Marit Nygård Halvorsen

About

I am a trained teacher with specialiszations in nordic language, religion, and psychology from the University of Oslo, where I completed my master's degree in text and communication (2022). In my thesis, I investigated how laughter in therapy conversations can influence both the relationship and the therapeutic work between the patient and the therapist, using conversation analysis as a methodological and theoretical framework. Generally, I am interested in all linguistic and non-linguistic communication between people, language patterns and rules, and how knowledge of these can be applied in practice. Specifically, I am interested in professional communication, and how frameworks, patterns, and roles can be uncovered through close analysis of conversations.

In my Ph.D. project, I investigate how midwives and pregnant women communicate about delicate topics in Norwegian prenatal care. The first meeting between a midwife and a pregnant woman can be challenging, as guidelines from the Norwegian Directorate of Health recommend that questions regarding the pregnant woman's physical and mental health, alcohol use and misuse, and previous experiences with various forms of violence and abuse should be asked during the first consultation. These questions can help the midwife gather important information about the expectant mother's health, and thus also the child's. The project uses ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA) as its theoretical and methodological framework. Through detailed analysis of video recordings from the first consultations between midwives and pregnant women, I aim to uncover patterns for conversations about difficult topics.

My main supervisor is Hege Hermansen from OsloMet.

Anne Marie Landmark and Mirjam Lukasse from the University of South-Eastern Norway are co-supervisors.