Background and experience
I obtained my PhD in Literary Studies from Ghent University in 2022. My doctoral research explored how contemporary literature in English engages with species extinction and biodiversity loss, and more specifically with what has come to be known as the sixth mass extinction of species. Positioning itself within the broader field of environmental humanities, my thesis examined literature’s capacity to complement or counter the spectacular, apocalyptic, and exclusionary modes through which species extinction is often portrayed in popular culture. I have published on contemporary and early twentieth-century literature, extinction studies, eco-materialism, and on fictional representations of human-nonhuman interactions more broadly.
Areas of responsibility
I am a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with Udforsk – Centre for Education Research at the Faculty of Humanities and Pedagogy.
Research
My current project focuses on how the concept of sustainable development informs the teaching of English following the most recent curriculum reform in Norway (LK20). I am particularly interested in the role and potential of literary texts in education for sustainable development. The aim of the project is twofold: to carry out an empirical study of how the interdisciplinary topic of sustainable development is being taught and operationalized in English classrooms following the curriculum renewal, and to explore the didactic possibilities offered by literary texts in cultivating environmental awareness and sustainability thinking. By doing so, my research will fill a gap in the knowledge about the effects of LK20’s implementation and about how sustainability as an interdisciplinary topic is being realized in Norwegian education.