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.
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.
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:
Two positions for PhD candidates are open within the Noragric – ERP project at NMBU. The positions are within international environment and development studies.
One position is focused on migration from West Africa and the other is focused on violent resistance and land governance in the Sahel region.
Both positions have a deadline on November 30th of 2022.
For more information on the positions, please follow the links below:
The Nordic Development Conference 2023 has an open call for suggestions of panel proposals and themes for workshops. The Conference has an overall theme of “Co-creation for a just transition towards a sustainable society”.
The
Conference will be held in Uppsala University in Sweden from August 21st to
August 23rd of 2023 and is being organized by Uppsala University and the
Swedish Development Research Organization (SweDev).
Deadline
to submit proposals is on December 20th of 2022.
More
information regarding the submission process can be found on the link below:
The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes has an open call for abstracts for the upcoming conference to be held in Lisbon – Portugal. The conference will take place between July 10th and 13th of 2023.
As of now there are two options to submit abstracts: seed panels and harvest panels. Seeds panels will cover work in progresses and innovative ideas and do not require a full paper. Harvest panels cover full papers and results.
The deadline for submission is 18th of December of 2022.
NFU would like to invite all to attend the seminar: The Global Backlash Against Gender Equality to take place on October 10th.
The seminar is a cooperation between NFU, the Department of Global Development and Planning at UiA and The Strømme Foundation.
The event will have a hybrid format and it is possible to attend it in Kristiansand or online. For those attending it in Kristiansand, lunch will be provided.
NFU is pleased to invite all the members for the NFU General Assembly 2020-2021. As much as we would have preferred a physical gathering, we are obliged to host the assembly digitally this year. Nonetheless, we look forward to a meaningful discussion.
Mark your calendar
Date:
15th February 2021
Time:
18:30 (Oslo time)
Platform: Zoom (link to be shared soon)
Agendas:
Constitute meeting and approve agenda
Election of General Assembly Chair and two reporters
Approval of agenda
Board changes
NFU Annual Report 2020
Annual plan and budget for 2021
Debate: NFU strategic planning for development research
