Synnøve Bendixsen new Chair of the Board at CMI

Synnøve Bendixsen has been appointed new Chair of the Board at the Chr. Michelsen Institute. Bendixsen is Professor and Head of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen.

Synnøve Bendixsen has been chosen for her relevant research expertise and formal competency, experience from the institute sector and academic Boards, and extensive leadership experience.

Bendixsen has completed extensive research on migration issues and has been a prominent voice in the Norwegian debate on the topic. In 2021 she received the Social Science Faculty Award for dissemination of research. She has a strong interest in global development challenges.

-I have followed Chr. Michelsen Institute's (CMI) work and visions over several years with great respect. It is an honor for me to be elected as chairman of the board and I really look forward to working with the rest of the board and the exceptional staff at the institution. The research carried out at CMI has the potential to strengthen justice and equality on a global level – something that is more significant than ever. I am looking forward to informative and inspiring discussions about how the institute can further enrich its significant role in research and debates concerning global development challenges, says Bendixsen.

She is an external board member to the department of Social Anthropology at NTNU and has served on the board of the Norwegian Anthropological Association. She has also been a member of several national and international research committees and advisory groups.

Bendixsen has been Director of the interdisciplinary research network International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) at the University of Bergen. She also has experience as a consultant for UNESCO and from the Norwegian institute sector, working at NORCE from 2011-2017. Bendixsen holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from Humboldt Universität (Berlin)/ École des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), (double diploma). During her PhD she was a visiting researcher at New York University and during her postdoctoral fellowship she was a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford. After her PhD she worked as a lecturer at the University of Kurdistan- Hewler, Iraqi-Kurdistan. She also holds a Diplôme du Cycle International d’Etudes Politiques, from Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Science Po), and a MSc in European Politics and Policy from London School of Economics.

Bendixsen succeeds Professor Guri Rørtveit, Head of the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen, who will start in her new position as Director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) shortly.