The Political Ecology ofPandemics
GLOBAL IMPACTS OF INDUSTRIAL
FOOD SYSTEMSPhD course organised by
SUM Research School at the Centre for Development
and the Environment

9- 11 August2021
Application deadline: 15 march 2021

Course DescriptionThe

objectiveof

thisinterdisciplinary PhD course

istocritically approach therelationship between food production and food consumption and pandemics in anenvironmental

perspective. This

globalfood andfocus

onindustrial

how ecosystems
andWest and in

involves addressing

fodder production andand

hyper-industrial

countries

withthesmall-scale

foodscales; explore theemerging

issues like thetransformation

links

of ruralproduction haveaspirations

economies; address

betweenareas.

Wewillchanged toof consumers

the ongoinginthechanges

inthe global organization of labor, and focus on its environmental impacts.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made governments, health organizations and citizens ingeneralpainfullyproduction

andawareofthe entanglement of changing

consumption andpatterns

lethal pathogens. Problematizingof food

evolving

ideas

regarding the relationship between food and pandemics, both communicable andnon-communicable,

can open newways

tounderstandglobalcapitalism

anditseffects. Accordingly, pandemics are a highly relevant starting point to study the
globalpolitical

andproduction,

andrelationships

betweeneconomic

particularlysocial, economic andhumans,systems

meat

toproduction, turns

animals

environmental

relatedand,impactthehigh,industry. As foodever-moreincreasingly,
isfoodglobal,new

pathogens evolve. Theandfuture sustainability

depends on how these relationships are managed.

Against this backdrop the course will address questions such as:

What are the relations between the global food system and pandemics?
How can perspectives from political ecology and environmental
humanities contribute to new ways of thinking about non-humans in therelationship between food production and pandemic entanglements?
How have local and national environmental histories shaped and been shapedby industrial systems for food production (and meat in particular), and what are
the consequences for animal and human health, welfare and wellbeing at large?
How are food production systems organized in terms of labor and how
do workers in industrial food production cope with pandemic outbreaks and theiraftermaths?

SUM is organizing this course in cooperation with the Norwegian Researcher School
in Environmental Humanities ( N o R S - E H )Network (POLLEN-Norway).

and the Norwegian Political Ecology

Learning outcomesStudents will:

Obtain a nuanced understanding of the links between food production and consumption and pandemics both empirically and theoretically;

Be well acquainted with the major theoretical and empirical approaches tostudying food production and consumption at local, national and global levels;

Engage in critical discussion, become acquainted with the work of others
on food production and food consumption and build networks within theirchosen field of research.

Lecturers
Tony Weis, Western University, Canada
Frédéric Keck, Fellow, CNRF, France
Karen Lykke Syse, SUM, University of Oslo, Norway
Timothy Pachirat, University of Massachusetts, US

Objectives and Focus
The course will enable doctoral students to better understand key concepts,debates and perspectives.

In addition to lectures, the course will allow those conducting Ph.D. research topresent their own work and comment on that of others, guided by senior
experienced academics who are themselves working in this field.

Course capacity: 20 students
Language of instruction: English
Syllabus: Approximately 1000 pages of compulsory readings.

Application
Who may apply?
The interdisciplinary nature of the course will be most suitable for doctoral students
engaging with different disciplines within the social sciences – such as anthropology,sociology, political science, geography, and development studies, as well as doctoral
students working within the various branches of environmental humanities.

Doctoral students will be prioritized, although other applicants may be considered if
space permits.

Funding
The course is free.
Lunches will be provided.

The organisers have some funds available to cover the cost of accommodation (mealsnot included) for selected students from outside Norway. Similarly, there is funding
available

fora

limited numberoftravel

scholarships

forselectedstudents.

Pleaseconsult point 3 under 'Application procedures'.

Students who are members of the Norwegian School for Environmental Humanities(NoRS-EH)

will

havethecostsof

theirtravelandaccommodation

paidforbytheschool. Please indicate your status as a NoRS-EH member in your application cover
letter (point 3 below). If you are not a member of NoRS-EH but are enrolled in a PhD
program in Norway and doing an environmental humanities project, you are urged toapplyformembership

inNoRS-EH(see

https://www.uis.no/nb/NoRS-EH

for

more

details).

Application proceduresInterested students should state their motivation and upload the following via
the Application Form:

1.

A cover letter signed by your Ph.D. supervisor or another person at yourinstitution/workplace, stating your academic background and academic degree(s)held, your research interests and current research projects (if any), including
estimated date of submission of doctoral thesis.

2.

CV

3. Students from outside Norway may apply for a modest travel scholarship and/oraccommodation support, byuploading a separate document along with theircourse application. If you wish to apply for a travel scholarship, please also attach
abudget based on minimum cost travel.

Applications are invited fromThe application deadline is

January 11th 2021.

March 15th 2021.

An early application is highly recommended due to space constraints. Successful
applicants will be contacted byApril 10th 2021.

PreparationsA major purpose of the course is to provide participants with comments on their ongoing work. It is therefore obligatory for all participants to submit a draft paper which
will be discussed during the course.

The paper should be approximately 10 pages long (4000 – 5000 words, excluding thebibliography). You should submit a paragraph attached to the paper where you specify
what you need feedback on, where you are in the process and what your ideas for
publishing are.

Students who are admitted to the course should submit their draft paper electronicallyto the course secretariat by 4 June 2021.

This paper may be revised and resubmitted for evaluation and approval after thecourse (please consult the section on ‘Credits’ below).

All draft paper submissions will be posted on the course’s password protected intranet
site. All participants are required to read draft papers for their allocated working
groups in advance and provide feedback during the course. (You may of course readothers as you wish.)

Syllabus and programmeA

completereading

approximately 1000list(withlinkstoonline

publications,

whenpossible)

ofpages will available on the course’s intranet site by April 19th 2021.

Participants are expected to read the syllabus in advance of the course.

Participants

are expected to attend morning and afternoon sessions, and evening sessions whenrelevant, on all three days.

Credits
Course participants will receive a Course Certificate, recommending either 10 or 3
ECTS credits, but your own institution must approve credits for the course. We
therefore recommend that you contact your Ph.D. coordinator about the issue ofcredits prior to your participation.

For a Certificate recommending 10 credits, a revised paper of 15 – 20 pages (6000 8000 words) must be submitted to the course organisers no later than 8 weeks after
completion of the course, and the paper must be graded with ‘pass’. (The paper will
be evaluated by a course lecturer and assessed within eight weeks aftersubmission).

3 ECTS credits will be recommended for those who participate in full but choose notto submit a revised paper for evaluation (or for those whose revised paper does notpass).

A note on Covid-19
We would like to give this PhD-course physically here in Oslo rather than online. Dueto the unpredictable nature of Covid-19 and restrictions that differ geographically,
we understand that this might be difficult to achieve both for us and for participants.
Because of this, we are planning for both options, hoping to be able to welcome
lecturers and PhD-students if and when this is possible, while planning for an online
option if needs be.

Contact information
Should you have any practical enquiries, please do not hesitate to email the course
secretariat pandefood2021@sum.uio.noPlease check for updated information at the Ph.D. course’s web pages at
the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM).