Activities in NSU revolve around thematic study circles that meet twice-yearly over a three-year cycle. NSU study circles explore widely diverse topics within the arts and humanities, natural and social sciences.

You can become part of NSU by contacting the coordinators of the study circle you are interested in joining and by subscribing to the newsletter.

Current circles:

1. Place of Heritage in Interdisciplinarity (2023-2025)
2. Tactical arts, theory and tékhnē: Agency, bios and aesthetics (2023-2025)
3. The Praxis of Social Imaginaries. Cosmologies, Othering and Liminality (2023-2025)
4. –
5. Racialization, Whiteness and Politics of Othering in Contemporary Europe (2021-2023)
6. Nordic Environmental Ethics (2021-23)
7. The Experiential in Artistic Practice and Research: Methods, Knowledges and Reflective Processes (2022-2024)
8. Futures of Education, Cultural Diversity, Imaginations and Collective Transformations in Time of the Anthropocene (2021-2023)

Current Ad hoc circles (one year projects):

• Ad hoc 1: The Genealogy of Normalcy and Experienced Ambiguity
• Ad hoc 3: Decolonizing social work
• Ad hoc 2: Urban-Industrial Entanglements in Crisis
• Ad hoc 4: Environmental aesthetics
• Ad hoc 5: Theorizing in catastrophic times

See the list of previous circles>>

By creating a space for regular collaboration over an extended period of time, durable networks in the Nordic-Baltic region and beyond grow out of the study circles. The circles provide a cross-disciplinary forum for debating topics that are not already established in universities, thereby contributing to the initiation of new research agendas and alternative perspectives. An important dynamic of the study circles is to follow a process of research that allows for works-in-progress and experimentation. Study circle outcomes take various forms, which document and reflect the circle’s projects and activities. Additionally, each circle has the opportunity to publish an anthology with the NSU Press presenting their research.

Anyone can make a proposal for a study circle cycle and each study circle is facilitated by two coordinators. Subjects of study are based on proposals that go through community review process and must be accepted by the General Assembly of the NSU.

Details on how to make a proposal can be found here.

In addition to regular three-year study circles, NSU welcomes short-term proposals (one-year ad hoc circles) as a way to open the organization to new influences and participants. Some of the circles included in the current work programme are ad hoc circles set up for a one-year period.

Details on how to initiate an ad hoc circle can be found here.

During the winter, in their respective locations throughout the Nordic and Baltic region, each circle holds a three-day symposium. During one week in the summer all of the circles hold their symposia at a shared location, which offers additional possibilities for cross-fertilisation, to share and be in dialogue with participants research. NSU study circles offer a rare environment for critique and exchange consisting of returning members and a constant influx of new participants. This dynamic enables circle members to follow a consistent working process over time, while also benefiting from interaction with and input from new participants.

NSU offers ECTS credits to students who participate in a symposium.

If you wish to join a winter or summer symposium you can read more about each specific circles.

• Children’s Circle
• Circle 1: Place of Heritage in Interdisciplinarity
• Circle 2: Cybioses – life in the future imperfect
• Circle 3: The Praxis of Social Imaginaries. Cosmologies, Othering and Liminality
• Circle 5: Racialization, Whiteness and Politics of Othering in Contemporary Europe
• Circle 6: Nordic Environmental Ethics
  • The urban, rural and wild: human-nature relations in the North
  • Call for Abstracts for the Winter Symposium 2021
  • CfP Summer Sessions 2022
  • CfP Winter Symposium 2022
  • Is there a need for a new, a Nordic, environmental ethic?
  • Winter Symposium 2022
• Circle 7: The experiential in artistic practice and research: methods, knowledges and reflective processes
• Circle 8: Futures of Education, Cultural Diversity, Imaginations and Collective Transformations in Time of the Anthropocene
  • 2021 Summer Session Program for Study Circle 8: Futures of education, cultural diversity, imaginations and collective transformations in time of the Anthropocene
  • Call for Papers Summer Session 2021
  • Call for Papers Winter Symposium 2021
  • Winter Session Program for Study Circle 8: Futures of education, cultural diversity, imaginations and collective transformations in time of the Anthropocene
  • Winter Session Program for Study Circle 8: Futures of education, cultural diversity, imaginations and collective transformations in time of the Anthropocene
• Ad hoc 1: The Genealogy of Normalcy and Experienced Ambiguity
• Ad hoc 3: Decolonizing social work
• Ad hoc 2: Urban-Industrial Entanglements in Crisis
• Ad hoc 4: Environmental aesthetics
• Ad hoc 5: Theorizing in catastrophic times

Archive of previous study circles can be found here.