Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)
An OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence studying the societal aspects of pandemics
PANSOC is at Centre for Advanced Research at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on a Short-Term Fellowship in November and December 2025. You can read more here: “Coming Home”: Svenn-Erik Mamelund Returns to CAS for a Short-Term Fellowship | CAS
Two years after completing his CAS project on Indigenous vulnerability to pandemics, Svenn-Erik Mamelund and parts of the old team is back at the centre — picking up threads that remain vital to understanding both past and present health crises.
Why does it feel like coming home when returning to Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters? I am here interviewed by Julie Ellinor Frølich Dalseth and give my answer to this question and explain the new research we do as part of a Short-Term Fellowship at CAS in November and December 2025:
“Coming Home”: Svenn-Erik Mamelund Returns to CAS for a Short-Term Fellowship | CAS
In fierce competition with other research environments, we have just been offered a Short-Term residential fellowship at Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for the two months of November and December 2025.
Together with three fellows (Gerardo Chowell, Georgia State University, Elienai Joaquin-Damas, Oslo Metropolitan University and Hampton Gaddy, London School of Economics), Centre leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund will use the CAS residency to finalize two publications stemming from our previous participation in the 2022–2023 CAS project Social Science Meets Biology.
The two new papers will analyze “Differential timing of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts across Mexican municipalities” and “Completeness of mortality data at the time of the 1918-20 influenza pandemic in Alaska“.
Our time at CAS will also be used to host a small, policy-relevant workshop to present these findings and celebrate the 5-year anniversary of the Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC).
Members of PANSOC are affiliated with a number of other projects including:
Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2022-2023)
Work and Wellbeing in History – Young CAS Fellow, Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2023-2024)
MERIT – MothER Income InequaliTy – EEA Grants awarded to Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (2022-2024)
Disability and Disease During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, European Union Horizon 2020 (2019-2021)
On January 12, Centre-leader at PANSOC, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, presented our CAS-project, “Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous Peoples and Severe Influenza Outcomes” in the “Demography Today” series arranged by the Spanish National Research Council and the BBVA Foundation in Madrid. You can watch the recordings here.
The hunt for the virus causing the 1918 influenza pandemic and how it has informed science and preparedness for future pandemics. Jeffery Taubenberger (NIAID) and John Oxford (QMUL) spoke at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters as guests of our CAS project November 8th. You can watch a recording of their talks here The hunt for the virus causing the 1918 influenza pandemic – FilMet (oslomet.no) and also a pod-cast they did here: Part I: Reflections on a pandemic – Viten og snakkis (oslomet.no). Lisa Sattenspiel Tanner and Svenn-Erik Mamelund also did a follow-up podcast Part 2: Reflections on a pandemic – Viten og snakkis (oslomet.no)
Centre leader Mamelund has been interviewed about our ongoing CAS-project: Why did he become interested in pandemic studies? What is our project about? What have we done so far? And why is curiosity-driven research important and CAS so good for our project?
You can read the interview here: Meet the Project: Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes – CAS
We at PANSOC are so happy and proud to announce that one of our Post-docs, Benjamin Schneider, has been selected for the Young CAS fellowship porogram 2022-2024.
Yo can read more about Bens project here: Introducing the Young CAS Fellows 2023/2024 – CAS
Pandemics are a pressing global threat to human life and security, and they have especially serious impacts on Indigenous people throughout the world.
The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) funded project Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes, to be held from August 2022 to June 2023, will bring together interdisciplinary researchers from PANSOC and other international institutions to foster conversations that integrate medical, epidemiological and social perspectives in order to increase understanding of Indigenous experiences when faced with pandemic diseases and better appreciate the diversity of pandemic consequences faced by Indigenous vs. non-Indigenous peoples.
The project will also seek to identify policies to improve prevention and control of pandemics with a particular focus on lessoning their impacts of Indigenous peoples and recommending future research priorities in this area.
As part of this project, a conference will be held in Oslo 15-16 May 2023. Read the call for papers here: Indigenous Peoples & Pandemics conference – CAS
Over the 2022-23 academic year, head of PANSOC, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, will lead a group at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters in Oslo.
Photo: On the left starting in front, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Jessica Dimka, Heather Battles and Lisa Sattenspiel. On the right starting in front, Eleniai Damas, Gerardo Chowel and Benjamin Schneider.
In the Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes – CAS project, 15 international researchers with a background in epidemiology, genetics, social sciences and history will study why Indigenous peoples are vulnerable to serious disease during pandemics. PANSOC is the first OsloMet group awarded a research stay at CAS. The selection of CAS research groups follows an extensive review process by international experts, which shows the outstanding international quality of PANSOC’s research.
