MIRIAM AURORA HAMMEREN PEDERSEN
Social anthropologist, writer, intersectional feminist, minority rights activist
Pronouns: She/her
Welcome to my homepage!
I am an openly transgender, neurodivergent, lesbian woman. I was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1990, and I currently live in the city of my birth.
By training I am a social anthropologist, holding a PhD in anthropology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed in 2020 under the supervision of Professor Francis B. Nyamnjoh. I lived in Cape Town for the entirety of my three-year PhD period. Furthermore, I hold an MPhil in social anthropology (2016, under the supervision of Professor Ingjerd Hoëm) and a BA in interdisciplinary development studies (2013), both from the University of Oslo. My main field of interest within anthropology is ethnic and racial relations, and especially the concept of Whiteness. I have done ethnographic fieldwork in Fiji, Norway, Romania, and South Africa.
In addition to my academic education, I am a professionally certified scuba diver (PADI Divemaster) with a current total of 218 logged dives in 10 different countries. My international experience also includes a year in the USA in 2002-2003, as well as six months in Kenya in 2009-2010, where I worked mainly as a full-time volunteer for a women's empowerment organisation.
I have been active in queer/trans communities and related scenes for a number of years and in various capacities, including as a national board member of the Norwegian Patient Organisation for Gender Incongruence (POGI / PKI) and a member of the Queer and Intersectional Committees of Neurodiversity Norway, and I have participated in reference groups for several projects related to LGBTQ+ topics. Since January 2021 I have been working full-time as an advisor for FRI, the Norwegian Organisation for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
Writing is a passion of mine, and I have a long list of publications to my name. From 2020 to 2022, I was a regular contributor and intermittent editor at the feminist blog collective Maddam. In 2022, I became the first openly transgender woman in Norway to publish a collection of poetry, En balansert debatt.
I am a proponent of intersectional and trans-inclusive feminism, and a strong supporter of sex positivity and body positivity. Anti-racism is very important to me, and the cause of Norway's national minorities is particularly close to my heart. I proudly identify as Norwegian, Romani, and Forest Finn. I am a co-founder of the Forest Finn youth organisation Unge skogfinner i Norge / Norjan metsäsuomalaisnuoret, and I have hosted a Norwegian-language podcast on Forest Finn topics, Skogfinske samtaler, available on Spotify. In 2024, I wrote and published what is probably the first-ever text in a revitalised form of the Forest Finn language, the poem Sanatuul/Ordvind.
Some of my other passions and interests are history, genealogy, linguistics, music, and collectibles.
MORE ABOUT ME
My most recent work experience
Appearances in podcasts and other media, modelling, etc.
Proud Associate of Belle & Co since 2018
