Annual Reports Archives - Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)

Annual Report (2025)

masv on 1. January 2026

This is the fifth annual report for the Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC). As in previous years, we report here on our research mission and perspectives, projects and funding applications, the team and institutional collaborations, and outcomes/activities during 2025.

1. Short presentation of the Centre – research perspectives and main goals

PANSOC is an OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) that conducts internationally innovative research on the societal, economic, and historical dimensions of pandemics. The Centre’s core mission remains to understand social and biological risk factors and inequalities—drawing lessons from both contemporary and historical pandemics—to improve pandemic preparedness and inform public policy. Its unique multidisciplinary focus bridges social science, public health, and history and seeks to deepen global understanding of pandemic impacts and responses.

2. Research projects and funding applications

In 2025, PANSOC continued to advance its core research agenda:

Ongoing research from CRE (internal funding), MERIT, PANRISK, CorRisk and CAS projects (external funding) continued to yield new insights into socioeconomic determinants of pandemic outcomes and compliance with interventions. These externally funded projects form a backbone of PANSOC’s research inquiry and show that research continues even after project periods and funding have ended.
The team has continued to engage with funding bodies and high-profile research calls to sustain long-term, ambitious pandemic research programs internationally. This includes Mamelund being invited to Advanced Grant in 2024 (grade A and recommended funding).
Throughout the year, seminar series and collaborative research engagements extended PANSOC’s project network and created fertile ground for future funding proposals across Europe and beyond.
This includes a new stay at CAS for a Short Term Residential Fellowship in November and December 2025 to work on a New CAS-project: Indigenous Peoples & Pandemics: Data Completeness & Vaccine Access Disparities – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC). This project was based on our 2022-23 stay at CAS doing research on Social Science Meets Biology | CAS.
Benjamin Schneider, prior post-doc at PANSOC got a Young FRIPRO Grant from the Research Council of Norway in 2025. The project, which Dr. Schneider developed when at PANSOC, will be based at the University of Oslo, but with a partner at the Work Research Institute at OsloMet, will study “Technological Change, Labor Representation, and Job Quality: A Comparative Historical Analysis, c. 1830—1980.”

3. Research team and institutional collaborations

PANSOC’s research team in 2025 consisted of senior researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and MA students (New incoming MA-student – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)) with diverse expertise spanning pandemic historiography, epidemiology, and social science. The Centre’s collaborative network includes academic partners from numerous universities and research centres across Europe, North America and Australia.

Centre leadership remained focused on international research exchanges and academic collaboration.
PANSOC continued to host and co-host scholars and visiting researchers, expanding its institutional footprint and fostering global engagement. Reade more here New Guest Researcher: Katarina Matthes (University of Zurich) – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC) and here New Guest Researcher: Umit Tleshova – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)

In 2025, a notable highlight for the Centre was the recognition received by Centre leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund, who was ranked among the top 0.05 % of lifetime scholars globally in the pandemic research field (highlighting the Centre’s research influence). He also continued to be listed among the Stanford/Elsevier top-2 % scientists in public health.

Centre leader Mamelund was nominated name of the year in Academia in 2025 by the readers of the Newspaper Khrono. This is the third time Mamelund has been nominated for this prize. First times were in 2021 and 2020. In the latter instance he was one of three finalists.

Former PANSOC post-doc won 2nd prize in poster award at Heidelberg University Symposium – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)

4. Research outcomes and activities

Seminars and Knowledge Exchange

A key part of PANSOC’s activities in 2025 was its Pandemics & Society Seminar Series:

In Spring 2025, PANSOC hosted a wide range of seminars on topics including historical and contemporary pandemics, infectious disease dynamics, and methodological approaches to pandemic studies (6 webinars in total).
The Fall 2025 seminar series continued to showcase global scholarship on pandemic history, demography, and public health, including presentations on Black Death impacts, influenza history, and tuberculosis in colonial Africa (9 webinars in total).
The final seminar of 2025, held on 11 December, explored the concept of “kinship memory” after COVID-19, using demographic microsimulation to understand how the pandemic may be remembered by future generations.

These seminar activities not only enriched PANSOC’s academic environment but also strengthened global networks and offered public access to cutting-edge research discussions.

Publications and Dissemination

PANSOC members continued peer-reviewed research outputs (18 articles, see below) and scholarly dissemination across journals and platforms. They also contributed to public discourse on pandemic preparedness and the historical context of infectious disease outbreaks.

Outreach and Visibility

15 webinars and online presentations broadened PANSOC’s reach to international audiences, including students, scholars, and policymakers.
Book panel: Governing the Crisis. Narratives of COVID-19 in India – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)
Through active engagement in international forums, seminars, and digital events, the Centre sustained its profile as a leading voice in pandemic social science research.

5. Summary

In 2025, PANSOC upheld its mission to advance understanding of pandemics through multidisciplinary inquiry and global engagement. The Centre’s persistent seminar programming, research activities, and international collaborations reinforced its position in the academic and policy landscapes. Recognition of the Centre leader’s scholarly impact affirmed PANSOC’s contribution to pandemic studies internationally. Through continued research, outreach, and knowledge dissemination, PANSOC remains committed to generating socially relevant insights that advance pandemic preparedness and reduce societal vulnerabilities.

Master’s students finishing in 2025

Amal Hassan (2025): Adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). A quantitative study of NPI adherence among immigrants and non-immigrants in Eastern Oslo, Norway, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

Papers published in 2025

Subedi, Raj Kumar; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Delgado, Iris; Matute, Isabel; Laborde, Carla Castillo; Joaquin-Damas, Elienai; Chowell, Gerardo (2025). Poverty and Ethnic Patterns in COVID-19 Excess Mortality: Evidence from Chile, 2020-2022. American Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaf274
Dimka, Jessica L.; Schneider, Benjamin M.; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik (2025). A systematic review to understand the long-term mental health effects of influenza pandemics. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948251391601
Maia, Ana Sofia Monteiro; Pereira, Margarida Miguel Costeira e; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Amaro, Joana Maria Correia; Fraga, Sílvia Jesus da Silva; Leão, Teresa Isabel Costa (2025). “Be Mothers as if we Were not Workers, Be Workers as if we Were not Mothers”: A Qualitative Study on Parenthood’s Impact on Careers and Well-Being. Journal of Family Issues. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513×251400278
Gerardo, Chowell; Hamed, Karami; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Alexandra, Smirnova (2025). Global excess tuberculosis mortality during COVID-19: a country-level modeling study of policy and development correlates, BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-24858-8
Correia, Amaro, Joana Maria; Costa, Leão, Teresa Isabel; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Sofia, Monteiro Maia, Ana; E., Pereira, Margarida Miguel Costeira; Alejandro, Perelman, Julian; Jesus, da Silva Fraga, Sílvia (2025). Balancing Work and Parenthood – A Comparative Analysis of Policies across European Countries. Journal of Child and Family Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-025-03194-w
Ibsen, Tanja Louise; Zotcheva, Ekaterina; Bergh, Sverre; Gerritsen, Debby; Livingston, Gill; Lurås, Hilde; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Rokstad, Anne Marie Mork; Strand, Bjørn Heine; Voshaar, Richard C. Oude; Selbæk, Geir (2025). Cognitive function, physical function, and mental health in older adults amid reduced primary and specialist healthcare service use during COVID-19: the HUNT study. GeroScience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01909-x
Blinkova, Alexandra; U., Khakurel; G., Gaddy, H.; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik ; M., Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar (2025). Construction and curation of a data set of historical mental health incidence in Norway, Scientific Data. Vol. 12.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05795-y
Pereira, Margarida; Dimka, Jessica; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik (2025). The New Syndemic of Obesity and COVID-19 in Urban Areas. Hentilä, Helka-Liisa; Luusua, Aale; Rönkkö, Emilia; Sailo, Annukka; Suorsa, Anna (Red.). Pandemics and Urban Planning: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Cities, Planning and Disease. s. 161-178. Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97348-2_10
Adams, Mikaëla M.; Dimka, Jessica; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Sattenspiel, Lisa (2025). “I Would Advise That It Be Kept from the Schools at All Cost”: The Influenza of 1918–1920 at Nonreservation Indian Boarding Schools. Ethnohistory. Vol. 72.
https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article/7
Dunbar, Maria Bekker-Nielsen; Chowell, Gerardo; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik (2025). Inclusion of Deprivation in Endemic-Epidemic Models. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research. Vol. 23. https://doi.org/10.1553/p-4b4e-mkcd
Sattenspiel, Lisa; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Dahal, Sushma; Wissler, Amanda; Chowell, Gerardo; Tinker-Fortel, Emma (2025). Death on the permafrost: revisiting the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic in Alaska using death certificates. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 194. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwae173
Mamelund, Svenn-Erik (2025). Fars Tale: Er Akademia en felle for arbeiderklassens barn?. Nossum, Rolf Tomas; Breen, Olav (Red.). s. 149-153. Agder Vitenskapsakademi.
Delgado, Iris; Dahal, Sushma; Matute, Maria I.; Ramírez, Paola A. Rubilar; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Chowell, Gerardo (2025). Socioeconomic inequalities in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic: A regional analysis of income poverty. PLOS ONE. Vol. 20.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323409
Ibsen, Tanja Louise; Zotcheva, Ekaterina; Bergh, Sverre; Gerritsen, Debby L.; Livingston, Gill; Lurås, Hilde; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Rokstad, Anne Marie Mork; Strand, Bjørn Heine; Thingstad, Anne Pernille Mæhle; Voshaar, Richard C. Oude; Selbæk, Geir (2025). The role of social media in mitigating the long‐term impact of social isolation on mental and cognitive health in older adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic : the HUNT study. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Vol. 40. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.70097
Kakhurel, Uddhav; Sattenspiel, Lisa; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik (2025). Role of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions during 1918–1920 Influenza Pandemic, Alaska, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 31. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3107.241048
Ibsen, Tanja Louise; Zotcheva, Ekaterina; Bergh, Sverre; Gerritsen, Debby L.; Livingston, Gill; Lurås, Hilde; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Rokstad, Anne Marie Mork; Strand, Bjørn Heine; Voshaar, Richard C. Oude; Selbæk, Geir (2025). A longitudinal cohort study on dispensed analgesic and psychotropic medications in older adults before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic : the HUNT study. BMC Geriatrics. Vol. 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-025-05745-8
Vibeke Narverud Nyborg (2025): The use of public health legislation during the 1918–1920 Influenza pandemic in Norway, Continuity & Change, vol 39(2),
Diego A. Gentner-Polanco, María J. Ávila-Amezcua, Brandon G. Tapia-Hernández, Gerardo Chowell-Puente, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Pedro C. Santana-Mancilla (2025): Design and evaluation of a balanced scorecard to measure the impact of COVID-19 on a Mexican higher education institution, Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora, vol 9(1): 185-190, https://doi.org/10.47756/aihc.y9i1.165

Annual Report (2024)

masv on 10. January 2025

This is the fourth annual report for the Center for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC). As in previous years, we report here on our research mission, projects and funding applications, the team and institutional collaborations, and outcomes/activities.

1. Short presentation of the center – research perspectives and main goals

Mission statement: PANSOC examines contemporary and historical pandemics to understand social, economic, and biological risk factors and inequalities, and to improve pandemic preparedness.

PANSOC is the only global pandemic research centre that focuses on social science and humanities perspectives and conducts research on past pandemics.

2. Research projects and funding applications

In addition to internal Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) funding at OsloMet, PANSOC’s research has been supported by several externally funded projects in 2024. These are:

I. PANRISK: Socioeconomic risk groups, vaccination and pandemic influenza, (2021–2024) (Research Council of Norway grant agreement No 302336). The project has mapped the socially vulnerable risk groups for influenza, confidence in seasonal influenza vaccination and vaccine uptake by socioeconmic status (paper 10 in Section 5 below), and carried out a systematic review and meta analysis on the associations between socioeconomic status and influenza pandemic outcomes. In this project, we have also studied the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of topics analyzed are the association between socioeconomic status and (non)pharmaceutical interventions, whether sociodemographic factors play a role in the relation between COVID-19 infection and obesity (paper 12 in Section 5 below), as well as determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

II. MERIT – MothER Income InequaliTy (2022–2024). In collaboration with Portuguese partners (Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, ISPUP) the MERIT project has studied the impact of motherhood in women’s income and careers during COVID-19. We have produced a combination of concrete public policy proposals to minimize asymmetries and promote gender equality in the labour market, especially through motherhood.

III. Work and Wellbeing in History – Young CAS Grant (2023–2024). Job quality is a topic of growing concern in research on quality of life and policymaking. Since the 1999 Report on Decent Work by the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, improving working conditions has become a global policy goal. Decent work, of which job quality is a key component, is a commitment in the Sustainable Development Goals, the G20’s Ankara Declaration, and the EU Pillar of Social Rights. The Work and Wellbeing in History Young CAS Grant Project brought job quality analysis to a historical setting for the first time, broadening the perspective of economic historians who have hitherto focused almost exclusively on wages, and enabling long-run analysis of important aspects of historical work such as autonomy, the career development of earnings, and work meaningfulness. It also linked the extensive research on present job quality in economics, sociology, and policy research institutes to historical studies. These connections enrich historical research with the sophisticated frameworks and methods of contemporary studies, and they vastly expand the potential for job quality analysis to contribute to key scientific and public policy topics by enabling its exploration over the long run.

3. Research team and institutional collaborations

In 2024, PANSOC consisted of the following researchers: Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Benjamin Schneider, Vibeke Nyborg Narverud, Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar, Hampton Gaddy and Gerardo Chowell-Puente. We have also recruited several OsloMet MA students to collaborate with us.

Outgoing researchers and students: Gerardo Chowell-Puente has been employed in a 20% position (Professor II) with us in 2024 and is now back as a full-time professor in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases at Georgia State university. Hampton Gaddy has been employed in a 20% position with us in 2024 and is now back as a full-time PhD-student working on his thesis at London School of Economic (excess mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic in the USA). Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar has now moved on to a post-doc at Heidelberg University.

Uddhav Khakurel (MA in International Social Welfare and Health Policy) has been a research assistant in various projects, including PANSOC’s 2022–23 CAS Project “Social Science Meets Biology”. Khakurel defended his MA thesis on non-pharmaceutical interventions in Alaska during the 1918-20 influenza pandemic in December 2024, and his MA paper is also a revise and resubmit in the American journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Guest researcher program: In 2024, we hosted three guest researchers, all of whom presented their ongoing research either to Centre seminars or in public fora and discussed ideas and collaboration opportunities with us informally.

Merle Eisenberg, a historian of pandemics and infectious diseases from Oklahoma State University, visited PANSOC between 16 May and 5 Jun).

Nita Bharti, a biologist at Penn State University visited PANSOC from 14 August to 8 September.

Adolfo García-Sastre, one of the leading global researchers on influenza and Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, spent a week at PANSOC in connection with his invited PANSOC Lecture at the Academy of Science and Letters on 6 November. See the recording of his lecture “Influenza 1918–2024” here.

Incoming research assistants and master students: Amal Hassan (MA Student, International Social Welfare and Health Policy) is writing her thesis on the on uptake of non-pharmaceutical interventions among immigrants in Oslo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lewhat Kifleyesus (MA Student, International Social Welfare and Health Policy) participated in the Centre’s activities as part of the course SIW4500: Research Training, at Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, OsloMet.

Sabbatical: Centre leader Mamelund stayed 5 weeks at University of Queensland from 1 September to 4 October. During the stay he synergized his expertise in historical pandemics with the virological and immunological knowledge of our partners in wet-lab studies (Prof. Kirsty Short), including the use of mouse models and studies of century old extra-respiratory tissues from victims of historical influenza pandemics. Mamelund’s sabbatical was funded by a CAS Alumni Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to past Principal Investigators of projects at the Centre for Advanced Study, such as the 2022-23 project for which Mamelund was PI – see more here.

4. Research outcomes/activities

Journal articles: In 2024, PANSOC has (co)authored 14 scientific peer-reviewed articles in journals in public health, epidemiology, vaccinology, medicine, and social science and health (see Section 5 at the end of this report).

Top 2% Scientists: Centre leader Mamelund is among Top 2% Scientists in his field in Stanford University’s 2024 recently published ranking. He is ranked 1145 of 69595 in Public Health. Read more about the ranking and make your own searches.

ERC advanced grant interview: In December 2024, Centre leader Mamelund was invited for an interview ERC advanced grant interview in March 2025.

Seminar & Conference Organization: We hosted 13 international Pandemics & Society Seminars on Zoom in 2024 (video recordings available). As part of the Work and Wellbeing in History project at CAS, post-doc Ben Schneider organized a series of seminars, as well as a workshop a CAS and a capstone conference at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Selected conference presentations and invited talks: Centre leader Mamelund was invited to deliver a keynote lecture at one of the world’s leading conferences on influenza, OPTIONS XII in Brisbane, Australia (29 September–2 October). His keynote was entitled “Old data gives new clues to the ‘mother’ of all pandemics”. The conference program is available here.

Centre leader Mamelund also delivered an invited talk titled “Social disparities & Pandemic preparedness” at the workshop “Economic and Social factors in in Epidemics”, 19–20 November 2024, ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy.

Post-doc Ben Schneider was invited to give five seminar presentations in 2024, including at the University of Cambridge and Lund University.

On 8–9 February, Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar, Uddhav Khakurel and Centre leader Mamelund presented at a workshop on epidemics in Barcelona. Hampton Gaddy presented at the seminar “From Influenza to COVID Continuity and Discontinuity in the Factors of Inequality”, held in Madrid on 14–15 November.

Interview in media: Centre leader Mamelund was interviewed on a podcast by Espen Goffeng in June. It was an exciting conversation about historical pandemics, risk factors and consequences. What exactly is long Covid? How much Covid is actually in this condition? Did you know that there was a “long Spanish flu” in 1918? We also talked about Covid reactions, politicization, the Spanish flu, the Russian Flu, the Hong Kong virus and pandemics as perhaps the most unfortunate side effect of civilizations.

Listen to the podcast (in Norwegian) on Spotify.

Opinion pieces: Together with several prominent Norwegian researchers, Centre leader Mamelund wrote an opinion piece in October on how worried we should be about highly pathogenic avian flu (“Hvor bekymret skal vi være for fugleinfluensa? Det korte svaret: ganske bekymret”). In connection with Adolfo García-Sastre’s visit in November, he also wrote on the same topic in ScienceNorway.no in an article entitled “The next big pandemic? Avian flu takes a worrying step closer to humans“.

5. Summary

PANSOC continues to fulfill its mission of advancing the knowledge frontier in pandemic studies through a combination of present and historical investigations, and dissemination of our outputs to the public. The Centre produces an exceptionally high number of publications per researcher and continues to publish socially relevant research in high-impact journals. Our continuing international collaborations have fostered important and promising new concepts for externally funded projects that will build on the Centre’s first four years of support from OsloMet.

Master’s students finishing in 2024:

Uddhav Khakurel -Master’s thesis (2024): The Role of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions in the 1918-20 Influenza Pandemic in Alaska. A paper based on this thesis is published in Emerging Infectious Diseases: Early Release – Role of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions during 1918–1920 Influenza Pandemic, Alaska, USA – Volume 31, Number 7—July 2025 – Emerging Infectious Diseases journal – CDC.

Papers published in 2024:

Elienai Joaquin-Damas, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Benjamin M. Schneider, Beatriz E. Sánchez-Hernández, Amanda Patishtán-López, Amanda Bleichrodt & Gerardo Chowell (2024):Evaluating COVID-19 impact, vaccination, birth registration, and underreporting in a predominantly indigenous population in Chiapas, Mexico, BMC Infectious Diseases, Volume 24, article number 1376.
Nadja Hedrich,Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar, Martin P. Grobusch, Patricia Schlagenhauf (2024): Aedes-Borne Arboviral Infections in Europe from 2000–2023: A Systematic Review, Preprints with The Lancet.
Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar & Leonhard Held (2024): Improving Reproducibility in Epidemiology, Handbook of Epidemiology. First Online: 29 March 2024, pp. 1-22.
Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar, Manex Agirrezabal & Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen (2024): Getting to Grippe With Influenza: An Investigation of Why the Disease Is Called That. Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference.
Birgitte Klüwer, Kjersti Margrethe Rydland, Svenn-Erik Mamelund & Rebecca Nybru Gleditsch (2024): Drivers and barriers of seasonal influenza vaccination 2015/16 & 2019/20 to 2022/23 – a survey on why most Norwegians don’t get the flu vaccine. BMC Public Health, Volume 24, article number 2687.
Sushma Dahal, Iris Delgado, Lisa Sattenspiel, Svenn-Erik Mamelund & Gerardo Chowell (2024): Comparative analysis of COVID-19 diagnoses and mortality among hospitalized indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Chile: 2020–2021. BMC Public Health, Volume 24, article number 2337.
Gerardo Chowell and Nazrul Islam (2024): Political Determinants of Health: Has COVID-19 Exposed the Worst of It? American Journal of Public Health.
Lisa Sattenspiel, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Sushma Dahal, Amanda Wissler, Gerardo Chowell, Emma Tinker-Fortel (2024): Death on the permafrost: revisiting the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic in Alaska using death certificates. American Journal of Epidemiology.
Per-Henrik Zahl, Rune Johansen, Örjan Hemström & Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2024): Responses to the letters on “Mortality in Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020 – 22: A comparative study.” Journal of Infection and Public Health, volume 17, issues 6, pages 1145-1146.
Birgitte Klüwer, Rebecca Gleditsch, Kjersti Margrethe Rydland, Svenn-Erik Mamelund & Ida Laake (2024): Higher educational attainment associated with higher confidence in influenza vaccination in Norway, Vaccine, volume 42, issue 11, pages 2837-2847.
Mathias Mølbak Ingholt,Lone Simonsen, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Paneeraq Noahsen & Maarten van Wijhe (2024): The 1919–21 influenza pandemic in Greenland. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, Volume 83, Issue 1.
Margarida Pereira (2024): Do sociodemographic factors play a role in the relation between COVID-19 infection and obesity? Findings from a cross-sectional study in eastern Oslo. Journal of Public Health.
Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar (2024): Transmission matrices used in epidemiologic modelling. Infectious Disease Modelling. Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages 185-194.
Diego Gentner-Polanco, María Ávila-Amezcua, Brandon Tapia-Hernández, Gerardo Chowell, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Pedro Santana-Mancilla (2024): Design and evaluation of a balanced scorecard to measure the impact of COVID-19 on a Mexican higher education institution. Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora. Volume 9, No. 1.

Annual Report (2023)

masv on 30. January 2024

This is the third annual report for the Center for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC). As in previous years, we report here on our research mission, projects and funding applications, the team and institutional collaborations, and outcomes/activities.

1. Short presentation of the center – research perspectives and main goals

Mission statement: PANSOC examines contemporary and historical pandemics to understand social, economic, and biological risk factors and inequalities, and to improve pandemic preparedness.

PANSOC is the only global pandemic research centre that focuses on social science and humanities perspectives and conducts research on past pandemics. Similar pandemic research centres have been established at several prestigious universities following the COVID-19 pandemic, but we differ from others in that our researchers have extensive combined experience researching pandemics (25+ years) and our unique focus combines social science and historical perspectives. Most other pandemic research centers exclusively study medical dimensions and the most recent pandemics, meaning they ignore the diversity of pandemic experiences and outcomes, and are frequently limited to short-term perspectives that do not incorporate the full social and economic dimensions of pandemics. Our field of “pandemiology” is new internationally.

2. Research projects and funding applications

In addition to internal Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) funding at OsloMet, PANSOC’s research has been supported by several externally funded projects in 2023. These are:

PANRISK : Socioeconomic risk groups, vaccination and pandemic influenza, 2021-2024) (Research Council of Norway grant agreement No 302336). The project have mapped the socially vulnerable risk groups for influenza, seasonal influenza vaccine uptake by socioeconmic status, and carried out a systematic review and meta analysis on the associations between socioeconomic status and influenza pandemic outcomes. In this project, we have also studied the association between socioeconomic status and (non)pharmaceutical interventions during COVID-19 as well as determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

MERIT – MothER Income InequaliTy (eeagrants.gov.pt) (2022-2024). In collaboration with Portuguese partners (Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, ISPUP) the MERIT project has studied the impact of motherhood in women’s income and careers (during COVID-19) and we have produced a combination of concrete public policy proposals to minimize asymmetries and promote gender equality in the labour market, especially through motherhood.

Social Science Meets Biology – CAS Grant 2022–2023. From August 15^th, 2022, to 31^st June 2023, we ran run a highly successful collaborative research project at the Center for Advanced Study that combined basic science research with high societal relevance. The CAS project used an interdisciplinary framework and a large international team to analyze the causes of disproportionate pandemic effects on Indigenous peoples, which is an important scientific and public health challenge. Pandemics have a massive impact on health, wellbeing, and the economy, but the burden of disease is not evenly distributed. Indigenous peoples are a forgotten risk group, even though they have experienced much higher mortality in historical and recent pandemics. We have completed the first interdisciplinary project investigating mechanisms for this burden on Indigenous peoples by combining social science and biological research perspectives. The project also contributes a detailed scientific background for improved preparedness for future pandemics. The CAS Project was an extensive undertaking, with planning and organization spanning three years (well before the start of the stay at CAS) and incorporating 25 researchers from 17 institutions in nine countries. The project has so far (by January 2024) produced six papers in international peer-reviewed journals, with a further seven papers in various stages including revise-and-resubmit or under review. Other major activities included the first international conference on Indigenous peoples and pandemics at the Academy of Science and Letters 13, 15-16 May 2023. Professor Malcolm King gave the keynote lecture at the conference and Alexandra King and Christina Storm Mienna led a pre-workshop for Indigenous participants on May 13^th. This conference was the highlight of our 10½-month CAS program. In addition to the countries represented by our Fellows and short-term visitors, we had speakers and participants from six continents including speakers from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, USA, Portugal, Peru, South Africa, Denmark, Nigeria, Nepal, and India, almost half of whom are members of Indigenous groups. The keynote talk was given by Dr. Malcolm King, Professor of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in Canada. For more details, full program and all presentations at the conference from PANSOC employees, our CAS fellows, and affiliates, see here: Indigenous Peoples & Pandemics Conference. The CAS projects have made a substantial contribution to the development of our university. The project has raised the status of both PANSOC and OsloMet and has enabled us to attract and retain the best pandemic scholars, visiting researchers, and students. The research collaboration has produced an increase in the number and quality of our publications. The dynamic international environment has developed our academic knowledge and culture, pushing us to aim high in research, including sending new successful proposals to Young CAS (see below). PANSOC is the first Centre in Norway to have a CAS and Young CAS project concurrently.

List of all participating CAS fellows:
1. Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Professor, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
2. Lisa Sattenspiel, Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.
3. Michael G. Baker, Professor, University of Otago, New Zealand.
4. Gerardo Chowell-Puente, Professor, Georgia State University, USA.
5. Elienai Joaquin Damas, Professor, Universidad Tecnológica de la Huasteca Hidalguense, Mexico.
6. Emma Tinker Fortel, PhD candidate, University of Missouri-Columbia.
7. Amanda Wissler, Dr., University of South Carolina, USA.
8. Heather Battles, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
9. Jessica Dimka, Senior Researcher, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
10. Kirsti Renfree Short, Senior Lecturer, University of Queensland, Australia.
11. Lauren Steele, PhD-candidate, University of Queensland, Australia.
12. Taylor van Doren, Research Fellow, Sitka Sound Research Centre, Alaska, USA.

List of affiliated CAS researchers, research assistants & others:
1. Alexandra Blinkova, Researcher, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
2. Vibeke Narverud Nyborg, University of South-Eastern Norway.
3. Benjamin Schneider, Post-doc, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
4. Courtney Heffernan, Research Associate, University of Alberta, Canada.
5. Hilde Orderud, Senior Researcher, University of Turku, Finland.
6. Pedro C. Santana-Mancilla, Professor, School of Telematics, Universidad de Colima, Colima, Mexico.
7. Maria Dunbar, Researcher, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
8. Uddhav Khakurel, RA at CAS, MA student at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.

CAS guest researcher program to attract scholars with Indigenous background:
1. Tamara Riley, PhD-candidate, Australian National University (two weeks in May 2023).
2. Halle Cochrane, BA student, University of Manitoba, Canada (two weeks in May 2023).
3. Josée G. Lavoie, Professor, University of Manitoba, Canada (two weeks in May 2023)

Work and Wellbeing in History – Young CAS Grant 2023–2024. Quality of life measurement is a cornerstone of social science, and the quality of jobs has become a public policy goal for international organizations since the International Labor Organization’s Report on Decent Work in 1999. The Work and Wellbeing in History project brings together innovative quantitative and qualitative methods and perspectives from history and economics to analyze how job quality has changed over the long run and important determinants of work-related quality of life. Our seven-member research team (drawn from seven institutions in five countries) is analyzing changes in workplaces and workers’ control over their labor across three centuries, conducting econometric analysis of differences in career earning profiles between white-collar and blue-collar workers, and analyzing how historical instances of innovation can contribute to our understanding of the possible workplaces effects of AI and automation.

Jessica Dimka (PANSOC postdoc 2019–2023) was invited for an interview for the ERC’s Consolidator Grant in 2023. This was the second time that Dimka was invited to an ERC funding interview after her Starting Grant application in 2022.

The Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) program at OsloMet was evaluated by an external committee in the fall of 2023. We received a very favorable evaluation and have used the feedback to further strengthen our Centre.

3. Research team and institutional collaborations

In 2023, PANSOC consisted of the following researchers: Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Benjamin Schneider, Vibeke Nyborg Narverud, Jessica Dimka, Margarida Pereira, Maria Bekker-Nielsen Dunbar, and Alexandra Blinkova. We have also recruited several OsloMet MA students to collaborate with us.

Outgoing researchers and students: One of our MA students who finished in 2022 is now in a PhD position at the University of Oslo (Carla Hughes). After joining OsloMet on an MSCA fellowship in 2019, Jessica Dimka moved on to a tenure-track position at Seton Hall University, USA, in August 2023, and Margarida Pereira is in a new postdoctoral position at University of Aveiro, Portugal, since May 2023.

Guest researcher program: In 2023, we hosted five guest researchers, in addition to the many research visits organized through the CAS projects. Three of these visitors were researchers from prestigious European universities (Wageningen, Oulu and Newcastle) for one to two weeks, one guest from the US for one month from the University of Minnesota, and one guest from Australia for three months from the University of Queensland.

Incoming master students: Uddhav Khakurel (MA in International Social Welfare and Health Policy) is researching his thesis on non-pharmaceutical interventions in Alaska during the 1918-20 influenza pandemic. Amal Hassan (also MA in International Social Welfare and Health Policy) is writing on the on uptake of non-pharmaceutical interventions among immigrants in Oslo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Uddhav Khakurel and Ramila Acharya (MA in International Social Welfare and Health Policy) participated in the Centre’s activities as part of the course SIW4500: Research Training.

4. Research outcomes/activities

Journal articles: In 2023, PANSOC has (co)authored 12 scientific peer-reviewed articles in journals in public health, vaccinology, medicine, disability, and social science and health. Some of the papers have already been cited by other researchers (see papers and their citations as per January 2024 at the end of this report).

Webinars: We hosted 17 international Pandemics & Society Seminars on Zoom in 2023 (Pandemics & Society Seminar Recordings – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC) (oslomet.no)). Our Seminars are unique among pandemic research centers in topical breadth and durability. 15-30 researchers participate from all over the globe in each seminar. Since we started the seminar series in the Spring of 2021, we have hosted researchers from five continents, 18 countries, and 41 different universities and research institutes. The seminars strengthen internal connections in our existing network and opens the world to international researchers, groups, and networks.

Conference presentations: In addition to presentations at the Indigenous Peoples and Pandemics conference in May 2023 described above, PANSOC researchers hosted and presented their research in two sessions (Mortality and Quality of Life in Pandemics, Pandemic Responses and Long-term Impacts) at the European Social Science History Conference in Gothenburg, April 2023. In addition, research outcomes from PANSOC were presented at the Pandemic Centre International Conference in Bergen, in November 2023.

Selected Interviews in media: Centre-leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund has been interviewed for an article in Forskningspolitikk about the value of basic research and PANSOC’s 2022–23 stay at the CAS at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Read more here: Senter for grunnforskning: Forskeres mulighet til å grave seg ned i tide | Forskningspolitikk | Forskningspolitikk (fpol.no)

Centre-leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund was also interviewed about a new study on age patterns of 1918 flu mortality. Read more here: Har forskere tatt helt feil om spanskesyken i 1918? (forskning.no)

PANSOC blog post by Vibeke Narverud Nyborg: What can historians in the history of medicine and health offer when a crisis in medicine occurs? – Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC) (oslomet.no)

Selected opinion pieces in Norwegian: Centre-leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund has written about the importance of bottom-up driven pandemic research in Kvalitet i forskning skrus tilbake 50 år (Khrono, 16 July, 2023) and also about the importance of stamina in writing research proposals in Nei er utsatt ja (Khrono, 6 July, 2023).

Selected invited talks: On January 12, 2023, Centre-leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund, presented the 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. On September 7, 2023, Centre-leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund, held an invited talk at the Letten Seminar of 2023 at the Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo (“Serendipity & stamina in pandemic research”).

5. Summary
PANSOC continues to produce high-quality and socially relevant interdisciplinary research which has had substantial impact outside of the academy. The Centre has raised OsloMet’s national and international profile in the research community, in the media, and among policymakers. We have attracted excellent international researchers, visiting scholars, and students. We have been awarded highly competitive research grants; our master’s students deliver high quality research on time; our international visiting scholars’ program and seminar series are popular and have given us very high international visibility, collaborators as well as and novel ideas for future projects.

Papers published in 2023:

Jessica L. Dimka (2023): COVID-19 vaccination and infection among people with self-reported chronic health conditions and disabilities vs. people without medical risk factors in a survey sample from Oslo, Vaccine: X, 15 (December 2023), 100409.
Jessica L. Dimka, Benjamin M. Schneider, and Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Protocol for a systematic review to understand the long-term mental-health effects of influenza pandemics in the pre-COVID-19 era, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.
Per-Henrik Zahl, Örjan Hemström, Rune Johansen, Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Mortality in Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–22: A comparative study, Journal of Infection and Public Health, available 3 November 2023.
Cited by 1 (Google scholar, January 2024)
Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Å bo isolert var en risikofaktor under spanskesyken, Tidsskriftet Michael, no 3.
Cited by 1 (Google scholar, January 2024)
D. E. Alves, O. Rogeberg, L. Sattenspiel & Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Indigenous communities and influenza: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis, Systematic Reviews, 12 (article 151).
Elienai Joaquin Damas, Sushma Dahal, Ana Gloria Rivera Aguilar, Juana Garcia Morales, Lisa Sattenspiel, Svenn-Erik Mamelund & Gerardo Chowell (2023): Attitudes and behaviors of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in a predominantly Indigenous population in Mexico: a survey study, Discover Social Science and Health, 3(article 16).
Nan Zou Bakkeli (2023): Predicting COVID-19 exposure risk perception using machine learning, BMC Public Health, 23(article 1377).
Cited by 1 (Google scholar, January 2024)
Andreas Lillebråten, Megan Todd, Jessica Dimka, Nan Zou Bakkeli, Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Socioeconomic status and disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Eastern Oslo, Norway, Public Health in Practice, 5(Junw 2023), 100391.
Cited by 1 (Google scholar, January 2024)
Ingrid Hellem Nygaard, Sushma Dahal, Gerardo Chowell, Lisa Sattenspiel, Hilde Leikny Sommerseth & Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2023): Age-specific mortality and the role of living remotely: The 1918-20 influenza pandemic in Kautokeino and Karasjok, Norway, International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 8(1)
Cited by 5 (Google scholar, January 2024)
Vibeke Nyborg Narverud (2023): “Health policies and fighting epidemic diseases in Scandinavia – different trajectories towards the development of public health and the Nordic welfare model.”, in Olhares cruzados sobre a história da saúde da Idade Média à contemporaneidade (Crossed perspectives on the history of health from the Middle Ages to the present day) edited by Alexandra Esteves & Helena da Silva.
Birgitte Klüwer, Kjersti Margrethe Rydland, Rebecca Nybru Gleditsch, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Ida Laake (2023): Social and demographic patterns of influenza vaccination coverage in Norway, influenza seasons 2014/15 to 2020/21, Vaccine 41(6): 1239-1246.
Cited by 2 (Google scholar, January 2024)
Jessica Dimka (2023): An Agent-Based Simulation Model of Epidemic Spread in a Residential School for Children with Disabilities, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 5(1): 15-28.

Annual report (2022)

masv on 30. January 2023

1. Short presentation of the center – research perspectives and main goals

As witnessed during COVID-19, pandemics are among the largest threats to global health and the world economy. The core idea of PANSOC is that infectious disease pandemics created by influenza or coronaviruses have always been more than just a medical problem. Their epidemiology and impact are profoundly shaped by social and economic structures.

The overarching aim of our research centre is to study historical and modern data to enhance the understanding of social and biological risk factors for severe influenza and COVID-19 outcomes by socioeconomic and ethnic status and to improve pandemic preparedness.

This is the second annual PANSOC report. In the following, we present our 2022 research projects, funded applications, research team, published journal articles and outreach activities.

2. Research projects and funding applications

One of our key projects in 2022, Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes, started in mid-August 2022 and will run to the end of June 2023. This Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) project brings together 15 international researchers with a background in epidemiology, genetics, social sciences and history to study why Indigenous peoples are vulnerable to serious disease during pandemics. PANSOC is the first OsloMet group awarded a stay at CAS at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo.

One of our researchers passed step 1 and was invited to an interview for the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant scheme in September 2022. The application was not funded, but we received financial support from the Research Council of Norway for applicants who got to Step 2 to resubmit to the ERC Consolidator grant program in February 2023.

One of our researchers was successful in receiving a highly prestigious Young CAS Fellowship 2023/2024 for the project Work and Wellbeing in History – CAS. PANSOC is the first OsloMet group to be awarded a Young CAS Fellowship, and to our awareness, we are the first research group to have both a standard CAS-project and a young CAS project at the same time (Spring of 2023). The Young CAS-project will bring together labor historians, economic historians, and labor economists to improve and extend the Historical Occupational Quality Index and integrate historical and present-day job quality measurement.

3. Research team and institutional collaborations

In 2022, the core team has consisted of five people, head (professor Svenn-Erik Mamelund) and co-head (Jessica Dimka) of PANSOC and three post-docs (Margarida Pereira, Benjamin Schneider, and Alexandra Blinkova). Five other researchers have also contributed to various projects, including Andreas Lillebråten, Nan Zou Bakkeli, Daniele Alves, Vibeke Narverud Nyborg and Hilde Orderud. Finally, we also had three master’s students in 2022: Carla Louise Hughes, Lara Maria Dora Steinmetz, and Christina Stylegar Torjussen.

The PANSOC visiting scholars program supports guest researchers to visit Oslo, to present ongoing research, and to discuss potential collaborations. As part of this program, we invited one guest researcher in 2021 (Mathias Ingholt Mølbak, University of Roskilde), one in 2022 (Kaspar Staub, University of Zurich), and after a review of the applications for the 2022/23 program (59 applications from across the globe), we will welcome Kristina Thompson, Wagenigen University (in January 2023) and Natalie Bennet, Newcastle University (in May 2023).

Via the ongoing PANRISK-funded Research Council of Norway project (2020-2023) and the CAS-project 2022/2023, PANSOC collaborates with the Pandemic Center in Bergen (Esperanza Diaz), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Birgitte Klüwer), PandemiX Center, the University of Roskilde (Lone Simonsen, Søren Ørskov, Mathias Mølbak Ingholt), and with researchers at the universities of Umeå (Åke Brännström, Per Axelsson and Peter Sköld), Zürich (Kaspar Staub), ISPUP, Portugal (Ana Isabel Ribeiro), Philadelphia (Megan Todd), Missouri (Lisa Sattenspiel & Taylor P. van Doren), California, Irvine (Andrew Noymer), Michigan (Siddharth Chandra), Arizona (Amanda Wissler, Gerardo Chowell-Puente), Northern British Columbia (Lianne Tripp), Alberta (Courtney Heffernan), Queensland (Katherine Kedzierska), Melbourne (Kirsty Short & Lauren Steele), Auckland (Heather Battles, Marama Muru-Lanning), Otago (Michael Baker), and NIH (Jeffrey Taubenberger).

The team for the Young CAS Project Work and Wellbeing in History is Jane Whittle (University of Exeter), Judy Stephenson (UCL), Robin Philips (University of Utrecht), Vincent Delabastita (Radboud University), and Meredith Paker (Grinnell College).

PANSOC is also associated with MERIT – MothER Income InequaliTy (eeagrants.gov.pt). This project includes the Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Portugal and Centre for Research on Pandemics and Society, OsloMet, Norway (EEA Grants, SGS3A2). The MERIT – MothER Income InequaliTy project will produce knowledge about the impact of motherhood in women’s income and careers and will produce a combination of concrete public policy proposals to minimize asymmetries and promote gender equality in the labour market, especially through motherhood. Research team: Teresa Leão, Joana Amaro, Ana Sofia Maia, Silvia Fraga, Raquel Lucas, Milton Severo, Pedro Norton, (ISPUP, Porto (Portugal) Julien Perelman National School of Public Health (NOVA University of Lisbon), Margarida Pereira, Svenn-Erik Mamelund and Jessica Dimka (PANSOC, OsloMet, Norway).

4. Research outcomes/activities

We published twelve journal articles in 2022, of which two were in highly ranked level 2 journals (in Norway, highly ranked journals are level 2, others at level 1). One paper was published in Annals of Internal Medicine (see paper 1 below). This highly prestigious journal has an impact factor of 25.4 and is considered one of top five in medicine together with JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and The BMJ. Other articles were published in the fields of public health, anthropology, infectious diseases, and computer science. Since the start of PANSOC in January 2021, we have published 24 papers, of which three appeared in highly ranked level 2 journals (13.0%).

Three master’s students who started in 2021, and who have been affiliated with and have had advisors at PANSOC, finished their degrees in 2022 (2 with A’s and 1 with a B). One of the students published a paper based on the thesis in BMC Public Health (see paper 8 below).

In 2022, we held 31 webinars with guest speakers and audience from all parts of the globe (12 in the Spring semester and 9 in the Fall). We have also written several opinion pieces, been interviewed in both national and international newspapers and radio and participated in podcasts on how to keep up the pandemic memory and invest in pandemic preparedness. PANSOC was cited in the second report published by the Norwegian Corona commission. Finally, PANSOC organized and presented at the 2^nd Norwegian Historical Demography Meeting (on zoom) in January 2022 and held a symposium with two internationally prominent guest speakers on the hunt for the virus causing the 1918-20 pandemic at the Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo in November 2022.

5. Summary

PANSOC continues to publish medical- and social science-related pandemic research in high-ranking international journals; we have been successful in getting competitive research grants; our master’s students finish and deliver high quality research on time; and our international PANSOC visiting scholars’ program and webinar series are very popular.

Master’s students finishing in 2022

Carla Louise Hughes – Master’s thesis (2022): The Association Between the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Suicides in Norway.
Lara Maria Dora Steinmetz – Master’s thesis (2022): COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in eastern Oslo: Addressing sociodemographic determinants and main reasons for vaccine hesitancy
Christina Stylegar Torjussen – Master’s thesis (2022): «Dødsseileren» – losjiskipet i Horten: En kvalitativ og kvantitativ analyse av årsakene til den høye dødeligheten på MS «Kong Sverre» under spanskesyken i 1918 [“The Death Ship” – the accommodation ship in Horten: A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the reasons for the high mortality on MS “Kong Sverre” during the Spanish flu in 1918].

Papers published in 2022

Kaspar Staub, Radoslaw Panczak, Katrina L. Matthes, Joël Floris, Claudia Berlin, Christoph Junker, Rolf Weitkunat, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Marcel Zwahlen, Julien Riou (2022): Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain. Annals of Internal Medicine.
Nan Zou Bakkeli (2022): Predicting Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Do Socioeconomic Factors Matter? Social Science Computer Review (level 2 journal)
Jessica Dimka, Taylor P. van Doren and Heather T. Battles (2022): Pandemics, past, and present: The role of biological anthropology in interdisciplinary pandemic studies. Yearbook of Biological Anthropology, 178 (Suppl. 74): 256-291.
Daniele E. Alves, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Jessica Dimka, Lone Simonsen, Mathias Mølbak, Søren Ørskov, Lisa Sattenspiel, Lianne Tripp, Andrew Noymer, Gerardo Chowell-Puente, Sushma Dahal, Taylor P. Van Doren, Amanda Wissler, Courtney Heffernan, Kirsty Renfree Short, Heather Battles, Michael G. Baker (2022): Indigenous peoples and pandemics. Scandinavian Journal of Public health, 50 (6), 662-666.
Esperanza Diaz, Jessica Dimka and Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2022): Disparities in the offer of COVID-19 vaccination to migrants and non-migrants in Norway: a cross sectional survey study. BMC Public Health, 22, 1288.
Sushma Dahal, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Ruiyan Lua, Lisa Sattenspiel, Shannon Self-Brown, Gerardo Chowell (2022): Investigating COVID-19 transmission and mortality differences between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Mexico. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 122, 910-920.
Christina Stylegar Torjussen and Svenn-Erik Mamelund (2022): Extreme Overcrowding and Extreme Lethality During the 1918Influenza Pandemic. American Journal of Public Health, 112 (10), 1372-1373.
Lara Steinmetz (2022): Sociodemographic predictors of and main reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in eastern Oslo: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 22, 1878.
Pereira, Margarida; Bakkeli, Nan Zou; Dimka, Jessica; Mamelund, Svenn-Erik. “Identifying obesity and COVID-19 overlapping risk-factors: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis”. Journal of Public Health Research 11 3 (2022): 227990362211065. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/22799036221106584.
Correia, Gustavo; Pereira, Margarida; Gomes, Andreia; Bragança, Maria do Rosário; Weber, Silke; Ferreira, Maria Amélia; Ribeiro, Laura (2022). “Predictors of Medical Students’ Views towards Research: Insights froma Cross-Cultural Study among Portuguese-speaking Countries”. Healthcare 10 2 (2022): 336. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/2/336#cite.
Pyzikov, Denis D; Blinkova, Alexandra; Khizhaya, Tatiana I. (2022). Libraries of Orthodox Theological Schools of the Russian Empire. Bylye Gody. Vol. 17. https://bg.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1669898969.p…

Annual Report (2021)

masv on 6. April 2022

Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)

1. Short presentation of the center – research perspectives and main goals

PANSOC is an internationally innovative research center that uses social science approaches to understand the past and present effects of pandemics. Similar centers have appeared at several prestigious universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, but only PANSOC has members that have been researching pandemics for over 25 years using social science and historical perspectives. Most of the other pandemic centers have their origins in medical schools, are primarily concerned with biomedical challenges, and only examine recent infectious diseases outbreaks. The extensive expertise and unique perspective of PANSOC’s researchers enable us to advance the global scientific frontier and contribute to important public and policy debates.

The creation of the center is mainly due to OsloMet’s investment in five Centres of Research Excellence (CRE), as well as individual researchers’ efforts to secure external research funding in Norway (FRIPRO) and in the EU (ERC) since 2016, in cooperation with the R&D department at OsloMet. PANSOC is not a further development of the existing research groups, and pandemic studies were not a focus research field at OsloMet until 2021.

2. Research projects and funding applications

In order to build up PANSOC from scratch, it has been absolutely necessary to win external research funding. The center has received funding from the EU (MSCA) and two programs in the Norwegian Research Council (PANRISK: funded by the SAMRISK program, with a top score of 7 in all areas, and CorRisk: COVID emergency call). We have also succeeded in obtaining funding for a stay at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters in Oslo from August 2022 to June 2023. During the latter 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.

PANSOC sent three applications for pandemic studies to Excellence pillars in the EU and Norway including MSCA (12 October 2021 deadline, with a researcher from the University of St. Petersburg, Russia), Young CAS Fellow (9 December 2021 deadline) and ERC starting grant (13 January 2022 deadline). We also sent one proposal for an EEA Grant, which was funded (in collaboration with ISPUP, Portugal).

3. Research team and institutional collaborations

PANSOC consists of 16 researchers/scholars with a diversity of international backgrounds, experience, gender and age. Only the head of PANSOC, Professor Svenn-Erik Mamelund, is permanently employed. The co-leader, Jessica Dimka (PhD in anthropology from the University of Missouri), came to OsloMet in 2019 as a MSCA fellow. With CRE and RCN funding, two postdoctoral fellows have been employed, and they come from the highly renowned University of Coimbra, Portugal (Margarida Pereira, a geographer, since May 2021), and the University of Oxford, England (Benjamin Schneider, an economic historian, since March 2022). PANSOC also has three master’s students, two from OsloMet’s master’s program «International Social Welfare and Health Policy» (Lara Steinmetz from the Netherlands and Carla Hughes from England) who are supported by stipends from CRE funds, and one history student from University of Southeast Norway (USN) (Christina Stylegar Torjussen). Our MA students have contributed to our academic activities including presenting at internal meetings, PANSOC webinars, conferences, and taking part in interviews with media and in podcasts. Our 3 MA students are expected to submit their thesis in the Spring of 2022.

An associate history professor from USN has spent her research time on pandemic projects in collaboration with PANSOC. Five researchers from the Work Research Institute and Consumption Research Norway at OsloMet, as well as two research assistants, have contributed to various projects.

Additionally, the growing profile of PANSOC has attracted guest scholars. A fourth year PhD student in demography from The European University Institute, Florence, (Hilde Orderud) is a guest researcher at PANSOC in 2021-22. For a week in December 2021, PANSOC was also visited by a guest researcher from the University of Roskilde (historian Mathias Mølbak Ingholt), and future visits are also planned by other international colleagues (e.g., Prof. in history Kaspar Staub, University of Zürich, who will stay for a week in May 2022).

Via the ongoing PANRISK-funded RCN project and the upcoming CAS-stay, PANSOC collaborates with the Pandemic Center in Bergen (Esperanza Diaz), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Birgitte Klüwer), PandemiX Center, the University of Roskilde (Lone Simonsen, Søren Ørskov, Mathias Mølbak Ingholt), and with researchers at the universities of Umeå (Åke Brännström), Zürich (Kaspar Staub), ISPUP, Portugal (Ana Isabel Ribeiro), Philadelphia (Megan Todd), Missouri (Lisa Sattenspiel & Taylor P. van Doren), California, Irvine (Andrew Noymer), Michigan (Siddharth Chandra), Arizona (Amanda Wissler, Gerardo Chowell-Puente), Northern British Columbia (Lianne Tripp), Alberta (Courtney Heffernan), Queensland (Katherine Kedzierska), Melbourne (Kirsty Short & Lauren Steele), Auckland (Heather Battles) and Otago (Michael Baker).

4. Research outcomes/activities

During 2021, PANSOC published 13 articles in internationally recognized journals (paper 1 below at level 2); gave 18 invited keynote speeches at international universities (16 talks, e.g. at annual Posthumus Conference in the Netherlands & a conference at University of Ottawa) and at the United Nations (2 talks on resp. COVID-19 and fertility and COVID-19 and indigenous peoples) and presented at a number of conferences; were interviewed several times by Norwegian and international newspapers (e.g. Der Spiegel), radio stations (e.g. National German Radio program post Deutchlandfunk Kultur), podcasts (e.g. Viten & Snakkis and Infectious Historians Podcast) and TV; and wrote 9 invited op eds (e.g. in Aftenposten and Morgenbladet). On 27 September 2021, the question “What can we learn from the history of pandemics and the Covid-19 situation,” specifically regarding mental health, was discussed in a panel conversation organized by OsloMet University library and with 3 panelists from PANSOC (Nan Zou Bakkeli, Carla Hughes, and Jessica Dimka).

The first report from the Norwegian Corona Commission was presented 14 April 2021. PANSOC contributed by delivering an invited report and the report cites several of our op eds and also scientific journal publications (e.g. article 9 in appendix 1 below). This shows that our work has had clear political impact also in a Norwegian context.

PANSOC began to organize a webinar series in spring 2021, which has had nearly 30 talks to date, given by international researchers with participants from most world regions. The presentations encompass the breadth of research by PANSOC’s members and our many global collaborators, showcasing work on the social, economic, political, and cultural impacts and aspects of past pandemics as well as COVID-19.

PANSOC organized and hosted the 2nd Norwegian Historical Demography Meeting (NHDM) 17-18 January 2022. The first NHDM was held in Trondheim 1-2 December 2019. The planned NHDMs in 2020 and 2021 were postponed due to COVID-19 but was held this time on Zoom. In total, 13 talks from colleagues across 6 universities in Scandinavia were held in 6 sessions. Carla Hughes, Christina Stylegar Torjussen, Jessica Dimka and Svenn-Erik Mamelund were PANSOC members presenting.

The outstanding quality of PANSOC’s junior researchers and leadership team have both been recognized in the last year. A PANSOC’s master’s student was named “Student of the Year” at OsloMet (Carla Hughes), and another student won the award for best presentation at a student and research conference in Bergen (Christina Stylegar Torjussen). PANSOC’s leader, Professor Mamelund, was also nominated for “Name of the Year in Academia” by readers of the newspaper Khrono.

5. Summary

During 2021 and to date, PANSOC has attracted some of the best international students and researchers doing social science and historical research on pandemics, sent applications to excellence pillars in funding entities, published many articles in top international journals, shared our research findings with the national and international public, and our research has had clear policy impact.

Papers published in 2021: