Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

RSC Seminar, 13 November 2019

Public Seminar Series, Michaelmas term 2019

Series convenors: Professor Matthew J Gibney, Professor Cathryn Costello, Professor Tom Scott-Smith

About the speaker

Kristin Bergtora Sandvik is a Professor in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. She is also Research Professor in Humanitarian Studies at PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo), and the coordinator for the Humanitarianism research group. She has previously been the Director for the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies. At present, she is the project leader for the research project: “Aid in Crisis? Rights-based Approaches and Humanitarian Outcomes” (AIDEFFFECT) funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Research Council of Norway. 

Sandvik’s research agenda focuses on the development of a political and legal sociology of humanitarianism. Her research combines top-down and bottom-up perspectives on the development, role and place of legal norms, legal categories, legal identities and legal claims-making in conflict and humanitarian action. Sandvik is particularly concerned with soft law and with issues related to legality, legitimacy and accountability. While she has mainly used the qualitative methods of socio-legal studies, anthropology of law and international law (structured and semi-structured interviews, participant observation, literature reviews, discourse analysis, doctrinal legal analysis), she has have also directed mixed-methods projects involving household surveys and statistical comparison. Her geographic areas of expertise are Colombia and Uganda. Sandvik is also interested in emergent military and humanitarian technology, specifically focusing on cybersecurity, drones and robotics.

 

Photo: A Syrian refugee teaches Arabic through NaTakallam via Skype from Beirut. © UNHCR/Diego Ibarra Sanchez