Roger Norum

My research focuses on the comparative and praxeological dimensions of how mobility, infrastructure, and sociality mediate human relationships to the environment. I have carried out ethnographic fieldwork among transient communities across Nepal, Cambodia, Norway, Finland and Iceland. I currently lead several research projects and direct several university programmes on topics of mobility and environment. In addition to my strong anthropological focus, my disciplinary interests span human geography, media studies, ecology and the environmental humanities.

At Oulu, I am the Co-Director, with Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, of the Eudaimonia Institute for the Human Sciences, where we endeavour to build interdisciplinary scientific relationships across researchers in diverse faculties and encourage collaborative funding initiatives.

I also co-direct two large funded research and teaching programmes: ANTS/Biodiverse Anthropocenes on biodiversity loss, with Marko Mutanen (RCF, 2021-26) and MITIME/Entanglements of Migration and Time in Post-industrial Urban Europe, with Élise Lépy and Bruno Lefort (MSCA-DN, 2026-30). I also currently lead two research projects: RURALEX/Knowledge in crisis—The dynamics of environmental expertise amidst rural change (HERA, 2025-28) and FORbEST/Safeguarding carbon and biodiversity across European forest ecosystems thru multi-actor innovation (HE, 2025-29).

I also co-direct the Environmental Humanities programme in the Faculty of Humanities. I am also co-chair of the upcoming European Citizen Science Association conference, to be held in March 2026 in Oulu, co-founder (with Prof Thora Herrmann) of FACTZ, the Finnish Association of Citizen Sciences, an elected member of the Kalevala Society and the Finnish Literature Society, and the founding editor of the Palgrave MacMillan book series Arctic Encounters. I have previously held research and teaching positions at Leeds and UCL.

I currently hold a Research Council of Finland Academy Research Fellowship and am on leave until September, 2026.

Service and leadership

2024 – Elected to Board of Directors, European Citizen Science Association (ECSA)
2023 – Topic leader for Superdiversity theme, UNIC (European University Consortium of Post-Industrial Cities)
2023 – Elected Scientific Member Finnish Literature Society
2022 – Elected Scientific Member, Kalevala Society
2022 – Member, Research Council (tutkimusneuvosto), U Oulu
2022 – Member, Steering Committee (johtoryhmä), Eudaimonia Institute, U Oulu
2017 – Board of Advisors, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Anthropology and Mobility Network (AnthroMob)
2015 – Executive Board (ex-officio), Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group, American Anthropological Association
2012 – 2015 Executive Board, Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group, American Anthropological Association

Membership of academic and professional bodies

2023 – Member, Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies (YKES)
2023 – Member, Nordic Soundscapes Research Network (NSRN)
2020 – Member, Association of Internet Researchers
2019 – Member, European Society for Environmental History
2019 – Member, International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF)
2016 – Member, Association of American Geographers
2014 – Member, International Arctic Social Sciences Association
2012 – Member, American Anthropological Association
2012 – Member, European Association of Social Anthropologists

PhD Supervision

I am currently accepting PhD applicants and would be interested in supervising projects on human-environment relations, biodiversity loss, migration and mobility, and questions broadly about social inequalities, including ethnicity and race, in the Global South. If you are interested in discussing an application, please contact me by email and send me a research proposal outlining your main questions, literature review, methodology and proposed study site.

Research projects

2026-30 PI of MITIME: Entanglements of Migration and Time in Post-industrial Urban Europe, a MSCA-DN doctoral programme

2025-28 Co-I of Insects of the North, Interreg Aurora-Sápmi, EUR 1,414,135

2025-28 PI of RURALEX: Knowledge in crisis—The dynamics of environmental expertise amidst rural change, EUR 1,410,000.

2025-29 PI of FORbEST: Safeguarding carbon and biodiversity across European forest ecosystems thru multi-actor innovation’, Horizon Europe, EUR 5,967,518.

2024-27 Co-I of MOTIVATE: Monitoring of terrestrial habitats by integrating vegetation archive time series in Europe, Biodiversa+, EUR 1,424,586

2021-26 PI of Critical ecological development of landscape and mobility futures in the Fennoscandian Arctic, Academy of Finland, EUR 698,280

2021-23 PI of Environing the Tourism Frontier: Communities, Conservation and Sustainability in Remote Areas, ERA.Net RUS Plus, EUR 706,000

2021-23 PI of ENVIROCEN: Teaching Environmental Practices Across Borders from Center to Periphery, Nordic Council, EUR 84,295

2019-23 PI of Extending Realities: Pioneering Immersive Technologies in Transdisciplinary Research, NOS-HS, EUR 43,000

2020-24 Co-I of Digital Media Connections in Times of Crisis: Novel Methodologies and Nordic Directions, NOS-HS, EUR 42,535

2021-23 Co-I of Exploratory Grant for network and workshops on walking methodologies; NOS-HS, EUR 41,833

Education

BA in Near Eastern Studies (Cornell University)
MPhil and DPhil in Social Anthropology (University of Oxford)
Docent in Mobility Studies (University of Oulu)