Nominated by
- Jan Terje Andersen, Researcher, Institute of Clinical Medicine, MED
- Hanna Solberg Andresen, PhD Candidate, MultiLing, HF
- Aled Fisher, PhD Candidate, Department of Public and International Law, JUS
- Heidi Østbø Haugen, Postdoc, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, SV
- Markus Keller, Lecturer, TF
- Elise Kleivane , Researcher, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, HF
- Franziska Köder, Postdoc, Institutt Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, HF
- Gry Oftedal, Researcher, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, HF
- Marte Rua, PhD candidate, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, JUS
- Frida Gullestad Rø, Postdoc, Department of Psychology, SV
- Katerini T. Storeng, Associate Professor, Centre for Development and the Environment
- Désirée Treichler, Postdoc, Department of Geosciences, MN
- Anna Marie Winter, PhD Candidate, CEES - Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), MN
Election platform
I am standing for re-election (uniforum.no) (Norwegian) to the University Board as a representative for the fixed-term academic staff with teaching and research responsibilities because:
- I would like to continue working to reduce the use of fixed-term contracts at the UiO and to improve the working conditions for those who are employed on fixed-term contracts today.
- I would like to continue working to promote gender equality, defend the university democracy and facilitate interdisciplinary research at the UiO.
1. Fewer fixed-term contracts and better working conditions for fixed-term employees
Too large a proportion of UiO’s academic staff is employed on fixed-term contracts (forkserforum.no) (Norwegian) and their career paths are too uncertain and unclear. The working conditions for those who are employed on fixed-term contracts today must be improved in order to facilitate the path to a permanent academic position.
The new Rectorate has made the reduction of the use of fixed-term contracts a priority area at UiO. I have been invited by Svein Stølen to participate in a work group whose aim is to propose concrete measures to improve the situation at the UiO. If I am re-elected as representative of the fixed-term academic staff I will continue to follow up this work at the University Board meetings and vis-à-vis the Rectorate, focusing on the following:
- The main rule at the UiO shall be permanent employment, even in the case of externally financed research projects.
- All employees in PhD, postdoctoral and researcher positions who wish to teach and supervise students shall be given the opportunity to do so.
- Fixed-term academic staff shall be offered the same opportunities as permanent staff to participate in career development programs and to apply for external project funding, for instance from the RCN and the ERC, with UiO as the host institution.
- All fixed-term academic employees shall be offered individual career planning in cooperation with their respective department management as part of the appraisal meeting.
- Fixed-term researchers who are project leaders shall be given the same right as PhD- and postdoctoral research fellows to an extension of the project period in case of parental leave.
- PhD students who have submitted their thesis shall keep their UiO affiliation, including laptop and access to the UiO network, until the thesis has been defended, even if they are no longer formally employed by UiO.
- The participation of the growing group of international fixed-term academic staff in democratic decision making at UiO must be increased.
2. Action for better gender equality
The low proportion of women in professor and senior academic leadership positions shows that the newly passed Action plan for gender equality and gender balance (2018-2020) (pdf) (Norwegian), needs to be closely followed up on a case by case basis, with concrete measures and improvements, if we would like it to become more than a set of good intentions.
During the current period, the University Board approved my suggestion that the UiO mentoring programme for female postdocs and associate professors should be made accessible for women in researcher positions as well. I have also put on the agenda for the June 2018 board meeting a change in the UiO Personnel Regulations that secures gender balance in committees that nominate candidates for director and other senior academic leadership positions for which professor competence is required.
In the next board period I will continue this work, on a case by case basis, to ensure that better gender equality at UiO goes from plan to reality.
3. Defending democracy at the UiO
If the UiO is to succeed in fulfilling its social responsibility, it is crucial to protect the academic autonomy of its academic communities from being overregulated by politicians, bureaucrats and/or commercial interests.
During the current board period I contributed towards the University Board decision (uniforum.no) (Norwegian) which ensured the academic autonomy and participation of students and academic staff in the process leading to a decision regarding how the student clinics at the Department of Psychology should be run. In the question regarding transition to hired leadership at The Faculty of Medicine, it was important to me that such a change was democratically anchored, and I supported the Board’s decision to send the matter back to the faculty (uniforum.no) (Norwegian) for a more thorough treatment.
In the next board period I will work to defend UiO’s current organization as a state administrative body against the threat of being reorganized as a state-owned enterprise (aftenposten.no) (Norwegian), which the Norwegian Government has suggested as one possibility. At the University Board meeting in May 2018 we agreed that a reorganization into a state-owned enterprise will not increase UiO’s autonomy (uniforum.no) (Norwegian). In my opinion, it is important to defend the current organization of the UiO in order to protect academic autonomy from increased dependence on external funding, and to protect the UiO democracy against a more hierarchical and top-down leadership structure.
4. Focusing on interdisciplinarity
Increasing and strengthening interdisciplinary research activities is an important strategic goal for the UiO, and is something I also aim for in my own research. In collaboration with colleagues at UiO I initiated the interdisciplinary project Philosophy in Science, which involves a collaboration with UiO:Life Science and has been awarded status as a priority area of the Faculty of Humanities (2019-2023).
However, genuine interdisciplinarity can be difficult to achieve in practice. At the UiO some of this difficulty is due to the current organisational and financial model and inflexibility of administrative systems. Furthermore, few positions are announced within interdisciplinary research areas.
During the current board period we have identified many of the challenges raised by radical interdisciplinary research. In the next board period I will work towards the University Board deciding on and following up concrete measures to reduce the organisational, administrative and financial obstacles for this kind of research. This will be particularly important in the continuing development of UiO:Life Science and its interplay with other academic communities within mathematics and the natural sciences on the one hand, and humanities and the social sciences on the other.
My background
I am a linguist and leader of the research project Acquiring Figurative Meanings at the CSMN/IFIKK at the Faculty of Humanities, funded by the RCN’s FRIPRO scheme for Young Research Talents (2015-2020). Prior to this I was a postdoctoral research fellow at CSMN/IFIKK (2011-2015), also funded by the RCN, and spent a period as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. I graduated from University College London in 2011 with a PhD in Linguistics.
As a fixed-term academic employee at UiO from 2011, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a researcher and project manager, I have in-depth knowledge and overview of the challenges many fixed-term staff experience during their time at UiO. From 2013-2017 I served on the Departmental Board at IFIKK as a representative for the fixed-term academic staff, and I am currently representing the fixed-term academic staff in the University Board (2017-2018). I am also a member of The Young Academy of Norway (akademietforyngreforskere.no).