Nominated by
- Kjersti Lohne
- J?rgen S?rgard Skjold, Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law
- Syn?ve Nygaard Andersen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences
- Sigrun Marie Moss, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences
- Rachelle Esterhazy, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée, Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Development and Environment
- Julie S?rlie Paus-Knudsen, Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
- Eli B?verfjord Rye, Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
- Rune Ellefsen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Criminology and Sociology og Law, Faculty of Law
- Marthe-Lise N?ss-Andresen, Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine
- Tejaswinee Kelkar, Doctoral Research Fellow, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in rhythm, Time and Motion
Election platform
I am running for election to the University Board as representative for fixed-term academic staff with teaching and research responsibilities because I believe I have a particularly broad set of experiences that will enable me to relate to the diverse sets of problems that concern our group, and thus, to be a strong voice in the University Board to improve our working conditions and career prospects.
In addition to multiple research stays abroad, I have been employed on fixed term contracts for nearly 10 years – as a PhD candidate, a postdoc, and researcher – and at different institutes and research centres at the university. I have been engaged in university politics since I began my career as a PhD candidate, and have had different positions of trust – at the institute and faculty level, as well as centrally at the university. I am also a member of the Young Academy of Norway.
The University Board is entering a challenging year. In addition to safeguarding the university and university employees from Corona and the negative consequences stemming from the Corona restrictions, this is the current leadership’s final year. That means that we are entering a year where decisions and achievement will be prioritized. I want to ensure that the interests of fixed term employees are protected, represented and strengthened in these processes. Four issues are of particular importance to me:
1. Accommodating responses to Corona for fixed-term employees
We are living in the middle of a global crisis that will shape our lives for a long time coming. Locally, this crisis significantly affects fixed term employees who see their contracts disintegrate as a result of the Corona restrictions. I will work hard to ensure that PhD candidates, postdocs, and other researchers on fixed term contracts are properly accommodated to ensure that they will get the opportunity to finish their research projects in a satisfactory manner.
2. Completion grant scheme for PhD Candidates
I want to expand the completion grant scheme for PhD candidates, which is current practice at the Faculty of Humanities and previously at the Faculty of Law. The completion grant scheme entails that PhD candidates who submit their PhD within the stipulated timeline for completion receive an offer of extension of contract by 6 or 12 months, including 50 % teaching obligations. For the PhD candidate, this means that she or he can concentrate on finishing the PhD research without the worry of standing without a job the day after submitting ones thesis. By stimulating PhD submissions ‘on time’, the PhD completion time will be reduced and the number of submitted PhDs will increase – both of which will greatly benefit the university’s economy.
3. Reduced and improved fixed-term employment – for all
As previous representatives to the university board for fixed-term employees, I will work for reduced – and improved – ‘temporariness’ at UiO. A lot of good work has been done on this topic by fixed-term employees before. I want to continue this work by drawing on my experience from the Young Academy of Norway where I among other things work on issues related to minority and gender equality, mobility, and internationalization. That the Ministry of Education and Research just recently gave notice of a new strategy for careers and recruitment to research and higher education demonstrates how important this topic is. They also emphasize that this strategy – which is scheduled for completion in 2021 – will be fleshed in close cooperation with the main actors in the sector. It is imperative that the University Board takes an active role in these deliberations.
I have also observed that there has been work on career development plans for young researchers in the University Board. This is good. However, in the last decision from the board, it appears researchers on fixed-term contracts were cut out from these plans – completely at odds with the working group’s recommendations. This means that researchers on externally funded projects – who often find themselves in a particularly precarious moment in their careers – will fall outside the scope of the measures intended to benefit fixed-term employees. I will work to ensure that also researchers on fixed-term contracts – and not only PhD candidates and postdocs – will be included in career development plans at UiO. This will also have to include the opportunity to teach and supervise students.
In addition, the University has a particular responsibility for international fixed-term employees. I have had extended research stays at international research centres both at the UiO and abroad, and I am well aware of the importance of ensuring that international fixed-term employees get the opportunity to participate and be heard in decisions making processes. Drawing on my positive experiences from the UiO mentor scheme for female postdocs, I will work to extend the mentor scheme to include international fixed-term employees.
4. Protect university democracy and autonomy
A new legislation for university and university colleges is in the works. At the time being, the bill is sent out on consultative rounds. I suspect the debate will intensify once we’ve had the chance to catch our breath from Corona, because this is a particularly important time for governance in our sector. For example, the proposed legislation suggests to employ an external chairperson to the University Board. An external chairperson of the board, appointed by the ministry, entails increased political control of the university, and a step towards an employed rector. This is not something I want. I hold university democracy with local autonomy and participation highly, and will work to protect and strengthen the University as an institution – not an enterprise – of knowledge.
Background
I am a criminologist by background and work as a researcher at the Department of Public and International Law, on leave from my postdoc at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, both at the Faculty of Law. I defended my thesis in 2015 - Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice – which is an analysis of the development and dynamics of international criminal justice based on fieldwork in, mainly, The Hague and Uganda, and with perspectives from criminology and sociology of law, international law, international relations, and global sociology. I was awarded His Majesty the King’s Gold Medal for this work. I have worked on different interdisciplinary projects across topics of war, crisis, and crime – among other things on the judicialization of Scandinavian societies, conflict-related sexual violence, the humanitarian field, drone technology and the war on terror. I am among the few international researchers who have gained access to the US military base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where I observed the legal proceedings against the five men indicted for the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. Going forward, I will also work on the legal implications of the terror attack in Norway on 22 July and the resiliency of the rule of law. In 2019 I was awarded the European Society for Criminology’s Young Criminologist Award.
I have been a visiting research fellow at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (2013), University of Oxford,(2014) and the University of Copenhagen (2018). I have previously represented fixed-term employees in the PhD Council, Faculty Board and the Equality and Discrimination Board at the Faculty of Law. Today, I am part of an ad hoc committee on research ethics at the same faculty and deputy representative to the University’s committee on global North-South Cooperation. I have been a member of the Young Academy of Norway since 2018.