Background
Ingunn Ikdahl was born in 1976 and became a professor of law in 2016.
She obtained her cand.jur. degree from the University of Oslo in 2003 and studied EU law, international trade law, and environmental law at the University of Nottingham from 2002 to 2003. In 2010, she received her doctorate for her thesis titled "Securing women’s homes. The dynamics of women’s human rights at the international level and in Tanzania".
Research interests
Ikdahl's academic interests relate to the role of law for people’s livelihoods, with particular attention to issues related to the welfare state, digitalization, and equality.
Ikdahl is a leading figure in research and communication within Norwegian welfare law and social security law. She has particularly focused on situations where national law encounter new challenges or atypical life circumstances, such as the digitalization of the welfare state, cross-border life courses, rights related to healthcare services in prisons, and the welfare state’s response to the ripple effects of the terrorist attacks on July 22, 2011. Since 2019, Ikdahl has conducted extensive research, publications, and outreach efforts regarding the "social security scandal" where the Norwegian National Insurance Act was applied in violation of EU/EEA law. From 2021, she has been leading a ten-year project on the Digital Welfare State, which, in addition to research, serves as a foundation for outreach seminars and a continuing education course on "Law and the Digital Welfare State".
Ikdahl was central to establishing the Law Faculty's research group on Welfare, Rights, and Discrimination (VERDI) since 2017, and the research group on Law and Technology from 2022. She was also a member of the government-appointed commission that drafted a compensation scheme for pioneer workers in the Norwegian petroleum business (NOU 2022: 19).
Equality and non-discrimination, gender perspectives, interdisciplinarity, and legal pluralism are cross-cutting themes in Ikdahl's research. In addition to her own publications on topics such as gender perspectives in legal studies and the history of the discipline of women's law in Norway, she has edited a Norwegian-language anthology on gender and law for use in legal education, as well as an English-language anthology on Nordic equality legislation.
Throughout her career, Ikdahl has also worked internationally on issues related to human rights, development law, and non-discrimination. She has particularly focused on economic and social rights, conducting research related to property rights and access to housing, land, and water in Southern and Eastern Africa. From 2003, she taught in the master's program at the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) at the University of Zimbabwe. From 2015, she played a key role in establishing and running "EDOLAD," a joint PhD program in Law and Development. The methodological considerations related to EDOLAD are described in the article "Away with Oppressed Methodology! Reflections on an Experiment in Law & Development Education".
Ongoing and recent projects
- The digital welfare state (2021-2031, funded by the Department of Work and Welfare)
- The European Dimension of Norwegian Law – EurNor (2023-2028, funded by the Norwegian Research Council)
- EEA Social Security Law (2021-2029, funded by the Ministry of Work and Inclusion)
- LAW22JULY: RIPPLES (2020-2025, funded by the Norwegian Research Council)
- Prisonhealth (2021-2024, funded by the Norwegian Research Council)
Edited books and special issues
- Nordic Equality and Anti-Discrimination Laws in the Throes of Change. Legal developments in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland (Hellum, Ikdahl, Strand & Svensson, Routledge 2023)
- Kjønn og rett. Kvinne- kjønns- og likestillingsperspektiver i jusstudiet (Ikdahl et al, Cappelen Damm Akademisk 2022)
- Helse bak murene? (Rognlien & Ikdahl, Kritisk Juss 49(1-2) special issue)
- Responding to disadvantage and inequality through law (Strand & Ikdahl, Oslo Law Review 4(3) special issue)
- Rettigheter i velferdsstaten (Ikdahl & Strand, Gyldendal Juridisk 2016)