On their way to Greenland, 36 students from 16 countries are learning about climate and the ocean aboard Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Their three-week voyage combines sailing, fieldwork, and lectures -and creates a rare space for cross-disciplinary science and cultural exchange.
The voyage from the Azores to Greenland is an intense community, where students both sail the ship, take part in teaching, and conduct fieldwork.
Endre Tvinnereim, professor of political science at the University of Bergen, is one of the initiators of the course.
Learning at sea
Tvinnereim has organized a course at sea before, but that voyages lasted one and a half week rather than three.
– Now we haven’t seen land for a very long time, but that also means we can really work in a concentrated way over longer periods and get more done.
Teaching on board Statsraad Lehmkuhl offers opportunities that do not exist on land:
– It is very good that we can spend so much time together. People get to know each other better and can do group work and also hold small lectures for each other. We teachers also have the opportunity to first lecture on a topic, and then give students the chance to provide feedback, so that we can prepare a new lecture on what they want to know more about.
The course is interdisciplinary, combining natural and social science perspectives on the ocean and climate change. The students learn about both natural and human-driven processes, and about humanity’s role in nature. Here, natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, legal scholars, and historians collaborate. Normally, science students are in the majority on courses like this - but not this time. According to Tvinnereim, this balance offers a rare chance for genuine cross-disciplinary learning.
– It is quite new and good. Not only for the natural scientists to learn something about the humanities, but actually useful for those in the humanities to actually help take samples, use the instruments, haul on ropes, and look at the temperature and salinity profile down into the depths. To see how the work is done in practice.
Living close together
The students live closely together in the banjer, sleep in hammocks, and share both watch duties and meals. This closeness affects both learning and the social life on board.
– I think it works very well. They are highly motivated and work well together. They communicate well across groups, and I am very happy about that. You are very close to your neighbor, so you have to relate to each other in a good and constructive way.
Tvinnereim notes that living so close to the students is enjoyable for him as a teacher as well:
– Standing buoy watch together all the way aft is a very good opportunity to have good conversations about academic topics – and completely different things.
Networks
Tvinnereim hopes the students will not only gain subject knowledge.
– To achieve interdisciplinarity, you really have to spend time together across fields and get to know each other, and you have to see how people do things in practice, not just read what is written in articles. And I also hope they have built good networks that they can use in the future, when they might become established researchers.
He also values the cooperation with the ship’s crew:
– It is very nice to see how maritime culture is passed on and communicated to people who will work with climate and ocean science for the next 30–40 years. That they learn the names of the sails, sing shanties, and learn about sailor-superstitions and tattoos. Everything that happens on a ship - which has thousand-year-old traditions. The university is a place for preserving knowledge, and Statsraad Lehmkuhl is an important bearer of culture, so the fact that we can work together in this field is, I think, very valuable.
Meeting across borders
That the course gathers students from three continents and 16 countries makes the voyage toward Greenland special – especially in a time of major geopolitical tensions and focus on the Arctic.
– The fact that we can meet across national borders and be together for quite a long time is very, very important and very valuable. Perhaps more valuable than we realized when we started planning this course, says Tvinnereim.
