This text has been translated from Norwegian with the assistance of GPT UiO.
– What preoccupies you at the moment?
At the moment there are two things. I’m preparing to travel to Leiden University for a workshop on organising the relationship between science and politics, which is my favourite topic, but also a field of research that has become uncomfortably relevant nowadays.
– I’m also looking after an operated foot and very much looking forward to being on two feet again.
– If you were to explain to an eight-year-old what you do at work using three short sentences, what would you say?
––Eight?year?olds are clever, but many of them probably only know Professor Dr Heinz Doofenshmirtz from cartoons — a rather sad fellow with a miserable childhood. That’s not exactly identical to my life as a professor.
– At work I study who gets to have a say, and how people can live together even when they don’t share the same interests, think alike or speak the same language.
– I also help to make sure our students learn as much as possible. I travel quite a bit to talk with others who like to study the same things as I do.
– What motivates you in your job?
– Lots of things. That wonderful goose?bump feeling when pieces fall into place and I spot a pattern I hadn’t seen before. I must admit it doesn’t happen every sleepless working day.
– What I value enormously at UiO is the freedom to pick up a research thread and run with it.
– It’s motivating to work with other people. I’ve been lucky to have good colleagues to share research interests, new ideas and results with. Articles simply get so much better when there are two or more of you. Besides, it’s good mental hygiene to have a “response team” that can be called in when things get tough.
– If you were to become something different, what would it be?
– Completely different? A ballet dancer, perhaps. Or a linguist?
– What do you do to completely unwind?
I read novels on the smooth, pink, coastal rock slopes in Vestfold. A silver lining of having my foot in plaster was that I could binge all the seasons of The Wire. Not bad, either.
The ultimate relaxation, though, is a weekend at a Japanese onsen — but that doesn’t happen very often.