- Environmental politics
- Democratization
- Environment and conflict
- Environmental degradation and inequality
- Collective action, protest and climate change
- China and Southeast Asia
- Quantitative methods (using R/Python)
Jens is a research assistant on the ELITE-, NORM and ODAS projects led by Haakon Gjerløw, Ilaria Carozza and Sebastian Schutte. He is perticularly interested in how political institutions affect environmental outcomes in developing countries, and has a regional interest in China and Southeast Asia.
Previously, Jens attended the UiO-PRIO Student Program. Using quantitative methods and geospatial data, his thesis project "Nature as Patronage? Exploring The Effects of Democratization and Support Coalition Identity on Forest Loss" explored whether variation in the identity of incumbent regimes' political supporters can affect forest cover loss when political competition increases.
Education:
2020 – 2022 MSc in Political Science, University of Oslo
2020 – 2020 Chinese Language Program, National Taiwan University
2016 – 2019 BA in International Studies, University of Oslo and Fudan University
2014 – 2015 One-year-program in Psychology, The Arctic University of Norway
Work experience: 2022 – Research Assistant, PRIO
2021 – 2022 Research Assistant, University of Oslo (ELDAR/PoD)
2021 Teaching Assistant, University of Oslo (STV 2250)
2019 – 2020 Intern, Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai
2018 – 2019 Communications Assistant, Statnett SF
Languages:
English, Norwegian, Dutch and Chinese (intermediate).
PRIO Policy Brief by Haakon Gjerløw et al.
In September 2023, the PRIO NORM team was in Manila, The Philippines, to conduct fieldwork interviews and meetings with local stakeholders.
The AsiaPeace project was successfully launched in August 2023.
Jens Koning has successfully defended his thesis "Nature as Patronage? Exploring the Effects of Democratization and Support Coalition Identity on Forest Loss".