Sudden passing of ECPR Executive Committee member Oddbjørn Knutsen

It is with great shock and sadness that we announce the unexpected passing, at the age of 66, of Oddbjørn Knutsen, distinguished member of the ECPR’s Executive Committee and Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Oddbjørn was elected to the Executive Committee in May 2018, although his significant institutional contribution to the discipline of political science was already well known, his having been Chair of the Norwegian Political Studies Association (NoPSA), from 2011–2014.

He was also already a long-term active member of the ECPR community, and served as head of the local organising team for the ECPR’s highly successful General Conference in Oslo in 2017.

In ECPR he became Chair of the Events Subcommittee with overarching responsibility for ECPR events, and within that, he took on a specific role in two main areas. First, he was organiser of the Teaching & Learning Conference which was jointly run with three other political science associations this June. Second, he took on the role of organiser of the Academic Programme for the ECPR General Conference in Wrocław this September. To both tasks he brought his customary professionalism, diligence and collegiality, and the resounding success of both is clear.

Oddbjørn was also a prolific researcher with research interests and publications in the tradition of Stein Rokkan: comparative politics with a special focus on Western Europe, political sociology and electoral behaviour, value orientations and ideology, and methodology and statistics.

Oddbjørn was elected to the ECPR’s Executive Committee on a six-year term of office, so only served for 15 months, but in that short time made a big impact both on the ECPR’s events and the deliberations of the Executive Committee. The Chair of ECPR, Kris Deschouwer, said

'Oddbjørn was a pleasure to work with and brought an innovative and hard-working attitude to the Executive Committee, where his professional and collegial attitude will be sorely missed. We will mark his passing when we meet in Wrocław in early September. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult time.'