From Young CAS PI to Professor: Congratulations to Professor Nani Teig

On 21 October, one of our former Young CAS PIs, Nani Teig, held her Professorial Inaugural Lecture at the University of Oslo. Her lecture, titled “Rising Through Challenges: Academic Resilience of Disadvantaged Students and Resources That Matter”, explored how some students succeed in school despite significant social and economic disadvantages. Drawing on international research and insights from her own projects, Teig highlighted how resources at home, in the classroom, and across schools can help students thrive.

Teig led the Young CAS Grant project Disadvantaged Students Who Beat the Odds: Toward a New Generation of Research in Academic Resilience from 2022 to 2024. The project brought together a multidisciplinary team from psychology, sociology, education, and computer science to study academic resilience among socioeconomically disadvantaged students. By combining large-scale educational data with innovative methodological approaches, the project identified key factors that enable students to succeed against the odds – knowledge that can inform more equitable education systems.

The project set out to understand how academic resilience can be measured, how it develops over time, and which factors at the student, classroom, and school levels contribute most to success. The findings offer valuable insights for educational policy and practice, with the potential to reduce inequality and promote social justice.

Following the lecture, guests were invited to a traditional Indonesian Tumpeng ceremony, followed by a dance performance and refreshments. The administration at CAS attended, and it was a pleasure to celebrate Nani Teig’s appointment as Professor.

We warmly congratulate Professor Teig and wish her every success in her future research!