Dorthe Gert Simonsen

Primary fields of research

• 20^th century history of technology: Aviation history, mobility and acceleration, temporal and spatial constructions; environmental history.
• 20^th century cultural history: Embodiment, gender and affect
• Theory of history and historiography: Temporality, new materialism, poststructuralism, Actor-Network Theory, conceptual history, post-human theory, history in the Anthropocene.

Short presentation

Research Focus
My research explores the historical entanglements and reinterpretations of diverse empirical terrains—such as technology, mobility, gender, and material culture—primarily in the 20th century. Across several book projects and key articles, I have contributed to theoretical developments in the discipline of history, particularly through critical engagements with temporality, materiality, and the cultural analysis of technological change.

Theoretical Contributions
In my monograph Tegnets tid. Fortid, historie og historicitet efter den sproglige vending (The Temporality of Signs: The Past, History, and Historicity after the Linguistic Turn, 2003), I offered a temporal reinterpretation of the linguistic turn, mobilizing the concept of "radical historicity." In Materialiseringer. Nye perspektiver på materialitet og kulturanalyse (Materializations: New Perspectives on Materiality and Cultural Analysis, 2009), co-edited with T. Damsholt and C. Mordhorst, I developed a longstanding interest in material culture and its entanglement with human practices, contributing to the growing field of material turn in cultural history.

Empirical Research: Aviation, Acceleration, and Vertical Geographies
My empirical research engages in the intersections of technology, mobility, and acceleration in 20th-century Western societies. I have been particularity interested in aviation and its key role in new spatial formations such as airspaces and vertical geographies as well as its involvement in geopolitical processes of nationalization and globalization.Through a series of articles, I have examined how the advent of flight reshaped human-nonhuman networks. My work also explores the embodied and gendered experiences of aerial mobility, highlighting how speed and elevation introduced novel temporalities and subjectivities.

Current research: Anthropocene Air and Environmental History

My current research project investigates Anthropocene Air—a geohistorical, environmental history of flight, greenhouse gas emissions, and aerial agency. Air, as a fluid and omnipresent medium, offers a unique lens through which to study the entanglement of human activity with planetary systems in the Anthropocene Epoch. In this context, air emerges both as a "hyperobject"—vast in spatial and temporal scope—and as an intimate presence, encountered in each breath. This project critically examines how aviation is implicated in contemporary environmental crises while remaining enmeshed in cultural ideals of expansion and freedom. By tracing the trails of flight, I aim to decenter traditional, anthropocentric/global narratives of aviation history, situating them within broader ecological and planetary frameworks.

Professional Experience
I currently serve as Vice Dean for Research and Impact at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. My responsibilities include fostering basic and strategic research excellence, advancing external funding and partnerships in the humanities, and supporting innovation, collaboration, and transformative research. My work also encompasses talent development, recruitment, and career pathways for early-career researchers, and I am the Director of the PhD School in the Humanities at UCPH. I have extensive experience in academic leadership and governance and have chaired and served on numerous boards and committees, including as Chair of the Danish Independent Research Council for the Humanities (2017–2019).