PhD Research Fellow in Criminology or Sociology of Law on the Shadow Fleet

A position as a PhD Research Fellow (SKO 1017) is available as part of the convergence environment CargoCrime: (Il)Licit Seaborne Transport and the Energy Transition, led by Associate Professor Hege Høyer Leivestad and funded by UiO:Energy and Environment (2025-2030). The fellow will be responsible for their own PhD project and work closely with Professor Kjersti Lohne at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law as part of the Faculty of Law’s responsibility for CargoCrime’s second work package “Spotlighting the Shadow Fleet”.

The appointment period lasts three years without teaching obligations, or four years with teaching duties making up 25% of the total workload. A four-year fellowship requires that the candidate can contribute to the Faculty of Law's current teaching needs. The expected start date is no later than 1 September 2026. The location of employment is Oslo.

PhD fellowships are recruitment positions intended to lead to a PhD degree at The Faculty of Law.  Applicants must be qualified for admission to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Law. Read more about the Doctoral Degree.

CargoCrime focuses on the emerging issue of green maritime crime and is a collaboration between the Department of Social Anthropology, the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law and the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Oslo. Maritime shipping of goods and raw materials is vital to the global economy, but the environmental repercussions of cross-border cargo crime remain significantly understudied. Illicit activities in shipping are often closely intertwined with legal trade, while law enforcement efforts at sea are limited and complex. See CargoCrime: (Il)Licit Seaborne Transport and the Energy Transition for more information. 

The doctoral candidate will conduct research connected to environmental security threats and global harms associated with the so-called shadow fleet. The phenomenon of the shadow fleet has garnered increasing attention by the revelation of Russia’s illicit seaborne oil exports to evade international sanctions, but the shadow fleet has been a well-known global, significant, and complex problem within the shipping industry for decades, as it evades compliance with environmental and safety regulations, avoids insurance, and engages in a wide range of illicit activities. 

The applicant will independently design and pursue their own research project within CargoCrime’s work package 2 as described here.

The candidate is expected to join and actively participate in the research community at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law. In addition to their PhD project, they will participate in CargoCrime group activities with the core team, such as seminars and workshops. The doctoral candidate will also carry a responsibility for organizing workshops, team-based fieldwork trips, an online speaker series and other joint activities. The candidate will work closely with the other project researchers. They will jointly pursue publications and creative forms of public dissemination. 

The candidate is also expected to engage in international dissemination activities and collaborate with key scholars in the field outside the project group.