My research has always been animated by an interest in difference and power, and in education - and higher education - as a force for public good. Recently I have been interested in foundational questions about the purpose of higher education.

My 2013-2017 Marie Curie-funded project, Race, Identity, Exclusion and Belonging: Personal Narratives and Classroom Discourse, explored both how students and faculty in Norwegian universities talk about race and racism in classes, and how students and staff of color in Norwegian higher education experience 'othering' - being perceived as different from the Norwegian norm of whiteness. Research and writing on this project continued until 2025.

My current and emerging research explores the following areas: 

• Polycrisis in higher education: how responding to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2022 led faculty members in five countries to reflect on their roles and the purpose of higher education; follow-up research in 2025-2026 is looking at how additional disruptions (such as the wide availability of AI tools, global geopolitical shifts towards authoritarianism, and financial stresses in the higher education sector) are further challenging university faculty to think differently about their teaching.
• Sustainability in higher education teaching and learning
• Reading as human experience: I am one of the principal investigators on a submitted proposal (2025) for a Center of Excellence on reading and readers. 

From 2020-2025 I served as Vice-Dean of Education at the Faculty of Psychology. This period was marked by a cascade of disruptions to higher education, including the coronavirus pandemic, the advent of easily accessible AI tools, and financial stressors to the higher education sector. In addition to supporting faculty and students through these transitions, I had a special focus on fostering belonging and inclusion of first-year students.

Since 2011, I have taught educational development courses for university teachers at the University of Bergen. In addition to teaching foundational courses on teaching and learning in higher education, I have taught courses relating to difference and power in higher education, hot moments in teaching and learning, assessment and supervision.

Prior to 2011, I worked at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the University of British Columbia, where I had a focus on global citizenship in teaching and learning in higher education.

Academic book chapter

• Yael Harlap; Hector Aristizábal (2013). Using theater to promote social justice in communities: Pedagogical approaches to community and individual learning. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2014). Hva skjer når vi ser farge innen utdanning? Mulighetene ved å teoretisere rase i skolen i et <fargeblind> Norge. (external link)

Conference lecture

• Yael Harlap (2015). Talking race, ethnicity, whiteness and nation in Norwegian higher education. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Robert Morris Gray Jr (2022). How did the pandemic change our minds?. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese; Olympia Ahenkorah (2017). On Belonging: Discourse and narratives on race and racialization in higher education. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2018). On Belonging: Discourse and narratives on race and racialization in higher education in Norway. (external link)
• Hanne Riese; Yael Harlap (2013). Democracy and diversity in education: internationalisation as a tool for understanding and integration. (external link)
• Yael Harlap (2017). Norwegianness, whiteness, and international adoption: What happens when students get talking?. (external link)
• Yael Harlap (2016). What do university students learn about race and whiteness in Norway?. (external link)
• Sehoya Harris Cotner; Yael Harlap (2022). Ensuring quality assessment practices under the two-evaluator law. (external link)
• Yael Harlap (2014). “Hot moments”: Hvordan kan en særlig pedagogisk læringsform fremme læring? [“Hot moments”: How can a particular pedagogical approach enhance learning?]. (external link)
• Henk Keers; Stephane Rondenay; Yael Harlap et al. (2017). Active Learning, Digital Teaching and Assessment of University Science Courses.. (external link)
• Yael Harlap (2017). What do university students learn about race and whiteness in Norwegian higher education?. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2017). Race talk in the university classroom: Lessons from Norway for educational developers on race discourse. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2016). Constituting race, whiteness and nationality in higher education. (external link)
• Hanne Riese; Yael Harlap (2019). Reproducing race as the zone of nonbeing: Discourse and dehumanization in higher education. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Robert Morris Gray Jr (2022). Did the pandemic change faculty assumptions about education?. (external link)

Lecture

• Katja Enberg; Yael Harlap (2021). Joining forces for sustainability education – Sustainability Education Collective at the University of Bergen. (external link)
• Robert Gray Jr; Yael Harlap (2016). From Personal Identity to Knowledge Production. (external link)
• Henk Keers; Stéphane Rondenay; Yael Harlap et al. (2016). Teaching Computational Geophysics Classes using Active Learning Techniques. (external link)
• Katja Enberg; Yael Harlap; Birgit Kopainsky et al. (2021). Institutional synergies for sustainability learning - the university as ecosystem and social actor. (external link)

Academic literature review

• Henk Keers; Stéphane Rondenay; Yael Harlap et al. (2014). Resources for computational geophysics courses. (external link)

Academic article

• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2021). Race talk and white normativity: classroom discourse and narratives in Norwegian higher education. (external link)
• Katja Enberg; Yael Harlap (2021). Joining forces for sustainability education – Sustainability Education Collective at the University of Bergen. (external link)
• Hanne Riese; Yael Harlap (2021). Utdanning, rasialisering og tilhørighetens grenser. (external link)
• Randi Gressgård; Yael Harlap (2014). Spenninger i klasserommet: Mikroaggresjon som pedagogisk utfording. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Hanne Riese (2021). “We don’t throw stones, we throw flowers”: race discourse and race evasiveness in the Norwegian university classroom. (external link)
• Yael Harlap; Christian Jørgensen; Sehoya Harris Cotner (2022). Maintaining quality assessment practices in Norwegian higher education after the two-evaluator law. (external link)
• Alejandro Rojas; Will Valley; Brett Mansfield et al. (2011). Toward food system sustainability through school food system change: Think&EatGreen@School and the making of a community-universityresearch alliance. (external link)
• Yael Harlap (2014). Preparing university educators for hot moments: theater for educational development about difference, power, and privilege. (external link)

Media interview

• Yael Harlap; Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (2019). "Trumplandia!". On-stage interview with Prof. Carolyn M. Rouse (Princeton University), Litteraturhuset in Bergen, 25 April 2019. Event co-organized by Department of Education and Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen.. (external link)
• Bjørn Enge Bertelsen; Yael Harlap (2018). "Race, racism and difference: An open meeting with Paul Gilroy". On-stage interview with Prof. Paul Gilroy, Litteraturhuset in Bergen, 19 April 2018. Event co-organized by Department of Education, Centre for Women and Gender Studies and Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen.. (external link)

Media feature article

• Monika Kvernenes; Lucas Matias Jeno; Robert Kordts et al. (2024). Et høringsforslag som skroter utdanningsfaglig kompetanse?. (external link)

Non-fiction book chapter

• Yael Harlap (2022). Mikroaggresjon – Hva dreier det seg om. (external link)

Non-fiction monograph

• Yael Harlap (2011). Global Citizenship in Teaching and Learning. (external link)

Popular science article

• Stine H. Bang Svendsen; Kristin Gregers Eriksen; Astri Dankertsen et al. (2020). Brekkes ignorante lesning. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.