Fredrik Barth and the study of ethnicity: Reflections on ethnic identity in a world of global political, economic and cultural changes Fredrik Barth and the study of ethnicity: Reflections on ethnic identity in a world of global political, economic and cultural changes. Interview with Professor Gunnar Haaland
Abstract
Gunnar Haaland was born in 1938 in Norway, and was awarded Magister Artium in Social Anthropology in 1966. His research has focused on human ecology, economic anthropology, ethnic relations, and socio-cultural evolution.
He has pursued these interests in applied and basic research in several countries, most importantly Sudan, Nepal and Bangladesh. From 1967 to 1981 he was employed as lecturer at department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, from 1981 to 1988 as Senior Researcher at Christian Michelsen's Institute in Bergen, and from 1988 to 2007 as Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen.
When on leave from the University of Bergen he was in 1972 and 1973 employed as a lecturer at the University of Karthoum, Sudan, and in 1976 and 1977 as a Director of the Social Sciences at The International Livestock Centre for Africa in Addis Ababa. He has worked as a consultant for The World Bank, FAO, IFAD, ILO as well as various NGOs in about 20 countries in Africa and Asia.
Between 1993 and 2008 he was heavily involved in cooperation with universities in Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda) and in Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh and China).