjerneelementer i samfunnsfag - fagdidaktiske perspektiver. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215075914. p. 222–243. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Det ligger uutnyttede muligheter for samfunnsfag- og historiedidaktikk i koblingen mellom bærekraftdidaktikk og historiebevissthet. Med utgangspunkt i læreplanenes ambisjoner og nyere forskning på historiebevissthet og bærekraftdidaktikk gjennomførte vi våren 2023 en in­tervensjonsstudie i tre samfunnsfagklasser på 9. trinn der vi utforsket hva som skjer når elever møter fortellinger om natur og miljø i fortiden. I dette kapittelet redegjør vi kort for relevante aspekter ved historiebevissthetsbe­grepet. Deretter presenterer vi innsikter fra intervensjonsstudien. Til slutt vi­ser vi hvordan vårt prosjekt kan bidra til arbeidet med historiebevissthet og bærekraftdidaktikk i praksisfeltet. Slik viser vi hvordan fagets teori og fagets praksis kan møtes med utgangspunkt i elevenes livsverden.

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Sensing pesticides. Corporally embodied experiences with chemical plant protection products in Norwegian horticulture, 1945–2021. The Senses & Society. ISSN 1745-8927. doi: 10.1080/17458927.2025.2586454. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Norwegian horticulturists working between 1945 and 2021 have handled toxic compounds as part of their everyday practice. In oral history interviews, 44 horticulturists, women and men aged 25 to 95, talked about their experiences with pesticides. They shared memories and accounts of using pesticides, but also thoughts about how their praxis with, and perception of, pesticides have changed over time. Their histories come out of the cultural and ecological symbioses of the craft and science of horticulture. Horticulturists are part of material processes. This article demonstrates that experiences with pesticides are sensorily embodied. Growers have used their senses to avoid the toxicity of pesticide compounds and senses often prove the “toxicity” of the pesticides. The interview material shows how the personal and cultural context of the given period plays an essential part of individuals’ perception of pesticides. The article argues that it is important to observe how sensory experiences inform other forms of knowledge. Documenting sensory experiences is part of understanding the cultural history of pesticides.

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2024). Noxious Nicotine: The Use of Nicotine in Norwegian Horticulture in the 1950s. Agricultural History. ISSN 0002-1482. doi: 10.1215/00021482-11058460. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

• Comerford, Charles Peter & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2026). The blind spots of academic quality assurance. doi: https:/qiss.no/blog-post/?n7Je0BNflfa9xtptFyCvzw=%3D. Full text in Research Archive
• Østerberg, Victoria & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Lærer vi noe av miljøhistorien? Om plast og miljøgifter i naturen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Hvordan kom plasten inn i daglig bruk og hvordan har miljøgifter vært brukt av gartnere i Norge. To historikere forteller historien om miljøgifters inntog i vårt nærmiljø. Samtalen går videre om hva vi har lært og og om det får følger for dagens bruk.

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin & Horssen, Jessica Van (2025). The Extraordinary Meaning of Everyday Life. Joy Parr's Pioneering Vision in the the History of Technology. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The short film documentary The Extraordinary Meaning of Everyday Life: Joy Parr's Pioneering Vision in the the History of Technology by Jessica Van Horssen is a tribute to historian Joy Parr, one of the most innovative historians of technology. This includes Parr's early insistence on focusing on gender and technologies of the everyday, as well as her engagement with new media, including methods for probing the sensory and emotional impact of megaprojects on ordinary people. With her passing in 2024, Parr has left an incredible legacy within the field. By blending footage of key sites of Joy Parr's historical inquiry, archival clips, and reflections on the impact and future of her insights and methods by early-career and established feminist scholars from around the world, this film will be an archive of her achievements and a celebration of her legacy. Contributors in the movie feature Alex Gagné, Finn Arne Jørgensen, Marta Macedo, Hilde Kristin Røsstad and Carelle Sarkis. The documentary was presented and screened as a lunchtime session at SHOT, Societies of the History of Technology Conference in Luxembourg, October 2025.

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Technological Entanglement and Exclusion: Growers, Insects and Pesticides in Horticulture, 1945-1960. doi: https:/ruralhistory2025.org/provisional-program/#11september. Full text in Research Archive
• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Når teknologien slår rot: Fra DDT til dagens dilemmaer i norsk hagebruk. doi: https:/www.uia.no/arrangementer/lordagsuniversitetet/program/kristiansand/november25-2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Etter krigen ble kjemisk plantevern sett på som en måte å kontrollere deler av naturen på – men på mange måter ble gartnerne låst til løsningen. Dette foredraget handlet om etterkrigstidens teknologi-optimisme til dagens miljøutfordringer, og viser hvordan en internasjonal teknologi fikk konsekvenser for lokal flora, fauna og mennesker.

• Ruhaven, Ingvild & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Generasjonene og et større "vi". Agderposten. ISSN 0805-3723. Full text in Research Archive
• Ruhaven, Ingvild & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2024). Generasjonssamtaler som møteplass. Miljøhistorie som inngang til elevers forståelse av samspillet mellom fortid, nåtid og fremtid. Full text in Research Archive
• Ruhaven, Ingvild & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2024). Historiebevissthet som ressurs i undervisning for bærekraftig utvikling. Full text in Research Archive
• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2023). Forsker Grand Prix 2023. Full text in Research Archive
• Ruhaven, Ingvild & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2023). Miljøhistorie og historiebevissthet. Full text in Research Archive
• Ruhaven, Ingvild & Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2022). Tverrfaglig tema i historiefaget: Bærekraftig utvikling. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Videoforelesning om bærekraftig utvikling i læreplanen for historie etter Kunnskapsløftet 2020 (LK20)

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2021). Splittet hagebruk i Norge. Full text in Research Archive
• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2025). Handling Pesticides in Horticulture : Norwegian Horticulturists’ Perception of and Praxis with Chemical Plant Protection Products, 1945–2021. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284272535. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  It has been customary to use chemical plant protection products in conventional Norwegian horticulture since World War II. The foundation for this praxis was established by the end of the 1800s, however it was first in the 1950s that the use of chemical pesticides became systematic and self-evident. Many of these compounds, for instance nicotine, Bladan, or Grammoxon, and others, are toxic and harmful to health and environment, something several horticulturists have experienced in different ways themselves. Still, most horticulturists in conventional horticulture have chosen to maintain these products. Their knowledge and experience indicate that without chemical plant protection products their losses of crops and cultivars would be to such an extent that production would not be economically feasible. It has been a goal in this project to understand more about the experiences horticulturists have had with chemical plant protection in this period, but also the complexities of the development of which they have been a part. Drawing on perspectives from environmental history, sensory studies, and history of science- and technology, this dissertation explores horticulturists’ perception of and praxis with chemical plant protection products, guided by the research question: How did Norwegian horticulturalists perceive of and use pesticides between 1945 and 2021? This was explored further through three sub-questions in the set of articles produced for this dissertation. These are: In what ways might the ‘everyday nature’ of a plant protection product make growers ambivalent about the risks associated with the chemical? What do horticulturists’ accounts reveal about embodied experiences with pesticides? How did pesticide technology affect the interaction between growers, plants, and insects? These perceptions and practices are explored through a qualitative multi-methodical study relying on documents from Dømmesmoen State Horticultural College, including a 1950 student diary, Norwegian newspapers, the trade journal Gartneryrket, and 40 oral history interviews with people connected to Norwegian horticulture between the 1940s and 2021. Through the historicization of horticulturists’ accounts about their own embodied experiences with chemical plant protection products, this dissertation documents a longstanding and multifaceted ambivalence about pesticides in Norwegian horticulture. Different contemporary contexts and issues have affected perceptions and practices, including evolving awareness of health and environment, institutionalizing knowledge dissemination, and strict regulations. Individual embodied experiences have long been a vital source of pesticide knowledge. However, this type of knowledge has often been undervalued in comparison to theoretical knowledge. This dissertation demonstrates that it is often these kinds of embodied experiences and the active use of people’s senses that have guided and modified their praxis and kept people from being injured when handling chemicals. This study shows how pesticide technology changed horticulture, horticulturists, and their interactions with surrounding ecosystems. The technological praxis of using pesticides changed how horticulturists structured their work and their cultivars, it changed the conglomeration comprising horticulture, and it changed how horticulturists saw their horticultural surroundings. The dissertation consists of three articles and an introductory chapter.

• Røsstad, Hilde Kristin (2010). From Pragmatic Protest to Strategic Silence? Norway´s Policy toward the Russo-Chechen Conflict. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA