Appalling Ocean, Verdant Land :
America and the Sea
8:30 – 10:00 :
Coffee and Registration
Location : Second Floor, Scandic Havet
10:00 – 10:30 :
Welcome Remarks and Announcements
Location : Second Floor, Scandic Havet
10:45 – 12:00 : Session 1
1A. The Slave Trade and Global Circulation
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Andrew McKendry (Nord University)
- Katharina Fackler (University of Bonn)
- “Energy, Extraction, and Emancipation at Sea: The Life of John Thompson (1856)”
- Bryce Traister (University of British Columbia)
- “The Origins of America’s Vax Wars”
- Hamid Masfour (Sultan Moulay Sliman University)
- “The Politics and Poetics of the Sea in African American Fiction: The Case of Charles Johnson’s The Middle Passage”
- Katharina Fackler (University of Bonn)
1B. Melville
Location : Inspirasjon Room, Second Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Sara Prieto (University of Alicante)
- Peter Ferry (University of Stavanger)
- “Beards, Shaving, and the Sea: Herman Melville’s Narratives of Maritime Masculinity”
- Jessica Allen Hanssen (Nord University)
- “’Have patience, for the sailor would be faithful to his word’: Representations of Home in Typee”
- Stefan Rabitsch (University of Oslo)
- “’I’ll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares maelstrom’: Star Trekkin’ White Cetacean Contours with Forlorn and Redemptive Ahabs”
- Peter Ferry (University of Stavanger)
12:00 – 13:00 :
Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:15 : Session 2
2A. Conceptualizing Climate Change
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Andrew McKendry (Nord University)
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- Katja Lindskog (Yale University)
- “Sustainable Transitions and Archipelago Cultures in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth”
- Nina De Bettin Padolin (University of Graz)
- “‘Tell them what it’s like to see an entire ocean level with the land’: An Intermedial Reading of Moana Rua: The Rising of the Sea”
- Mateusz Kucab (Jagiellonian University, Cracow)
- “’Wanting the sea’: Mourning and Dark Ecology in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Sea Poems”
- Katja Lindskog (Yale University)
2B. Black Bodies and American Futurity
Location : Inspirasjon Room, Second Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Stephen Dougherty (University of Agder)
- Jen Atkins (Florida State University)
- “Diasporic Dance and The Critical Catch-22 in Falcon and the Winter Soldier”
- Celina Stifjell (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
- “Afrofuturist Mermaid Tales: Black Oceanic Futures After the End of the World”
- Corin Kraft (University of Basel)
- “The Middle Passage in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing”
- Jen Atkins (Florida State University)
15:00: Transportation
Shuttle to Keynote Event and Museum Reception
Pick-up Location: Entrance to Scandic Havet Hotel
- Meet 10 minutes before departure time (14:50)
15:30 – 16:30 : Keynote Presentation I
Location : Norwegian Jekt Trade Museum
Introduction : Andrew McKendry (Nord University)
Sponsor: Humanities, Education and Culture Research Group
- “American Idols: Tourism and the Transatlantic Sculpture Trade, 1850-1875”
16:30 – 18:00 :
Reception and Museum Tour
Location : Norwegian Jekt Trade Museum
18:15: Transportation
Shuttle to Scandic Havet
Pick-up Location: Entrance to Norwegian Jekt Trade Museum
- Meet 10 minutes before departure time (18:05)
20:00 – 22:00 :
Location : Fram Kino (Fram Cinema)
Event Partner: Bodø Film Club
- Moby Dick (1956, dir. Huston)
8:15 – 9:15 :
Coffee and Registration
Location : Third Floor, Scandic Havet
9:15 – 10:30 : Session 3
3A. Indigenous Knowledge and Form
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Cassandra Falke (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
- Kirsten Møllegaard (University of Hawai’i at Hilo)
- “Shark Tales: Literature, Resistance, and Indigenous Epistemologies in the ‘New Oceania’”
- Laura Castor (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
- “Theories of Water: Trauma Meets Indigenous Futurity in Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (2020)”
- Bethany Webster-Parmentier (Europa-Universität Flensburg)
- “‘This wasn’t an ancient ocean; it was every ocean since the beginning of time’: Waterways and Genre in the Fiction of Darcie Little Badger”
- Kirsten Møllegaard (University of Hawai’i at Hilo)
3B. Seascapes and Sightlines
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Jeff Slomba (Southern Connecticut State University)
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- Astrid Tvetenstrand (Boston University)
- “Owning an Ocean View: Possessing Sightlines from the Water in Nineteenth-Century Newport, Rhode Island”
- Charles Ivan Armstrong (University of Agder)
- “’It might be anywhere’: Derek Mahon, Ekphrasis, and the American Atlantic Seaboard”
- Sarah Klotz (College of the Holy Cross)
- “Seeing the Sea in Plains Pictography by the Fort Marion Prisoners, 1875-1878”
- Astrid Tvetenstrand (Boston University)
10:45 – 12:00 : Session 4
4A. Education and Pedagogy
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : David Valente (Nord University)
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- Wenche Sørmo, Karin Stoll, and Mette Gårdvik (Nord University)
- “How to Cope with Marine Debris in the Arctic Region: Experiences from a Marine Debris Project Carried out with Pupils Living on Islands in rural Alaska and Northern Norway”
- Kevin Steinman (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training)
- “Indigenous Poetry and Sustainability: Troubling Anthropocene Logic through Kinship and Holistic Care”
- Sara Prieto, Ferran Riesgo, Remedios Perni, Pablo Sánchez-Jerez, and Kilian Toledo-Guedes (University of Alicante)
- “Crossovers: Teaching the Sea through Literary Texts and Scientific Contexts”
- Wenche Sørmo, Karin Stoll, and Mette Gårdvik (Nord University)
4B. Ethnicity and Community
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Ana Elisa Gomez Laris (University of Duisburg-Essen)
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- Svein-Halvard Jørgensen and Per Bjarne Ravnå (Nord University)
- “Seafarers on the Prairie: Northern Norwegian Negotiations on Democratic Exceptionalism”
- Anna Marta Marini (Universidad de Alcalá)
- “Monsters from the Other Side: The Sea as Embodiment of Ethnic Otherness”
- Lene Johannessen (University of Bergen)
- “‘Tropologies of Anticipation’: Crossing Oceans in Lee Chew’s ‘Biography’ and Drude Krog Janson’s A Saloonkeeper’s Daughter”
- Svein-Halvard Jørgensen and Per Bjarne Ravnå (Nord University)
12:00 – 13:00 :
Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:15 : Session 5
5A. Whaling, Fishing, and National Identity
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Ellyne Hamran (Ocean Sounds Norway)
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- Alison Fields (University of Oklahoma)
- “’The one creature in the world that must remain unpainted’: Exhibiting Whales in the American Midwest”
- Kinsey Brooke (Indiana University, Bloomington)
- “North American Occupational Sea Songs: Fishing, Protest, and Celebration”
- Anders Parmann (Nord University)
- “Moby Dick and Norwegian Law: How Literature can Help us Understand Legal Concepts such as Possession”
- Alison Fields (University of Oklahoma)
5B. Science and Space
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Stefan Rabitsch (University of Oslo)
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- Klaudia Borkiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz University)
- “Dimensions of Reality: The Sea as an Inverted Formula for the Cosmic Space in Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream”
- Stephen Dougherty (University of Agder)
- “Terraqueous Globe”
- Tom Nurmi (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
- “Foamy Grammar: Writing Waves in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science”
- Klaudia Borkiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz University)
14:30 – 15:45 : Session 6
6A. The Navy and Maritime Conflict
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Ken Runar Hanssen (Nord University)
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- Thomas Jamison (Naval Postgraduate School)
- “The View from San Francisco: Threats, Opportunities, and the ‘New Navy’ (1880-1897)”
- Gary E. Weir (Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
- “Defined by the Ocean: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Reshaping of Maritime Conflict”
- Martin Holtz (University of Graz)
- “’All is clear, open, fluent’: The Sea in Revolutionary War Fiction”
- Thomas Jamison (Naval Postgraduate School)
6B. Visual Arts Across Borders and Boundaries
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Astrid Tvetenstrand (Boston University)
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- Georgia Soares (Harvard University)
- “Washed Ashore: The Ocean as Cultural Marker in Alfredo Andersen’s Artwork”
- Jeff Slomba (Southern Connecticut State University)
- “Moving the Littoral Zone: Contemporary Coastal Representations of Anthropogenic Global Warming”
- Ellen Marie Sæthre-McGuirk (Nord University), Jennifer Parker (University of California, Santa Cruz), and Fiona Hillary (RMIT University)
- “Rising Waters and Rhythm of the Tides: Coastlines as Sites for Practice-Based Arts Research and Speculative Futures with Seaweed and Kelp”
- Georgia Soares (Harvard University)
16:00 – 17:00 : Keynote Presentation II
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
Introduction : Ken Runar Hanssen (Nord University)
Sponsor : United States Embassy, Oslo
- “The Interests of the Sea: Pedagogy, Sympathy and Change in Today’s Early American Classroom”
17:15 – 18:15 :
ASANOR ’24 and Bicentennial ’25
Location : Storhavet 1, Third Floor, Scandic Havet
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- Presentation from Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger, Norwegian Emigrant Museum
- ASANOR Administration Meeting
18:00 – 19:00 :
Drop-In Event: ZOOLYS
Location : Stormen Concert Hall
Event Partners: North SciComm, Voldseth Media, Stormen Konserthus and Forskningsdagene 2022
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- ZOOLYS: Zooplankton Vertical Migration Animation — A Researchers’ Night Event for Forskningsdagene 2022
ZOOLYS
ZOOLYS brings the ocean inside to the main concert hall stage at Stormen Konserthus. Using novel 3D animation technology and marine research data, we code for the behaviour and interactions of zooplankton to play on the big screen. The public joins the larger-than-life zooplankton onstage to experience life as a tiny member of the sea.
Zooplankton vertical migration is Earth's largest movement of animals. The phenomenon occurs daily, and the animals travel vast distances from the ocean depths to the upper layers, sometimes swimming hundreds to thousands of meters. Unbeknownst to most of the public, this spectacle occurs silently, out of sight, and often under cover of darkness. And yet, zooplankton vertical migration is a core concept in marine sciences, crucial to ocean health, and the support system behind many ocean-related economic activities.
ZOOLYS shows how scientific research data can be communicated to the public through 3D film animation edutainment. ZOOLYS depicts 24-hours of nocturnal diel vertical migration with copepods as the main character on a 20-by 10-meter concert hall screen. Animation used game engine and AI technology, with data points form copepod research allowing for the species onscreen migration behavior, swimming speed and trajectory, and predator-prey interactions to be shown as in nature.
ZOOLYS is open for ASANOR members to drop-in between 18:00 - 19:00, before the banquet dinner. There will be ocean themed cocktails available for purchase at Stormen's bar.
19:00 – 22:00 :
Banquet Dinner
Location : Lyst På Restaurant
8:15 – 9:15 :
Coffee and Registration
Location : Third Floor, Scandic Havet
9:15 – 10:30 : Session 7
7. Rough Waters and Smooth Sailing: A Roundtable Discussion on Teaching American Studies in Norway
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
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- Eir-Anne Edgar (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
- Jessica Allen Hanssen (Nord University)
- Tom Nurmi (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
- Susan Erdmann (University of Agder)
10:45 – 12:00 : Session 8
8A. Sea Spaces and Identity
Location : Inspirasjon Room, Second Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Alf Tomas Tønnessen (University of Agder)
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- Michael John Prince (University of Agder)
- “’We’re out at sea and that’s that’: Identity and Characterization in Kerouac’s The Sea Is My Brother”
- Jordan Howie (University of Toronto)
- “Are Ocean Liners Necessary?: The Transatlantic Crossing as Spatial Category in Henry James”
- Ken Runar Hanssen (Nord University)
- “Awful but Cheerful: Key West as American Island of the Mind”
- Michael John Prince (University of Agder)
8B. Refuge and Immigration
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Lene Johannessen (University of Bergen)
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- Carole Martin (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
- “Coordinating Water, Homeland, and Nation: Oceanic Ties in Vietnamese American Refugee Literature”
- Cassandra Falke (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
- “Responsibilities at Sea in Refugee Fiction”
- Ana Elisa Gomez Laris (University of Duisburg-Essen)
- “‘I want to see if their tiny raft will hold them’: Boats and Floating Detention Centers as Sites of Purgatory in Migration Policy”
- Carole Martin (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
12:00 – 13:00 :
Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:15 : Session 9
9A. Political Currents
Location : Refleksjon Room, First Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair: Meghan Freeman (Manhattanville College)
- Sandra Meerwein (Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies)
- “From ‘Manifest Destiny’ to a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’: U.S. National Identity and the Conceptualization of Oceanic Spaces”
- Olga Thierbach-McLean (University of Hamburg)
- “Let a Thousand Nations Bloom on the High Seas”: Seasteading as Anarcho-Capitalist Utopia”
- Alf Tomas Tønnessen (University of Agder)
- “A Hillbilly Dream? J. D. Vance, Trump Nostalgia, and Rural Consciousness in the 2022 Ohio Senate Election”
- Sandra Meerwein (Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies)
9B. Folklore and Cultural Change
Location : Inspirasjon Room, Second Floor, Scandic Havet
Chair : Peter Ferry (University of Stavanger)
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- Ulkar Yusifova (Baku Slavic University)
- “The Sea Motif and Related Beliefs in North American Folklore”
- David Valente (Nord University)
- “Mediation through Mermaids: Picturebooks for Exploring Gender-queerness in the English Classroom”
- Mercedes Pérez Agustín and Iñaki Sainz de Murieta (Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Madrid)
- “The Ocean as an Intercultural Exchange between Basque Culture and Native American Oral Tradition”
- Ulkar Yusifova (Baku Slavic University)
14:30 – 14:45 :
Closing Remarks
Location : Second Floor, Scandic Havet
Ivan Albright
“Inland Sea,” 1969
Watercolor and brush and black ink, with touches of gouache, on off-white wove paper, 275 × 375 mm
Fair Use
© The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Ivan Albright, Jr., 1977.249
