Professor of Cultural History
Karen V. Lykke is promoted to Professor of Cultural History. The committee writes in her competence statement that:
– Throughout her career, Karen Lykke Syse has become a well-known and established researcher in the areas of landscape and landscape studies. Based on ethnology from her PhD, she has developed her research and teaching with drawing on geography, history and environmental humanities. The study of food culture and the relationship between food, lifestyle and sustainability represents a solid expansion of her research repertoire. Her teaching and dissemination activity is well connected to her research, and she has a solid experience in all three fields.
On the thematic area "Meat", the committee states that:
– It is obvious that Syse's innovative research into meat has paid off well in the form of citations, media appearances and other kinds of public exposure which has had an impact on the Norwegian debate on animal welfare and animal rights.
Studying cultural history of animals and meat
Lykke submitted her PhD-thesis in 2008, and thereafter divided her time equally between the Norwegian Institute of Nature research (NINA) and the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
In 2009 she suscessfully defended her PhD and applied for the position as Head of Studies at SUM, a position she held for ten years. She played a central role in developing one of the most popular UiO Master's programmes: Development, Environment and Cultural Change.
In her research, Lykke has been particularly concerned with environmental humanities, and the cultural and historical aspects of food and landscapes. Her book Live Die Buy Eat: A cultural history of animals and meat co-authored with colleague Kristian Bjørkdahl is forthcoming, and she is working on indigenous food practices and changing meat cultures among the Sáami now.
She is head of the research groups Environmentalities and Food and Sustainability at SUM.
The Professor of Happiness
During her career, she has been known as either Syse or Lykke Syse. Along with her full professorship she has decided to formally reclaim her birthname Lykke, hence Professor Happiness.
This aligns well with one of her most cited publications, Sustainable Consumption and the Good Life, asking what it means to live a good life in a time when the planet is overheating.
Welcome to an inaugural lecture by Professor Karen V. Lykke
Professor Lykke will give her inauguration lecture Thursday 15 December. The title of the lecture is: Food landscapes: Exploring the cultural history of animals and meat.
