March 5, 2026 | NMBU, Norway
When you drive through Ørland municipality in Norway, you might encounter the same place referenced three different ways on road signs: Dypfest, Djupfest, and Dybfest. All three refer to the same location, yet each spelling tells a different story about language policy, standardization, and power. This seemingly simple issue of how we write place names sits at the heart of Ingvil Nordland's doctoral research, which she will defend on March 5, 2026 at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
A Thesis at the Intersection of Language, Planning, and Politics
Nordland's dissertation, titled "Navn, normering og nasjon: skriftnormering av stedsnavn som styringsteknologi" (English: Names, norms and nation: toponymic standardization as a political technology of government), breaks new ground by examining place-name standardization not merely as a technical linguistic matter, but as a political technology of governance.
The work emerges from an unusual and innovative academic position: Nordland is affiliated with both LANDSAM (the Center for Land and Landscape Research) and Språkrådet (the Norwegian Language Council), positioning her research at the critical intersection of landscape studies, planning, and language policy.
What Is Toponymic Standardization - And Why Does It Matter?
Place names are far more than labels on maps. They are:
- Historical archives - preserving linguistic layers from Old Norse, indigenous Sámi, and various dialectal traditions
- Identity markers - connecting communities to their landscapes and heritage
- Political instruments - used to assert authority, erase indigenous presence, or construct national narratives
- Planning tools - essential for administration, emergency services, and territorial management
When governments standardize how place names are written, they make consequential decisions about:
✓ Which dialectal variant becomes "official"
✓ Whose pronunciation is honored or erased
✓ How historical linguistic diversity is preserved or flattened
✓ Who has authority over naming landscapes
Nordland's research interrogates these processes, revealing how something as seemingly mundane as spelling rules becomes a technology of governance - a mechanism through which the state shapes space, identity, and belonging.
The Case That Captures the Problem
The photograph accompanying the thesis announcement is emblematic: three road signs in Ørland municipality displaying Dypfest, Djupfest, and Dybfest - three spellings, one place. To the uninitiated, this might seem like bureaucratic confusion. To Nordland's analytical lens, it represents:
- Historical linguistic variation - different dialect pronunciations crystallized into writing
- Incomplete standardization - the friction between top-down norms and local practices
- Contested territory - literally, as different agencies and authorities apply different standards
- The violence of standardization - when one variant is declared "correct," others are marked as "wrong," erasing local knowledge
This is not merely a Norwegian phenomenon. Globally, toponymic standardization has been weaponized in colonial contexts, used to erase indigenous names, and mobilized in nation-building projects. Nordland's work provides theoretical and empirical tools to understand these dynamics.
The Trial Lecture: Municipal Reform and Spatial Effects
Before defending her dissertation, Nordland will deliver a trial lecture (prøveforelesning) on a topic set by the evaluation committee:
"Navnsetting etter kommunereformen i 2017 - problemrepresentasjoner og romlige effekter"
(Naming after the 2017 municipal reform - problem representations and spatial effects)
Norway's 2017 municipal reform merged many municipalities, creating fresh tensions around place names:
- Should merged municipalities adopt new names, and who decides?
- How are existing place names within former municipalities standardized under new administrative structures?
- What happens when communities with different naming traditions are forced together?
- How do these naming decisions produce spatial effects - changing how places are perceived, accessed, and governed?
This trial lecture will demonstrate Nordland's ability to apply her theoretical framework to contemporary policy issues, showcasing the immediate relevance of toponymic research to planning practice.
An Interdisciplinary Committee
The evaluation committee reflects the dissertation's interdisciplinary scope:
Professor Stian Hårstad (NTNU, Norway) - Geographer specializing in political geography and regional development
Førsteamanuensis Alexandra Petrulevich (Uppsala University, Sweden) - Expert in sociolinguistics and language policy
Førsteamanuensis Marius Fiskevold (NMBU, Institute of Landscape Architecture) - Landscape scholar bridging spatial and cultural analysis
This combination ensures the thesis is evaluated from geographic, linguistic, and landscape planning perspectives - precisely the integration Nordland's work demands.
A Remarkable Supervisory Team
Nordland's work was guided by an exceptional interdisciplinary team:
Primary Supervisors:
Professor Synne Movik (NMBU, Department of Urban and Regional Planning) - Political ecologist examining environmental governance, particularly water politics and the politics of expertise
Professor Anne Katrine Geelmuyden (NMBU, Department of Landscape Architecture) - Landscape theorist and practitioner
Dr. Knut E. Karlsen (Språkrådet, Norwegian Language Council) - Language policy expert and practitioner
Former Supervisors:
Professor Emeritus Tim Richardson (NMBU, Department of Urban and Regional Planning) - Planning theorist known for work on discourse and governance
Dr. Berit Sandnes (Kartverket, Norwegian Mapping Authority) - Toponymic expert with deep knowledge of Norwegian place-name history and standardization practice
This team represents the full breadth of expertise required: spatial planning, language policy, landscape theory, and toponymic practice. The inclusion of practitioners from Språkrådet and Kartverket ensures the research is grounded in real-world standardization processes.
Theoretical Contributions: Standardization as Governmentality
By framing toponymic standardization as a "political technology of government," Nordland likely draws on Foucauldian theories of governmentality - how states shape populations and territories through subtle techniques of normalization rather than overt force.
Place-name standardization operates as such a technology because it:
- Renders landscapes legible to state administration (echoing James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State)
- Normalizes linguistic practice by declaring certain forms "correct"
- Disciplines local knowledge by requiring adherence to centralized norms
- Produces national subjects by teaching citizens to perceive landscapes through standardized nomenclature
- Erases or preserves historical linguistic diversity depending on policy choices
This framing moves toponymy from a technical subdiscipline of linguistics into the domain of critical spatial theory and political geography.
The Defense: March 5, 2026
Schedule:
12:30 — Welcome and Trial Lecture
~13:20 — Break
~13:40 — Presentation of research and defense begins
~16:00 — Defense concludes
~16:45 — Reception at Gamle styrerommet (Old Board Room) in Cirkus
Location:
Sørhellinga, Room SU 105
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
Ås, Norway
Disputas Leader:
Kristine Lien Skog, Head of Department, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, NMBU
Why You Should Care
Even if you're not a toponymist, planner, or Norwegian speaker, Nordland's defense matters because it exemplifies how interdisciplinary research can illuminate the hidden politics of everyday practices.
Every time you:
- Type an address into GPS
- Read a map
- Teach a child to spell a place name
- Vote on whether to change a controversial place name
...you are participating in the politics Nordland analyzes.
Her research provides conceptual tools to understand:
✓ How language becomes infrastructure
✓ How states govern through normalization
✓ How local knowledge is validated or erased
✓ How naming is never neutral
Publication Details
Dissertation Number: 2026:6
ISSN: 1894-6402
ISBN: 978-82-575-2322-0
The dissertation will be publicly available through NMBU's digital repository following the defense.
Broader Context: Toponymy in the 21st Century
Nordland's defense arrives at a moment of heightened attention to place names globally:
- Indigenous name repatriation movements gain momentum
- Decolonial toponymy challenges Eurocentric mapping
- Digital platforms reshape toponymic authority
- Climate change forces reconsideration of coastal and glacial place names
- Political conflicts make renaming a frontline issue (Ukraine removing Soviet toponyms, debates over Confederate names in the US)
Her analytical framework offers tools for navigating these contested terrains.
For Attendees: What to Expect
The Trial Lecture
This tests Nordland's ability to apply her expertise to a new topic set by the committee. Expect:
- Theoretical framing of naming after municipal reform
- Empirical examples from the 2017 Norwegian case
- Analysis of "problem representations" (likely drawing on Carol Bacchi's "What's the Problem Represented to Be?" approach)
- Discussion of spatial effects - how administrative changes materialize in landscape
The Defense
The committee will interrogate:
- Theoretical contributions and originality
- Methodological rigor
- Empirical evidence and case selection
- Broader implications
- Limitations and future research directions
Expect robust debate on:
- The Foucauldian framing (is governmentality the right lens?)
- The relationship between standardization and linguistic diversity
- The role of institutions (Språkrådet, Kartverket) in shaping outcomes
- Scalar dynamics (how does national policy interact with local practice?)
- Policy recommendations (should standardization be resisted, reformed, or reimagined?)
Congratulations, Ingvil Nordland!
Completing a PhD is a monumental achievement. Doing so while affiliated with both a research center and a national language council — integrating theory and practice — is especially impressive.
Whether the defense results in the title Dr. Ingvil Nordland (we're confident it will!), this research has already made important contributions by:
🌟 Positioning toponymy as a critical site for understanding governance
🌟 Bridging spatial planning and language policy
🌟 Providing conceptual tools for analyzing standardization politics
🌟 Grounding abstract theory in concrete Norwegian cases
🌟 Opening new research directions at the intersection of onomastics, geography, and planning
The international onomastic and planning communities eagerly await the published dissertation.
The defense is open to the public. Join us on March 5, 2026, to witness the culmination of this important research!
