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I hold a PhD in social anthropology from University of Oslo (2018) and have previously worked at the University of Oslo, the University of South-Eastern Norway, and as a visiting fellow at the University of Sydney and Valdres Museum. I have conducted long-term ethnographic research in Vanuatu and Norway.

My research in Vanuatu, based on fieldwork since 2010, focuses on the intersection of religion, morality, and the politics of land. This work has resulted in the monograph . The book examines a startling child-led Christian revival movement that developed on Ahamb Island in 2014 as a social and ethical reform in the wake of enduring political disputes. However, the movement took a dramatic turn when two men, accused of being sorcerers responsible for many of the community’s problems, were murdered. The book’s main theoretical contribution concerns how fear and hope are powerful and intertwined sentiments that can become a potent driving force for change, but where the outcomes may easily escape the initiators' control. 

Other publications based on my work in Vanuatu include articles on , , , , , , , and the special issue (with and ).

My research in Norway, which begun in 2020, focuses on contemporary rurality and negotiations over rural futures. This work builds on different projects. Digital Everyday Lives in Rural Norway (part of , funded by The Research Council of Norway) examines the digitalization of rural Norway—particularly new forms of urban-rural mobility, farming, and reality formation in enmeshed online/offline worlds. Local Communities and Part-Time Residents in Rural Norway (funded by The Falkenberg Foundation) examines relations between rural communities and second-home owners. My most recent project, Abandoned Farms Now and in the Future (funded by FORREGION, in cooperation with ) examines the relationship between Norway's thousands of abandoned small-scale farms, their owners, and potential in-movers. 

Publications from my research in Norway include articles on ,, , (with ), (with , and ) and the special issues (with ) and (with ). 

I am currently convenor of European Association for Social Anthropologists’ (with and Nordic Laboratory (NorLab) (with ), and coordinator of Bergen Pacific Studies.

See .

SANT100: Invitation to Social Anthropology

SANT102: Social Life in a Global Perspective

SANT106: Kinship, Gender and Social Life

SANT107: Materiality: Environment, Place and Economy

Books
2022. . Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800734647

2018. The Salvesen Ami Dance: Custom, Christianity and Cultural Creativity in South Malekula, Vanuatu. Oslo: The Kon-Tiki Museum.

Edited volumes
2024. [with Karen Waltorp] . Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 33(2).

2021. [with Keir Martin and Ingjerd Hoëm] . Oceania 91(2).

2020. [with Tuva Beyer Broch] . Norwegian Anthropological Journal 31(1-2).

Articles and book chapters
2026. . Sociologia Ruralis 66 (3): e70037. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.70037

2026. . HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 16 (1): 167-182. https://doi.org/10.1086/740598

2025. . Norwegian Anthropological Journal 36 (1): 75-79. https://doi.org/10.18261/nat.36.1.9

2024. [with Karen Waltorp] . Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 33 (2): 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3167/ajec.2024.330202

2024. . Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 33 (2): 127-144. https://doi.org/10.3167/ajec.2024.330208

2024. . Human Organization 83 (3). https://doi.org/10.1080/00187259.2024.2336011.

2024. . In Simon K. Beames and Patrick T. Maher (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Mobile Technology, Social Media and the Outdoors. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003367536-19

2024. . In Astrid Marie Holand (ed.) Time in our Times: Stretching Contemporary Understandings of Time. Berlin: De Gruyter, 207-224. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111428970-009 

2024. [with Tuva Beyer Broch, Marianne E. Lien and Cecilia Salinas]  . Ethnography 0 (0): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381241266924

2024. . In Marie Durand, Monika Stern and Eric Wittersheim (eds). Le Vanuatu dans tous ses états: Histoire et anthropologie. Paris: Presses de l'Inalco, 301-323.

2022. [with Thorgeir S. Kolshus] . In Charlotte Lundgren (ed). Psykisk oppvekst: Barn og unges psykiske helse fra 0-25 Ã¥r. Oslo: The Norwegian Council for Mental Health.

2021. . Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 27 (3): 461-477. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13546.

2021. . Oceania 91 (2): 280-295. https://doi.org/10.1002/ocea.5305

2021. . In Martin Demant Frederiksen and Ida Harboe Knudsen (eds.). Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 47–61. https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-13-3. 

2021. [with Marianne E. Lien] . Norwegian Anthropological Journal 32 (2): 55-71. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2898-2021-02-02. 

2020. . Journal of Extreme Anthropology 4 (1): 177-197. https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.7395. 

2019.  Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 87 (4): 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1696855.

2019. . Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde 65 (1): 111-132. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26858307 

2019. [with Tihomir Rangelov and Julie Barbour]  Language Documentation and Description 16 (1): 86-126. https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd114

2017. . In Knut M. Rio, Michelle MacCarthy and Ruy Blanes (eds). Pentecostalism and Witchcraft: Spiritual Warfare in Africa and Melanesia. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56068-7_9.

2013. . Norwegian Anthropological Journal 24 (2): 100-111.
 

Book reviews
2025. (Ragnhild Fugletveit and Christian Sørhaug). Norwegian Anthropological Journal 36 (2-3): 248-250. https://doi.org/10.18261/nat.36.2-3.13 

2024. (Karen Brison). Pacific Affairs 97 (1).

2022. (Theodore Schwartz and Michael French Smith) Journal of Pacific History 57 (2): 543-545. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223344.2022.2039843

2014. (Anita von Poser). Anthropos 109 (2): 733-734.

2025-: Abandoned Farms Now and in the Future (funded by FORREGION, in cooperation with bygdeliv.org)

2021-24: Persistence and Change in Social Formations: Digital Everyday Lives in Rural Norway (funded by The Research Council of Norway)

2023: Commoning and Privatization of Land in Norway and the South-Pacific (visiting scholar project, University of Sydney, funded by The Research Council of Norway).

2020-22: Local Communities and Part-Time Residents in Rural Norway (funded by The Falkenberg Foundation).