Get to know the research fellows
Tyler Barrott is a contemporary historian interested in the intersection of Norwegian and Nordic economic interests, aid policy and civil society engagement in the Global South. He has a master’s degree in peace and conflict studies from the University of Oslo.
His doctoral project, Petro Aid: Norway’s Discursive Influence on Tanzanian Development (1970-2018), takes a deeper look at how Norwegian aid and petroleum interests coalesced to influence discourses around Tanzanian energy and development politics, as well as Tanzanian civil society, with a particular focus on NORAD’s Oil for Development (OfD) program and the Norwegian petroleum industry's involvement in the country.
Kaja Elise Gresko has an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Culture, Environment and Sustainability from SUM, with a background in political science. Her master’s thesis focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) with Chinese characteristics, and she has since graduating in 2016 worked at SUM as research coordinator for several projects and initiatives related to democratic and economic governance, sustainable development, the SDGs and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Kaja’s doctoral project is part of the project Chinese Multilateralism and its Impact on Environmental and Democratic Governance in Africa and Latin America, where she will focus on the role of Chinese commercial actors and activities.
Bjørn Leif Brauteseth has a Masters of Chinese Civil and Commercial Law from Xiamen University, China and a MPhil in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. His past research has focused on a legal study of China's investment regime in water infrastructure projects in Africa and the effects of Chinese legal norms, such as Xi Jinping Thought, on liberal global governance and human rights.
At SUM he will be working on the project Chinese Multilateralism and its Impact on Environmental and Democratic Governance in Africa and Latin America, in which he will be analyzing the legal and practical effects of concepts from Xi jinping Thought and the constitutional concept Ecological Civilization within the context of Chinese multilateralism in Africa .