Department of Biology

We are living in a changing environment. Through human activities, the planet is warming, driving profound changes in planetary habitability, including ecosystem and environmental degradation and sea level rise. Witnessing these changes triggers a range of emotions, especially among the young, including anxiety, fear and helplessness. On this wicked-Wednesday we introduce the problem of eco-anxiety. After brief presentations on how we address the topic of eco-anxiety in our own research, we will moderate an interactive discussion with the audience on how they understand and deal with eco-anxiety and related emotions in their own lives.Organised by Donald Canfield, DIAS Chair, Bryan Yazell, DIAS Senior Fellow and Anthony Fernandez, DIAS Senior Fellow

En Kanon samtale Med Mattias Tesfaye, Rasmus Storm, Tony Andersen & Anne-Marie MaiI foråret 2025 nedsatte Børne- og Undervisningsminister Mattias Tesfaye et kanonudvalg med det formål at revidere den eksisterende kanon for de gymnasiale uddannelser. Den nye kanon er klar, og formålet er at give eleverne et godt fælles udgangspunkt og en mulighed for at se Danmark fra flere forskellige vinkler end tidligere. Opdraget var at skabe en kanon med en mere ligelig kønsmæssig repræsentation end tidligere og med et tydeligt nordisk perspektiv.Børne- og undervisningsminister Mattias Tesfaye samtaler med Kanonudvalgets leder, Anne-Marie Mai, om Kanon 2025, og med lektor Tony Søndergaard og lektor Rasmus Storm om brugen af den nye kanon.Rasmus Storm er gymnasielærer i dansk og engelsk ved Odense Katedralskole. Han har publiceret en undervisningsbog om litteratur i gymnasiet, og sidder i juryen til Munch-Christensens debutantpris.Tony Andersen er gymnasielærer i dansk og engelsk ved Odense Katedralskole og ekstern supervisor ved SDU. Han har publiceret flere undervisningsbøger om litteratur, og han blev tildelt en undervisningspris af Politiken i 2020.Anne-Marie Mai er DIAS Chair og Professor i Institut for Kultur og Sprogvidenskaber. I sin forskning har hun især fokuseret på dansk litteraturhistorie, nutidig nordisk litteratur, nordisk kvindelitteraturhistorie, oplysningstidens historie i Skandinavien, litteraturhistoriografi, narrativ medicin og menneskers sundhed. Anne-Marie er udvalgsleder for litteraturkanon-udvalget.Hvornår og hvorMandag d. 8. december 2025Kl. 14:00–16:00ÆrtefabrikkenEdisonsvej 22,5000 Odense C

On this Wild Wednesday, let’s jointly create wild new formats for academic participation!Over the last decades, there has been an increasing focus in higher education on articulating and supporting students in developing academic literacy, not least to alleviate inequities between students from differing sociocultural backgrounds. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the literature on academic literacy focuses on the intellectual practices of academia (writing, orally presenting, discussing, providing constructive feedback etc.) and the appropriation, production and critique of these intellectual practices. However, this ignores the question of how the physical environments and the students’ and teachers’ bodily activities themselves support or hinder student learning of participation.In this design workshop, we explore how to take embodiment seriously, both in the overall organization of classrooms and educational formats, and in the continuous interaction of teachers and students in the carrying out of educational formats. The aim is to develop interaction formats that support students in understanding themselves and others as agentic, competent participants in academic practices.Wild Wednesday hosted by DIAS Fellow, Pat Treusch; Associate Professor Robb Mitchell; and DIAS Chair Nina Bonderup Dohn

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southern Denmark hereby announces Lasse Nielsen's doctoral oral defence (dr.phil.).  The defence will take place on Friday, December 12, 2025, at 10.00 a.m. at Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M in room O100.

Would you like to make your large-class teaching more engaging? Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a proven, structured way to increase student activity and collaboration - even in big lecture halls. This Science Education Hub session is especially relevan

With Martin Conway In the last decade, there has been much talk of a “crisis” of democracy in Europe. The ascendancy of a particular version of democracy in Western Europe after 1945, which was then extended after 1989 to Central and Eastern Europe, is now widely felt to be threatened by the various forces of populism, the resurgence of authoritarian political models, and the wider loss of confidence prompted by globalisation, economic crisis, and the impact of events on the frontiers of Europe, most notably the war in Ukraine. In this lecture, Conway will seek to bring a historical perspective to a debate that is often approached on overly presentist terms. In particular, his lecture will seek to examine how far the real change is one in the contours of democracy rather than its collapse. Martin Conway is Professor of Contemporary European History, and also currently the Chair of the Board of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford. He has written widely on a number of themes of European history of the mid- and later twentieth century. His doctoral work was on Belgium during the Second World War, which was published as Collaboration in Belgium. Léon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement 1940–44 (Yale University Press, 1993), and also in Dutch and French language editions. He has subsequently written books on Catholic politics, on Political Legitimacy, and on Europeanization. His most recent book was Western Europe’s Democratic Age 1945-68 (Princeton University Press, 2020). He is currently working on a study of Male Citizenship in Twentieth-Century Europe, and is one of the editors of a new book series, European Histories of the Present, from Cambridge University Press  which looks to develop an agenda for the history of Europe in the twenty-first century.Sign up here:https://event.sdu.dk/afterthedemocraticageeuropeinthetwenty-firstcentury

After a short presentation of the concept of poly-crisis and extreme contexts, a panel of three scholars will present empirical cases of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in different extreme contexts (e.g. entrepreneurship during interstate wars), followed by a discussant who reflects on the cases. The session ends with discussion in plenum. The panel is comprised of: [list][*]Adam Frost (DIAS fellow)[*]Steffen Korsgaard, SDU IEB (Kolding)[*]Siddhesh Rao, CBS[/list]  This event is organised by Kim Klyver, DIAS Chair.

This lecture will provide some historical perspective on the rise of protectionism in today’s world, drawing on evidence from the mercantilist period of the early modern period, as well as the 19th and 20th centuries.

Growth and Its DiscontentsThe history of capitalism is inseparable from the history of growth. Growth is often celebrated as capitalism’s greatest achievement, yet it has also provoked anxiety. Malthus warned of population pressures, Jevons of coal depletion, while Boserup suggested that scarcity could spur innovation. These debates remind us that growth has always been contested. By contrast, much of modern economics tends to take growth for granted, focusing instead on refining methods and estimating causal effects. This seminar returns growth to the centre of debate, asking how historical reflections on prosperity and limits can help us think about capitalism’s future in an age of climate crisis and inequality. There will be short presentations by a panel of experts bringing varying perspectives:Professor Carl-Johan Dalgaard, University of Copenhagen, https://dors.dk/raad-vismaend/formandskabet/carl-johan-dalgaardProfessor Eoin McLaughlin, Heriot-Watt University, https://www.eoinmclaughlin.ie/Professor Wim Naudé, RWTH Aachen University, https://www.wimnaude.com/Professor Niklas Olsen, University of Copenhagen, https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/da/persons/niklas-olsen This will be followed by a panel debate, chaired by Professor Søren Askegaard, DIAS, SDU.

Over the past two decades, we have witnessed an explosion in the number of academic journals and publishers across most (if not all) research fields. This proliferation has placed significant strain on academics’ time (e.g., reviewing demands) and on university library budgets, and has raised pressing questions about both the quality and quantity of research outputs. Drawing on his personal experience as a former Editor-in-Chief of an Elsevier journal, as well as insights from a recent PNAS article on journal reform (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401231121), DIAS Chair Nikos Ntoumanis will open the session with reflections on why the current publication model is no longer fit for purpose and what reforms may be needed (or have recently been introduced). Following this short presentation, a panel discussion with DIAS colleagues Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi, Anthony Fernandez, Mette Præst Knudsen, and Lars Boje Mortensen, all of whom have editorial experience, will further explore the challenges and opportunities facing academic publishing today. We also look forward to hearing the audience’s views and experiences with current or alternative publication models.