After crossing the North Sea, I am now in Stavanger – a place of windy beauty and clear waters (began my winter bathing project today – got to start early or it’ll be too shockingly cold).

I am here to pursue my project Green Ink: Plants in Sinophone Fiction in my capacity as International Research Fellow in a shared position between Lund University (Sweden), University of Stavanger (Norway), and University of Oxford (UK) funded by the Swedish Research Council.

In this project, I look at how contemporary Sinophone works of fiction use botanical characters, plant imagery and green environments to create alternative realities, explore possible futures and deal with traumatic pasts; colouring their writings, so to speak, with the green ink of literary plants. In a world where environmental concerns loom large in the media and classrooms alike, this project will help us understand how human beings imagine their plant others as monsters, saviours or parts of themselves.

During my time in Stavanger, I will be affiliated with some pretty awesome Norwegian research networks, namely The Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Initiative and the Monster Network. Yass! Read and eat your greens!