Dissertation

My dissertation Artificial Atmospheres examines climate fiction from the late 19th century. In a period of great climatic variability and atmospheric pollution, works such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871), Jules Verne's Sans dessus dessous (1889), and Begum Rokeya's "Sultana's Dream" (1908) begin to formalize fictive spaces in which humanity can suspend meteorological volatility and tailor the climate to suit its unique needs at a local, regional or planetary level. 

In dialogue with 19th-century urban architecture and engineering (Crystal Palace, the Suez Canal, the Catacombs, etc.), I want to show that writers, architects, and engineers of this period speculate on how to control the unruliness of climate and create spheres (the underground, the greenhouse, the planet) where wind, rain, and sunshine can be rigorously regulated. My project thus provides a cultural history of man-made climate.

Parts of the dissertation can be read here: Dix-Neuf (SDN Publication Prize 2023), Nineteenth-Century Contexts.

Background

I hold a MA in Comparative Literature, AU (2015-2020) including two foreign exchange visits to Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle (III) and Université Paris-Sorbonne (I).

Activities

I am a long-standing editor of Danish journal of literary criticism, Litteraturmagasinet Standart and guest-editor the coming issue of Danish journal of literature, Passage 90: Planeten. I am a frequent translator of English and French into Danish. In December 2022 I published a translation of French philosopher Michel Serres' Temps des crises (2009).

I am also affiliated with Centre for Environmental Humanities (AU) and Det Grønne Forskernetværk.