About
Dr. Victor Lund Shammas is Head of Department and Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Agder in Norway. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Oslo (2017) and has previously 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 Substack newsletter and blog on global politics, culture, and social theory called The Theory Brief: theorybrief.com.
Contact
Dept. of Sociology and Social Work
University of Agder
PO Box 422, 4604 Kristiansand, Norway