Background and experience
Current
2017 – date Deputy Director, Centre for Integrated Emergency Management (CIEM), Norway
2016 – date Professor, Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder/ Norway
Previous
2018 – 2019 Guest Scientist, Disaster Research Unit (DRU), Freie Universität Berlin/ Germany
2009 – 2016 Associate Professor, Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder/ Norway
2015 Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg/ Germany
2014 – 2015 Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley/ USA facilitated by the Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study.
2011 Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York hosted by the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
2007 – 2009 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science United Nations University (JSPS-UNU) Postdoctoral Fellow at United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies in Yokohama, Japan. During my tenure, my Japanese host was the Department for Value and Decision Science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITech).
2005 – 2007 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in the City of New York. I was hosted by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a research unit specialising in data mapping and management.
2004 – 2005 Assistant Professor of political science at the University of Asmara, College of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, Asmara, Eritrea.
Areas of responsibility
I am full professor at the University of Agder and member of the Centre for Integrated Emergency Management (CIEM). My research interests are crisis management, climate change and security, natural hazards, migration and technology.
Teaching
ME-413 Research methods in development and planning studies
UT-504 Cross-cutting issues in development and crisis management
ME-521 Field course and master thesis seminar
UT-404 Current development issues: poverty, inequality and power
Research
My current research focuses on peace and security studies with a focus on crisis management and security implications of climate change. Moreover, I am interested in the role of technology, largely mobile communication, in disasters. For example, crisis mapping in conflict-affected countries can help to better understand where humanitarian assistance is needed most. Or, social media can be used to better prepare the local population for any kind of disaster. Another area of interest is disaster diplomacy, where disasters can lead to cooperation between hostile states.
- Crisis Management
- Peace and Conflict
- Disaster Diplomacy
- Climate Change
- Migration
Academic interests
Crisis Management
Research Methods in Social Sciences
E-teaching