Pelle Valentin Olsen

Pelle Valentin Olsen is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Oslo's Faculty of Humanities. His research focuses on cultural and transnational history of the modern Middle East, with particular emphasis on Iraq and its connections to broader regional and global networks.

His academic journey includes:

• Current Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oslo
• Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022) at Roskilde University, Global Studies
• Ph.D. in History (2020) from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
• MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies (2014) from University of Oxford, St. Antony's College
• BA in Middle Eastern Studies (2012) from University of Copenhagen

Olsen's research centers on the history of leisure, labor, and cultural production in the modern Middle East, particularly Iraq. He examines how leisure practices became sites where Iraqis encountered new ideas about gender, sexuality, class, time, labor, and discipline. His work highlights everyday perspectives often excluded from traditional political histories, exploring transregional connections across the Middle East and beyond. He is particularly interested in cinema history in Iraq, which has received little scholarly attention, examining how film production and exhibition connected Iraq to broader regional and global networks through co-productions, technology transfers, and the movement of personnel.

His current Marie Curie project, 'Iraqi Cinema Beyond the Screen,' supervised by Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, explores the cultural, material, and transnational history of cinema in twentieth-century Iraq. He is also preparing a book manuscript titled 'Idle Days and Nights: Leisure, Time, and Modernity in Iraq' based on his dissertation, which extends his temporal scope from the mandate period to the early republican period in Iraq.

Olsen has received numerous awards and fellowships for his research, including:

• Best Dissertation on Modern/Medieval Iraq by the Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARI)
• Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Annual Graduate Student Paper Prize
• Hanna Gray Fellowship from the University of Chicago (awarded to one humanities student annually, 2018-20)

His research has been supported by prestigious organizations including the Fulbright Commission, Carlsberg Foundation, University of Chicago Center in Paris, German Orient Institute Beirut, Danish Institute in Damascus, Danish Academy in Rome, and others. Olsen is actively engaged in collaborative research projects and has co-edited volumes on Palestinian solidarity movements and transnational radio broadcasting in the Middle East.