Opening of NASS XII; General assembly chaired; reelected President of NASS

Yesterday I took part in the opening of the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) at Vilnius University in Vilnius, Lithuania (held November 5-7th, 2021, with the theme "Meaning in perception and the senses"). In the evening, I chaired the General assembly of NASS. I was reelected as President of NASS for a third term (I have served as President since 2017), and as ordinary representative for Norway.

Two meetings and a symposium opening

Today I have taken part, along with Head of Department of social studies, in opening the annual meeting and symposium of the COLAB network, "Collaboration within criminal justice services", a EU Horizon 2020 RISE project which is hosted by the UIS, in my capacity as Vice Dean of Research at Faculty of Social Sciences. I have further attended the first Vice-Dean meeting with the new Vice-Rector of Research (Merete Vadla Madland), with Research Director Troels Gode Jacobsen also attending, and a research report planning meeting with a colleague.

Opening of the art exhibition "Asylum" at Utsikten

April 11th I took part in the opening of the art exhibition, or more specifically video installation, "Asylum (midt i blant oss)" [Asylum - right in our midst] at Utsikten art center in Kvinesdal, Norway. The exhibition is on display until May 16th.

As my opening words, I read the philosophical causerie "Å ha livet på vent" [Having your life on hold]. The exhibition features video recordings from a Norwegian asylum center. The opening of the video installation was well visited, with some 50-60 people attending, about half of them with a background as asylum seekers. The program of the opening further included conversation with the artist, Eli Glader, belly dancing, and an informal panel discussion in which I also took part.

The next day, April 12th, I repeated part of my causerie for some 20 hotel guests around lunch time.

The manager of Utsikten, Torill Haugen, found me via my commercial philosophy site, Spør filosofen [Ask the philosopher].