• Democratic systems
• Political institutions
• Politics in the West Nordic and Arctic regions
• Mixed methods 

• Parliamentary control
• Accountability
• Control institutions
• Parliamentary systems
• Plitical institutions
• MP behaviour
• Political parties
• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0008-0234

• West, Hallbera (2018): MP Firefighting: When do MPs hold government accountable, Politicas ph.d. serie, Institut for Statskundskab, Aarhus Universitet.

• In the autumn 2018 semester, I teach the following master courses:
  • Politics in the West Nordic and Arctic Region (10 ECTS)
    
    
• In the autumn 2017 and 2018, I taught the following master seminar:
  • Parliamentary control – challenges and opportunities (2,5 ECTS)
    
    
• In the spring 2017 semester, I taught the following master course together with Helene Helboe Pedersen associate professor at the department of political science, University of Aarhus:
  • Representation and accountability in parliamentary systems (10 ECTS)
    
    
• In the autumn semester 2012, 2013 and 2014, I taught the following bachelor course:
  • Introduction to political science and Faroese politics (10 ECTS)

Currently I am, building on the experiences from my Ph.d. project, focusing on parliamentary control activity in parliamentary systems. One focus is on different control committees in Nordic parliamentary systems, and another focus is the extent of control from national parliaments related to political activity in the Arctic Council.

My Ph.d dissertation from November 2018: “MP Firefighting: When do MPs hold government accountable?” addresses the central accountability concern about how to control executive power. Even though the voters have an important say in this, they have no formal control options between elections. Here, parliaments have a say, especially in parliamentary systems where parliament delegates power to government, not the voter. Government answers to parliament. However, in parliament, MPs face expectations from different roles, the strongest being the role as “partisans”. The dissertation enhances our knowledge about MPs and parliamentary control by investigating under which conditions MPs engage in control activity. The dissertation focuses on Fire Alarm control activity from decentral parliamentary control institution and argues that Fire Alarms call for MP Firefighting in parliament.

Latest research presentation

• Research presentation, MPSA – Midwest Political Science Association, Conference, Chicago, USA, April 2018.
• Research presentation, The Faroese Academy of Sciences, Conference, Nordic House, Faroe Islands, November 2017.
• Research presentation, ECPR Summer school on parliaments, Humboldt University, Berlin, August 2017

• Control committees in the Nordic parliamentary systems
• The extent of control from national parliaments related to political activity in the Arctic Council

• Ph.d dissertation from November 2018: “MP Firefighting: When do MPs hold government accountable?”

Peer review:

• West, Hallbera (2018): MP Firefighting: When do MPs hold government accountable, Politicas ph.d. serie, Institut for Statskundskab, Aarhus Universitet
• Hoff, Jens and West, Hallbera F. (2008): “Citizenship in the Faroe Islands: Participant, parochial or colonial?” Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3.

Other publications:

• West, Hallbera F. (2011): “Lyfti í valstríðnum – ein óbúgvin politisk skipan” (Promises in the electoral campaign), in Reistrup and Skorini ed.: “Valið og valdið” (The Election and the Power), Sprotin 2011.
• West, Hallbera (2004): “Folket i det moderne demokrati – en analyse af medborgerskab på Færøerne” (The People of Modern Democracy – an Investigation of Citizenship in the Faroe Islands), master thesis, University of Copenhagen.
• West, Hallbera and Heinesen, Maria Amalia (2004): Kilder til Færøernes og Grønlands Historie, Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, Tórshavn (Sources to the history of the Faroe Islands and Greenland).
• Hovgaard, Gestur and West, Hallbera (2003): Rekruttering av høgt útbúnari arbeiðsmegi til fiskivinnuna, Granskingardepilin fyri Økismenning (Recruitment of highly educated workforce in the fishing industry, Regional Research Centre), Klaksvík.

Articles, latest:

• West, Hallbera (2018): “Andstøðan grenjar, ella ger hon?” (The opposition is only complaining, or is it?) Dimmalætting, 9. november 2018.
• West, Hallbera (2017): “En skandale er ikke bare en skandale” (A scandal is not only a scandal), medlemsblad Enhedslisten, org.enhedslisten.dk, september 2017.
• West, Hallbera (2017): “Hví legði Jógvan Skorheim frá sær?” (about the control committee in the Faroese parliament and partisan incentives), Sosialurin, 15. september 2017.

• 2018: Ph.d. in political science, dual degree from Department of political science, University of Aarhus, and University of the Faroe Islands.
  
  
• 2005: MSc in political science, Cand.scient.pol, University of Copenhagen

• 2015-2018: Ph.D. student (3 semesters each at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus and the University of the Faroe Islands)
• 2013-2015: Teacher, Upper secondary school, Hoydalar, and University of the Faroe Islands
• 2012-2013: Head of department, Social Services (Almannaverkið )
• 2011-2012: Adviser, Ministry of Social Affairs (Almannamálaráðið)
• 2010-2011: Adviser, House of Industry, Faroe Islands (Vinnuhúsið)
• 2005-2010: Head of Section/Adviser, Ministry of Social Affairs (Almannamálaráðið)
  
  

Research student assistent:

• 2002-2004: for constitutional expert group established by the North Atlantic Group in the Danish Folketing
• 2002-2003: for the Regional Research Centre, Faroe Islands

Selected:

• Research presentation, MPSA – Midwest Political Science Association, Conference, Chicago, USA, April 2018.
• Research presentation, The Faroese Academy of Sciences, Conference, Nordic House, Faroe Islands, November 2017.
• “Eldsløkking í Løgtinginum, tá eldávaring ljóðar frá Umboðsmanninum” (Firefighting in parliament when the Ombudsman raises a Fire Alarm), PhD project, for Vísindavøka á Ferð (Research Council), administration in parliament, the BLF union and Felagið Lóg.
• “Fólkaræði – eisini ein spurningur um ábyrging” (Democracy – also a question of accountability), conference: Nordic Youth; Democracy and Participation, arranged as a part of the Icelandic chair for 2014 in Nordisk Ministerråd, held in the Faroe Islands, October 1 2015.
• “Rigsfællesskabet – formelt og uformelt”, Danish upper secondary school teachers visiting Hoydalar Tórshavn, March 2015. 
• “Kinesarin og skiparin í føroyska fólkaræðinum” (The Chinese and the Skipper in the Faroese democracy), arranged by Starvsmannafelagið (union for clerks, reporters and social workers), September 2013.

• 2015: 2/3 Ph.d. grant from the Faroese Research Council