Public defence: Marie Skeie

Marie Skeie Susmita Afroz will defend her PhD degree in Humanities, Cultural, and Educational Sciences. This thesis look at land crafting and participatory textile practices in collective situations in Palestine and Norway as part of local practice with land and aesthetic processes.

29 May

Practical information

  • Date: 29 May 2026
  • Time: 10.00 - 15.00
  • Location: Notodden, Rolf Bull-Hansen auditorium (S-322) and Zoom
  • Download calendar file

    • Zoom link for digital participation will come here

    Program

    10.00. Trial lecture: TBA

    12.00. Public defence: Land Crafting and Participatory Textile Practices in Collective Situations in Palestine and Norway. An A-R-Tographic Study in Early Childhood Education

    Evaluation comittee

    • First opponent: Docent Anne Louise Bang, VIA University College, Denmark
    • Second opponent: Associate professor Rabab Tamish, Bethlehem University, Palestine
    • Chair of defence: Head of Department Laila Belinda Fauske, University of South-Eastern Norway
    • Administrator: Professor Lars Frers, University of South-Eastern Norway

    Supervisors

    • Principal supervisor: Professor emerita Kari Carlsen, University of South-Eastern Norway
    • Co-supervisor: Professor Karin Hognestad, University of South-Eastern Norway
Any questions?

Marie Skeie is defending her thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway. 

Marie Skeie She has pursued the PhD program in Humanities, Cultural and Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities, Sports and Educational Science, Department of Visual and Performing Arts Education at campus Notodden.

You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

  • Link to the dissertation will come here

Summary

A new artistic research dissertation explores how land crafting and participatory textile practices can create spaces for sharing experiences and knowledge in collective situations in Palestine and Norway. Rooted in long-term engagement with collective making as an artist, the study examines material-based artistic practices as part of aesthetic, social, and pedagogical processes.

The research is drawing on posthuman thinking and new materialism to foreground relationships between humans, non-humans, materials, landscapes, and ecologies. The dissertation consists of four research articles, eight artworks, and an extensive summary, and includes projects such as The Stitch Project, Botanical Colour Laboratory, and Colours of Gaza, which use plant dyeing and textile practices to explore collectivity, participation, and place.

A key contribution of the study lies in its methodological approach, combining artistic research, a/r/tography, and creative practice ethnographies. The research emphasizes slow, aesthetic, and relational modes of analysis, where ethics, ontology, and epistemology are understood as entangled, and where response-ability and relational accountability are central to research practice.

The dissertation highlights local concepts such as mujaawarah (neighbouring), al mashaa’ (commons), and sumud (steadfastness) as emerging forms of collectiveness that embrace plurality and difference. It proposes a mujaawarah-centred pedagogy grounded in everyday life and the local landscape, demonstrating the relevance of participatory art and land-based practices for early childhood education in Gaza and beyond.