Visiting Professorship in Oslo for legal sociologist Maartje van der Woude
Professor of Sociology of Law Maartje van der Woude (Van Vollenhoven Instituut, Metajuridica) has been appointed as visiting professor at the Department of Criminology & Sociology of Law Department of Criminology at the University of Oslo in Norway. The appointment will have a duration of three years.
Maartje van der Woude was asked to take part in the NORDHOST Research group, an interdisciplinary and international consortium of scholars researching the response to the refugee crisis in Scandinavia and Western European Countries. Whereas these countries traditionally were known for their general tolerance and hospitality, current migration and border policies seem to reflect completely opposite sentiments. Borders are closed, deportation practices are increased and internal migration checks intensified. Yet while the state buckles down on migration, community initiatives to fight back against the state and to help and welcome those affected by the harsh policies are on the rise as well.
The NORDHOST project aims to explore the duality of closure and openness. In the context of migration, values like hospitality and solidarity are frequently used internationally to discuss and challenge current policies. But what could these values mean in a Nordic/ Western European context where the universality of the welfare state so far has had a significant impact? NORDHOST will discuss this, both conceptually and empirically. The project will, among other, analyse some of the Nordic/Western European civil society practices that oppose the existing border regimes and examine what kind of values are emerging in them. The NORDHOST project partially coincides with Van der Woude’s 5-year research project ‘Getting to the Core of Crimmigration’ for which she recently received funding by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Over the next three years Prof. Van der Woude will be regularly spending time at the University of Oslo.