I was born in Stavanger, Norway to Norwegian and American parents. I was raised in Stavanger and in Aberdeen, Scotland, eventually completing high school at the International School of Stavanger. After some sixteen years on the coast of the North Sea, I moved to the United States, living in Washington state, New York City, and Boston while pursuing my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I have also lived over half a dozen years in East Asia, studying in Japan, China, and Korea.

As a lecturer in history I focus my energies on the study of the aftermaths of modern war, especially on issues of collaboration, political retribution, decolonization, and civil wars in the aftermath of World War II. I am also interested in the colonial histories of Korea and Taiwan, in the history of Sino-Japanese cultural and political relations, and the modern intellectual history of Japan.

I write occasionally Frog in a Well, a group blog I founded in 2004 for historians of China, Japan, and Korea. I have contributed as an author to ProfHacker, help manage the online presence of the open access journal Sino-Japanese Studies at ChinaJapan.org, created an online repository of a Shoebox of Norwegian Letters, and before devoting myself to graduate studies in history, tinkered with programming educational related software and websites over at Fool’s Workshop.

Download Short CV (2016.4)