Fields of Research
- Material culture and the materiality of culture
- Museum and heritage studies
- Egyptology (ancient Egyptian religion and art)
- Islam (material culture and art)
- Copto-Arabic hagiographies
Academic background
1996 –2017: Professor of Cultural History/Cultural Analysis, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental languages, University of Oslo.
2016-2017: Member of research project After Discourse: Things, Archaeology, and Heritage in the 21st Century, at the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo; https://cas.oslo.no/research-groups/after-discourse-things-archaeology-and-heritage-in-the-21st-century-article1802-827.html
2004 - 2006: Director of the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris.
1995: Associate professor in History of Religions, Department of Culture Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo.
1991-1994: Post-doctoral research fellow, University of Oslo, Department of Culture Studies. Research project: The Martyr as Witness. Coptic and Copto-Arabic oral and written traditions and the transmission of texts as mediators of religious memory.
1989: Dr.philos from the University of Bergen; thesis: Le clergé féminin d'Amon thébain à la 21e dynastie.
1984-1988: Research assistant, The Norwegian Research Council, Ethnographic Museum, University of Oslo.
1980-1983: Research fellow, The Norwegian Research Council, Ethnographic Museum of the University of Oslo, within the international research project Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum.
1973: M.A. in Egyptology, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University.
1971: Italian state fellowship for the Conservation of archaeological finds and mural paintings, Istituto Centrale del Restauro, Roma, and International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome
1970-1974: Assistant lecturer, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University.
1970: B.A. in Egyptology, Faculty of Humanities, Cairo University.
Ongoing research projects
- Archaeologies of memory and the materiality of writing. Main Project: Object Matters: Archaeology and Heritage in the 21th Century. http://objectmatters.ruinmemories.org/.
- Museums, Heritage and the Nomadic Turn.
- Materia Medica – Medicinal culinary plants and the regulation of knowledge in the Mediterranean. Main project: Cultures of Medicine. Encounters, contentions and the shaping of new medical knowledge.
Major appointments
- Research coordinator of the Ph.D. programme, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo (2013-2016)
- Research coordinator of the doctoral programme History of Religion, Cultural History, Archaeology, African and Asian Studies (KRA) at the Faculty of Humanities, UiO (2008-2012).
- Head of the board of the University of Oslo trans-faculty research programme, Cultural Complexity in the New Norway (CULCOM), University of Oslo (2004-2010).
- Director of the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris (2004-2006).
- Research manager of sub-theme 2: Religion and collective memory, within the University of Oslo trans-faculty research programme Religion in Pluralistic Societies (PLUREL; 2009-2011)
- Member of the international scientific board of the Musée National des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée in Marseilles (MUCEM; 2005-2011).
- Member of the board of the Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research (NAKMI, 2003-2008), Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo.
- Member of the board for Research in the Humanities, Culture and Society, The Research Council of Norway (2001-2003).
- Member of the Program Committee International Migration and Ethnic Relations, The Research Council of Norway (1997-2002).
- Member of the board of the International Committee of Egyptology (CIPEG), within the International Committee of Museums (ICOM) ((1995-1998, 1998-2001).
Membership
Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Awards
The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture Dampskipsekspeditør Nils Pedersen og hustru Mathilde Pedersens, award 2017-2021.