Job description

Professor
Centre for Geopolitics, Peace and Security

I explore how emerging technologies—particularly AI, extended reality (XR/VR), and biometric sensing—can be responsibly designed and deployed in journalism, cultural heritage, mental health, crisis preparedness, and Arctic societies. My work combines experimental methods, design research, and critical theory to translate technological advances into meaningful, ethical, and inclusive public outcomes.

Extended profile
I am a Professor of Interdisciplinary Methodologies and Methods at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, affiliated with the Center for Geopolitics, Peace and Security, the Center for Women’s and Gender Research, and the Center for Sami and Indigenous Studies. I have previously also served as an Adjunct at NTNU’s Sense-IT Lab (Department of Electronic Systems). Trained in information science, media studies, screenwriting, and visual arts, my career bridges information and media technologies, cultural heritage, and societal challenges.

I investigate the social and experiential implications of AI and XR—how presence, agency, emotion, and embodiment shape public understanding and action. My books Conceptualizing Immersive Journalism and Insights on Immersive Journalism mapped early trajectories of VR in news and public communication, and my work has since expanded into AI‑enhanced personalization and biometric feedback in immersive experiences. Recent publications address presence in immersive museum exhibitions, biometric immersive journalism, digital significance in heritage, and AI for virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). With collaborators, I am currently contributing to systematic reviews and experimental studies on AI‑driven personalization of VR for fear-related disorders and extinction learning, as well as advancing research on emotions in immersive journalism.

I lead and contribute to projects that prototype and evaluate emerging technologies in real contexts. As an open‑call winner in the EU GuestXR project, I explore machine learning agents that facilitate social interaction in immersive environments. I contribute to Creative Europe’s CO‑VISION on mapping natural heritage, and I have worked on H2020 initiatives including INJECT (AI tools for journalists) and ULTIMATE WATER (digitalization for Water Smart Industrial Symbiosis). In the Arctic, I am a participant in the 10‑year Polhavet/Arctic Ocean 2050 program and contributed to the Arctic Future Pathfinders voyage, and I led Arctic Memoryscapes and Peace as Arctic Six Chair in Cultural Heritage.

My applied outputs include “Warsaw Protests Scenario” an experimental application that uses a large language model to control agents in XR simulation; the “Hypernytt” hypervideo platform for news storytelling; and “Illegale Aviser,” a database enhancing access to WWII underground newspapers. Earlier work on multitouch interfaces for the Panama Viejo World Heritage Site and on museum websites and social media grounded my long‑standing interest in how technologies transform participation, trust, and diversity in public culture.

I regularly advise and review for European research programs (ERC Advanced Grants; Horizon Europe Cluster 4), serve on the editorial board for virtual and immersive media (Routledge Screen Studies), and support film and peace initiatives through the Tromsø International Film Festival’s Norwegian Peace Film Prize.

Research focus

• AI + XR for public communication: immersive journalism, machine‑learning agents, and biometric feedback
• Presence, agency, embodiment, and emotion in immersive experiences (museums, news, education)
• Responsible, inclusive, and feminist/Indigenous-informed methodologies for emerging technologies
• Digital heritage: interfaces, digitization, and memoryscapes in transoceanic and Arctic contexts
• Mental health and safety: AI‑personalized VR exposure therapy; XR for crisis preparedness and training
• Interdisciplinary methods: experimental design, co‑creation, and mixed methods across lab and field

Selected current projects

• GuestXR (2024–2025): Social interaction in immersive online spaces via a machine‑learning agent (“The Guest”).
• Arctic Memoryscapes and Peace (2024–2025): Arctic Six Chair in Cultural Heritage.
• CO‑VISION (2024–2025): Creative Europe—digital mapping of natural heritage across Europe.
• Polhavet 2050 / Arctic Ocean 2050 (2026–): 10‑year Norwegian research program on near‑future Arctic change.
• Arctic Future Pathfinders (2025): Northwest Passage voyage on Statsraad Lehmkuhl (UiT).
• INJECT (2017): AI tools that support journalistic creativity and efficiency (H2020).
• ULTIMATE WATER (2023): Digitalization for Water Smart Industrial Symbiosis (H2020). Contributor to Sense-IT work.

Representative outputs on emerging technologies

Books: Conceptualizing Immersive Journalism (2019); Insights on Immersive Journalism (ed., 2023); Memoryscapes and Peace (co‑ed., 2026).

Articles/chapters: Presence in Immersive Museum Exhibitions (2024); Biometric Immersive Journalism (2024); AI for VRET—Systematic Review (2026); Personalizing VR for Fear‑Related Disorders (2022).

Software: “Warsaw Protests” (LLM‑driven XR protest simulation for teaching); “Hypernytt” hypervideo platform; “Illegale Aviser” WWII digital archive.

I welcome collaborations and supervision inquiries on AI/XR, immersive media, digital heritage, and interdisciplinary methods—especially projects engaging Arctic communities, cultural institutions, and public-interest innovation.