On Friday 17 April 2026, Gardening’s PhD candidate, Karin Lillevold, excellently defended her thesis «Performing wilderness: Tensions of muskox attraction and reindeer protection in Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park».
The objective of Karin’s research has been to critically examine how the protective aims of Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park are enacted in practice through the
management and valuation of wild reindeer and muskoxen, alongside the regulation of
visitors. She did her fieldwork in the mountains of Dovrefjell between 2022 and 2024, conducting what she calls multispecies encounters ethnography. By examining tensions of human–muskox–reindeer relations and in the management of the national park, she has addressed questions of belonging in the Norwegian mountains and what exactly is wilderness and untouched nature are considered to be.
Karin Lillevold and supervisor Kyrre Kverndokk. Photo: Marit Ruge Bjærke