Academic interests
Vilde Fastvold Thorbjørnsen is a medical anthropologist and researcher at the Institute of Health and Society. She is affiliated with the BRIDGE project, where she conducts research on access to health services for labour migrants with temporary residence in Norway.
Her work has particularly focused on precarious work, migration, health and living conditions, adoption, postcolonialism, and how vulnerable and marginalised groups encounter public administration and support services.
Courses taught
- MF9140 – Qualitative Research Methods
- MF9010 – Introductory course for the medical PhD programme, INTRO I
- INTHE4030 – Fundamentals in International Community Health: Migration and Health
- INTHE4022 – Advanced Module in Qualitative Methods
- MED1100 – Medical Studies, module 1
- MED4500 – Medical Studies, module 5
- MED3002 – Qualitative methods in health research
- SOSANT1400 – Anthropology and religion
- SOSANT2000 – Central themes in contemporary anthropology
- SOSANT2550 – Medical anthropology
Background
Fastvold Thorbjørnsen holds a PhD in medical anthropology from the University of Oslo. In her dissertation, she examined how working conditions, living conditions and health interact in producing precarious life situations among non-Norwegian citizens employed in the most precarious segments of the Norwegian labour market.
Fastvold Thorbjørnsen mainly works with qualitative methods and has extensive experience with participant observation, in-depth interviews and fieldwork in Norway and the Caribbean, as well as field trips to South America and East Africa. She has also participated in projects that draw on historical methods, law, legal history and policy analysis.
Awards and grants
- Nominated for the 2024 Norwegian Booksellers’ Non-fiction Prize
- Non-fiction project grant, Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFFO)
- Fritt Ord grant for manuscript development
Selected dissemination
- De ubetydelige. Historier fra et skjult arbeidsliv. Non-fiction, Forlaget Manifest, 2024.