TFF Associates & Themes Blog

Majken Jul Sørensen became TFF Associate in 2013

Photo: Jonas Jonzon

majken.sorensen@gmail.com

Education

2011- present
PhD student, University of Wollongong

2005-2006:
1 year MA programme, Peace and Reconciliation studies, Coventry University, UK. Including a dissertation of 15.000 words.

2003-2005:
BA in Sociology, University of Tromsø, Norway. Including a bachelor project of 30 pages.

2002-2003:
One year part time study in “peace work”, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

1998-2001:
Training as “Social Educator”, Hillerød Pædagogseminarium, Denmark. “Social Educator” is a professional qualification for working with children and adults in difficult situations.

1993-1996:
Upper Secondary School, language line, Allerød Gymnasium, Denmark

Work

2011-2012
Course coordinator for MACS390, “Media, War and Peace” at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Responsibilities included developing the course, lecturing, running tutorials and marking in the summer session.

2006-2012:
Guest lecturing about nonviolent social change, revolutions, humour, poverty, culture, boycotts and related topics at university level at:

University of Gothenburg, Sweden
University West, Sweden
Globalverkstan (The Global Workshop), Sweden

Speeches for the general public about the same topics arranged by civil society organisations.

2007- 2011
Advisor at Østfold County Council, Norway. Responsible for including minority perspectives in local democray and playing the role of “ombud” for immigrants, disabled and elderly people within the county administration. From 2009 also project manager for Østfold county as pilot county for Universal Design

April 2004:
One month as field assistant in Sri Lanka. The University of Tromsø was conducting an external evaluation of Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organisation doing nonviolent citizens’ interventions. As field assistant I was interviewing international volunteers in the pilot project in Sri Lanka.

2001-2003:
Full time work as Social Educator at “Øresundsskolen”, Denmark, in a group for children with multiple disabilities.

Organisational work

2004 – 2008
Executive Committee of War Resisters’ International, an international network of pacifist and anti-militarist organisations. Responsibilities as executive member include assisting in organising conferences and seminars, developing and prioritising strategies for the political work of the International, and hiring and liaising with staff members.

1998- 2010
Council member of Aldrig Mere Krig, the Danish section of War Resisters’ International. As council member I have served as treasurer for two years, participated in organising national meetings and seminars and been coordinator of international work.

1997- 2010
Council member of War Resisters’ International, representing Aldrig Mere Krig.

Dissertation

Sørensen, Majken Jul, “Humour as Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression”, MA dissertation, Coventry University, September 2006.

Conference presentations

Sørensen, Majken Jul “Humour as a Serious Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression”, paper presented at 2nd National Conference on Peace Research, Gothenburg, Sweden, September 7-8, 2006 (in English)

Sørensen, Majken Jul “Developing a Framework for Understanding the Complexity of External Support for Nonviolent Social Movements”, paper presented at the conference “Unarmed Resistance: The Transnational Factor”, The Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies, Coventry University, July 13-17, 2006 (in English)

Publications

Book
Sørensen, Majken Jul På barrikaderne for fred – inspirerende historier om ikkevold, Irene Publishing, 2012

Edited book
Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul (Eds.) Women Conscientious Objectors – An Anthology, War Resisters’ International, 2010

Book chapters
Sørensen, Majken Jul “Swedish Womens’s Civil Defence Refusal 1935-1956” in Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul (Eds.) Women Conscientious Objectors – An Anthology, War Resisters’ International, 2010, pages 33-37

Sorensen, Majken “Humour and Nonviolent Actions” in Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns, War Resisters’ International 2009, pages 67-71.

Book chapters with others
Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul “Introduction” in Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul (Eds.) Women Conscientious Objectors – An Anthology, War Resisters’ International, 2010, pages 15-22

Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul “Women’s Conscientious Objection as a Strategy Against Militarism” in Elster, Ellen & Sørensen, Majken Jul (Eds.) Women Conscientious Objectors – An Anthology, War Resisters’ International, 2010, pages 139-151

Articles in peer reviewed journals
Sørensen, Majken Jul and Martin, Brian “Dilemma actions: analysis of an activist technique” forthcoming 2014 in Peace & Change.

Sørensen, Majken Jul “Humorous political stunts: Speaking ‘truth’ to power?” in European Journal of Humour Research Vol. 1, no 2(1), 2013

Sørensen, Majken Jul and Vinthagen, Stellan “Nonviolent Resistance and Culture” in Peace & Change vol. 37, no. 3 (July 2012)

Sørensen, Majken Jul “Humour as a Serious Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression” in Peace & Change vol.33, no. 2 (April 2008)

Sørensen, Majken Jul “Competing Discourses of Aggression and Peacefulness” in Peace Rewiew vol. 19, no. 4 (October – December 2007)

Sørensen, Majken Jul,“Ukraines orange revolution efteråret 2004: Hvad kan teori om sociale bevægelser forklare?”[Ukraine’s Orange Revolution Autumn 2004: What can theory of social movements explain?] in Sosiologisk årbok [Yearbook of Sociology] pages 35-70, no. 2, 2005. Oslo: Novus forlag

Other articles
Sørensen, Majken Jul, “Ukraines orange revolution” [Ukraine’s Orange Revolution] in Ikkevold [Nonviolence], pages 10-13, no. 2, 2005

Sørensen, Majken Jul, “Ikkevold på Serbisk” [Nonviolence the Serbian way] in Ikkevold [Nonviolence], pages 12-15, no. 2. 2003