Animated Reality: Inuit Architecture and Landscape

Public Defence of PhD Thesis by Asta Mønsted.

Assessment Committee

• Associate Professor Tim Flohr Sørensen (University of Copenhagen)
• Professor Charlotte Damm, UiT (The Arctic University of Norway)
• Professor Peter Whitridge (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)

Moderator of the Defence

• Associate Professor Kristina Winther-Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen)

Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:

• At the Information Desk of the Copenhagen University Library, South Campus
• In Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond)
• At the Saxo-Institute, Karen Blixens Plads 8

Abstract

As oral history has played a crucial role among the Inuit for generations, rich stories collected in Greenland between 1735 and 1981 still find their relevance today, when we as field archaeologists and excavators aim to uncover and understand the prehistoric and historical cultural remains found in the Greenlandic landscape. This thesis explores a new, extracting approach that may challenge our archaeological practices of house excavation and reconnaissance. The approach re-activates ancient indigenous voices, which may even resonate with the architectural future of Greenland’s housing and urban landscape.