Martin Paulsen, born 1978, studied Russian in Minsk (Belarusian Agro-Technical University), Oslo and Bergen, where he received his PhD in 2009. Except for Minsk, he has had shorter stays in St Petersburg, Moscow; he has also studied Belarusian in Minsk and Ukrainian in Lviv. He has taught various courses in Russian language and literature at the universities of Bergen, Oslo and Passau. Upon finishing his MA in 2004 he spent six months as a trainee at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. He has edited two publications on contemporary Russian literature, and is a member of the editorial board of “Petrusjka,” a publishing project for the advancement of contemporary Russian literature in Norway.
Forgotten conflicts 
The Rafto Prize is a human rights prize of both national and international recognition. The goal of the Rafto Prize is to highlight and draw attention to forgotten conflicts, violations and persons or societies in need. The first Rafto Prize went to Jiri Hajek, former Czechoslovakia, in 1987. The latest prize, in 2011, was awarded to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) represented by Frank Mugisha. To read more about the former Rafto Prize laureates, see here.
Announcement of the Rafto Prize 2012
The Rafto Prize 2012 will be announced on 27 September at the Rafto House for Human Rights in Bergen. The award ceremony will take place on 4 November at the National Venue of Theatre (DNS) in Bergen.
Rafto Prize Committee 2012
The Prize Committee has nine members. It has several new members in 2012. The committee comprises:
Martin Paulsen – new Head of the Prize Committee
Post Doctoral Researcher in the project “The Future of Russian” at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen. Fields of research: Eastern European languages and literature, Internet studies.
Kjersti Fløttum – new deputy chair of the Prize Committee
Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen. Fields of research: text theory, French linguistic polyphony, language use in academic and political contexts.
Anne K. Bang -Senior Researcher, Christian Michelsen Research Institute and Associate Professor, Department of Research Management, Research Group in Middle Eastern and African Studies, University of Bergen. Fields of research: the spread and development of Islam, particularly in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Thomas Frantsvold -Master of Economics and Administration, editor at TDN Finans, a financial news agency.
Arne Strand -Deputy Director at the Christian Michelsen Institute (CMI). Fields of research: peace-building, humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies, democratisation and civil society, particularly in Afghanistan.
Anna Brigitte Milford – new committee member
Researcher at the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute. Fields of research: cooperatives, value chain of food products, labelling schemes, organic farming and agriculture, and environment.
Iver Ørstavik – new committee member
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy at the University of Bergen. Research interests: rule of law and democracy.
Anne Kloster Holst – new committee member
Advisor at the Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Education (SIU). Field or work: EUs Lifelong Learning Program. She has been closely involved in the follow-up work with former Rafto Prize laureates Aung San Suu Kyi and Gennady Grushevoy. Anne Kloster Holst is also the outgoing chairperson of the Board of Directors in Rafto Foundation.
Marthe Sleire Engedahl – new committee member
Leader of the student group for Rafto Prize 2012. She studies law at the University of Bergen and development studies at the University of Oslo.
Prize Committee – the Board of the Rafto Foundation
The Prize Committee is responsible for finding candidates for the Rafto Prize and presenting them to the Board of the Rafto Foundation. The Board is the deciding body and determines who should receive the Rafto Prize.
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