Anke Schwarzkopf and Stine Hesstvedt are ARENA's newest PhD candidates. Anke is working on the EU's external relations with Helene Sjursen as her supervisor, while Stine is part of the EUREX project and is supervised by Johan Christensen and Cathrine Holst.
Stine studied political science at the University of Oslo and spent some exchange semesters at Sciences Po Paris. As a student in Oslo, ARENA was always known as the place where European studies happen.
– Even if my PhD project is not deeply EU specific, the reputation of ARENA was certainly a contributing factor when I decided to apply here, Stine said.
Anke is originally from Germany and started her studies at the University of Erfurt. She has also spent a lot of time in Latin America, both on an exchange semester and doing voluntary work. For her master's degree, she wanted to find a two-year international relations (IR) programme taught in English. The search quickly narrowed down to Denmark and Sweden.
What kind of power?
– There are almost no English-language IR graduate programmes in Germany, and Norway was simply too expensive for a German student's budget, Anke said. She ended up in Linköping and liked it a lot. – Linköping had a very international crowd. I think there were students of something like 20 different nationalities on my programme – which was nice coming from a pretty homogenous German environment.
In Linköping, she wrote her master's thesis on the EU's external relations with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Was this a relationship characterised by Realpolitik or normative power?
– I found, perhaps not surprisingly, that it was a mix. In certain policy areas, like trade, the EUs policy was clearly based on self-interest. Yet there were other policy areas more in line with a normative understanding, Anke revealed. Her project at ARENA will look at the EU's external role in the United Nations and the EU's actions towards global justice.
What kind of knowledge?
Stine wrote her master thesis on political knowledge among voters. She found that countries with a high degree of income equality also have lower differences between voters in terms of political knowledge. – One question I grappled much with was: how do I measure political knowledge? There were several interesting yet challenging methodological issues. The link to my current project is that I am still working with knowledge and expertise, just in a different part of the political process.
As part of the EUREX project, Stine will build a dataset on Norwegian public inquiry commissions. A guiding question is whether some form of expertization has occurred over time. – I also want to look at effects of the commissions, even if it is difficult, Stine added, – or maybe look at the input side: Why were the commissions established in the first place? Is it always a result of a simple thirst for knowledge, or are there more strategic concerns in play as well?
Climbing rocks and poaching eggs
Anke was familiar with ARENA through Helene Sjursen's work before she arrived here, which she had used in her master thesis. Beyond this, one of the main reasons she ended up in Oslo was the nature.
– I knew I wanted to work with European politics, and I knew I wanted to stay in the north. This made ARENA an obvious choice, Anke said. – My boyfriend and I had been in Oslo a couple of times before, on our way to Jotunheimen. I like how close the city is to nature. In Linköping, you could do some bouldering and maybe some cross-country skiing around a golf course, but that's about it.
Bouldering is a form of rock climbing without ropes or harnesses, and it turns out that Anke is an avid climber. Last year, she even won the Linköping bouldering championship. Stine, on the other hand, is more of a runner.
– I like to run, Stine admitted. – But one of my greatest interests is actually cooking. I can spend hours and hours in the kitchen while listening to an audiobook or a podcast.
One of Stine's obsessions lately has been the search for the perfect poached egg. After trying out every technique in the book, she has found the secret: – Less is more. This means no fancy whirling and swirling.You need fresh eggs cracked in a small bowl, water just barely boiling, with vinegar – and then you simply pour the eggs in there.
Anke was worried that it's difficult to know whether the eggs are fresh. – Hens are actually really cheap, Stine answered. – You can get good laying hens for no more than 300 kr.
Stine and Anke have signed up for the toughest legs of the upcoming Holmenkollstafetten, to the sound of a collective sigh of relief among the rest of ARENA's staff. It's clear that they will be a welcome addition to ARENA's team both academically and otherwise.