Øivind Andersen - Biography#

Øivind Andersen was born in Oslo as the only son of Sverre and Aase Anthonie Andersen (née Nilsen). He is an alumnus of Berg gymnas (i,e, sixth-form college) 1963. From 1964 until graduation in 1971 he studied Philosophy, Latin and Greek at the university of Oslo. He became Dr. phil. in 1975 (dissertation: Paradeigmata. Beiträge zum Verständnis der Ilias) after an academic year spent at the Munich University 1971/72). He spent another year in Heidelberg 1975 and became full time university lecturer in Ancient History (University of Oslo) in 1978 and only two years later professor of classical studies (Greek, Latin, Ancient History), at the University of Trondheim. From 1987 to 1988 he spent a sabbatical year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

During his 16 years in Trondheim he contributed significantly to establishing a Norwegian Institute in Athens and was its first director from 1989 to 1993. In 1997 he succeeded Knut Kleve as professor of classical philology in Oslo where he already chaired the Norwegian Research Council's rather ambitious program for Classical studies in Norway (1995-2000). In the ensuing time he was successively chair of Dept. of Classical and Romance Studies (2001-03), Director of Research in the institute IFIKK (Philosophy, Classics, History of Arts and Ideas, 2005-07) and Chair of the Publication Commission for Humanities and Social Sciences under the Norwegian Research Council (2006-09). Since 2001 Øivind Andersen has at different levels and in changing positions been a member of the Board of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. For the time being he is at the Board of the Federation of All European Academies (ALLEA) and President of the Union Académique Internationale (2013-17).