Election at UiT

I am a PhD Candidate in palaeoceanography and marine ecology part of project ARCLIM (The Arctic Ocean under warm climates) and affiliated with iC3 centre of excellence at the Department of Geosciences. In my PhD project, I am developing methods for reconstructing the impacts of past warm climates on the polar oceans and ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions.

I have been a member of the steering committee of GReAT – Geoscience Research Academy of Tromsø | UiT) since 2021 and I am currently a co-lead of the group JEDI (justice, equality, diversity, inclusion) at the Department of Geosciences. These are roles that have allowed me to work towards a supportive, safe, and fair work environment for early career researchers within the department. Topics I am particularly interested in are duty work, temporary contracts, supporting traditionally underrepresented groups and minorities and generally being a voice for the early career researchers and students. As a member of the university board, I will support my temporary scientific colleagues and be a voice for those that are not represented. 

Hello!

My name is Lennart Maximilian van Ligtenberg, and I am running for election as the representative for temporary staff at UiT. Currently, I am a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Health Sciences and the current deputy representative on the University Board. Originally from the Netherlands, I moved to Norway and integrated myself at UiT, where I have been for 5 years.

Many of you may also recognize me as an active member of the PhD and postdoc community after 2 years as a board member of TODOS. In addition to this, I have also been an active board member in student sports, and I have broad expertise in various types of board positions and mandates. Perhaps the most important experience I bring is my unique insight into the issues facing particularly PhDs and postdocs here at UiT, and I have a broad network in the community and am not afraid to address issues. Additionally, I have worked closely with the previous representative for this position and have a unique insight into how the board works, what issues are coming up, the history and debate in various matters. I am familiar with how the work should be conducted to bring about changes. Therefore, I will be able to best represent and secure our interests as temporary academic staff at UiT.

I am a PostDoc at the department of physics and technology, more precisely in the Ultrasound, Microwaves and Optics group. My research is centered around on-chip spectroscopy for high resolution trace gas detection. The applications for the technology we develop are very broad, meaning we actively collaborate outside of our department - with the dept. of geoscience, microbiology, and interdepartmental centers.

Before joining UiT I was a PhD at Uppsala University, where i co-founded the local union chapter. Naturally my role on the board of the chapter was primarily focused around issues and questions regarding time limited employment. This was also the case in my employment before that, where I was a research engineer at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. While that was not a temporary position I was elected Safety representative for our lab and at the university wide safety rep. board meetings questions regarding temporary employment was front and center, as a bigger fraction than usual of the employees at KI, and medical universities in general, are employed with time limited contracts.

Hi, my name is Sofie. I am a PhD candidate at the Norwegian centre for the Law of the Sea at the faculty of law. My research is connected to the Aurora centre and looks at how the law of the sea and ocean governance can contribute to sustainable and just food systems. My educational background is in human rights and before starting my PhD I worked with NGOs in Scotland and Brussels, where I gained an insight into how decision-making processes can be more inclusive of underrepresented groups. I have been on boards and in representative roles previously, for example as board member of Our Shared Outdoors - a Scottish organisation for anti racism in outdoor sports - and as a legal aid volunteer. At UiT I represent temporary employees at 'forskningsudvalget' at the faculty of law and participate in students for Palestine. 

I will be drawing on this experience at the University Board, where my main aim is to work for a safe and supportive working environment. In particular for members of staff who do not have a seat at the table. I will advocate for fair conditions for temporary employees, solidarity work and responsibility on part of the university, and for my colleagues to have the best conditions for being part of a great research and teaching environment at UiT.  

I decided to run as a candidate for the University Board because I believe the university should be a place for diverse, dissident thoughts, constantly at the forefront of societal issues and fostering critical and independent research, not exclusively an extension of the state’s domestic and foreign politics. The university should, in addition, uphold the highest ethical standards when it comes to research and educational management as well as with international collaborations and procurements. However, it has been proven recently that many students and temporary employees do not dare to raise their voices as they fear this will negatively impact their future job prospects, and this is a dangerous tendency.

It is necessary to have critical voices represented at this level of the university. I have seen how the following topics have been down prioritized over the years, and how students and employees’ voices are more than often not heard:

the university has become a political arena where the state and politicians can push their agenda while quality and accessibility to education has been down prioritized. Examples of this is the double standard of the University’s approach to the war in Ukraine versus the current genocide in Palestine.study programs related to defense are prioritized, while other study programs have suffered great economic cuts.the decision to have very high tuition fees for international students from outside EU/Schengen.

In this context, I feel that my motivation to contribute towards an inclusive, fair, transparent and morally oriented policy at the university is both timely and critical.