I am a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology who works with questions around landscapes, use and conservation of nature, infrastructure, and buraucracy.

My doctoral research project will be about peatland restoration in Norway. In Norway, as well as the rest of the world, peatlands and wetlands have for the past hundred years been purposefully drained and dried out in order to turn them into suitable land for farming or forestry. This turning of useless "water sick earth" into productive soil has long been viewed as something positive, as an improvement of the landscape, but this line of thinking has changed drastically over the past decades. Today, peatlands have much stronger protections under Norwegian law and are recognized internationally for their important role in storing carbon and providing vital habitat to plants, animals, and insects. In addition to stronger legal protections there are also efforts to restore peatlands that have previously been drained, in the hope that the peatlands will bounce back and keep storing carbon and providing habitat. From being "water sick earth" only a few decades ago peatlands are now suddenly a major player in halting climate change, with large funds being spent to attempt to restore their important functions.

My project will explore what kinds of "Nature" that is being made in the process of peatland restorations, and what this does to our relationship to, and ideas about, our surrounding environments. The project will also explore the interplay between global and national envrionmental regulations and policy, and the practical work of implementing peatland restoration projects locally.

Prior education

Master's degree in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo (2022-2024)

Bachelor's degree in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo (2019-2022)