An OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence studying the societal aspects of pandemics
If you missed the webinar “The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic for First Nations Peoples and Communities: the role of leadership and governance in addressing policy gaps and barriers to access” by Dr. Marcia Anderson, catch up here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PZc4GDE_4kImJFqKSVcFVPYWXsfbZ1rq/view?usp=sharing
Other past webinars can be found here:
In this paper, our team has documented social disparities in the COVID-19 vaccine uptake but only among those aged 18-29 years. Read more here: Socioeconomic status and disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Eastern Oslo, Norway – ScienceDirect
Over the past year, we at PANSOC have had the pleasure of hosting a large international team of researchers behind the Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes project at Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science & Letters in Oslo, Norway. This interdisciplinary research project has sought to explore the complex factors that contribute to the severe influenza outcomes often experienced by Indigenous communities in Northern Europe, North America and Oceania.
As the project comes to an end, Centre leader of PANSOC and head of the CAS-project, Professor Mamelund, has given his reflections on the project, its findings, and the future of pandemic research in an interview at CAS. Read more here: End Interview: Social Science Meets Biology | CAS (cas-nor.no)
Dr. Bennett is our second PANSOC visiting scholar this semester. Bennett is at the Population Health Sciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University.
Dr. Bennett is presenting two times this week at the Centre for Advanced study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The first presentation is titled “Geographical inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination and mortality” and the second is a workshop on Structural Equation Modelling.
Jessica Dimka, co-head of PANSOC, just got the news that she is invited to do an ERC consolidator interview.
Maria is an incoming researcher at the OsloMet Center for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC). Maria graduated with an MSc in Statistics from the University of Copenhagen in 2016 and will defend her PhD thesis on 11th of July 2023 in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Zurich which she started in 2020. The topic of her PhD is time-varying transmission weights in endemic-epidemic models which she has applied to COVID-19 surveillance and leveraged to examine policy questions such as what is the impact of social distancing measures and would a different vaccine distribution scheme have led to greater societal protection.
She has a keen interest in environmental epidemiology and infectious disease modelling. She has previously worked at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Public Health England, and the World Health Organization (WHO) and has enjoyed learning how interdisciplinary research is used in policy making at various governmental levels. At ECDC her focus was on vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly modelling herpes zoster and understanding how national immunisation task action groups operated in European Union member states.
At Public Health England she did a project on the black death modelling the risk of death in periods of known outbreaks compared with periods without and this interest in historical epidemiology was further honed during her time at the University of Zurich where she did a project on syphilis in the sixteenth century constructed around stigma.
Maria will be working with Svenn-Erik Mamelund and Jessica Dimka at PANSOC and will be developing a grant application during her time at OsloMet. Her current research interests are environment, infectious diseases and vaccines, public health emergencies, and disasters (both natural and human-caused) as well as open science and good scientific practices.
PANSOC welcomes applications for our Visiting Researcher program during the 2023-2024 academic year. Preference will be given to senior researchers with demonstrated potential for obtaining external funding.
Two applicants will be selected based on their research experience and interests and the requirement that they contribute concrete ideas for – and at least initial drafting of – grant proposals during their stay (minimum 2 weeks, preferably up to 4 weeks). These proposals will be led by the candidates with PANSOC as a partner and submitted to local funding bodies corresponding to the researchers’ affiliations/countries or to the Research Council of Norway or NordForsk with us as PI, as appropriate.
We encourage applications from researchers in all fields with interests in the social and biological aspects of historical, current, and future pandemics. We are particularly interested in topics such as:
The visiting researcher program will cover transportation costs to Oslo and accommodations up to 50,000 NOK.
Please send 1) a CV, 2) a description (1-2 pages) of your idea for a joint proposal, 3) tentative budget for the visit, and 4) anticipated timing or availability for travel to Oslo to Svenn-Erik Mamelund (masv@oslomet.no).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 June 2023
Watch Courtney Heffernan, University of Alberta, talk about “Tuberculosis elimination in low prevalence settings: research and implementation” here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hMHcehOHZC9_CKCRlgWd37u1VIBQkbRe/view?usp=share_link
And be sure to catch up on other past webinars too:
The final PANSOC webinar of the semester will be on 27 April at 1600 Oslo time. Dr. Marcia Anderson will present: “The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic for First Nations Peoples and Communities: the role of leadership and governance in addressing policy gaps and barriers to access.” Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.
Dr. Marcia Anderson is Cree-Anishinaabe and grew up in the North End of Winnipeg. Her family roots go to Peguis First Nation and Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba. She practices both Internal Medicine and Public Health. She is the Vice-Dean, Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism and the Executive Director of Indigenous Academic Affairs in the Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. She serves as the Chair of the Indigenous Health Committee of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the Chair of the National Consortium for Indigenous Medical Education. She was recognized for her contributions to Indigenous Peoples health with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in March 2011. In 2018 and 2022 she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network. In 2021 she received the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award, and in 2022 was named the Doctors Manitoba Physician of the Year. She was also the recipient of a Community Development Award from the Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2022.
If you missed Helga E. Bories-Sawala’s webinar, The forgotten pandemic that created today’s America: A look at the history textbooks of Québec, catch up here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wvyonGLl33j1OfbggRV-q5yrdRfrezLv/view?usp=sharing
And other past webinars can be found here:
