I am Professor in International Migration Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo (UiO), where I also co-chair the Faculty’s interdisciplinary research group on migration. You can find my UiO staff page here. In addition, I am a Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre of the University of Oxford, and a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Refugee Law.

I study international law from below, and I am interested in how refugees and other migrants understand and engage with legal norms and institutions, and in how international refugee law in particular is interpreted and implemented in local contexts.  Thus, in my own research, I not only focus on international law, but draw heavily on work within other disciplines, including sociology and anthropology.

My current research agenda is to construct a truly global perspective on the nature of international refugee law by focusing on the role and practice of states that haven’t ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. These non-signatory states are predominantly found in the Middle East and South Asia, and have traditionally been seen as exceptions to international refugee law. In my current research I am hoping to bring these states from the margins to the fore.

I am the Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant (2021-2025) project Protection without Ratification? International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention (BEYOND), as well as the project Refugees and the Arab Middle East: Protection in States Not Party to the Refugee Convention (REF-ARAB), funded by the Research Council of Norway (2019-2023).  You will find resources and information about both of these projects on this website.

You can most easily reach me by email: [email protected]