Public engagement in Danish

To me, one of the pleasures of being an historian is to tell engaging stories beyond the academy. Nuanced and critical histories are able to shape our conversation on a number of important topics if given space and time. I enjoy telling such stories myself, and through the years I’ve spent a lot of energy in creating platforms that allow more stories to be told.

In 2012, I co-founded the online journal for science communication Baggrund, which allowed historians and other scholars to share research-based essays guided by their expertise. Today, Baggrund has pivoted into a non-profit publishing house, which publishes collected volumes directed at the general public on different topics relating to the history of ideas.

In 2015, I co-founded the journal Ny Jord – tidsskrift for naturkritik [New Earth – Journal for Nature Criticism] with a group of friends. Ny Jord seeks to expand our conception of the history, politics, and aesthetics of nature, and has left a profound impact on the public debate on nature, climate change and biodiversity in Denmark.

Parallel to my scholarly English-language articles, I write essays in Danish in which I seek to present my ideas in ways more relevant, engaging, and fun. I’ve written essays on anti-mathematicism, vital materialism, Enlightenment science fictions, and Buffon’s natural history for journals such as Kulturo, Semikolon, Baggrund and Ny Jord.

I am a recurring speaker at the Copenhagen-based Bloom festival dedicated to science and nature. At Bloom, I’ve given talks on topics such as microscopy, mechanism, glassware and pollen. You can watch an ‘aftertalk’ to one of these here.

In 2022, I hosted Danish science journalist Lone Frank at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin for two radio shows about my research. The first has already aired, the second will air in August 2022.