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Kristin Bergtora Sandvik

S.J.D. 2008

Fellow, The Norwegian Research Council

Affiliated Fellow, Institute of Womens Law, University of Oslo

Email:

ksandvik@law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

On the Everyday Life of International Law: Humanitarianism and Refugee-Resettlement in Kampala

How does international law shape social worlds in the Global South? Taking an interdisciplinary approach combining sociolegal studies, anthropology and critical theory, the dissertation explores this question by examining how the struggle to access third country resettlement shapes the urban refugee community in Kampala , Uganda . While substantial attention has been directed towards the post-resettlement experience of African refugees, not much research has focused on resettlement as a governance structure in Africa . This dissertation aims to highlight the legal, social and symbolic effects resettlement to the West has on marginalized communities, and to use these observations in a broader discussion about the consequences of humanitarian governance through international law, a project I label “administrative humanitarianism”.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

Liberal Legalism and Human Rights, with Professor Martha Minow, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
Critical Theory and Social Citizenship, with Professor Lucie White, Harvard Law School
Anthropology of Law, with Professor Sally Falk Moore, Social Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Emeritus)

Additional Research Interests

Sociolegal/ethnographic analysis of international law
Human rights law
Humanitarian law
Refugee law
Feminist legal theory

Education

Harvard Law School, S.J.D. 2008
Harvard Law School, LL.M. Program 2002-2003
University of Oslo, CANDIDATA JURIS 2002
University of Oslo, Social Anthropology Foundational Course 1996-1997

Appointments and Fellowships

Norwegian Research Fellow 2004-2007
LL.M. Advisor 2003-2004
Professor Lucie White, Teaching Assistant fall 2003
Fulbright Fellow 2002-2003
Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo, Institute for Womens Law, Research Assistant 2000-2002

Representative Publications

The Physicality of Legal Consciousness: Suffering and the Production of Credibility in Refugee Resettlemen, in HUMANITARIANISM AND SUFFERING: THE MOBILIZATION OF EMPATHY, Richard D. Brown & Richard Ashby Wilson (eds.), Cambridge University Press 2008.
Framing Accountability in Refugee Resettlement, in ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, J. Wouters, E. Brems & S. Smis (eds.), Intersentia Publishers 2008.