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Astrid Bredholt Stensrud

Image of Astrid Bredholt Stensrud
Email
astrid.b.stensrud@uia.no
Phone
+47 38 14 14 48
Mobile phone
+47 40 86 20 32
Office
H2028 (Universitetsveien 25, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway)

Background and experience

I have studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo (PhD from 2011), and have done extensive ethnographic research in the Peruvian Andes for many years.

I teach different topics related to global development and Latin America at the UiA, in addition to researching and writing about how humans are affected by and respond to crisis and inequality. 

Areas of responsibility

Stensrud is currently study program leader for the Master´s programme Global Development, Crisis and Change.  

She coordinates and teaches in various courses in the MA and BA programs at the department.

Teaching

Understanding Crisis: a conceptual approach (master level)

Qualitative methods (master level)

Field course in Sri Lanka (master level)

Latin American Studies (bachelor level)

Global political economy (bachelor level)

Political ecology (bachelor level)

Regional analysis (bachelor level)

Research

My research interests include informal rural-urban economy, precarious labour and entrepreneurship, social change, gender and household, crisis, inequality and poverty, as well as human-environmental relations in the Peruvian Andes. I have also done extensive ethnographic research on climate change and water management in Peru.

Academic interests

Social anthropology; Crisis and inequality; Decolonial thinking

Climate and environment; Water management; More-than-human relations

Informal economy, entrepreneurship and development; Gender relations

Latin America, Andes, Peru

Selected publications

Book:

Watershed Politics and Climate Change in Peru. Pluto Press, 2021

Edited book:

Climate, Capitalism and Communities: An Anthropology of Environmental Overheating, edited volume with Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Pluto Press, 2019

Journal articles:

‘You cannot contradict the engineer’: Disencounters of modern technology, climate change and power in the Peruvian Andes, Critique of Anthropology 39(4): 420-438, 2019

Precarious entrepreneurs: mobile phones, work and kinship in neoliberal Peru. Social Anthropology 25 (2): 159-173, 2017

Climate Change, Water Practices and Relational Worlds in the Andes. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 81 (1): 75-98, 2016 

Publications

  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2026). Sálvese Quien Pueda: Emergencies and In(ter)Dependencies among Micro-Entrepreneurs in Neoliberal Andean Peru. Ethnos. ISSN 0014-1844. doi: 10.1080/00141844.2026.2698041. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2025). The Anthropology of Water and Environmental Change in the Andes. In Aldenderfer, Mark (Eds.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780190854584. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.470. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2023). The water obliges: Climate change and world-making practices in Peru. In Crate, Susan A. & Nuttall, Mark (Ed.), Anthropology and Climate Change: From Transformations to Worldmaking. Routledge. ISSN 9781032150932. p. 144–156. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2023). La formalización de los derechos de uso del agua y la propiedad hidráulica condicional en el valle del Colca, Perú. Allpanchis. ISSN 0252-8835. 91, p. 157–200. doi: 10.36901/allpanchis.v50i91.1532. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2020). Sentient Springs and Sources of Life. Water, climate change and world-making practices in the Andes. In Ray, Celeste (Eds.), Sacred Waters. A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells. Routledge. ISSN 9780367445133. p. 368–377. Full text in Research Archive
  • Eriksen, Thomas Hylland & Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). Introduction: Anthropological perspectives on global economic and environmental crises in an overheated world. In Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (Ed.), Climate, Capitalism and Communities: An Anthropology of Environmental Overheating. Pluto Press. ISSN 9780745339566. p. 1–22. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvjnrw0q.5. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). “You cannot contradict the engineer”: Disencounters of modern technology, climate change, and power in the Peruvian Andes. Critique of Anthropology. ISSN 0308-275X. 39(4), p. 420–438. doi: 10.1177/0308275X18821164. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). The social embeddedness of hydraulic engineers in the regulation of water and infrastructure in Peru. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. ISSN 2399-6544. 37(7), p. 1235–1251. doi: 10.1177/2399654419866835. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). The Formalisation of Water Use and Conditional Ownership in Colca Valley, Peru. Water Alternatives - An interdisciplinary journal on water, politics and development. 12(2), p. 521–537. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). Water as Resource and Being: Water Extractivism and Life Projects in Peru. In Ødegaard, Cecilie Gro Vindal & Rivera, Juan Javier Rivera (Ed.), Indigenous life projects and extractivism. Ethnographies from South America. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319934358. p. 143–164. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-93435-8_6. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). The dark side of progress: the intersections of climate change, neoliberalism, and modernity in Peru. In Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (Ed.), Climate, Capitalism and Communities: An Anthropology of Environmental Overheating. Pluto Press. ISSN 9780745339566. p. 96–114. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvjnrw0q.10. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). Safe milk and risky quinoa the lottery and precarity of farming in Peru. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. ISSN 0920-1297. 2019(83), p. 72–84. doi: 10.3167/fcl.2019.830108. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2018). Settlers and Squatters: The Production of Social Inequalities in the Peruvian Desert. In Ystanes, Margit & Strønen, Iselin Åsedotter (Ed.), The Social Life of Economic Inequalities in Contemporary Latin America: Decades of Change. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319615356. p. 231–252. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2017). Precarious entrepreneurs: mobile phones, work and kinship in neoliberal Peru. Social Anthropology. ISSN 0964-0282. 25(2), p. 159–173. doi: 10.1111/1469-8676.12395. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Climate Change, Water Practices and Relational Worlds in the Andes. Ethnos. ISSN 0014-1844. 81(1), p. 75–98. doi: 10.1080/00141844.2014.929597. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Dreams of Growth and Fear of Water Crisis: the Ambivalence of ‘Progress’ in the Majes-Siguas Irrigation Project, Peru. History and Anthropology. ISSN 0275-7206. 27(5), p. 569–584. doi: 10.1080/02757206.2016.1222526. Full text in Research Archive
  • Paerregaard, Karsten; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck (2016). Water Citizenship: Negotiating Water Rights and Contesting Water Culture in the Peruvian Andes. Latin American Research Review. ISSN 0023-8791. 51(1), p. 198–217. doi: 10.1353/lar.2016.0012. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Adapting to what? The neoliberal politics of climate change and alternative forms of governance in the Andes. In Wilhite, Harold Langford & Hansen, Arve (Ed.), Will the Paris agreement save the world? An analysis and critique of the governance roadmap set out in COP 21. Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. ISSN 9788290391657. p. 57–63. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). "It Seems Like a Lie”: The Everyday Politics of World-Making in Contemporary Peru. In Bertelsen, Bjørn Enge & Bendixsen, Synnøve Kristine Nepstad (Ed.), Critical Anthropological Engagements in Human Alterity and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783319404745. p. 253–272. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-40475-2_11. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Harvesting Water for the Future Reciprocity and Environmental Justice in the Politics of Climate Change in Peru. Latin American perspectives. ISSN 0094-582X. 43(4), p. 56–72. doi: 10.1177/0094582X16637866. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). "We Are All Strangers Here":Transforming Land and Making Identity in a Desert Boomtown. In Schober, Elisabeth & Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (Ed.), Identity Destabilised. Living in an overheated world.. Pluto Press. ISSN 9780745399126. p. 59–76. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt1gk07wf.8. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2015). Raining in the Andes: Disrupted Seasonal and Hydrological Cycles. In Hastrup, Kirsten & Hastrup, Frida (Ed.), Waterworlds: Anthropology in Fluid Environments. Berghahn Books. ISSN 9781782389460. p. 75–92. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2010). Los peregrinos urbanos en Qoyllurit'i y el juego mimético de miniaturas. Anthropologica. ISSN 0003-5459. p. 39–66. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2007). Negociación de poder y respeto: El comedor popular como punto de encuentro entre mujeres pobres y el estado en Cusco, Perú. Serie Haina. ISSN 1403-3933. 6. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2006). Forhandlinger om makt og respekt felleskjøkkenet som møtepunkt mellom kvinner og stat i Peru. Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285. 17(3/4), p. 253–263. Full text in Research Archive

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  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2021). Watershed Politics and Climate Change in Peru. Pluto Press. ISBN 9781786807571. 240 p. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (2019). Climate, Capitalism and Communities: An Anthropology of Environmental Overheating. Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745339566. 243 p. Full text in Research Archive
  • Lillebø, Kjersti; Kennedy, Audhild Lindheim; Smørvik, Kjersti Hilden; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Linderud, Hilde Tanggaard (2004). Betwixt & Between 2004. Universitetet i Oslo. ISBN 9788290835083. Full text in Research Archive

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  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2024). The Unequal Ocean: Living with Environmental Change along the Peruvian Coast. Maximilian Viatori. Journal of Anthropological Research. ISSN 0091-7710. 80(1), p. 80–81. doi: 10.1086/728353. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2024). Navigating Crisis: Reciprocity and Practices of Care among Precarious Entrepreneurs in Cusco, Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2023). Caring Under Crisis: Social and Moral Resilience in Andean Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2022). A Future History of Water by Andrea Ballestero (review). Anthropological Quarterly. ISSN 0003-5491. 95(3), p. 709–714. doi: 10.1353/anq.2022.0040. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2021). Falske anklager om valgfusk truer demokratiet. Full text in Research Archive
  • Salinas, Cecilia; Guzman-Gallegos, Maria A. & Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2021). Overforenklende Premisser. 91(uke 16 årgang 53), p. 22–22. Full text in Research Archive
  • Salinas, Cecilia; Guzman-Gallegos, Maria A.; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Jimenez, Monica Yobana Amador (2021). Å være for selvbestemt abort og avkolonisering er ingen motsetning. Full text in Research Archive
  • Guzman-Gallegos, Maria A.; Salinas, Cecilia; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Jimenez, Monica Yobana Amador (2020). Avkolonisering vil gi en mer robust vitenskap. Full text in Research Archive
  • Haaland, Hanne; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Wallevik, Hege (2020). Kvinners rettigheter er under økende press. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). Klimapolitikken trenger samfunnsvitere. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). El cambio climático y el derecho al agua: Relaciones múltiples, colectividad y mutualidad. Memoria. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2019). El cambio climático y el derecho al agua: desigualdad y reciprocidad en una cuenca peruana. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Kvinner og klær. p. 6–6. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). “The Social Vindication of the Highlands”: Climate Change and Justice in Southern Peru. LASA Forum. ISSN 0890-7218. 47(4), p. 26–29. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Private enclosing of public water? The politics of water extractivism and financialization of infrastructure in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). A comparative comment from another climate change frontline, and remarks on the Moana Rua film. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Water as value and being: Extractivist mega-projects and ownership in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). “What unites us is the umbilical cord of water:” Hydrosociality, precarity and politics in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Politics of climate change, uneven impacts on livelihood and multiple forms of governance. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Drought, debt and claims for water justice in the Colca-Majes watershed, Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2016). Kamp om fortida i Perus presidentvalg. Full text in Research Archive
  • Hansen, Arve; Wilhite, Harold Langford; Bang, Guri; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt; Torvanger, Asbjørn & Vetlesen, Arne Johan (2016). Klimaavtalen i Paris: viktig men utilstrekkelig. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2015). Included into what? Frost, Debt and Thoughts on "Progress" in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2014). Litres per second: Measuring the Water Flow. In Hastrup, Kirsten & Rubow, Cecilie (Ed.), Living with Environmental Change: Waterworlds. Routledge. ISSN 9780415746670. p. 248–251. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2014). Hualca Hualca: Mountain Lord and Life Source. In Hastrup, Kirsten & Rubow, Cecilie (Ed.), Living with Environmental Change: Waterworlds. Routledge. ISSN 9780415746670. p. 162–165. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2014). Scalable and Fluid Sprinklers. In Hastrup, Kirsten & Rubow, Cecilie (Ed.), Living with Environmental Change: Waterworlds. Routledge. ISSN 9780415746670. p. 130–133. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2014). Seawater to the Mountain Top: The Hydrological Cycle in Chivay, Peru. In Hastrup, Kirsten & Rubow, Cecilie (Ed.), Living with Environmental Change: Waterworlds. Routledge. ISSN 9780415746670. p. 36–39. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2013). Globalt klima, lokal vannmangel – hvem betaler prisen? Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2013). Commodifying Water in Times of Global Warming. NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS. ISSN 1071-4839. 46(1), p. 32–37. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Material climate effects and water multiplicity in the Peruvian Andes. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). (New?) perspectives on animism, personhood and violence in the Andes. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Perspectives on violence, personhood and animism in the Andes. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Harvesting water: the politics of climate change in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Calling and collecting rain: knowledge, technologies, and time-space in the mountains. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Andersen, Astrid Oberborbeck (2012). "A new water culture? Technologies and terminologies of water and climate change in Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Water flow, hydrometric practices and response-abilities. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Local responses to climate change: Sowing and harvesting water in the Peruvian Andes. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2012). Making rain: intersecting knowledge, creativity and mimesis. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2011). Water is life - water has life: relating to nonhuman beings and things in the politics of water and climate. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2011). La situación actual del agua y los cambios climáticos en Caylloma. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2010). Kosmologi og kapitalisme i Andes. Jordens Folk. ISSN 0021-7484. p. 6–13. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2009). Negociando la vida y dando poder a los deseos: los indígenas urbanos en Qoyllur Rit'i. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2009). Mais og miniatyrer: forhandling av verdier i Andes. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2009). Spiritual and moral objects? The Cross, maize and money in Cusco. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2008). Todo en la vida se paga: Negotiating life in the margins of Neoliberalism in the city of Cusco. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2008). Vendiendo llamadas en la calle: Observación participativa e interpretación de un caso empírico de Cusco. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2008). The doing of identity through economic and ritual activities in Cusco, Peru. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2008). Negotiating life through economic and ritual activities. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2008). "Alt i livet må betales": Moralsk gjeld, moder jord og forhandling av livet i en skjønnhetssalong i Cusco. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2007). To feltarbeid i Peru: fra felleskjøkken til frisørsalong. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2006). “Desafiando los discursos de género: El comedor popular como punto de encuentro entre mujeres y estado en Perú”. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2006). "Rituelle redskaper og kroppsliggjøring av identitet i et hellig andisk landskap". Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2004). CHUÑO, CUY og CHICHA : om resiprositet og klassifisering i Andes. In Lillebø, Kjersti; Kennedy, Audhild Lindheim; Smørvik, Kjersti Hilden; Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt & Linderud, Hilde Tanggaard (Ed.), Betwixt & Between 2004. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788290835083. p. 99–105. Full text in Research Archive
  • Stensrud, Astrid Bredholt (2011). 'Todo en la vida se paga': Negotiating life in Cusco, Peru. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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Published Apr. 16, 2024 11:20 AM - Last modified Mar. 9, 2026 5:38 PM