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Kristin Bergtora Sandvik

S.J.D. Candidate

Fellow, The Norwegian Research Council,

Affiliated Fellow, Institute of Womens Law, University of Oslo

Office:	LILC 449
Phone:	(617) 495-9243
Status:	In Residence
Email:	ksandvik@law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

PRELIMINARY TITLE:International Law in Everyday Life: Looking at the Formation of the Future through the Operation of Human Rights Discourse in Refugee Law and Policy

PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS: However imagined, the international community is today involved in large scale projects aimed to put designs on the formation of the future through legal strategies. But how does international law produce social change at the micro level? How can we understand the transnational processes of producing meaning, and how is meaning generated by the operation of International law in Everyday life? How is gender important? What can we learn by exploring the idea of the international community through its projects? What is the potential of international human rights to produce community at the local level? On the global level, a concept of “a culture of human rights”, operates in international refugee law and discourse as both a legislative and administrative ideal, and as an undefined standard of social transformation. Parallell to this, processes of localised Creation of Meaning are happening in refugee communities all over the world. I am interested in exploring the relationship between UN -policymakers in Geneva, and the urban refugee community in Kampala, Uganda. How are interpretations and appropriations of the human rights discourse produced in the interactions between the refugees, UNHCR, foreign donors, the Ugandan Government and Civil Society?

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

Social Justice and Human Rights Activism: Gender-based Violence and Health
International Law (Human Rights Law, Indigenous Law, Refugee Law, Islamic Legal Reform)
Legal Education and Developement Dilemmas in Central/Eastern Africa

Education

Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2003-Present
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

"AIDS and Human Rights Violations: A Critical Assessment of the Foundational Issues", LL.M.Paper Harvard Law School 2003
"Human Rights, Prostitution and Trafficking of Women,” Thesis, Institute of Public and International Law, University of Oslo 2003