Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor of Critical Peace and Conflict Studies at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Keyword research interests: grayzone/hybrid threats and warfare, civil-military conflicts, counterinsurgency (COIN), civilian agency, human security, Arctic security, intersectional methodologies

Born in the Netherlands and raised in Canada, she obtained her education in Canada at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec (Bachelor in Science, Biology) and at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta (Masters of Arts and PhD in Political Science). Hoogensen Gjørv has taught for over 25 years, and supervised students at the masters and PhD levels for almost 20 years. Her teaching is heavily informed by her research projects. 

Hoogensen Gjørv's primary focus is the understanding of security within the context of hybrid threats and warfare (see below), drawing from and building upon a long-standing body of work in the area of security studies.

Hoogensen Gjørv’s research has interrogated the interactions and tensions between perceptions of state and human security in a variety of contexts, with a particular focus on civil-military interaction and Arctic perceptions of security. She is concerned with representations and performances of civilian agency, drawing upon intersectional approaches to better understand agency, “everyday” security, and possibilities for peace. Due to her work on civil-military interaction, she was one of ten experts selected as a member of the Norwegian national evaluation committee to examine Norway’s efforts in Afghanistan. Hoogensen Gjørv has led a number of projects examining human security in the context of Arctic extractive industries and the relationships between states, industry, and people in the Arctic. Her focus on security in the Arctic ensured that she was among the first awarded a Fulbright Arctic Initiative fellowship (2015-2016), coinciding with the US chairmanship of the Arctic Council, after which she was awarded the Nansen Professorship at the University of Akureyri (2017-2018).

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv currently leads the project Resilient Civilians examining civilian agency in population-centric and hybrid warfare scenarios (partially funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme), and recently completed a project investigating the trajectories of indigenous territorial rights in Russia (funded by the Research Council of Norway). She is a partner and core theme leader for the EU-HYBNET project, a European network of researchers and practitioners focused on the mitigation of hybrid threats, as well as a partner with the THREAT DEFUSER project examining the ways in which language is manipulated for the purposes of disinformation.
Hoogensen Gjørv serves on various boards including within the Norwegian Research Council, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and the International Arctic Science Committee.
Her book publications include "Understanding Civil-Military Interaction: Lessons Learned from the Norwegian Model" (Ashgate, 2014) and (co-editor and contributor) "Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic" (Routledge, 2014), and most recently, (co-editor and contributor) of “Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security” (Routledge, 2020). She has published in Review of International Studies, Security Dialogue, Political Psychology, International Studies Review, among other journals, as well as written numerous book chapters.

See the list below for more details about publications.

Zerihun A. Woldeselassie is a postdoctoral fellow in critical peace and conflict studies and has an academic background in philosophy, cultural studies, and social anthropology. 

He obtained his BA in philosophy and completed postgraduate courses in social anthropology at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Zerihun has an MPhil degree in Visual and Cultural Studies and a Ph.D. degree in social anthropology from the departments of Social Anthropology at the Universities of Tromsø and Bergen in Norway, respectively.

Zerihun conducted ethnographic and anthropological research among the Weyto, Eastern-Gurage, and Siltie of Ethiopia with a focus on the topics of indignity, ethnic politics, Muslim Identity politics, and conflict. He has taught courses in philosophy (undergraduate program) and Ethiopian studies (post-graduate program) in Ethiopia, and social and political anthropology (post-graduate program) in Norway.

Currently, Zerihun teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and supervises and assesses students enrolled at the center. His teaching and supervision topics cover - Anthropological perspective, anthropology's contribution to peace studies,  anthropology of conflict, violence, and peacebuilding; anthropology of reconciliation and transitional justice; identity politics and conflict; ethnicity, nationalism, and violence; identity, globalization, conflict, and violence; religion and violence; religion and peacebuilding; decolonizing peace, gender, violence and peace, ethnography, case study, and qualitative methodology. 

Most Recent Publication: 

July 2021 Why International Pressure Is Not Helping End Violence in Ethiopia, Global Observatory, IPI

Salehin Mohammad is an Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator of the Master of Peace and Conflict Transformation Programme (MPCT) at the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS), University of Tromsø- The Arctic University of Norway. Salehin holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Sydney (Australia), an MPhil in Peace and Conflict Transformation from University of Tromsø (Norway). He has taught at the University of Sydney, University of Bergen, and Bangladesh Agricultural University. He has published on gender, (faith-based) development, Islam, democracy, NGOs, terrorism, human security, and governance. His research interest also includes migration and refugee issues, citizenship and minority issues.

Latest book:

“Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh: Development, Piety and Neoliberal governmentality” https://www.routledge.com/Islamic-NGOs-in-Bangladesh-Development-Piety-and-Neoliberal-governmentality/Salehin/p/book/9781138844452