Dr. Kristina Sehlin MacNeil is a researcher with a background in conflict management and communications. Her current research involves conflicts between extractive industries and indigenous peoples.
Kristina has been involved in peace and human rights work since the early 1990´s. In 1997-1998 and 2002-2003 she worked as a project manager for the Åland Islands Peace Institute, leading youth exchanges between Northern Irland and Åland, as well as co-ordinationg the institute´s information and education efforts. Kristina also worked closely with The Peace People and Public Achievement in Belfast during this time.
In 1998 Kristina moved to Australia, where she undertook a Batchelor of Journalism and later on a Master of Conflict Management. Kristina is a permanent resident in Australia and has lived and worked there for many years. Through her research she has worked with several Aboriginal communities.
Kristina moved to Umeå with her husband in 2006 and took up a position at Vaartoe – Centre for Sami Research at Umeå University in Sweden, where she published a report on mediation as a conflict management tool in land conflicts between land owners and Sami reindeer herders. In 2011 she was hired to set up and manage an anti-discrimination agency in Umeå, Västerbotten Justice Centre.
In 2012 she started her PhD studies and in February 2017 she defended her PhD thesis, Extractive Violence on Indigenous County: Sami and Aboriginal Views on Conflicts and Power Relations with Extractive Industries. Kristina is currently a researcher at Umeå University´s Vaartoe – Centre for Sami Research.