ECOCON stands for "Ecological Connections: Cultural Studies in Cuba and Norway", and is funded through the NORPART programme of the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Competence (HK-dir).
Sustainable collaboration
The project is based in Cultural Studies at campus Bø and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Havana. It aims to strengthen exchange between the two institutions within the humanities.
The goal is to create a sustainable collaboration where the exchange of master's and PhD students is combined with research-projects led by ECOCON's senior researchers.
During the project period, 20 master’s students and 10 PhD candidates will come to Norway from the University of Havana, whilst 15 master’s students and 5 PhD candidates will travel in the other direction.
Main pillars
ECOCON has three main thematic pillars: linguistics, literature and cultural studies.
Within these areas, we address shared challenges and interests in the Norwegian and Cuban contexts, particularly related to globalisation, migration, gender, ethnicity, cultural encounters and ecological and/or ecocritical issues.
Against this background, we collaborate on course development, publications and conferences, as well as summer schools for master's and PhD students.
Conferences and summer schools
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January 28 to February 10, 2026, we are organizing a summer school in Havana for master's students in Cultural Studies at USN, campus Bø.
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June 8-18, 2025, we organized the summer school "Critical Thinking from the South" in Bø and Bergen, with the participation of fourteen MA and Ph.D. candidates from the University of Havana. Senior researchers from UH and USN were responsible for teaching, along with invited guest lecturers from other institutions. The summer school concluded with both students and staff presenting at the NALAS conference in Bergen.
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May 19-23, 2025, we co-organized the “Coloquio Internacional La Diversidad Cultural en el Caribe” at Casa de las Américas in Havana, where both Norwegian and Cuban ECOCON members gave presentations.
- March 12-26, 2024, we organized a summer school in Havana in connection with the master's subject "Nature and Culture" at the Cultural Studies at USN, Campus Bø. Ten graduate students and three senior researchers from USN participated, in addition to several staff members from the University of Havana.
- In collaboration with the Norwegian Association of Latin American Studies (NALAS), we organized the conference "Islands, Borders, Archipelagos" at the USN Campus in Drammen from June 15-16, 2023.
- June 4-14 2023, we hosted the summer school "Critical Thinking from the South" in Campus Bø and Campus Drammen, with the participation of eleven Ph.D. candidates from the University of Havana. Four senior researchers from Norwegian universities and several researchers from USN and other Norwegian institutions were responsible for the teaching.
