Presentation
I am the leader of the research group Cultural Memory Studies and was the leader of the interdisciplinary thematic area group Traveling Texts: Translation and Transnational Reception (completed).
My research and teaching interests are in French and Francophone literature, history and philosophy from the 18th to the 21th Century.
Research
I have held numerous scholarly talks and I have written more than 20 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters, 2 peer-reviewed monographs, 3 articles in Dictionnaire Jean Genet (Honoré Champion), 4 articles in Dictionnaire Claude Simon (Honoré Champion), and several other non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles. I am the co-editor of three interdisciplinary volumes.
In my PhD-dissertation, I studied moral, sexual and textual perversions in the early novels of Jean Genet. My current research focuses generally on the interactions between literature and psychology/sociology/philosophy/history, with a particular focus on six themes:
- Cultural Memory Studies in general and the author Patrick Modiano in particular;
- Translation studies in general and censorship in translation in particular;
- Emancipation discourses in general and the French revolution in particular;
- Provocation in general and the authors Jean Genet and Michel Houellebecq in particular;
- Quebecois literature and history in general and the author Réjean Ducharme in particular;
- Perceptions and discourses of the Nordic region and the Nordic model in French culture and politics.
Supervision
I am currently the main supervisor for PhD candidate Cecilie Weiss-Andersen.
I was the main supervisor for Mats Haraldsen, who successfully defended his PhD-thesis on 30 January 2026.
I am supervising three ongoing Master theses: on Joris-Karl Huysmans, on Patrick Modiano and on biofiction and Marie NDiaye.
I have supervised the following completed MA theses:
- Marte Sæteren, Du théâtre et de l'absurde, 2026.
- Torje Hommedal Knausgård, La voix enfantine Le narrateur enfant et le journal fictif dans L’avalée des avalés, Le nez qui voque et L’océantume de Réjean Ducharme, 2025.
- Leif Simonsen, Wilhelm Dinesen et la Commune de Paris – 1871. Le témoignage de Wilhelm Dinesen sur la Semaine sanglante, 2024.
- Tuva Petersen, La Protection du lynx en France et en Norvège. Étude comparative, 2023.
- Helle Sætren, Les Harkis au camp de Rivesaltes. Le réveil d’une mémoire, 2021.
- Anne Karin Hofseth, L’UPC en France. Un chapitre de la lutte upéciste pour l’indépendance au Cameroun, 2020.
- Kristine Guttorm Ballari, Les Innus au Québec et les Samis en Norvège: étude comparative, 2020.
- Caroline Slattum Frey, Løfte ved livets morgen. En kommentert oversettelse av utdrag fra Romain Garys La Promesse de l’aube, 2020.
- Heidi Malchere Pettersen, Les juifs et les israélites. L’identité juive en France de l’entre-deux-guerres à travers l’exemple d’Irène Némirovsky, 2020.
- Charlotte Louise Vaillot Knudsen, Sculpter les Cent mille milliards de poèmes. Pour un clavier polyphonique et vertigineux du marbrier-traducteur, 2019.
- Ingrid Ottersland Hagen, Les Aurores montréales de Monique Proulx et Titre de transport d’Alice Michaud-Lapointe. Étude sur la représentation de l’identité montréalaise dans deux recueils de nouvelles québécois, 2019.
- Lizzie Røsstad Dahm, Nattens vendepunkt. Kommentert oversettelse av første del av Accident nocturne av Patrick Modiano, 2018.
- Guillaume Devalckeneer, Le Corps et le Sacré dans Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats de Pierre Guyotat, 2018.
- Sindre Andenæs, L'Histoire exemplaire dans les Mémoires d’outre-tombe, 2018.
- Brit Hodne, Les Efforts d’intégration dans un cadre catholique - étude de terrain dans le diocèse de Montpellier, 2017.
- Kristin Skeimo Berge & Sara Helena Bråthen, Critique de la politique et de la religion dans les Lettres persanes et les Lettres philosophiques, 2016.
- Bodil Prestegaard, L'Indochine française dans l'oeuvre de Marguerite Duras : une lecture postcoloniale, 2011.
- Heidi Karlsen, Lecture et transgression de l’identité : Adieu de Balzac - un texte immaîtrisable?, 2010.
I was co-supervisor on the following completed MA theses:
- Kaja Humberset, Réussir au-delà des différences culturelles et linguistiques. Le cas d’un partenariat franco-norvégien, 2021.
- Marit Hatleskog, Kjøkkenlitteratur – En kommentert oversettelse av La Cuisine de Marguerite, oppskrifter og tekster av Marguerite Duras, 2021.
Teaching
Bachelor
- EUS1000 – Introduction to foreign languages studies (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- EURO1000 – Europe and the EU: historical introduction (my contribution: on France and the EU) (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- EXFAC03-EURA – Examen facultatum for European and American Studies: Language, Literature, Area Studies (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1301 – French literature (prose) (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1302 – French literature 2 (poetry and theatre)
- FRA1400 – Modern France. History, Society, Literature (in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1501 – French history from the Revolution to present time (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA1502 – French culture 2 (French history from the Renaissance to la Belle Époque)
- FRA2509 – La société française (multiple times)
Bachelor and Master
- FRA2300/FRA4317 – French literature : Epoch (“La seconde guerre mondiale dans la littérature française” – Némirovsky, Kessel, Langfus, Chalandon)
- FRA2304/FRA4315 – Histoire et littérature francophone: Le Québec
- FRA2410/FRA4410 – French literature : Theme (“Gender discourses in contemporary French literature” – Despentes, Beigbeder, Houellebecq)
- FRA2410/FRA4410 – French literature : Theme (“Mémoires de conflits : fiction et témoignages” – Salvayre, Modiano, Zeniter, Faye)
- FRA2412/FRA4412 – French literature : Theme (“Du roman existentiel au roman de l'absurde: Céline, Vian, Beckett”)
- FRA2420/FRA4313 – French literature : Author (“Patrick Modiano”)
- FRA2422/FRA2442/ FRA4332 – French literature : Author (“Jean Genet”)
- FRA2472/FRA4372 – French literature : Genre (“Autobiographie” – Rousseau, Stendhal, Sartre, Modiano)
- FRA2501/FRA4519 – The French Revolution
- FRA2517/FRA4526 – Mouvements sociaux en France (“La France périphérique”) (in collaboration with Kjerstin Aukrust)
Master
- FRA4002 – Histoire et théorie : la vie intellectuelle française (multiple times, alone and in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA4003 – Writing a Master's thesis in French - methodology and theory (multiple times, in collaboration with colleagues at the department)
- FRA4400 – French authors, Reading Course (multiple times)
- FRA4520 – French Area Studies, Reading Course (multiple times)
- FRA4500 – Research methods in French Area Studies
PhD
- PhD thesis seminar in literature for PhD candidates at ILOS, ILN and IKOS (multiple times)
Public dissemination
I have held numerous popular talks, I have elaborated a radio program on the French Revolution, and I am one of the four co-hosts of the podcast Frankrike forklart (France explained).
I have written several feature articles on French history, culture and society in diverse Norwegian media (Morgenbladet, Klassekampen, Transit Magasin, forskning.no) and 42 encyclopedia articles on French and Francophone literature for the Norwegian online encyclopedia Store norske leksikon.
Finally, I have participated in public dissemination of French culture, politics and history through translations into Norwegian. I have translated numerous articles for the Norwegian edition of Le Monde diplomatique, as well as two French books: Emmanuel- Joseph Sieyès, Qu’est-ce que le Tiers état? (1789, Hva er Tredjestanden?, Oslo, Aschehoug, Thorleif Dahls Kulturbibliotek, 2015) and Jacques Rancière, Le Spectateur émancipé (2008, Den emansiperte tilskuer, Oslo, Pax, Artes, 2012).
Institutional responsibilities
- 2021: Head of the PhD program and member of the department management group at ILOS, UiO
- 2020-24 : President, National academic council for romance languages and literatures
- 2016-19: Vice-president, National academic council for romance languages and literatures
- 2016-18: Head of section, French section, ILOS, UiO
- 2013: Deputy board member, ILOS, UiO
- 2010: Head of section, French section, ILOS, UiO
Higher education and employment history
- 2024-: Full Professor of French Literature and Area Studies, University of Oslo
- 2015-24: Associate Professor of French Literature and Area Studies, University of Oslo
- 2014-15: High-school teacher (French and Norwegian)
- 2013-14: Freelance writer and translator
- 2010-13: Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Oslo
- 2008-10: Senior Lecturer in French Literature, University of Oslo
- 2008: Ph.d. in French Literature, University of Oslo
- 2005: DEA Lettres Modernes, Université Nancy 2, France
- 2002: Cand.philol. (MA) in French, University of Oslo