Kielland, Ingrid Marie

2003: Master of Human Geography (M.phil) from the University of Oslo, specializing in Political Geography. My Master's Thesis explored political and organizational practices among impoverished fishermen in a Sri Lankan coastal village.
2004-2006: University Lecturer/Assistant Teacher at the Department of Planning and Local Communities Studies, University of Tromsø. Taught Interdiciplinary and Human Geography courses at Bachelor and Master Level. Topics included municipal planning, regional development and regional identity constructions in Northern Norway.
Since 2006: PhD-student/Research Fellow at CEPIN (Citizenship, Encounters and Place Enactment in the North), University of Tromsø.

Present research:
The theme of the PhD-project is constructions of place and citizenship in connection to place branding. The empirical focus is on Tromsø, the largest town and regional centre of Northern Norway, and its bid for hosting the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. The research will explore how citizenship and place is represented and negotiated through the local debate over the Olympic bid. One basic premise of the project is that place and citizenship are seen constitutive and constructive of each other. This means that changing perceptions of place will have repercussions on how citizens conceive their citizenship, and vice versa. The debate about Tromsø's bid for the Olympics can thus be seen as a struggle between different histories and visions of the town and of the Northern Norwegian region, while at the same time producing and reproducing understandings about the citizens of Tromsø, their identity, interests, rights and duties. Some opening questions for analysis of the debate will be: Who are included and excluded in these place constructions, how are the town's borders of influcence and responsibilities defined, what kind of futures are produced, and how is the relationship between society and nature represented?