Cecilie Sachs Olsen

Cecilie Sachs Olsen is Professor of Arts and Society and a cultural geographer at Oslo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Technology, Art and Design, Department of Aesthetic Sciences. Her work bridges urban studies, environmental humanities, and socially engaged art, focusing on how artistic practices can contribute to sustainable urban development and social transformation in response to the climate crisis.

She earned her PhD from Queen Mary University of London and previously served as a postdoctoral fellow and associate professor at Royal Holloway University of London. Her academic journey reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary approaches connecting artistic practice with urban theory and environmental concerns.

Cecilie's research investigates how art can contribute to new perspectives on place development, particularly regarding environmental challenges associated with urbanization. Her work analyzes how artistic practice fosters new methods of participation and co-creation, promotes new ways of listening in conflict-filled transformation processes, and contributes to social transformation in response to climate crisis. She has developed creative methods for participation, place development, and analysis, with particular focus on relational aesthetics, performance theory, and multi-species urbanism.

Her recent publications reveal a strong thematic focus on the intersection of art, urban development, and climate crisis response. Across her work, she explores how artistic practices create spaces for productive conflict, develop radical imagination for sustainable futures, and foster new connections between artistic, social, and urban realms. Her research demonstrates how drama, theatre, and attention ecology serve as powerful tools for urban transformation and climate action.

• Book: "Socially engaged art and the neoliberal city" (Routledge's Critical Studies in Urbanism and the City)
• Chief curator of the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale
• Initiator of the artist collective zURBS (over 40 art projects across European cities)

She leads significant research initiatives including Drama Labs as part of the JPI Urban Europe Project CONTRA (2022-2025), which investigates how theatre-based methods can make space for productive conflict in transformation processes toward a more sustainable society. She is also a work package leader on the Erasmus+ project ACT UP! Active Citizenship through Theatre for Urban Politics, developing new teaching methods for active urban citizenship in response to the climate crisis.