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