Michelle Sara Ryttersgaard Gano

Forskningsområder

Forskningsområder

Research profile

Michelle Sara Ryttersgaard Gano is a PhD fellow at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark, working within the field of Sociology of Law. Her research lies at the intersection of socio-legal studies and indigenous rights, with a particular focus on access to justice and legal pluralism in the Nordic region.

Michelle's PhD project, "Indigenous Shadows in the Nordic Light: Greenland Inuit and Sámi Perspectives on Access to Justice in the Nordic Region" (2026-2029), examines how indigenous peoples in the Nordic region experience access to justice within the overlapping frameworks of international law, national legal systems, and Nordic cooperation. The project combines qualitative methods with legal and theoretical analysis to explore how legal rights are percieved and enacted in practice.

Drawing on decolonial theory and access to justice scholarship, Michelle's research critically investigates the gap between formal legal recognition and lived experiences of justice. By centering indigenous perspectives, the project contributes to ongoing debates on human rights, legal pluralism, and the role of law in contexts shaped by colonial legacies. More broadly, her work engages with methodological questions concerning the relationship between doctrinal legal research and empirical socio-legal approaches, and the implications of decolonial perspectives for legal scholarship in Europe. 

Prior to her PhD fellowship, Michelle completed a bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University, and a master's degree in Sociology of Law at Lund University, where she developed a strong interest in how legal systems function in practice and how they are experienced by individuals and communities. Before entering academia, Michelle gained professional experience working for the UN and in the NGO sector.

Education

·       2021 – 2023 | MSc in Sociology of Law, Lund University

·       2018 – 2021 | BSc in Peace and Conflict Studies, Uppsala University