Tone Huse

UrbTrans is a radically interdisciplinary project that has examined the development of Nuuk, the capital of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), in order to understand the connections between urbanization, colonialism and decolonization in the Arctic. By studying the city’s development from 1950 until today, the project has described how Nordic colonialism has shaped Nuuk, and how present-day urban politics and development form part of the decolonization of Kalaallit Nunaat.

The project combined ethnographic fieldwork, archival studies and STS-oriented document analysis, and was carried out in close cooperation with partners in Kalaallit Nunaat – in particular Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland), Nuutoqaq (Nuuk Local Museum) and Nunatta Allagaateqarfia (the National Archives of Kalaallit Nunaat). A central theoretical contribution is the concept of “active past”, developed alongside related concepts such as “temporal displacement” and “material politics of time”.

Outcomes include the monograph “Nature-Made Economy” (MIT Press, 2023), the popular science and photography book “Blok P” (Mondo Books, 2026), the photo book “Knight’s Hood Poems” (Mondo Books, 2026), peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and an extensive art- and culture-based dissemination programme. In 2025 the project staged two major exhibitions: At Home We Belong with Inuuteq Storch at Perspektivet Museum in Tromsø, with an accompanying end-of-project symposium; and Girjegumpi with Joar Nango at the Katuaq cultural house in Nuuk during the Suialaa art festival, with an accompanying PhD course. The project has also produced several other communication outputs in collaboration with Sámi and Inuit artists. The project has brought the Nordic colonial legacy into public debate in Norway and Kalaallit Nunaat – with particular relevance given the geopolitical attention Kalaallit Nunaat now receives.