Călina-Maria Moldovan, PhD student at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, is the winner of the EASLCE Essay Prize. A jury consisting of members of the EASLCE Advisory Board decided to award the prize to Călina-Maria for her article “The Ocean in Contemporary Norwegian Literature”.

The article does, according to the jury, not only “comply with the formal requirements (European ecocriticism, length, etc.), but it also convinced with its topical relevance, cogent argument, and level of innovation. The focus on the blue humanities shows the author’s interest in current topics in the field of ecocritical research—the fact that the essay topic is in line with that of the upcoming biennial EASLCE conference being a timely coincidence, but not a decisive aspect. Moreover, applying this analytical lens to Norwegian literature is a welcome intervention, given that the majority of ecocritical research in Europe (still) focuses on Anglophone literature/cultural production.”

The Board congratulates Călina-Maria Moldovan and encourages her to submit her article for publication in EASLCE’s journal Ecozon@. The EASLCE Essay Prize consists of a stipend of 500 Euros to help cover the costs of attending the EASLCE conference Sea More Blue: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Blue Ecopoetics, taking place at the University of Perpignan, France, on June 17-20, 2024.