Sunniva Engh is Associate Professor of History, affiliated with the interdisciplinary strategic research area UiO:Nordic.
Engh holds a DPhil in Modern History from the University of Oxford (2006), with the dissertation 'Population Control in the 20th Century: Scandinavian Aid to the Indian Family Planning Programme'. She also holds an MPhil in Economic and Social History (2000), University of Oxford. Engh was a postdoctoral fellow with the project 'Den norske fredstradisjonen' at the Forum for contemporary history, IAKH, University of Oslo from 2006. She was Fulbright Research Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Relations at the City University of New York. From 2012, Engh was a senior fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS) and their Centre for Asian Security Studies, with the projects 'Myanmar in Indian security policy' and 'China in Indian strategic thinking'.
Research interests
My research interests are situated at the intersections of political, social and medical history, internationally and transnationally. I have particularly worked on the international history of development co-operation, with international/global health governance and population policies as particular areas of expertise. Another field of expertise is Nordic and Norwegian political and social history, the Nordic model of society, and the countries' engagement in development, global health and security policy and international operations. Another field of research is India's foreign and security policy, India-China relations, and Myanmar and great power relations in Asia.
I am a committed research communicator and disseminator who regularly gives talks, op-eds, podcasts and other media contributions. I am particularly committed to developing courses that allow students to use their academic knowledge and skills practically, to further work relevance, and to work across disciplines and in collaboration with other sectors, such as public administration and private business.
Teaching and supervision
- The 'Nordic Model', and Nordic countries' international engagement and development aid
- International and Scandinavian population policies and aid
- The history of global health
- Modern South Asian history, India-China relations and Myanmar's political history
- HIS4050 Historieformidling
- HIS4230 Introduction to International History
- HIS4231 Norge - et rikt, lite land i verden
- MITRA4001 Reading course 1: Global Population Issues
- B-LAB2000: Bærekraftlaboratoriet - tverrfaglig praksisemne
Research projects at IAKH
- The book project 'Scandinavia and South Asian population control, 1950-1995'
- Project leader, Nordic Civil Societies: Global, Transnational and Regional Encounters since 1800, funded by UiO:Nordic
- Participant in the interdisciplinary project Nordic Branding, funded by UiO:Nordic
Recent publications
- Engh, Sunniva (2023), 'The complexities of postcolonial international health: Karl Evang in India 1953', Medical History, 67(1), pp. 23-41. Available Open Access here.
- Engh, Sunniva and Brimnes, Niels (2023), 'Scandinavian entry points to social medicine and postcolonial health: Karl Evang and Halfdan Mahler in India', Medical History, 67(1), pp. 1-4. Available Open Access here.
- Engh, Sunniva (2023), 'Norge i det internasjonale helsesamarbeidet, fra mellomkrigstiden til i dag. Fra mottaker til giver av bistand, fra avventende til aktiv' in Helge Ø. Pharo, Øyvind Østerud, Jarle Simensen and Sunniva Engh (eds.), Kampen for en ordnet verden. Folkeforbundet, FN og Norge, Dreyers forlag, pp. 125-151.
- Helge Ø. Pharo, Øyvind Østerud, Jarle Simensen and Sunniva Engh (eds.) (2023), Kampen for en ordnet verden. Folkeforbundet, FN og Norge, Dreyers forlag.
- Engh, Sunniva (2021), 'The Nordic model in international development aid. Explanation, experience and export' in Haldor Byrkjeflot, Lars Mjøset, Mads Mordhorst & Klaus Petersen (eds.), The Making and Circulation of Nordic Models, Ideas and Images, Routledge, pp. 124-142. Available Open Access here.
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Engh, Sunniva (2021). 'Transatlantiske forbindelser i mellomkrigstidens helsearbeid: Rockefeller Foundation, public health og norsk sykepleierutdanning' in Bård Frydenlund, Torleif Rosager Hamre & Andre Larsen Avelin (eds.),Transatlantiske forbindelser. Norsk-amerikanske relasjoner gjennom 200 år. Scandinavian Academic Press, pp. 99-134.
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Engh, Sunniva (2021). 'Norge i Afghanistan 2001-2014. Engasjementspolitikken møter sikkerhetspolitikken', in Helge Øystein Pharo, Sunniva Engh, Kjell Inge Bjerga, Gunnar D. Hatlehol & Kristine Offerdal (eds.), Historiker, strateg og brobygger. Festskrift til Rolf Tamnes 70 år, Pax Forlag, pp. 324–348.
- Engh, Sunniva (2020), 'India’s China Policy under Modi: Growing Co-operation, Enduring Disagreement, Increasing Rivalry' in Jo Inge Bekkevold and S. Kalyanaraman (eds.), India's Great Power Politics: Managing china's Rise, Routledge, pp. 75-100.
- Engh, Sunniva (2020), 'Georg Borgström and the population-food dilemma. Reception and consequences in Norwegian public debate in the 1950s and 1960s in Johan Östling; David Larsson Heidenblad & Niklas Olsen (eds.), Histories of Knowledge in Postwar Scandinavia. Actors, Arenas and Aspirations, Routledge, pp. 39 - 58. Available Open Access here.
- Engh, Sunniva (2019), Rockefeller Foundation og etableringen av Statens institutt for folkehelsen. Idéer, investeringer og institusjonsbygging i internasjonal helse 1923–1935, i Michael 16(1), pp. 10- 35. Available Open Access here.
- Engh, Sunniva og Bekkevold, Jo Inge (2017), Silk Road Diplomacy: China's Strategic Interests in South Asia, in Sten Rynning (ed.), South Asia and the Great Powers: International Relations and Regional Security, I.B. Tauris, pp. 147 - 173