Thea and Ada are new research assistants at SUM

We welcome two new research assistants to SUM: Thea Sandnes and Ada Eldevik.

Get to know the new research assistants

Thea Sandnes has been a part of the Include research centre and the research group Sustainable consumption and energy equity for a year, and will take on more tasks this fall. She is currenty a master's student at SUM and holds a bachelor in Development studies from the University of Oslo and a bachelor in Art History from the University of Plymouth.

Thea is involved with research on rural activities and their role in sustainable transition, local value creation and attractive place development. Specifically, she will work on two projects for the Include research centre; one on the role of local food systems, and one on the role of small-scale and sustainable agriculture and forestry.

She is also assisting a research project on sustainable consumption in Norwegian households. Thea is interested in the role of food in green transition and wellbeing, (sustainable) consumption, food politics, as well as resource politics in general.  
 
– I am looking forward to contribute on more research on energy transitions related to both rural activities, in particular the potential of small-scale food production, as well as sustainable household consumption and its social, political, material, and institutional enablers and barriers, says Thea.

Ada Eldevik has joined the Pandemeat project and the research group Rural transformations. She holds a master's degree from SUM and a bachelor's degree in Culture and Communication from the University of Oslo.

In her master’s thesis, she focused on driving forces, hinders and enablers for creating energy communities in Norway, and whether development of energy communities contributes to democratization of energy governance.

As a research assistant in the Pandemeat project, she is involved in data collection and fieldwork. Ada is working on a background summary for research contextualization, and an analysis of mass media framings of avian influenza. Further, she supports an ERC application process and the coordination of a research workshop.

– I am very excited to continue my journey here at SUM. By taking part in the Pandemeat project, I get to learn from experienced researchers and contribute in a highly relevant and important interdisciplinary research project on industrial meat production and the ongoing avian pandemic. I hope my academic curiosity, enthusiasm, and engagement can add value to the project, says Ada.

You can read more about Thea and Ada, as well as our other research assistants, on their staff page.