Deconstructing “home” in crisis: Understanding intersecting crises through the lens of home
Legal understandings of the climate crisis tend to overlook the interconnected and overlapping nature of crises, their complex temporalities, their histories, and the fact that crises are personal and manifest in intimate spaces. In centring the idea of ‘home’, we examine the ways in which the climate crisis is lived and felt at home, and what home means in a state of climate crisis, in which one can be unhomed and rehomed, rendered homeless in one’s home, and homesick in one’s homeland.
The project is supported by funded jointly by HERA - Humanities in the European Research Area and CHANSE – Collaboration of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe, with contributions for the Danish part of the project from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. It is a collaboration between researchers based in Norway, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, working with partners in South Africa (Empatheatre), Canada (Preparing Our Home), Client Earth.
See the full project website Home In crisis.
- Miriam Cullen, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen (PI)
- Katarina Hovden, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
- Dina Lupin, Associate Professor, University of Southhampton
- Hugo Reinert, Associate Professor of Cultural History and Environment, University of Oslo
- Eva Maria Fjellheim, Researcher, University of Oslo
- Ragnhild Freng Dale, Senior Researcher, University of Oslo
- Marianne Friisberg Larssen, Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo
- Marie Aronsson-Storrier, Lecturer in Law, University College Cork
- Dylan McGarry, Director, Empatheatre
- Mpume Mthombeni, Director, Empatheatre
- Neil Coppen, Director, Empatheatre
- Lily Yumagulova, Director, Preparing Our Home
- In collaboration with the broader Home in Crisis team, Empeatheatre developed the play “Isitha Sabanthu” which draws inspiration from the true story of environmental human rights defender Fakile Ntshangase who was gunned down in her own home in KawZulu-Natal in 2020. The play premiered to critical acclaim in March 2026.
- Dina Lupin, Hugo Reinert, Marie Aronsson-Storrier, Katarina Hovden, "Perhaps the world ends here: understanding the climate crisis through the lens of ‘home" in Alana Lancaster, Maria Antonia Tigre & Dina Lupin (eds), The Research Handbook on Climate Justice (Edward Elgar, forthcoming)
- Hugo Reinert, ‘Fieldwork: Writing (on) a damaged planet’ (2025) in Marit Ruge Bjærke, Brita Brenna, Anders Ekström & John Ødemark (eds), Cultural History and the Anthropocene: Old turns, new encounters (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).
- Miriam Cullen and Nivikka Witjes, ‘Losing home without going anywhere: Reconceptualising climate-related displacement in international law and policy in ways relevant to Inuit in Greenland’ in Miriam Cullen and Matthew Scott (eds), Nordic Approaches to Climate-Related Human Mobility (2024) 85-100.
- Miriam Cullen, Benedicte S. Holm and Céline B. Olsen, ‘A Human Rights-Based Approach to Disaster Risk Management in Greenland: Displacement, Relocation, and the Legacies of Colonialism’ in Yearbook of International Disaster Law (2024) 77–100.
- Dylan McGarry, “When Ancestors Are Included in Ocean Decision- and Meaning-Making” in Tamara Shefer, Vivienne Bozalek & Nike Romano (eds), Hydrofeminist Thinking With Oceans: Political and Scholarly Possibilities (1st edn, Routledge 2024)
- Marie Aronsson-Storrier, ‘Foe, Friend, or All? The Position of Nature in International Law on Disaster Risk Reduction’ in Susan L. Smith and Michael D. Bowman (eds), Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law (2nd ed, Edward Elgar Publishing 2024) 93, 93–111.
- Lilia Yumagulova, Meg Parsons, Darlene Yellow Old Woman Munro, Emily Dicken, Simon Lambert, Naura Vergustina, John C Scott, Patrick Michell and Waylon Black, ‘Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Mobility Justice and the Displacement–Mobility–Immobility Continuum’ (2023) Climate and Development 1–18
Researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katarina Hovden | Postdoc | +4535332024 | |
| Miriam Cullen | Associate Professor | +4535323336 |
Funding
|
1 January 2025 – 31 December 2027 |
PI: Miriam Cullen.
Please see “The Team” above to see all team members.