Media Mentions, Interviews, and Appearances

Al Jazeera English: Inside Story (June 2023). “Commercial companies offering adventures to the ends of the Earth - and beyond - are attracting billions of dollars annually…So are these multi-billion dollar industries contributing to science? And are they a benefit to society?” Guest appearance on Al Jazeera English’s flagship news panel program, Inside Story. [YouTube] [Spotify]

International School of Stavanger - Invited Graduation Speaker for the ISS Class of 2023 graduation ceremony (June 2023). [YouTube]

Klassekampen: Bjørgulv Braanen - “Populistvelgeren” (February 2023): “I Agoras populismenummer fra 2020 skriver Victor Lund Shammas at det ikke så sjelden ligger en forakt for folket bak den dominerende, liberale populismekritikken.”

New York Times: Can You Talk Your Way Out of a Life Sentence? (January 2020)
“Victor L. Shammas, a Norwegian sociologist who has written about California’s parole process, is skeptical of this emphasis on what he describes as the capacity to ‘produce linguistic utterances in a socially legitimate form,’ an ability that he notes is highly correlated to class, education and mental health.”

Phys.org: Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the moon and asteroids (April 2020)
“Last year, Dr. Victor Shammas of the Work Research Institute at Oslo Metropolitan University and independent scholar Tomas Holen produced a study that appeared in Palgrave Communications (a publication maintained by the journal Nature). Titled, "One giant leap for capitalist kind: private enterprise in outer space," Shammas and Holen assert that the commercial exploitation of space will benefit human beings disproportionately. At the heart of this effort are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other Silicon Valley-billionaires that—contrary to their humanist pretenses—are looking to expand their wealth while taking advantage of the fact that there is little to no oversight in this area.”

Wired.com: Forget Earth: In Space, Libertarian Ideas Are Thriving (December 2019)
“‘Taxpayer dollars often sustain these mythically self-made entrepreneurs,’ says scholar Victor Shammas, who also pointed out the hypocrisy in a paper called ‘One giant leap for capitalistkind: private enterprise in outer space.’ ‘The state,’ he continues, ‘is NewSpace’s biggest customer.’”

De Standard (Belgium): 'Bieten oogsten, is dat nuttig voor je leven na de cel?' (July 2019)
“De Noorse socioloog Victor Lund Shammas beschreef de ‘pains of freedom’, die gedetineerden in open gevangenissen ervaren: de ambigue vrijheid van een open inrichting kan hen angstig en verward maken. Maar hij betwijfelt of dat de reden is waarom gedetineerden ervandoor gaan.”

Political and Legal Anthropology Review: “Victor L. Shammas on Parole Hearings: PoLAR Author Interview.” (June 2019)
“The surrealism of the parole board lies in its demand that even those who have passed through this lifeless, life-crushing system are nevertheless expected to demonstrate all the ways in which they have lifted themselves up by their own bootstraps. It’s strangely quixotic, Orwellian, and Kafkaesque, to put it in literary terms, which means: naively idealistic, pervasively surveillant, and bureaucratically dysfunctional.”

Czech Criminology Review: “O skandinávské kriminologii, Breivikovi i protiimigrantské rétorice.”
“Mám-li být kritický, tak jedním z těch méně šťastných aspektů skandinávské kriminologie je proliferace vysvětlování zločinu, které cílí na jednotlivce a zcela odhlíží od faktorůsouvisejících s politickou ekonomií, legislativní historií, strukturou sociálního státu, rolí legislativních změn, zkrátka od myšlenek kontextualizace a historizace, které bývaly tolik důležité v progresivnějším kriminologickém bádání.”

Forskning.no (Norway): “Vi får stadig flere og sterkere straffer i Norge.”
“– En halv million nordmenn har nå privat helseforsikring, det er flere elever som velger å gå på privatskoler og skillet mellom fattig og rik har økt. Vi kan på indirekte vis spore effekten av nyliberaliseringen av velferdsstaten også på straffegjennomføringens former og omfang, sier Shammas.”

MojaNorwegia.pl: “Więzienia dla ‘tych innych’”
“- Po cichu lewicowy rząd szykuje się do wprowadzenia w życie polityki więziennej rodem z programu Partii Postępu (Frp). Oddzielne więzienia dla cudzoziemców mają stać się częścią norweskiej rzeczywistości - pisze w swoim felietonie Victor Lund Shammas, student socjologii na Uniwersytecie w Oslo. Oto całość jego tekstu o segregacji w więzieniach.”