Announcing the new CAS research Grant projects of 2027/2028

Each year, CAS hosts three interdisciplinary research groups spanning the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. These groups bring together leading academics from around the world, led by scholars from CAS' partner institutions in Norway. The Principal Investigators and their selected team members dedicate an entire academic year to their research.

Following a thorough evaluation process, including international peer review, the Board of Directors has selected the following three projects for the 2027/2028 academic year.

‘The Politics of Tone’ – Professor Kim Wilkins (UiO) and Professor Timotheus Vermeulen (UiO)

In the age of the soundbite and the meme, politics and culture are increasingly shaped by tone. Commentators often speak of “tone-deaf” politicians or the “authentic voice” of this writer or that artist. Yet, there appears to be little coherent sense of what “tone” is. The scant extant scholarship on tone to date is scattered and discipline-specific, leaving serious doubt as to whether we are talking about the same thing when we discuss the tone of a debate, or a film, an artwork, or a novel. 

The Politics of Tone project will use the year at CAS to remedy this scholarly lack. The project will bring together international scholars from across disciplines to develop the first comprehensive account of tone across politics, media, and culture - and, in the process, establish a new field of inquiry: tone studies. By theorizing tone across disciplinary and national boundaries, The Politics of Tone aims to understand how tone communicates the worldviews that permeate and structure social and cultural contexts today.

The PIs state that they are delighted to have received this grant, and that the CAS Research Grant is an unparalleled opportunity to develop their research.

‘Shifting Grounds; The Anthropology of Terraformation’ – Marianne Lien (UiO)

The Anthropology of terraformation’ seeks to expand anthropological theory and methods to address urgent challenges connected with landscape change. The group brings together international experts on wetlands, ice, rock and river deltas, forests and fields in different parts of the world who share an interest in expanding landscape ethnography towards abiotic processes.  Such collaborative and comparative work takes time and prolonged conversations, which is exactly what CAS provides. 

Lien states that her and her group “feel extremely fortunate to be able to spend time together at CAS, to learn from each other and thereby push our own inquiries even further.”  The group is confident that this will advance their understanding of landscape temporalities, and help us to develop an anthropology of terraformation. 

‘Geometric Analysis of Nonholonomic Systems’ – Professor Boris Serafimovich Kruglikov (UiT) and Professor Irina Markina (UiB)

The project explores the surprising abundance of hidden symmetries found in the fundamental equations of natural sciences. It addresses basic questions like: How much symmetry can a system with constraints actually have? What geometric features determine its size and shape? The nonholonomic constraints under study show up in a wide range of real-world applications - from spacecraft motion and solar panel orientation to signal processing in neural networks. The group's goal is to uncover the structure properties of such systems.

This exciting journey is inspired by the pioneering work of Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie, who created a powerful framework for understanding infinite continuous symmetries. Building on his legacy, Kruglikov and Markina are using modern tools from differential geometry, global analysis and optimal control to investigate how curvature and constraints influence the symmetries of physical systems and, ultimately, their behavior.

The focused academic year at the CAS, will provide the PIs, along with a team of international experts and national partners, the opportunity to deepen their exploration of the interplay between nonlinear constraints and symmetry.

We extend our congratulations to the 2027/2028 project leaders and express our gratitude to all who submitted proposals. CAS eagerly anticipate welcoming all new project members in the 2027/2028 academic year.