Liv Tørres appointed Professor at Wits

Executive Director Liv Tørres at the Nobel Peace Center is appointed Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Tørres holds a PhD in political science from the University of Oslo, where she wrote her thesis on the political impact of South African trade unions. She has lived in South Africa for long periods and was connected to the University of Cape Town and Wits in the late 80s and early 90s. Later on in the late 90s she set up and run the research Center for Applied Social Studies Fafo in Johannesburg. She has kept updated on the development in the country ever since and next week she will be talking at the Annual Labour Law Conference in Johannesburg. Her professoriate will comprise approximately two teaching weeks per year, plus publishing.

"On behalf of the Board I am very pleased to learn that Liv Tørres' academic expertise is being acknowledged in this way” says Olav Njølstad, head of the Board of the Nobel Peace Center. “Her appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Wits University School of Governance reassures us that Liv is the right person to lead the Nobel Peace Center in the years to come, when scholarly relevance and recognition abroad will be increasingly important."

“Wits University and the School of Governance is acknowledged internationally for its high academic standards and commitment to social justice and I am honoured and thrilled to be able to contribute to this renowned institution”, Liv Tørres says. “I look forward to discuss issues concerning governance, conflict-resolution and social dialogue with motivated, politically conscious, highly qualified students”, she adds.

Before coming to the Nobel Peace Center in January 2016, Liv Tørres worked for a number of years for the Norwegian People’s Aid, where she was Secretary General from 2011-2015. “Her combination of academic merits and experience from the humanitarian, security and political sector will make her an extraordinary resource for our students”, says David Everatt, Head of School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand, and continues: "I believe Professor Tørres will provide our students with a set of powerful global perspectives on a wide range of issues, and add significantly to the quality of teaching and supervision provided by our School, the leading School of Governance on the continent".

Liv Tørres’ appointment was supported by several recommendations, among them:

Professor Emeritus William Maher Lafferty, University of Oslo:

Dr. Tørres is in short an outstanding example of what the American sociologist Thomas Merton referred to as a ‘public intellectual’: an individual schooled in the demands of science but who also insists on, and demonstrates, that analytical research skills can be marshalled behind universal values and goals.

Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Economic Development, South Africa:

She has a deep knowledge of a range of policy areas, an enormous capacity for work and professionalism and integrity in her dealings with people and institutions.