Profile
I am Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo and currently Director of the MA program in Peace and Conflict Studies (PECOS). My research focuses focuses on civilian agency and protection in communal conflicts and civil wars, peace processes and local peacebuilding, and the gender dimensions of peacebuilding.
Previously, I was Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. In 2019/20, I was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS). Before that, I was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, and at the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University. I studied political science and international relations at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Free University of Berlin, and the University of Potsdam. I hold a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
Over the past fifteen years, I have conducted hundreds of interviews in conflict zones about how civilians protect themselves and build peace locally, including South Sudan, Kenya, Myanmar, as well as Indonesia and Nigeria. I am the author of Resilient Communities: Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War (Cambridge University Press 2018) and co-editor of Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings (Oxford University Press 2023).
I currently lead the research project 'ResilienceBuilding: Social Resilience, Gendered Dynamics and Local Peace in Protracted Conflicts', funded by an ERC Starting Grant.
CV
Online
Academic interests
Communal conflicts, civil war, civilian agency, civilian protection, peacebuilding, gender, Sub-Sahara Africa, South/Southeast Asia
Teaching
PECOS 4025 - Analytical Perspectives on Peace and Conflict
STV 4031 - Field Research for Political Science
STV 4284 - Conflict and Security in Africa
Projects
ERC Project 'ResilienceBuilding: Social Resilience, Gendered Dynamics, and Local Peace in Protracted Conflicts' (2020-2026)
Awards
2020 Nils Petter Gleditsch Article of the Year Award of the Journal of Peace Research
2019 Lee Ann Fujii Book Award for Innovation in the Interpretive Study of Political Violence, American Political Science Association
2019 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Award (Runner-Up)
Appointments
2021 - Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
2020 - Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
2016 - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam
2013-2016 Visiting Research Fellow, Conflict, Security and Development Research Group, Department of War Studies, King's College London
2013-2016 Lead Researcher and Project Coordinator for 'Gender Dimensions of Conflict' project, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
2013 - PhD, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
2011 - Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Program on Order, Conflict and Violence, Yale University