About
Dr. Victor Lund Shammas is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway. Formerly, he was Head of Department (2023–2026) and Associate Professor (2021–2026) in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Oslo (2017) and has also worked as Senior Researcher at the Work Research Institute (AFI), Oslo Metropolitan University.
His research interests include comparative penology, political economy, critical theory, ethnographic methods, and political theology. He has been a visiting scholar/doctoral student at Stanford University (2017), Stockholm University (2015), and the University of California, Berkeley (2015–2016), and he has served as Deputy Head of the Norwegian National Academic Council for Sociology (Nasjonalt fagorgan for sosiologi), 2023–2024.
His work has appeared in journals such as Constellations, Punishment & Society, Critical Criminology, Capital & Class, and the British Journal of Criminology, with more than 70,000 article views on Academia.edu and ResearchGate and nearly 1,000 citations on Google Scholar.
His work has been supported by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) with an IDEALAB grant totaling 7 million NOK (around $900,000), 2016–2020. He has reviewed scientific publications and projects for journals, publishers, and funders such as the European Research Council, Law & Social Inquiry, European Journal of Criminology, Qualitative Sociology, and Incarceration, with more than 60 credited peer review contributions, according to Web of Science.
In recent years, he has advised Senator Bernie Sanders, then-Chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, on the topic of outer space policy, and has appeared on Al Jazeera English’s news panel show, Inside Story. He has lectured in the Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, on Marx’s Capital, and participated in academic conferences across Europe and the United States.
He writes a regular newsletter about global politics, culture, and social theory, The Theory Brief: theorybrief.com.
News
- Presented paper on “oligarchic infrastructure”. Comparative Political Economy (CPE) seminar, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen.
- PhD defense, Stockholm University. Member of the grading committee (betygsnämnd) for Emelí Lönnqvist’s dissertation on pre-trial detention, Department of Criminology, Stockholm University.
- Essay on who governs outer space. “Silicon Valley i verdensrummet”, Udenrigs. On Elon Musk, SpaceX, and the alliance of Silicon Valley capital and American state power beyond Earth.
- New position at the University of Bergen. Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences.
- Concluded term as Head of Department. Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder (2023–2026).