Academic interests
My primary field of research is the Nordic Middle Ages. I did my doctoral work within the Norwegian High Middle Ages with the thesis Uforutsigbarhet og nærvær: En analyse av norske konger maktutøvelse i høymiddelalderen (2004, published in English in a revised and expanded version at Brill in 2008). Here I analyze the state development of the High Middle Ages from a legal anthropological perspective. I have since worked extensively on this theme in various contexts, including in international research projects and anthologies.
Between 2008 and 2012 I worked in a research project on Icelandic manuscripts from the late Middle Ages. By applying a combination of New philological method and history of mentalities, it is possible to analyze manuscripts with obviously unhistorical content as a source of a contemporary reality to which we have few other sources that give us access. In 2017 I published the monograph The Reality of the Fantastic: The Magical, Political and Social Universe of Late Medieval Saga Manuscripts (University Press of Southern Denmark). In addition, I have written a number of articles on this topic in international journals and anthologies.
In 2011 I was the main editor and author of the first volume of Norvegr - Norges historie, in four volumes published by Aschehoug publishing house. I was also the main editor (with O.S. Stugu) for Soga om Sogn og Fjordane I-IV (Fagbokforlaget 2016).
From 2013 to 2016 I worked on a project about Nordic elites together with a number of Scandinavian colleagues. The result was three volumes called Nordic Elites in Transformation I-III (Routledge 2019-20) on material resources, social networks and legitimacy and glory.
In the period 2016-20, Jon Vidar Sigurdsson and I led a project on civil war in the Middle Ages and modern times, funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the Center for Advanced Research. This resulted in two anthologies: Medieval and Modern Civil Wars: A Comparative Perspective (Brill 2021) and New Perspectives on the 'Civil Wars' in Medieval Scandinavia (Brepols 2024). In addition, I wrote the monograph Constant Crisis: Deconstructing the Civil Wars in Norway, c. 1180-1220 (Cornell UP 2024), and together with political scientist Øyvind Østerud the book Krig uten stat – kriger i middelalderen og i dag (Dreyer 2020, English edited version at Brepols 2024).
I have been one of the leaders of the project Standardization in the Middle Ages, an interdisciplinary project at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. This project publishes two anthologies on standardization at De Gruyter in 2024. As a by-product of this project, Svein H. Gullbekk and I cycled from Norway to Rome and wrote the book En reise til Roma i fotsporene til pilegrimen Nikolas Bergsson, året 1152 (Dreyer 2024). In Maktens nervetråder: politiske kulturer i Europa frå middelalderen til andre verdenskrig (Dreyer 2021) I examine political culture from the Middle Ages to the present day together with Kai Østberg.
In the period 2021-24 I have been the Norwegian project manager for a comparative Norwegian-Polish project called Symbolic Resources and Political Structures on the Periphery: Legitimization of the Elites in Poland and Norway, c. 1000-1300 which has received support from the GRIEG program from the National Science Centre, Poland and the Norwegian Research Council. Polish partners are Grzegorz Pac and Wojtek Jezierski. The project has resulted in the anthology Legitimization of Elites in Poland and Norway in the High Middle Ages: Comparative Studies (Brepols 2024) and a Special Issue of Acta Poloniae Historica for 2024.
Teaching
HIS2131 – Fra viking til hvitekrist. Norsk politisk kultur ca. 750-1300
Background
I have been employed as a professor at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History since 2012.
I worked at Volda University College from 2005, as associate professor until 2010, professor since then, and professor 2 in the period 2012-16. From 2002 to 2005 I was museum director at the Borgarsyssel museum and manager of Olavsdagene festival in Sarpsborg.
I have most of my education from the University of Oslo. I completed my doctorate there in 2004 and my MA in 1994. Otherwise, I have Nordic, Latin, literature knowledge and psychology in my BA.
Prices
- 2007 Copenhaver Fellowship, Roanoke University College, USA
- 2008 Research prize, Volda University
- 2011 HIFO's award for most innovative contribution to Historisk tidsskrift
- 2016 Caledonian Research Fellowship, University of St Andrews
- 2022 Peder Sather Grant, University of California, Berkeley