The Highland Institute

06/05/2026

From Høylandsinstituttet - our partner institute in Norway:

HIERARCHIES OF EARTH: Caste, Indigeneity, and the Politics of Land, Life, and Ecological Futures

Who owns the earth? Who is displaced from it? And whose knowledge of it counts?

These are not abstract questions — they shape climate policy, land rights, and the futures of millions of people across South Asia, the Arctic, and Latin America.

On 11 May 2026, UiT The Arctic University of Norway in collaboration with Høylandsinstituttet will host a one-day symposium bringing together leading scholars, practitioners, and students to explore how caste, indigeneity, extraction, and ecological crisis intersect in some of the world’s most contested landscapes.

🎤 KEYNOTE
Andrea Joslyn Nightingale (University of Oslo)
Intersectionality for Transformative Climate Action

👥 SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Hanna Geschewski · Kari Telle · Anwesha Dutta (CMI Bergen) · Kenneth Bo Nielsen · Deva Nandan Harikrishna (UiO) · Maya Sunde Singh (Norwegian Human Rights Fund) · Moumita Sen (MF Oslo) · Luiz Hancio Medina (Ekologos-Brazil) · Fatma Matar · Divya Rao · Justin Michael Parks · Lill Tove Fredriksen · Holger Pötzsch · P. Stuart Robinson (UiT)

📅 11 May 2026
📍 B1005 Auditorium, SVHUM Building, UiT Tromsø
🎟 Free and open to all — no registration required

The symposium is organized as part of the Ekologos Project, an international research network coordinated by the Highland Institute, linking Norway 🇳🇴, India 🇮🇳, and Brazil 🇧🇷 through interdisciplinary work on environmental humanities and ecological futures.

Panels cover land and displacement, knowledge systems in transition, extraction and environmental inequality, relational ontologies, and a closing film session on myth, politics, and caste.

Everyone is warmly welcome. Come for one session or stay the whole day. 🌱

Tag a colleague, student, or friend who should be in the room.

Hierarchies of Earth: Caste, Indigeneity, and the Politics of Land, Life, and Ecological Futures is a one-day symposium to be held on 11 May 2026 in the B1005 Auditorium of the Social Sciences and Humanities Building (SVHUM) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø. Organized as part...

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A big thank you to all the participants and friends who showed up, and heartfelt appreciation to the communities from Choklangan and Reguri villages for being part of the programme. Your energy and insights made the seminar truly meaningful.

Thank you for contributing to such a lively and constructive exchange of ideas.

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