Director, ORES / Research Professor, NKVTS
Main affiliation: NKVTS
Sexual and gender-based violence Migrants and refugees Gender equality Policy studies
Margunn Bjørnholt is a sociologist and economist, and a Research Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS).
Her current research focuses on sexual and gender-based violence against women migrants and refugees, and violence in Sámi communities. She has also published widely on men and masculinities, and on migration and social change. Her research fields also include ethical banking, management and organisational change in the public sector, the welfare state, theories of social justice, human rights, and policy studies.
She has a broad background as an academic, a civil servant, a consultant and a leader in the NGO sector, and has formerly worked at the Regional Development Fund, the National Institute of Technology, the Project for an Alternative Future (Centre for Development and the Environment), the Work Research Institute and the University of Oslo. She is a former President of the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby, and has served as an independent expert on gender equality to the European Commission.
She has taught and supervised students in sociology, psychology, criminology, political science, global governance and peace and conflict studies.
Current projects
- Violence against women migrants and refugees: analysing causes and effective policy response (2019–2022) – NKVTS – funded by the Joint Call on Gender and UN Sustainable Development Goals under Horizon 2020
- Violence in Sámi communities (2019–) – funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security
- Intimate partner violence: gender, equality and power (2016–2019) – NKVTS – funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security
- Children left behind abroad (2018–2019) – ORES with Oslo Economics – funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education
- EFFECT (2012–2016) – ORES with NOVA – funded by Norway Grants
Recent publications

mb@ores.no
Languages
- Norwegian
- English
- German
- French