Research Interests
- Armed conflict and maternal health
- Sexual and gender-based violence
- Education and conflict
- Horizontal inequalities and conflict
- Urban violence
Background
Languages spoken:
Norwegian, English, Spanish, basic French.
Working experience:
2019-: Research Professor, Conditions of Violence and Peace, PRIO.
2019-: Deputy Editor, Journal of Peace Research.
2017–2019 : Editor-in-chief,
Journal of Peace Research.
2010– : Senior Researcher, Conditions of Violence and Peace, PRIO.
2015–2017: Associate Editor, Journal of Peace Research.
2010–2014: Deputy Editor,
Journal of Peace Research.
2006: Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security (CRISE), University of Oxford.
2005: Book Review Editor
Journal of Peace Research.
2005–2010: Phd Candidate/Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
(Maternal leave April-December, 2006; September 2008-May 2009; and March-December 2012).
2005–2010: Researcher (part-time), Centre for the Study of Civil War, PRIO.
2004: Research Assistant, Centre for the Study of Civil War, PRIO.
2003–2004: Norwegian Red Cross Youth Delegate to Kenya Red Cross Society.
Education:
PhD, Political Science, University of Oslo, 2011.
Cand. Polit (equiv. MA), Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 2003.
Cand.Mag (equiv. to B.A), NTNU and Universidad de Granada (Spain), 2001 in the areas of Political Science, English, Media Science and Psychology.
Blog Posts
Inequality fosters violent conflict, which again causes inequality, triggering a vicious cycle. In December the UN Development Programme (UNDP) released its annual ‘Human Development Report’. For 2019 the report focused on inequality. The report is being launched as nightly news is dominated by pictures of protests in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Chile and Hong Kong. These ... Read more »
In 2017, approximately 90,000 people died as the direct result of armed conflict. This figure is down for the third year in a row, and is now 31 percent lower than in 2014. Nearly a third of all conflicts – and four of the 10 most serious wars worldwide – ... Read more »
This weekend, decision-makers from all over the world will come together to discuss current and future security challenges at the Munich Security Conference (MSC), which has become the major global forum for discussion of security policy. At the conference, Save the Children will launch its new report The War on ... Read more »
On the night between 14 and 15 April, 2014, 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in Chibok in Borno State in Northeastern Nigeria. The Islamist terrorist group does not believe that girls should attend school, and these girls were targeted precisely because they were in school. However, conservative views on gender and education is only ... Read more »
These are the key conclusions from the first systematical review of the empirical, quantitative literature on the relationship between education and civil conflict. Evidence from 30 statistical studies indicate that Increasing education levels overall have pacifying effects Rapid expansions of higher education is not a threat Education inequalities between groups ... Read more »
Posted by Gudrun Østby on Thursday, 3 December 2015
I have just returned from two weeks in Congo. PRIO colleagues Ragnhild Nordås, Siri Aas Rustad and I held project meetings with our local partner. Most of our time in Congo, however, was spent teaching how to conduct research. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is often described as one ... Read more »
Last year the Congolese gynecologist Dr. Denis Mukwege was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several years in a row, frequently hailed among the favorites. Tomorrow the winner of the prize for 2015 will be announced. We think ... Read more »
On 10 December Nobel’s Peace Prize 2014 is awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai. Critical voices have claimed that their work is more about rights activism than promoting peace and that there is no obvious association between education and peace. Research into the causes of war suggests, however, that ... Read more »