{"id":3478,"date":"2026-02-06T12:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2026-08-11T12:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T10:38:06","slug":"norwel-symposium-2026-social-work-in-times-of-conflicts-and-war-how-do-geopolitics-impact-social-problems-practice-and-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/norwel-symposium-2026-social-work-in-times-of-conflicts-and-war-how-do-geopolitics-impact-social-problems-practice-and-research\/","title":{"rendered":"NORWEL Symposium 2026: Social work in times of conflicts and war – how\u00a0do\u00a0geopolitics\u00a0impact\u00a0social problems,\u00a0practice\u00a0and research?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to the third NORWEL symposium, 22. \u2013 23. October 2026 at UiT in Troms\u00f8!<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Geopolitics determine our life on many levels – from transnational relations, down to our individual existence. Currently, we witness an unprecedented erosion of international relations, where international law, long standing alliances and trust erode from one day to the next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean for the profession of social work, which serves people suffering from the consequences of personal and structural crises, and which aims at building interpersonal trust and positive relations? And what are the consequences of destabilized and destabilizing geopolitics for social work research? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the questions we ask on day one of the third NORWEL-symposium. The Department of Child Welfare and Social Work at UiT The Arctic University of Norway is proud to be the host for this event which is open to everyone interested in research and researcher education in social work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1<\/strong> of the symposium explores the conditions for social work and social work research in the rapidly changing, and increasingly unpredictable and dangerous world of today. Keynote speakers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katrin Glatz Brubakk<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katrin is a psychologist, university lecturer at NTNU, social activist and fieldworker for the non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders. She has extensive experience from supporting children and families in war zones, including countries such as Kongo, Greece and Palestine. She has written two books, one about her experiences from Moria (co authored with Guro K. Meraker\u00e5s) and the other about Gaza. She was awarded the Save the Children’s Rights Prize<\/em> in 2024 for her work.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svenn-Erik Mamelund<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svenn-Erik is a professor in social geography at OsloMet. During his career he has spent several longer periods in the USA and built a large network with researchers. He will talk about his recent experiences, among others with the US Department of Homeland Security and his decision to postpone future academic exchange in the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonnie Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonnie Jensen is an Associate Professor at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland), where she teaches and conducts research in the Department of Social Work. Her work focuses on vulnerable children and adults, Out-of-Home Care, human rights, anti\u2011racism, and the rights of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Bonnie is the head of CARE (Children and Adolescent Research Environment) an interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to understanding and improving the complex conditions facing Greenlandic children, youth, and families today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johanna Ik\u00e4valko<\/strong> (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in the Arctic in turmoil<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johanna has hydrobiology\/sea ice biology as her main field of research. She has lived and done polar research in Germany, Australia and the USA. Polar field campaigns took her sailing twice to the Antarctic, the North Pole and several voyages in the frozen Baltic Sea. After her active career in science, she was Head of several interest organizations and advisor to Finnish authorities. During Finland\u2019s presidency at the Arctic Council in 2017-2019 she led the priority \u201cMeteorological Cooperation\u201d and worked as an expert for the Arctic Council working group Arctic Monitoring and Assessment and acted as the Director of the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland. At current, she is director of the Center for Geopolitics, Peace and Security at UiT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 2<\/strong> is again dedicated to thematic workshops, with presentations of the ongoing research projects of our students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Registration<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

NORWEL members and others who want to present their work in a workshop are encouraged to submit title and an abstract of no more than 200 words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deadline <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 for submitting an abstract<\/strong> for presentations at the workshop: 23. September 2026<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 for registration<\/strong> to the symposium: 30. <\/strong>September 2026<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting a hotel room in Troms\u00f8 during the dark season can be challenging, which is why NORWEL has reserved hotel rooms at Quality Hotel Grand Troms\u00f8 for the period October 21st\u201323rd. For those attending the Ph.D. course Family, market and welfare states in the neoliberal society<\/em> prior to the symposium, some rooms have also been reserved for the entire week. Information about hotel booking can be found in the registration link below<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For registration, please use this link: https:\/\/nettskjema.no\/a\/594659<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to Troms\u00f8 in October! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the third NORWEL symposium, 22. \u2013 23. October 2026 at UiT in Troms\u00f8!  Geopolitics determine our life on many levels – from transnational relations, down to our individual existence. Currently, we witness an unprecedented erosion of international relations, where international law, long standing alliances and trust erode from one day to the next.  What does this mean for the profession of social work, which serves people suffering from the consequences of personal and structural crises, and which aims at building interpersonal trust and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3652,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions\/3652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwel.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}