Siri Hansen Pedersen

Siri Hansen Pedersen is a research assistant at the Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism. She holds an M.Phil. in Comparative Politics, and a combined Bachelor degree in Comparative Politics and Economics. Siri’s fields of expertise is comparative politics, public opinion, political-economic perspectives, and quantitative research methods.

Siri has previously worked as a seminar leader for courses in methods for the social sciences and courses in political economy at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen.

What does a typical day for you look like?

I usually start my day by checking the news. On my way to work I often stop by the local café for a coffee to bring with me to the office. The coffee is and the highpoint of my mornings, it is not the same without. Then I start my day by checking my email and do what is on the agenda.

What is your background?

I started by taking a combined bachelor degree in Comparative Politics and Economics, but I thought that the economic curricula was too embedded in neoclassical theories and neglected the vast amount of other perspectives, so I decided to take a master’s degree in Comparative Politics. The relationship between the state, market and citizens is something is have had a keen interest in and working here at the Centre is a great opportunity to expanded on this empirically by looking at child care systems.

What is the best thing about your job?

Where to start! I would say that it is a privileged to work with and meeting so many intellectual people, within different disciplines. This is highly valuable, and a great opportunity to gain insight in other research disciplines. Being able to work with something I am passionate for is fantastic. I also like that it is so many different and varied tasks, hardly no days are alike.

… and the worst?

Technical problems.. I am quite depended on these during a workday, so it always a boomer when there is a computer, internet or printer issue.

Is there a specific book within your field you’d recommend?

Well, there are so many, but I would definitely recommend The Lady Tasting Tea: How statistics revolutionized science in the twentieth century by David Salsburg. The books give a well-written historic perspective on how statistics as a science came about in the early 1900s and has developed over the past years. It might not sound appealing to read a book about statistics, but it is really worth your while for understanding how and why statistics is so dominant within the social and natural sciences. The author also express critical considerations regarding the dominant perspective within statistics and misunderstanding and misuses of statistics as a scientific method.

A TV-show you are binging this spring?

The Mafia kills only in the summer, a series on HBO Nordic. The story is set in Palermo in the late 1970s, and is manly about a young boy. The series portrays how the boy and his family are affected and get involved with the Sicilian mafia, characterized the city at that time. It is sort of a black comedy, and I cannot wait to see the rest.

What’s on your nightstand?

A book, which I have not read yet. The Leopard by the Sicilian author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which is a story about the decline of a wealthy family among the structural social and economic upheavals in the start of the twentieth century. I like the idea of reading novels before bed, but I have not gotten into it yet.