Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen

Position

Head of Department

Affiliation

Research

2022 – 2025 Researcher and WP1 leader in project Tackling Precarious and Informal Work in the Nordic Countries (PrecaNord), led by Lena Näre (University of Helsinki), part of the Future Challenges in the Nordics research programme, funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Stiftelsen Brita Maria Renlunds minne and The Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity.

2021 - 2025 On Equal Grounds? Migrant Women’s Participation in Labour and Labour Related Activities (EQUALPART), Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

2019-2022 Supercamp: Geneologies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East, Researcher, Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

2014 - 2018 Denaturalizing difference: Challenging the production of global social inequality (UiB),  Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

2014 - 2018 Parenting cultures and risk management in plural Norway (Uni Research Rokkansenteret), Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

2015 - 2019 Norwegian Energy Companies Abroad: Expanding the Anthropological Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (Energethics), Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

2011-2014 Provision of Welfare to Irregular Migrants (Uni Research Rokkansenteret), Postdoctoral position, Funded by the Research Council of Norway 

Outreach

Interview 26.03.2025, with Bymag: Nytt sportstilbud for elever ved Bergen inkluderingssenter (on sport and inclusion) 

Interview 16.03.2025, with BT De ønsker seg flere venner i Bergen. Her får de hjelp. (on friendship and inclusion in Norway).

What is precarious work in Norway? Synnove presentation on Vimeo

Research Ethics, invited to plenary session at Norsk antropologisk Årskonfereranse [Norwegian Anthropological Association Conference], 1st of December 2023, Trondheim

Guestlecture, Immigration and multiculturalism, BA course SAS13 Norwegian culture and history, UiB, 7th of October 2023

The Nordic welfare-state bordering and its discontents: Deservingness, neoliberalism and Digitalization, Keynote at Mobilities, (welfare) citizenship and the changing nature of work. Exploratory workshop organized by MOBILEWORK network, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 11th of August 2023

Continental Encampment. Roundtable at Bergen Exchanges Law and Social Transformations, Kulturhuset Bergen, 15th of August 2023

What is knowledge, and how do we know? NTNU Ocean Week. Making use of Artic Science, the University Centre in Svalbard Longyearbyen, Svalbard 24th of May 2023 

Guestlecture, Irregular migration and bordering, EMMIR MA program, University of Stavanger, 2nd of May 2023                    

Continental Encampment. Book launch presentation at the University Library, University of Bergen, 28th of April 2023

Guestlecture on Anthropological methods, SVT MA program, University of Bergen, 31st of May 2023

Flyktningers og migranters reise til Europa: Grensekontroll og provisoriske leire langs Balkan ruten, Senioruniversitetet Fiskeridirektoratet, november 2022

Invited discussant on panel Digital Transformations, 17th EASA Biennial Conference
EASA2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons, Belfast, 26th -29th of July, 2022 

The humanitarian border in Europe, Guestlecture and organizer of unit as part of MOOC on Mental borders, physical borders and the shaping of modern European identity and citizenship, Arqus network, Spring 2022

Individualised health rights and irregular migrants in Norway: the production of a precarious subject and the re-emergence of charity, at 19th IMISCOE annual conference, 29th of June - 1st of July 2022, Oslo

Invited discussant on panel Digital Transformations, 17th EASA Biennial Conference EASA2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons, Belfast, 26th -29th of July, 2022 

Veien til Europa: Eksternaliseringspolitikk og migranters beslutninger langs Balkan ruten, Guestlecture Senioruniversitetet i Bergen, 20. april 2022

Veien til Europa: Eksternaliseringspolitikk og migranters beslutninger langs Balkan ruten, Guestlecture Senioruniversitetet i Bergen, 20. april 2022

The humanitarian border in Europe, Guestlecture and organizer of unit as part of MOOC on Mental borders, physical borders and the shaping of modern European identity and citizenship, Arqus network, Spring 2022

Individualised health rights and irregular migrants in Norway: the production of a precarious subject and the re-emergence of charity, at 19th IMISCOE annual conference, 29th of June - 1st of July 2022, Oslo

The challenge of representation: Ethnography as a basis for fictional film, presentation at IMER junior seminar, 2nd of December 2021, Bergen

“Going on the game”. Im/mobility practices and bordering architectures along the Balkan route, presentation at workshop Conceptualising im/mobility: Humanitarianism, camps and borders, , co-hosted by the University of Bergen (UiB), the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), with funding from the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies. Bergen, Norway, Thursday 18 and Friday 19 November 2021

The transnational perspective on migration – anthropological approaches. Invited guest lecturer to opening workshop. Exploring the Archaeological Migration Narrative, Centre of Advanced Studies in Oslo, 2nd -3rd of September 2021

Diversities, invited presenter at New Nordic Anthropology, 21st of May 2021. Available at New Nordic Anthropology: DIVERSITIES (May 2021) - YouTube

The Political Economy of Protracted Displacement. Morten Bøås (NUPI), Tewodros Kebede (Fafo), Synnøve Bendixsen (UiB) and Sarah Tobin (CMI) in conversation with Benjamin Etzold (BICC). 24th of June 2021. Available at: The Political Economy of Protracted Displacement - YouTube

Global School Film & Reflections: Migration, Webinar. Film screening of Mediterranea followed by a webinar discussion with Sine Plambech (Danish Institute for International Studies), Kari Anne Klovholt Drangsland (UiB) and Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham) hosted by Synnøve Bendixsen (Leader of the Migration Pillar, UiB). Available at: Global School Film & Reflections: Migration - YouTube

En verden på flukt, researchers’ interview, 23.06.2021, available at: En verden på flukt | Aktuelt | UiB

Fires in Moria - law, migratory policies and asylum in Lesvos, presenter and discussant, LawTransform Events at Bergen Global, CMI and University of Bergen, 14th of October 2020, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HnPVayebk&t

Brannen i Moria: Grenser, migrasjon og politick, presentation and discussant at UIB INNSIKT, 19th of September 2020, available at https://youtu.be/lWmETgdWl9I

 

OP-EDS

Blogpost, March 6, 2025 Advocating Slow Policy on Deep Sea Mining in the Svalbard Archipelago: Reflections on the ‘Making Use of Arctic Science’ Workshop

I Norge ville vi aldri tillatt det. Interview with Morgenbladet, published 20th  of April 2018, available at https://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2018/04/i-norge-ville-vi-aldri-tillatt-det

Bendixsen, Synnøve 2017. Menneskene ingen vil ha, Bergens Tidende (op-ed.), 11th of January, http://www.bt.no/btmeninger/debatt/Menneskene-ingen-vil-ha-328718b.html

 

Å være tysk og Muslim. Podcast 2016, produced by UiB, available at

https://player.fm/series/podcast-uib/synnve-bendixsen-vre-tysk-og-muslim-ble-umulig

 

Good mothers don’t protest. Interview with the newsmagazine Kilden 2016. Gender studies, 1st of December, available at http://kjonnsforskning.no/en/2016/12/good-mothers-dont-protest

 

Bendixsen, Synnøve and Hilde Lidén 2016. Mange flykter på nytt, Bergens Tidende (op-ed.), 6th of May

 

Bendixsen, Synnøve and Halvard Kjærre 2015. Penger følger deg ikke i døden, Bergens Tidende (op-ed.), 3rd of June

 

Bendixsen, Synnøve 2009. Îslam û çanda ciwanên li bajaran (Mind the Gap. Young Female Muslims Crafting a Religious Self in Berlin), in Le Monde diplomatique Kurdi, available online: http://kurmanci.lemondediplo-kurdi.com/2009/12/islam-u-canda-ciwanen-li-bajaran

 

Bendixsen, Synnøve 2008. Der Islam als neuer Identifikationsfaktor? Junge Musliminnen in Berlin, (Portal for migration and issues on Muslims in Germany), available online: www.muslimische-stimmen.de, 2nd of July 2008

 

FILM

Birthdayparents (18min. 2018), docu-fiction directed by Savas Buyraz. Based on the research project Parenting Cultures and Risk Management in Plural Norway (ParCul). Developing the script and editing.

PRESENTATIONS

Fires in Moria - law, migratory policies and asylum in Lesvos, presenter and discussant, LawTransform Events at Bergen Global, CMI and University of Bergen, 14th of October 2021, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HnPVayebk&t

Brannen i Moria: Grenser, migrasjon og politick, presentation and discussant at UIB INNSIKT, 19th of September 2020, available at https://youtu.be/lWmETgdWl9I

 

Public presentation and dissemination of research

Includes invited lectures at such institutions as Princeton University, Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology, China University, Humboldt University, COMPAS (Oxford), the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at the University of Montreal, Fordham University (NY), Stockholm Anthropology Roundtable at the Department of Social Anthropology (Stockholm University), Potsdam University (for the E. ON Ruhrgas Scholarship Programme in Political Science), University of Oslo and University of Stavanger.

Includes papers given at a number of national and international conferences, such as the annual conferences of the Norwegian Anthropological Association (NAT), the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SEIF), American Anthropological Association (AAA), the Nordic Migration Research Conferences (NMR), and Metropolis.

Includes a number of scholarships to give papers and to participate at international seminars and workshops, such as Princeton University, China Society for Human Rights Studies, the Academy of Urban Super-diversity, Irmgard Coninx Foundation (the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the Humboldt-University Berlin), European Fellowships for Training in Urban Studies (Marie Curie Training Course, in Weimar), UCSIA Summer Seminar at the University of Antwerp, the Nordic Network for the Mediatization of Religion and Culture (workshop at Sigtuna), EUROFOR Marie-Curie conference, and Urbino summer school (EUREX grant).

Includes a number of public lectures on my work e.g. Red Cross, the Child Welfare Service (barnevernet), Norwegian Immigration Authorities, Alumnidays, Folkehelsedagen (Public Health day), for teachers at Nygårdsskole, at ‘New Chance’ (education for migrants) in Bergen, Henrich Böll Stiftung (Berlin), and the Fulbright programme (Berlin).

Teaching

SANT 100: Invitation to Social Anthropology (autumn 2019, 2020)

SANT 102: Social life in a global perspective (spring 2020)

SANT 105: Politics, power and resistance (autumn 2014, 2015, 2016)

 

Guestlectures (a selection)

Guestlecture on Anthropological methods, SVT MA program Berekraft/Sustainability, University of Bergen, 31st of May 2023, in 2024 and in 2025

Multiculturalism in Norway, invited guestlecture at SAS13, Norwegian Culture and History - Scandinavian Area Studies, UiB, 19. October 2022 (and in 2023, 2024, 2025)

From 2012 - 2025 Annual guestlecturerer at the University of Stavanger, in the Erasmus Mondus programme European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations. (2 hours lectures and 3 hours group work each spring semester)


2019 Main organiser and Lecturer. Bergen Summer Research School (BSRS). PhD Research Course: Migration Processes and Practices: Theories, methods and ethical conduct 

2018  Guest Lecturer, on Ethnicity, in Introduction to Social Theory, Western Norway  University of Applied Sciences (HVL), 17th of April 

2018   Guest Lecturer. International MA course on Irregular migrants and health organised by the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, UiB, January/February 

2017 Guest Lecturer. Summer School Migrants, Human Rights and Democracy, organized by the University of Palermo, at Lampedusa. Aimed at master students, academics and young professionals. 

2017 Guest Lecturer. Bergen Summer Research School (BSRS). PhD Research Course: Migration and the (Inter-)National Order of Things.

Publications
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2009
2005
2003

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Projects

2022 – 2025 Researcher and WP1 leader in project Tackling Precarious and Informal Work in the Nordic Countries (PrecaNord), led by Lena Näre (University of Helsinki), part of the Future Challenges in the Nordics research programme, funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Stiftelsen Brita Maria Renlunds minne and The Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity.

2021 - 2024 On Equal Grounds? Migrant Women’s Participation in Labour and Labour Related Activities (EQUALPART)

2019-2022 Supercamp: Geneologies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East

2014 - 2018 Denaturalizing difference: Challenging the production of global social inequality (UiB)

2014 - 2018 Parenting cultures and risk management in plural Norway (Uni Research Rokkansenteret)

2016 - 2019 Nordhost: Nordic Hospitalities in the Context of Migration and Refugee Crisis

2015 - 2019 Norwegian Energy Companies Abroad: Expanding the Anthropological Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (Energethics)

2011-2014 Provision of Welfare to Irregular Migrants (Uni Research Rokkansenteret)