Psychologist, Ph.D.
Thematic specialisation:
Development of critical psychologies of prison practice;
perpetrative institutions and networks (PINs); prevention of
torture and organised violence; transitional justice; justice
sector reform; comparative penology.
Current research activities:
Post-doc research project: State and non-state practices
of detention during conflict: implications for lives and policy - a
study of detention and violence in Sierra Leone.
Follow-up of Ph.D research on prison practices and human rights
training in Nigeria.
Establishment of research network "Scandinavian Prison Studies"
with Peter Scharff Smith of Danish Centre for Human Rights.
Geographical focus: West Africa
Other research interests:
- Developing an expansive psychological approach to the study of
complex social phenomena
- Developing transdisciplinary approaches to theory and practice
including building links between psychology, criminology, and
anthropology
- Exploring critical psychological perspectives on
subjectivity
- Violence and conflict
Dissertation
"Confronted by Practice: towards a critical psychology of prison
practice in Nigeria" Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Psychology,
University of Copenhagen, 2004.
Journal articles:
"(Re)Searching for persons in practice: Field-based methods for
critical psychological practice research" with Lotte Huniche.
Qualitative Research in Psychology 1-2, 2009
"Research as Practice: On critical methodologies" (editorial
with Johanna Motzkau) Qualitative Research in Psychology 1-2,
2009
"The political economy of right: exporting penal norms to
Africa" Criminal Justice Matters, Politics, Economy and Crime. Nr
70
"Prison Officer Training and Practice in Nigeria: contention,
contradiction and re-imagining reform strategies". Punishment and
Society: the international journal of penology, 2006, 9 (3)
"Reforming Nigerian prisons: rehabilitating a "deviant" state"
British Journal of Criminology Vol 45 No. 4 July 2005 pp 487-503,
abstract
"Therapeutic Discipline? Reflections on the penetration of sites
of control by therapeutic discourse" Outlines: Critical social
studies 2003 (1)
"Psykologisk feltundersøgelse blandt nigerianske
fængselsbetjente" Psykologisk Set 2003
"Forskning om det nigerianske fængselsvæsen. De første indtryk"
Psykologisk Set 2002, 45
"Remembering and Re-storying: an exploration of memory and
narrative in relation to psychotherapy with torture survivors"
Torture 2000 (4)
Book chapters:
"Introduction" to State Violence and Human Rights: State Officials
in the South with Steffen Jensen. Forthcoming, Routledge, 2009
"On hangings and the dubious embodiment of statehood in Nigerian
prisons" In State Violence and Human Rights: State Officials in the
South
"Imaginary reform : changing the postcolonial prison". In
Imaginary Penalities Ed. Pat Carlen. Cullompton: Willan. October
2008
"At huske og (gen)fortælle: nedbrydning og opbygning af
verdener" I: Berliner P (red.): Fællesskaber - En antologi om
Community Psykologi. Copenhagen: Frydenlund 2004.
Edited journal:
Outlines Critical Social Studies Nr 2 2005: special issue on
critical criminology
Other publications:
"In prison in Sierra Leone" Wiser Review, Wits Univeristy,
Johannesburg. 2008