About the speaker:
Kristin Bergtora Sandvik’s is a Professor in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. She is also Research Professor in Humanitarian Studies at PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo), and the coordinator for the Humanitarianism research group. She has previously been the Director for the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies. At present, she is the project leader for the research project: “Aid in Crisis? Rights-based Approaches and Humanitarian Outcomes” (AIDEFFFECT) funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Research Council of Norway.

Sandvik’s research agenda focuses on the development of a political and legal sociology of humanitarianism. Her research combines top-down and bottom-up perspectives on the development, role and place of legal norms, legal categories, legal identities and legal claims-making in conflict and humanitarian action. Sandvik is particularly concerned with soft law and with issues related to legality, legitimacy and accountability. While she has mainly used the qualitative methods of socio-legal studies, anthropology of law and international law (structured and semi-structured interviews, participant observation, literature reviews, discourse analysis, doctrinal legal analysis), she has have also directed mixed-methods projects involving household surveys and statistical comparison. Her geographic areas of expertise are Colombia and Uganda. Sandvik is also interested in emergent military and humanitarian technology, specifically focusing on cybersecurity, drones and robotics.