Researcher
Natalia Moen-Larsen
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Natalia Moen-Larsen is a senior research fellow in the Research group for Eastern Europe and Asia. Her research interests are culture and national identity, inter-ethnic tensions, migration, and nationalism. In addition, Moen-Larsen is interested in political communication, the use of traditional and digital media, and the spread of disinformation and misinformation in Russia.
Moen-Larsen holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Oslo. The PhD examines what three Russian national newspapers wrote about refugees from Ukraine who came to Russia in the spring of 2014 and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa who went to Europe during the "refugee crisis" in 2015. The thesis also discusses the connection between representations of refugees in Russian newspapers and notions of Russia's place in the world and about the West as Russia's adversary.
Moen-Larsen is the editor in chief of Nordisk Østforum, the Nordic journal for East European and Post-Soviet studies.
Expertise
Education
2022 PhD of Sociology at the University of Oslo
2009 MA of Sociology at the University of Oslo
Work Experience
2022- Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
2015-2022 PhD Candidate, UiO
2013-2022 Research Fellow, NUPI
2011 Junior Research Fellow, NUPI
2010 Intern, NUPI
2010 Seminar leader, Institute of Sociology, UiO
Aktivitet
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Breakfast seminar: Challenges with organizing post-war elections in Ukraine
This seminar will provide a space for informed discussion on the legal, operational, security and societal dimensions of post-war electoral preparedness in Ukraine.
National network for competence on Russia (RUSSNETT 2026)
The national network for competence on Russia aims to preserve and further develop Norwegian knowledge of Russia across sectors in Norway. ...
Social trust and resilience: Recent findings from Ukraine
In this seminar we will launch the NUPI Ukraine Centre and present fresh data from the first face-to-face street survey completed in Kyiv since the Russian full-scale invasion.
Meaning-Making in Times of Trouble: COVID-19 Conspiracies on Russian Telegram
Many Russians harbor distrust toward government institutions and official information. Amid the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, they turned to social media for advice. This article analyzes how the Russian-language Telegram channel “COVID Resistance” contributed to the process of making sense of the situation. Based on a close reading of selected posts, we reconstruct four conspiratorial narratives promoted by this channel: “toxic vaccines,” “fascistoid restrictions,” “coronavirus as a hoax,” and “besieged nation.” We find that these narratives, despite often contradicting each other, served as a form of meaning-making, offering explanations that helped ordinary people navigate the crisis.
Three Books on Aleksei Navalny
(This essay is in Norwegian): In the wake of Alexei Navalny’s death in February 2024, several books have been published about the opposition leader. This essay will address three of these: "Patriot" (2024), written by Navalny himself, "Aleksej Navalnyj. Å drepe en fremtid (2024)" [Alexei Navalny. Killing a Future], written by John Færseth, and "Murder in the Gulag. The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny" (2024), written by John Sweeney. These are not academic books, and they are not written for an academic audience. How do these books contribute to the study of Russia and international relations? "Patriot" sheds light on two important themes: ideas one can be punished for in today’s authoritarian Russia and what this punishment can, in the worst case, entail. The books about Navalny written by Færseth and Sweeney are interesting examples of how Western actors articulate Russia. Sweeney in particular, draws on a black/white, villain/hero perspective and thus contributes to cementing the idea of Russia as the West’s ‘other’.
National network for competence on Russia (RUSSNETT 2025)
The national network for competence on Russia aims to preserve and further develop Norwegian knowledge of Russia across sectors in Norway. ...
Hvem skal bestemme over internett?
Hvordan havnet internett – en gang et fritt og grenseløst rom – i kryssilden mellom stormakter, sensur og geopolitikk? Hvem er det egentlig som ha...
A year of War–National Attitudes in Romania and Norway
This text presents a comparative examination of the results of the two public opinion polls conducted in Romania and Norway in Spring 2023 with focus on national perceptions of various aspects of security in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine.