– What is occupying you right now?
– Before the summer, C-REX published the anthology Høyreekstremisme i Norge etter 22. juli – Meninger, mennesker, mobilisering og motstand, followed by a series of events and media coverage. Anyone who’s interested really ought to have a look at the book, which is Open Access.
– I was also co-organiser of the Department of Political Science’s exceptionally prestigious World Cup prediction competition, which we’ve been running for 16 years. We got a very deserving winner, while I myself ended up in the relegation zone.
– Now, after the summer, we’ve started writing an application to secure funding for C-REX for the next five years. There’s a new call from the Research Council of Norway for a Centre for Research on Extremism. The call requests that the centre address both right-wing extremism and extremist Islamism, and it’s incredibly exciting to plan how we’re going to expand C-REX’s academic scope. As usual, there’s far too little time to write the application, but it will probably work out in the end. It usually does.
– In addition, I’m helping with ISV’s two Centres of Excellence (SFF) applications, both of which have made it to the second stage of the process. These two proposals, Centre for Governance of Climate Action (GOAL) and Center for Research on Democracy in Oslo (DEMOS), are both exceptionally timely and have wildly strong teams. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both of them get funded.
– If you were to explain to an eight-year-old what you do at work, in three short sentences, what would you say?
– I try to get people who all want to go in different directions to head roughly the same way, while at the same time cheering them on in the direction they’d like to go themselves. I help them have a plan for what they’re going to do, who they’re going to work with and how they’re going to use their money. Not actually that far from being the dad of teenagers ;)
– What motivates you in your job?
– Friendly, talented people with a big heart for what they’re doing. That’s probably the main reason I’ve been at UiO for almost a quarter of a century.
– If you were to do something completely different, what might it be?
– I’m deeply fascinated by locally produced food, and delighted that small-scale farm food production has exploded over the last 10 years. So perhaps I could work in a small local dairy, abattoir or something like that. I think creating distinctive food products is great fun, and I regularly have new cooking projects on the go. If anyone wants to know how to make their own pancetta, for instance, I can assure you it’s surprisingly simple. Do feel free to drop by!
– What do you do when you completely switch off?
– The best thing is to walk in Østmarka with my dog. It’s a fabulous way to clear your head. Sometimes I pick berries or mushrooms as well. Otherwise, I have various cooking and vegetable-growing projects, where I manage – with varying success – to produce food I’m not entirely sure what to do with. Last year, for example, I grew five enormous pumpkins, but quickly realised there’s a limit to how much pumpkin soup we can eat. Pumpkins aren’t quite as versatile as some people claim, either. That doesn’t stop me from growing pumpkins again this year, because the growing process itself was a success!