Tanja Winther

Academic Interests

• Electrification, socio-technical and cultural aspects (Author of The impact of electricity:Development, Desires and Dilemmas, Berghahn Books, 2008)
• Sustainable energy consumption
• Gender relations
• Fieldwork: Tanzania (Zanzibar), Kenya, India, Malawi, Norway

Current Projects

• Include - A research centre for socially inclusive energy transition (RCN, 2020-2027)

Former Projects

• Coping With Power Cuts (CREE), RCN, 2017-19 
• CREE – Oslo Centre for Research on Environmentally friendly Energy, NRC, 2011-19
• Exploring Factors that Enhance or restrict Women's Empowerment through Electrification (EFEWEE), DIFD, UK, 2015-18.
• Power from the People? Driving forces and hindrances, RCN 2015-18. Project led by CICERO  on the role of prosumers in Norway (households producing solar PV electricity).
• AidEffect, RCN, 2014-16. Project led by Dan Banik: Impacts of Norwegian and Chinese Development Assistance in Malawi and Zambia
• Solar Transitions/Solar xChange, NRC, 2009-12/2013-15
• Energy savings - From Regulation to Realisation (ESPARR), RCN, 2012-15
• Do customer information programs influence energy consumption? RCN, 2009-2012

Current positions

• Employed by the University of Oslo (2006-)
• Board member UiO:Energy (2017-)

Courses taught

I currently teach in the following courses:

• SUM4502 INCLUDE - Socially Inclusive Energy Transition
• SUM4019 – Consumption, Sustainability and Social Change
• ISSSUM4180 - Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, Oslo International Summer School (graduate Level)

Previously course leader/lecturer:

• SUM4100 - Research Methods and Project Design (graduate)
• SUM4200 - Key Issues in Development and Environment (graduate)
• Women, Energy and Health: Questioning Current Paradigms for Development and Social Change (Ph.D. course), academic leader
• Consumption, Capitalism and Everyday Life: Understanding the Social Dimensions of the Growth Imperative (Ph.D. course 2014)
• The Norwegian Research School in Renewable Energy, NorRen (Ph.D.)
• Energiskolen. Teaching High School students about sustainable energy. With Blindern High School and Statnett.
• UTV1000 - Innføringsemne i utviklingsstudier (undergraduate)
• SUM1000 - Miljø og utvikling (undergraduate), academic leader
• SUM3000/4000 - Development and Environment: From Theory to Practice (undergraduate/graduate)
• SUM4012 - Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Environment (graduate)

• External Examinor at Durham University, UK, at the Master's programme:

• Energy and Society

Background and former positions of trust

• 2016-17 Deputy member of Board UiO:Energy 
• 2014-17 Board member EnPe, Norad/NTNU
• 2012-15 Member/Deputy Chair, UiO North-South Committee, University of Oslo
• 2009-13 Board Member, Minor Foundation for Major Challenges, Oslo
• 2007-08 Board Member, The Steiner School in Bærum, Norway
• 2006-08 Member/Secretary, the Reference Group for the Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (TFESSD), the World Bank.
• 2005 Dr. polit., Social Anthropology, University of Oslo
• 1995 Business Administration, BI, Oslo
• 1991 Master in Power Engineering, University of Trondheim (NTNU)