I am Professor of Human Rights and Social Sciences and co-leader of the Faculty’s research group Global Challenges to Human Rights. From 2025-2029, I lead the project Private Law Firms as Transnational Advocates (PROBONO), funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). I am also a member of the University of Oslo’s Scholars at Risk committee (2026-2028). I am affiliated as a research associate with the Graduate Institute Geneva's Global Governance Centre, as a fellow at LawTransform (Bergen), and as professorial research associate at SOAS University of London, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy.
Academic Interests
- Global governance
- Transnational and global advocacy
- Private legal profession and pro bono
- Legal and non-legal expertise in international lawmaking
- Individuals and interpersonal relations
- Rule of law and authoritarianism
- Interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary research designs and methods
I am a Political Scientist specialized in International Relations and International Law. Most of my research is driven by the question who does get to make, change, and contest international legal norms, and what kind of global legal order these relations create. I have extensively studied the social networks and dynamics of independent experts in the United Nations, opportunities and challenges for human rights advocacy, and legal change processes without states as the main drivers. In my current research, I work on topics such as authoritarian capture of lawmaking and expert bodies, global struggles for tax justice, and the power of big law’s global pro bono work.
My research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals across relevant disciplines, including International Affairs, International Studies Review, Human Rights Quarterly, Global Constitutionalism, Leiden Journal of International Law, Review of International Studies, Global Governance, and Ethics & International Affairs. For my study on Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights, I received the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) book award 2022 and the German United Nations Association (DGVN) best dissertation award 2019.
Answering research questions that may inform responses to global challenges should, in my view, not be limited by disciplinary traditions. While most of my work is qualitative and based on fieldwork and interviews, I often combine these approaches with basic statistics and social network analysis. I find the “in-between and across” spaces of interdisciplinarity most rewarding and collaborate with colleagues in legal history, comparative politics, and philosophy.
Please visit my personal website for more information on my research, publications, and public outreach activities.
Background
I hold a PhD in Political Science (“Dr. rer. pol.”, summa cum laude) from the University of Potsdam (2017) and have completed my graduate studies in Political Science, English Literature, and Public Law (“Magister Artium”) at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and the Complutense University of Madrid.
During my PhD and postdoctoral phase, I was a member of the interdisciplinary research group “International Rule of Law: Rise or Decline?” at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin. I joined the Faculty of Law in Oslo in April 2023 as Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in September 2024.
I am affiliated as a research associate with the Graduate Institute Geneva's Global Governance Centre. My research received funding from various funding bodies, including the European Research Council, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, and UiO:Democracy.
Teaching and Supervision
Please note that my teaching and supervision capacities are limited while I am working on the PROBONO project (2025-2029). If your Master’s thesis aligns closely with my research interests—particularly in global governance, human rights law and advocacy, the private legal profession and pro bono, or interdisciplinary approaches to international law—feel free to contact me about potential supervision.
I teach in the following courses at the Law Faculty:
- HUMR5131: The History, Philosophy and Politics of Human Rights
- HUMR4504: Human Rights in Practice
- HUMR5191: Human Rights Methodology
- JUR9041: Publication Strategy and the Publication Process