The Ratatǫskr Research Group for Cultural Animal Studies was founded in 2018 by literary scholars at Södertörn University with an interest in cultural animal studies.

• Amelie Björck External link. (docent/associate professor)
  
• Claudia Lindén External link. (professor)
• Ann-Sofie Lönngren External link. (professor)
  

The research group’s purpose is to read and discuss texts relevant to the field, plan conferences and travel to conferences, apply for research funding, collaborate on publications, develop courses and benefit from each other’s networks. We want to develop partnerships with people who are interested in cultural animal studies, in literary studies and other subjects, inside and outside Södertörn University. In the long term, our aim is that the group will find its place in an international field.

We organize a transdisciplinary reading group that meets about twice each semester. Other activities are announced via this webpage and by email. You can email ratatoskr@sh.se to be added to the email list, join the reading group or if you have any questions.

The study of the relationship between animals and humans is a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field and is represented in several subjects at Södertörn. Comparative Literature has strong links to current research in this field and offers several courses in literary animal studies. We are particularly interested in questions such as: How is the animal–human relationship depicted in literature? How can various literary forms (such as zoopoetics) and different types of reading contribute to problematising anthropocentric paradigms in comparative literature? How can we understand the relationship between matter, metaphor and agency in literary depictions of non-human animals? What is the relationship between the hierarchically organised animal/human dichotomy and ideas about categories such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity and disability? What ontologies can be imagined as regards the relationship between animals and humans? And how are these questions linked to ethical issues and dilemmas in the wider field of the humanities and in ongoing social interactions between species?

In Nordic mythology, Ratatǫskr is a squirrel that runs up and down the tree of life, Yggdrasil, carrying messages between the dragon in its roots and the eagle in its crown. It is thus both a representation of a ‘real’ animal species and a carrier of meaning in human mythology. This, as well as its agency and conveyance of knowledge about the world itself, makes Ratatǫskr an illustrative symbol of the research group’s interests.

Publications

In early 2022, the Ratatoskr Research Group for Cultural Animal Studies (previously the Ratatoskr Research Group for Literary Animal Studies) published its first anthology. It is in English, peer-reviewed, and includes contributions from researchers across northern Europe. Read the anthology: Squirrelling : Human–Animal Studies in the Northern-European Region. External link, opens in new window.

In 2025-2026, Ann-Sofie Lönngren and Amelie Björck are guest editing a themed issue of the journal lambda nordica: “Queering animal studies / animalizing queer studies” (forthcoming).

In 2025-2026, contributions from the conference on Multi-Species Methods (see below) will be publishing in an edition of zoophilologica, for which Ann-Sofie Lönngren is guest editor (forthcoming).

In 2025-2026, Ann-Sofie Lönngren, Amelie Björck and Claudia Lindén are working with twenty or so researchers on writing Djurens svenska litteraturhistoria (the Swedish Literary History of the Animal - forthcoming).

Conferences and symposia

• On 9-10 December 2024, Ratatoskr organised an international symposium, Multi-Species Methods, in partnership with Jonna Bornemark at the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge at Södertörn University and Andréa Petitt, University of Liège, Belgium. Over 30 speakers and an additional 15 audience members participated, from Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Poland. The contributions will be published in an issue of zoophilologica (see above, under Publications).
• On 5-6 December 2019, a northern European symposium was conducted with 10 invited speakers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sápmi, and artists. It attracted around 50 people and resulted in the publication of Squirrelling (see above, under Publications).

Nordic network

The Ratatǫskr Network for Literary and Cultural Animal Studies was founded after the symposium in 2019. Its Swedish representation is the Ratatoskr research group for cultural animal studies, and in other countries it is represented by the following people:

• Camilla Flodin External link, opens in new window., associate professor, University of Agder, Norway
• Sune Borkfelt, research assistant, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Gunnar Eggertsson, researcher, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
• Karoliina Lummaa External link., associate professor, University of Turku, Finland; BIOS External link.
• Michael Lundblad External link, opens in new window., professor, University of Oslo, Norway
  
• Malgorzata Poks External link., associate professor, University of Silesia, Poland. Co-editor for zoophilologica: Polish Journal for animal studies. External link.