Britt-Inger Keisu recently left Umeå University and joined Karlstad University as professor of sociology. Her research centres on power, collaboration and conflict, with a particular focus on Indigenous and minority rights in the Arctic.
– Knowledge about Indigenous peoples and Arctic minorities is limited. Here, academia has both a responsibility and an opportunity to develop research and teaching – and this is where I hope my research can contribute, says Britt-Inger Keisu.
Britt-Inger Keisu’s Arctic research focuses on issues of power, collaboration and conflict in areas related to Indigenous and minority rights. In recent years, she has studied reindeer-herding Sámi, Tornedalians and Kvens (Norwegian Finns).
She is currently leading two research projects: one on gender, racialisation and working conditions within concession and forest Sámi reindeer herding in Norrbotten County, and another focusing on collaboration and negotiations between Sámi villages and actors affected by climate change, mining, energy development and the expansion of the Swedish Armed Forces. The aim is to develop more equitable forms of collaboration, with particular attention to forest and concession Sámi villages, which have often been overlooked in previous research.
How can research within sociology make a difference in society?
– Sociology plays a vital role in understanding and explaining how and why inequality emerges in society, as well as the factors that contribute to a more equitable society. One example is my research in northern Sweden, where large-scale industrial investments linked to the sustainable transition intersect with the Sámi people’s right to practise reindeer herding, and where there are clear power imbalances between industry and the reindeer-herding sector. These changes entail increasing demands on land and natural resources, creating new conflicts and deepening existing ones. Sociology offers tools to analyse how gender, class and ethnicity shape these processes – how inequality is maintained, but also how it can be challenged and transformed.
What do you hope your research will contribute?
– Knowledge about Indigenous peoples and Arctic minorities remains limited, but interest is growing. Academia, therefore, has both a responsibility and an opportunity to develop research and teaching, and I hope to contribute to this. I also see the importance of safeguarding the role of academia in society, particularly at a time when anti-knowledge forces are on the rise. Free research and the production of knowledge are cornerstones of a vibrant democracy, which we all – staff and students alike – must help to defend.
What attracted you to Karlstad University?
– I’m at a stage in life that many people can identify with – my children have moved out, and it feels exciting to live in a new place. What attracted me to Karlstad was the university’s strong emphasis on collaboration between research and society, which closely aligns with my own research interests. I value the creative environment that emerges in interdisciplinary settings. Here, sociologists and gender studies scholars work side by side within a multidisciplinary department, which I find inspiring.
