I am a historian of Scandinavia and Europe in the 20th century, with a focus on 1) The Second World War in Norway, Denmark and wider Europe and its aftermath, in particular the punishment of wartime collaborators; 2) The history of the Nordic welfare states, especially in relation to citizenship, migration and privacy. My work is positioned at the intersection of political history, legal history and social history. 

I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2019 with a dissertation on the Norwegian 'treason trials' after 1945. I subsequently worked as a Senior Research Fellow for the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich, Germany, before joining the University of Bergen in 2024. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Young Academy of Norway (2025-2029). 

I have published extensively on the reckonings with and social reintegration of wartime collaborators in Norway and Denmark following the Second World War. Published with Cambridge University Press in 2024, my book "The Quislings" explores the afterlife of the German occupation in Norwegian society, with a particular focus on the political, social, and legal narratives of the process of ‘coming to terms with the past’. The book shows that many of the social conflicts surrounding the trials and reintegration of wartime collaborators ultimately concerned the question of whether the occupation experience should be understood as part of the nation’s history and addressed within the parameters of its regular legal framework, or whether it should rather be understood as standing outside of the Norwegian national narrative. In addition, my book explores how those accused of and sentenced for collaboration were portrayed, and how social attitudes towards them changed over time. I am currently working on a project concerning networks of wartime collaborators and members of fascist parties in the postwar era, with a particular focus on Norway. The book has been shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society First Book prize. 

In addition, I have worked on various aspects of welfare state history, with a main focus on the Nordics. I have published several articles in leading peer-reviewed journals on the history of the Nordic welfare states, including on the relationship between the Nordic welfare states and migration, housing policies, minimum subsistence levels, pension reforms, and the historical context of COVID-19 social policy. This has included articles on changing naturalisation policies and on urban segregation in the Nordic region since the Second World War.

I am happy to hear from potential MA and PhD students interested in working on the history of the Second World War and its aftermath as well as the history of the Nordic welfare states, broadly conceived. 

My teaching spans Scandinavian and European history in the 19th and 20th century, with a particular focus on the Second World War and the history of the welfare state. 

I teach on the following courses: 

• HIS102 - Oversikt over nyare historie frå 1750
• HIS108 - Oversikt over kvinne- og kjønnshistorie
• HIS203 - Teoriar, metodar og historiske kjelder
• SAS13 - Norwegian History and Culture
• HIS250/HIS250L - Bacheloroppgåve i historie
• HIS301/HIS301L, HIS303/HIS303L, HIS350 - Masteroppgåve i historie

I am the course coordinator for AHS202 and AHS203 (Arbeidslivsstudier/Bergensstudiet), which is offered in coordination with Norwegian Nurses Association (Norsk Sykepleieforbund). 

I am happy to hear from potential MA and PhD students interested in working on the history of the Second World War and its aftermath as well as the history of the Nordic welfare states, broadly conceived. 

Key publications

Monographs and Dissertations:

Seemann, Anika, 'The Quislings: The Trials of Norwegian Wartime Collaborators, 1941–1964' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024)

Seemann, Anika, 'Law and Politics in the Norwegian ‘Treason Trials’, 1941-1964' (PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2019).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

Seemann, Anika/Sinding Aasen, Henriette, Constitutional Change and Minimum Social Protection in Norway. Ulrich Becker and Irene Domenici (eds.): Life in Dignity - A Comparison of National Approaches to Minimum Income Protection (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2025). 

Seemann, Anika: On War, Loyalty, and Reconciliation - The German Minority during the Second World War and the Postwar Legal Reckoning, in: Peter Thaler (ed.): Like Snow in the Sun? The German Minority in Denmark in Historical Perspective, Berlin 2022.

Seemann, Anika: “Mentalities of War, Mentalities of Peace”: Capital Punishment in the Norwegian “Treason Trials”, 1941–1948, in: Konrád, Ota; Barth, Boris; Mrňka, Jaromír (eds.): Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944–48. Reshaping the Nation, Basingstoke 2022, 225-252.

Seemann, Anika: The Danish ‘Ghetto Initiatives’ and the Changing Nature of Social Citizenship, 2004-2018, in: Critical Social Policy, 41 (2021) 4, S. 586–605.

Seemann, Anika; Becker, Ulrich; He, Linxin; Hohnerlein, Eva Maria; Wilman, Nikola,
Protecting livelihoods in the COVID-19 crisis: A legal-comparative analysis of European labour market and social policies. Global Social Policy, 21 (2021) 3, 550-568.

Anika Seemann, ‘The Handshake Requirement in Danish Naturalization Procedures’, Nordic Journal on Law and Society 3(1) (2020), 1-32

Seemann, Anika,
Citizen Outcasts – The Penalty of 'Loss of Civil Rights' during the Norwegian Treason Trials, 1945-1953. Scandinavian Journal of History, 45 (2020) 3, 360-383.

Seemann, Anika/Rauchegger, Clara, ‘Developing Democracy: Conversations on Democratic Governance in International, European and Comparative Law’, Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 4(2) (2015), 211-14

Other Publications: 

Seemann, Anika, 'Høyesteretts rolle i rettsoppgjørene i Norge og Danmark etter 1945' (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Årbok 2022), 153-157.

Seemann, Anika, Struggles for Belonging: Citizenship in Europe, 1900–2020, German History, 40 (2022) 2, 295-296.

Becker, Ulrich/Seemann, Anika (eds.), Protecting Livelihoods – A Global Comparison of Social Law Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis, Baden-Baden 2022.

Seemann, Anika, ‘On Risk and Solidarity in Times of Global Crises’, in: Seemann, Anika/Becker, Protecting Livelihoods: A Global Study of Social Law Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2022), 521-537

Seemann, Anika, ‘“Collective Agreement” – Danish Social and Labour Market Policy in the COVID-19 Crisis’, in: Seemann, Anika/Becker, Protecting Livelihoods: A Global Study of Social Law Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2022), pp. 121-145

Seemann, Anika, ‘The Norwegian Pension System’, in: Ulrich Becker, Ulrich/Schneider, Simone/Petrova, Teodora (eds.), Pension Maps: Visualising the Institutional Structure of Old Age Security in Europe, MPISoc Working Paper 1/2021, 153-164, DOI: https://doi.org/10.17617/2.3291788

Seemann, Anika, Zwischen individuellem Risiko und staatlicher Verantwortung: 20 Jahre schwedische Prämienrente, Zeitschrift Deutsche Rentenversicherung, (2020) 4, 529-545.

Seemann, Anika, ‘Aktuelle Themen in der skandinavischen Sozialrechtsforschung’, Zeitschrift für Internationales und Ausländisches Sozialrecht (ZIAS) 34(1) (2020), 171-184

Seemann, Anika, ‘“Collective Agreement” – Dänische Sozial- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik in der Corona-Krise’, in: Becker, Ulrich/Hohnerlein, Eva/He, Linxin/Seemann, Anika/Wilman, Nikola, Existenzsicherung in der Coronakrise: Sozialpolitische Maßnahmen zum Erhalt von Arbeitsplätzen, Wirtschaft und sozialem Schutz im Rechtvergleich, MPISoc Working Paper 6/2020

Seemann, Anika/Rauchegger, Clara (eds.), ‘Developing Democracy’, Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 4(2) (2015)

I am a member of the AHRC-funded network "Treason - A Global History" organised by André Krischer (Freiburg) and Mark Cornwall (Southampton).