Since the new dekanat began its work in January we have been impressed not only by the excellent work done in administration, research, teaching, and service to the community, but also the goodwill and generosity you embody as colleagues as we, within the framework of our ‘agreement,’ team up to implement our vision. It is a privilege for us as leadership group to serve the faculty, and I would like to extend a warm thank-you to you all for everything you have done and all the extra miles you have walked this past semester.
Our Future is changing
As we transition into summer, June is a good time to reflect on what we have accomplished together since January and contemplate the challenges we have been – and still are – presented with. In many ways, the world, and thus also our future, has changed considerably since New Year, both locally here in Norway and globally. As food for thought, I’d like to highlight just a few of the many things that will impact us directly.
Basic funding structures are being reinvented
First, our government is about to change some of academia’s basic funding structures, moving incentives away from research and aligning them with a greater focus on education, as Sivert wrote about in the March issue of TF-Nytt. This will likely impact incentive-structures supporting large grant applications, with potentially undesirable effects on how faculty funding is configured, especially if universities are not able to counter such measures with additional financial backing focused on research initiatives.
Student fees
In a different move, the much criticized reform introducing (sizeable) student fees for international students beyond the EU and Switzerland is also soon to be implemented. Over the next few years, we will know more about what this will mean for us, but a few things seem clear already now.
Student fees, and especially of the size that is suggested, would very likely affect the number of international students who would be able to attend Norwegian universities negatively. While numbers may rise again in a few years, as some have suggested, the sifting mechanism chosen for inclusion/exclusion – wealth, rather than academic background and ability – would remain. The reform would thus necessarily produce a less diverse student body, privileging Europeans, and restricting access for those who come from the African continent, Asia, South and North America, and Australia.
Internationalization, diversity, and academic cooperation
In a situation when internationalization, diversity, and academic cooperation beyond political borders have never been more important, it is difficult to see how such policies would be compatible with, or could facilitate, knowledge transfer between countries. This is all the more serious as the world is struggling to find solutions to a range of urgent and challenging problems on which we need to cooperate internationally, including environmental issues, sustainability, inter-religious relations, and peace. If we agree that “knowledge is a vaccine against extremism,” as a heading in V?rt Land [May 31, p. 2] perceptively phrased it, would it not follow that restricting access to knowledge, especially of religion and theology, produced in a democratic nation where academic freedom is held high, would facilitate extremism rather than prevent it? Can we afford that?
Indeed, in light of the many and laudable attempts to make all research accessible through open-access publishing – a reform which in fact undermines precisely wealth as a criterion for deciding who gets to take part in the global academic conversation – it seems counter-intuitive to restrict access to education in this way. Does the one hand know what the other is doing? What are the underlying values that come to the fore in such conflicting reforms, and in which way, if at all, could they be understood as integrated parts of a coherent political strategy? If one has to commodify knowledge through a price tag, why not charge those who can afford to pay, and not those who can’t?
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Another area where things have been changing very fast concerns Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on academia, as Anne Hege wrote about in May. The nature of this challenge forces us to re-think issues related to teaching and forms of examination. But it goes further than that since it touches on questions that are foundational for academia, such as what human ‘knowledge’ is and how ‘skills’ are to be defined. Academia cannot solve all of these issues by itself, but needs to be deeply involved in the political processes that are now being developed, including initiatives such as the national strategy for digitalization just launched by prime minister Jonas Gahr St?re.
In this area as well, there is an urgent need for international cooperation – disciplinary and interdisciplinary, as well as politically – in order to generate ideas and regulations that move us forward in ways that won’t undermine our very existence, as many experts have urged. If the dire warnings regarding global warming are pressing, issues surrounding AI are equally so.
Could challenges such as those mentioned be bundled up and approached within integrated theoretical models as we seek solutions in the current moment? What would it mean for our future if theology was not an integrated intellectual force in these conversations? Or if theology itself was not an interconnected field in which we find not only traditions other than the Christian, but also a wide range of methodologies adapted to and addressing the ultimate conundrum of what it means to be human? These are questions that I will bring with me and ponder as we, in due time, transition into the fall semester.
We would be mistaken, though, if we understood the world and humanity only through the more or less catastrophic scenarios reaching us through media; such scenarios are serious but outnumbered by the myriad positive and constructive global and local developments that also take place, simultaneously, but which are rarely mentioned.
Looking at our own immediate context, where can we make an impact?
New Developments at our Faculty
At our faculty, we have begun several exciting developments, which, I’m convinced, will make us better equipped to meet the theological challenges of tomorrow. A few examples to remind ourselves of where we are at and the direction in which we are heading:
In January we welcomed our new colleague Gunnar Haaland as professor II with responsibility for our new English-language program ‘Jewish Pathfinders,’ which will be taught for the first time in the fall. In the fall we will also welcome two more colleagues: Drs Nora Eggen and Jihan Zakarriya, both experts on Islam.
In addition, we are about to finalize two other ongoing searches, strengthening TF’s expertise in the fields of feminist theology and systematic theology. On top of that, in a unique and innovative collaboration begun last year, the Museum of Cultural History and TF have just advertised a joint position in medieval church history, with an emphasis on material culture. The configuration of this position will allow the successful candidate to utilize the extensive collections and archives of the museum in both research and teaching. We have advertised four new PhD positions, too, which we very much look forward to filling.
The spring semester has seen several administrative reforms as well, including the establishment of an emeriti council (Emeritir?dTF [ERTF]) and a monthly department meeting for all academic staff (vitenskapelig stabsm?te [VISTA]). These developments are part of a larger initiative to increase the number of shared conversation arenas in order to facilitate information flow and exchange of ideas, as Tone wrote about in April. More reforms within our research and teaching structures are on the way… Stay tuned!
The Dean’s Run
Last, and perhaps least, our weekly exercise hour ‘TF-trimmen’ on Mondays has now been joined by the Dean’s Run on Wednesdays, all in order to balance out all the sitting we do and, quite simply, to enjoy doing things together other than work.
And on that note, I wish you all a relaxing and refreshing summer, and look forward to seeing you again in August!