Academic Interests
Hanne Hagtvedt Vik is a professor of international history at the University of Oslo. She has published widely on the history of human rights and has also worked with indigenous peoples' rights and development aid. A common thread is international cooperation and the interactions between what happens in international forums and national politics, often with a focus on Scandinavia and the United States.
Her most recent work is the book Norge etter 1914: Et lite land i en urolig verden [Norway after 1914: A small country in a troubled world], in which she contributes on topics such as migration, minorities and foreign and security policy. Vik has been engaged in increasing public knowledge about Sami history through co-developing the thirteen-episode radio series "Samenes historie [The History of the Sami]" on NRK P2 (2021-2022), where invited researchers talked about key developments and events from the earliest times to the present day.
Background
Vik received her cand.philol. from the University of Oslo in 2001 with a thesis on Nordic diplomacy and aid policy at the World Bank in the 1980s. She started her career as part of the Norwegian government ministries' trainee program and then as an adviser in the Ministry of Defence. She completed her PhD at the University of Oslo in 2009 with a dissertation on the United States and the human rights provisions of the UN Charter in 1945. For her dissertation, she was awarded His Majesty the King's Gold Medal for the best dissertation in the humanities.
Vik was the initiator and director, together with Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage, of the Oslo Contemporary International History Network, which gathered internationally leading professors and early-career researchers to assess and further develop new trends in the field (2010-2012). She led the establishment of the Norwegian Research School in History which is a cooperation between nine Norwegian universities and university colleges (2018-2022).
She has been a visiting scholar at The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra (fall 2025), the European University in Florence (fall 2023), the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston (2011-2012) and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu (2005-2006).
Selected current academic leadership and appointments of trust
- Head of PhD training at the Faculty of Humanities in Oslo and responsible for implementing the Action Plan for the PhD Education (2022-)
- Vice-Chair of the National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH, 2026-)
- Affiliated researcher of the Norwegian Nobel Institute (2024-)
Past academic leadership and appointments of trust
- Member of the Board of the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies (2016-2025; alternate member 2016-2024)
- Director of the Norwegian Research School in History (2018-2022)
- Head of PhD training in history at IAKH (2018-2020)
- Member of the Research Council of Norway's committee that proposed a new Programme for Sami Research III
- Member of the Consultative Council for the Institute for Defence Studies (2015-2023)
- Chair for the Programme Council for the multidisciplinary bachelor's programme International Studies (2014-2022)
Teaching
Vik has taught international history in interdisciplinary and history courses at bachelor's and master's level. She has also taught US history and Norwegian foreign policy history. Vik has supervised students at all levels. During the spring term of 2011, she was a guest lecturer in human rights history at Yale University.
Since 2018, she has developed and taught PhD courses in philosophy of knowledge, research ethics, methodology and dissemination for PhD candidates in history. Since 2022 her responsibilities has been expanded to include all PhD candidates at the Faculty of Humanities.
In 2025 she was appointed as a distinguished educator at the University of Oslo.
(Photo: The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters/Thomas Eckhoff)