Nominators
- Professor Linda Bergersen, Dentistry
- Professor Andreas F?llesdal, Law
- Professor Kristian Gundersen, Math-Natural Science
- Professor Dag O. Hessen, Math-Natural Science
- Professor Petter Laake, Medicine
- Professor ?ystein Linnebo, Humanities
- Professor Jakob Lothe, Humanities
- Professor Raino Malnes, Social Science
- Professor Hilde Sandvik, Humanities
- Professor Camilla Serck-Hanssen, Humanities
- Professor Mathilde Skoie, Humanities
- Professor Aud T?nnessen, Theology
Election platform
I am standing for election as a representative for permanent scientific staff as a consequence of my commitment to science (in the broadest sense) and the university as a whole. I have had a long career at the University, and have taken on many administrative functions and offices throughout the years. I have been Chair of Department, Head of Subject, and leader for the study program in my field, and leader (director) of a Centre of Excellence (CSMN, the first such centre in the humanities in Oslo). I have been a representative on both the departmental board and the faculty board in the capacities of student, temporary academic staff and permanent staff. I have served as first deputy to the university board for one period (2006-09). I have served on some European boards in my field, and taken part in several international evaluations. I am a fellow of both Norwegian academies of science, and I have been group leader in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. I am also a member of the European Academy (Academia Europea) and the world-wide philosophy academy (IIP). I did my doctorate at Oxford, have been affiliated one year with UC Berkeley, and have been invited visiting fellow/professor in Oxford, London (LSE), and Paris (EHESS).
In my own field I have contributed to a broad range of the most central questions, including theories of knowledge and justification, language and meaning, rationality, logic and philosophy of science, meta-ethics, and in later years, philosophy of action and agency. I have taken part in several interdisciplinary projects, with people from social science, medicine and brain research. The centre of excellence I have directed has significant interdisciplinarity, not least in relation to linguistics and psychology, but also to social science, including law, economics and others. I have had a standing research interest on addiction research, and have taken part in and lead interdisciplinary research projects in this field. Altogether this has given me insights into a variety of research cultures at the university, and, I believe, significant more research based contact with real life than research in philosophy typically brings along.
Among the issues I am especially concerned with, I mention these:
Research
I am much concerned with how to raise the standards of the research carried out at our university even further, with how to achieve effective prioritizing of the best research, and that the conditions for curiosity driven basic research are optimal.
I believe it is especially important to develop a general competence in how to prioritize. The University of Oslo has much to learn from the best universities I know. Almost all disciplines are presently exhibiting considerable growth around the world, as more and more sub-disciplines develop, and costs per researcher increase rapidly. In addition comes that good research to an increasing degree requires larger and stronger units. As a consequence, good science grows much faster than our budgets can. We therefore need to develop institutional competence in recognizing and supporting really good research while we at the same in a good way balance this against the need for competence in all main branches of science and the current needs of the Norwegian society. The balancing part of this picture is of special concern to me. Competence in prioritizing must be developed in transparent processes and in all parts of the university.
The University of Oslo has a number of national responsibilities, including teaching and research on national and local subjects, and this must be recognized and respected, and balanced in the right sort of way against other concerns.
Teaching
An important point regarding teaching is in my view that there is too little individual teaching of each student. Resources for teaching should be allocated towards this, and that means less resources elsewhere. I believe exams can be simplified in many respects; the most important thing is what the students learn through their studies before their exams.
I believe that it is a significant problem that students involved in general study programs (science, social science, and the humanities), have to make important choices very early on and with limited information about the studies and also about themselves. This often leads to quitting, waste of resources, and a study environment inferio