Background
Personal: Born 1938. Married, two grown children.
Education: Studied history of art and classical and Nordic archaeology at the universities of Oslo and Bergen 1956–75. Dr. philos. 1975 University of Bergen.
Periods of study and research in Rome and Washington DC, Stockholm, Århus and Copenhagen. Shorter visits to Cornell University, the British Museum.
Academic positions: Research fellow at the Norwegian Research Council 1984–6; assistant professor at the University of Oslo, Department of the History of Art, 1986, full professor 1992; professor at the Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies from 1994; director from 1999 to 2002.
Member of the Board of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, 1990–5 (?).
Vice chair of the Research Committee for Humanities, University of Oslo, 1990–3 (?).
Chair of the Nansen Research Foundation, The Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters, 1999–2001.
Member of a number of committees for doctorates and academic positions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Guest lectures at i.a. the universities of Kiel, Marburg, Cambridge, Cornell, Århus, Copenhagen, and numerous international conferences.
Fellow of the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters.
Teaching and tutoring
1986–94 courses on most aspects of art history; since 1994 focussed on medieval art and culture, with emphasis on the viking period. Has supervised approximately 30 master degrees and ten doctorates.
Special fields
Viking and early medieval art and ornament. Problems of medieval iconograhy. Interdisciplinary studies of art and texts. Interdisciplinary studies of artefacts – production and economy.
Ongoing and planned research projects at IKOS
- Scandinavian art c. 750–1150. (Text book.)
- Traditions and transformations in viking imagery.
- Pewter spoons of the high middle ages. (With E. E. Astrup.)