Author: NFU Coordinator

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NFU Chairwomen speaks on Skolepenger

There is an ongoing discussion in Norway regarding a proposition for students outside of the EU/EØS  and Switzerland to start paying tuiton when they chose to study in Norway.

Proposition 68L (2022-2023) has raise a ,ot of opposition with several organizations and universtities, such as SAIH, Universitet i Agder, NTNU and others standing against it. They all fear that this will create a barrier for students to come to Norway as well as being a starting point to start charging tuition to all students in the future.

NFU chairwoman, Arnhild Leer-Helgesen states that “The implementation of school-fees for students outside Europe/EØS and Switzerland is a serious backlash for the quality and relevance of higher education and research in Norway. To face the multiple crisis in the world we need more exchange of perspectives and knowledge, not less. The contribution of students and researchers from the so-called “Global South” to co-creation of knowledge, is heavily underrated. With this cut, adding to cuts in funds for research in the broad field of global development, Norway has less capacity to develop the knowledge we need to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals.”

If you wish to join the fight against the introduction of skolepenger, sign the petition started by SAIH:

https://www.change.org/p/do-not-introduce-tuition-fees-for-non-eu-students-in-norway

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General Assembly: EADI Participation

It is our pleasure to announce that our general assembly will count with the presence of European Association Development Research and Training Institutes General Secretary: Susanne von Itter.

She will talk about EADI and what the organization does, the relationship with NFU and the benefits of being connected with a broad network. Her participation will enrich our assembly and allow members to have an insight into a bigger organization and their workings. This is a great opportunity to learn more and connect with EADI.

For more information regarding EADI, you can access their website: https://www.eadi.org/

Our General Assembly be held on May 15th from 15:00-16:30 Norwegian time on Zoom.

You can access it through the link below:

https://uiano.zoom.us/j/64606027203?pwd=S1FEWTlGWHE1VmFPSDV4YmNDYmZIQT09

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NFU General Assembly 2022

Dear NFU members,

We would like to invite you to our General Assembly that will take place on May 15th of 2023.

The meeting will be held from 15:00-16:30 Norwegian time on Zoom.

You can access it through the link below:

https://uiano.zoom.us/j/64606027203?pwd=S1FEWTlGWHE1VmFPSDV4YmNDYmZIQT09

Below is the agenda for the meeting:

1. Constitute meeting and approve agenda

  • Election of General Assembly Chair and two reporters
  • Approval of agenda

2. Board changes
3. Annual Report 2021-22
4. Annual plan and budget for 2023
5. EADI membership
6. Debate: Future seminars and conferences
7. Incoming business

For a more in-depth look of the report for NFU activites in 2022 and the meeting agenda, please look at the document below:

NFU General assembly and report 2022Download

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NorDev 2023: Registration is open

The 7th Nordic Development Research Conference 2023 is open for registration with reduced prices until 30th of April.

Prices for regular participants are as described below:

  • SEK 1,500 (1,875 incl VAT) – Until 30th of April
  • SEK 1,900 (2,375 incl VAT) – After 30th of April

It is also possible to register for a Conferecen Dinner with the cost of SEK 600 (750 incl VAT).

The Conference will be held in Uppsala from August 21st to August 23rd of 2023.

To register yourself, learn more about payment options and the conference, follow the link below:

https://www.nordev2023.se/registration/

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Open Call: Call for Paper Proposals – NorDev 2023

The 7th Nordic Development Research Conference 2023 has an open call for paper proposals.

The main theme of the conference is “Co-creation for transition towards a sustainable society” and it will take place in Uppsala, Sweden in August 21-23. The conference is being organized by Uppsala University and the Swedish Development Research Network.

The deadline to submit paper proposals is on March 1st, 2023.

For more information, follow the link below:

https://www.nordev2023.se/call-for-paper-proposals/

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Meet NFU: Jason Miklian

This week we will introduce you to one of our board members and Co-chair of NFU: Jason Miklian.

Jason has been a part of NFU for 5 years and is a key member in our organization.
He became a part of NFU because he thinks that given how diverse the topics housed under the “development studies” umbrella are, he feels it is essential for scholars both in Norway and the Nordics more broadly to have the opportunity to untie and grow together, especially given the challenges that development studies and adjacent fields are facing globally.

He has two main research areas:
1. Business, development and peacebuilding.
2. Climate and Conflict.

He chose his research fields due to a mix of interest and happenstance! He started his career as a South Asia studies scholar, then became interested in the connections between business and conflict in places of “economic underdevelopment”, as the Indian government put it. This led to his PhD at Noragric in development studies, with a qualitative / mixed-methods focus studying the role of the Maoist conflict and extractive firms on development.

He currently works for the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo and his main projects now are an NFR-funded qualitative collaborative project on the role of small businesses in crisis and urban fragility, and an NFR mixed-methods project on the role of business and development on conflict in Africa.

Since he is living in Bogotá, Colombia at the moment, he is enjoying the sunshine and wonderful people while enjoying a bit less needing to get up early for the occasional 4AM call with his Oslo colleagues. 🙂

In his opinion, development studies is an worthwhile field because in an era of increasing specialization (yet hosting demands to be more cross-cutting and interdisciplinary), development studies provides an ideal platform for understanding complex societal relations in a way more holistically and critically-oriented than many other point-specific fields. In a time of increasing global uncertainty over inequality, climate change, and international order he believes that we are overdue for a renaissance in development studies, and he is excited for NFU to be a part of this leading edge.

For his more recent works, he chose to share with us a recent narrative non-fiction book on the Liberation of Bangladesh and the climate-conflict links therein, called The Vortex. Even though it is a less academic work, he is still very proud of it and thought it would be very intersting to share it.

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Meet NFU: Randi Solhjell

This week we will introduce you to one of our board members and Co-chair of NFU: Randi Solhjell.

Randi has been a part of NFU for 10 years and is a key member in our organization.

Her research area is: Cross-disciplinary social scientists, I have worked on topics including statehood in contested areas (easter DR Congo) and gender-based violence in war and conflict. I am currently finalizing research on the topics on policing hate crime and prevention of violent extremism. In my upcoming position (2023-2027) I will be part of the project “JustExport” led by Prof. Kjersti Lohne at the University of Oslo, Institute of Criminology, focusing on how Scandinavian states engage in penal export internationally.  
And she currently works for the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, the Faculty of Law, The University of Oslo.

She chose her research field because she have always sought perspectives from ‘unkowns’ – people and societies I want to learn more about. It can be both within my home country Norway but also from places more distant from where I am situated (Nepal, Liberia, Chad, DR Congo). This has led me to different topics and societies.   

And she believes that development studies is an important research area because it opens your mind to a world of injustice, difference and new knowledge fields. Knowledge is not taken for granted in a Eurocentric manner but critically explored theoretically and methodologically.  

To access some of her most recent work, please follow the links below:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13624806211009481 https://www.routledge.com/Dimensions-of-African-Statehood-Everyday-Governance-and-Provision-of-Public/Solhjell/p/book/9780367784850


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Seminar: Norwegian aid and trends in the Nordic region – aid cuts and vested interests?

NUPI invites to a breakfast seminar to be held on February 9th at 9:00 about Norwegian aid policies and trends in the Nordics.

The event is being organized in cooperation with the release of a special publication of the journal Forum For Development Studies, which focuses on trends, similarities and differents in Nordic development aid.

There will be speakers from different organizations, such as ReddBarna, NUPI, Norad, CMI, Foreign Affairs Department and Expert Group for Aid Studies, which will provide the perspective from academia, government and NGOs in this important issue.

One of the key themes of the seminar will be the reduced aid from Norway and the use of aid resources being redirected to Ukraine and ukrainians refugees.

The seminar is a hybrid event, registration is required for those attending physically, but not to watch it online. The seminar will be held in Norwegian.

For more information about the event and to register for it, please follow the link below:

https://www.nupi.no/arrangementer/2023/frokostseminar-norsk-bistand-og-trender-i-norden-bistandskutt-og-egeninteresser

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Meet NFU: Arnhild Leer-Helgesen

This week we will introduce you to one of our board members and our current lead Co-chair of NFU: Arnhild Leer-Helgesen.

Arnhild has been involved with NFU for 4 years and has taken the challenge of heading our board in the beggining of 2022.
She joined because NFU is a network of Norwegian scholars working with global development issues, but NFU also works closely with the other Nordic associations for development research and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI). Conferences and different activities help her keep track of ongoing debates, conferences, and publications. There is also a need for an association like NFU to unite researchers in the broader field to be able to advocate for knowledge-based policies and practices.


Her PhD was on religion and development and the role of faith-based institutions in Latin America. And she is currently working in a project on different understandings of gender across contexts, together with colleagues from Makerere University and University of Dar es Salaam.

She chose her research field because she have had an interest in international development, Latin America and religion since the start of her studies. Before her PhD she worked in international development cooperation, and her research interests are results of questions raised during these experiences.

Arnhild believes that development studies is an important field because it is a field where you get to and need to work with colleagues and other people from different contexts and you continuously reflect on power relations and situated knowledge. You meet researchers with an engagement that goes beyond the academic environment.

She currently works at the Department of Global Development and Planning at University of Agder (UiA).

Her current work involves being the project leader of the project “Gender and digitalization across contexts”, where she focus on different ways of understanding and teaching gender. She is also initiating research much closer to home, looking into how perspectives of global inequality are communicated in kindergartens.

To access some of her recent work, please follow the link below:

https://www.routledge.com/Negotiating-Religion-and-Development-Identity-Construction-and-Contention/Leer-Helgesen/p/book/9780367786090

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Meet NFU: Student Coordinator

This week we would like to introduce our student coordinator Julia Baldanza. Julia has been working with us at NFU since the beggining of September 2022.

She joined NFU because she believes that having a strong network connecting people working in development is important to allow them to share experiences and enrich the field and she wanted to contribute to making that happen.

Her main tasks are providing support for our board and being in charge of the social media accounts, as well as serving as a point of contact for those who wish to publice upcoming events, courses, conferences and workshops. If you would like to have NFU publicize your event, please reach out to her through nfucoordinator@gmail.com .

She is currently a master’s students in Global Development at the University of Agder and is writing her thesis with a focus on gender and health. Her main topics of interest are gender and politics.

Coming from South America, she believes that the development field is important because it can be essential in changing our world and that the latests changes in the field allowing for more perspectives from the global South to be heard show how much the field has to grow.