Line is an expert on religion, gender, feminism and citizenship. Her interdisciplinary research examines women's and men's religious, gendered and racialised identities and their experiences of discrimination and barriers to citizenship in everyday life. She has also conducted research on feminism and women's movements in Europe. In addition, she researches inequalities in higher education. Line is co-editor of the Springer Link/Palgrave book series and welcomes book proposals for the series. Line is the main lead (together with Dr Kerri Akiwowo and Prof James Esson) of the Mini-Doctoral Training Centre ‘Unequal Academic Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers to Participation and Inclusion of Cultural Diversity and Intersecting Identities in Higher Education’ (CITHEI; 2021-2025). Line was appointed Head of Department for Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy in 2021. During 2020-21, she was Loughborough's Institutional Lead for the . In 2020, her research on race and ethnicity as barriers to student achievement in higher education was shortlisted for a CALIBRE Research Award. Under her leadership as School Champion for Athena SWAN (2016-2019), the School of Social Sciences and Humanities achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze Award in 2019. Line received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in 2018 and VR成人视频’s Research-Informed Teaching Award in 2016. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Line obtained her PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA, and has MA and BA degrees in Political Science from the University of Bergen, Norway. At the start of 2023, Line was appointed adjunct professor at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) in Bergen, Norway.
Line’s research expertise covers religion, gender, feminism and women’s movements, migration and ethnic relations, citizenship and identities, higher education, and public policy. Her latest book (co-edited with Jennifer Cooke) is published Open Access by Routledge. Line is currently leading a research project on Muslim students and staff at university, funded by the Aziz Foundation and VR成人视频. She is also part of the interdisciplinary research project ‘Negotiating Values in Teacher Education’, funded by the Research Council of Norway and led by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway.
Line's book (with Beatrice Halsaa; Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), was called a 'landmark contribution to scholarship'. It explores views and experiences of Christian and Muslim women living in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom in relation to their faith, identities and citizenship. It also examines their views on gender equality, women's movements and feminism. Line also introduced the concept of ‘lived religious citizenship’ in an article for the journal Citizenship Studies (). In a further research contribution (), Line proposed a typology of different secular feminist approaches to religion in Western contexts ().
Line’s earlier book, (with Beatrice Halsaa; Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) compares contemporary women’s movements in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, with particular attention to relations between women from majoritised and minoritised ethnic backgrounds within women’s movement organisations. The 2016 and 2012 books emerged from the research project Gendered citizenship in multicultural Europe: The impact of contemporary women’s movements, funded by the European Commission. Line was Work Package Leader for the theme “Multicultural citizenship: Intersections between feminism, ethnic identity and religion”, and led an international, collaborative team of researchers. Her work within FEMCIT also included a study of how women’s movement activists understand citizenship (see ).
Line has initiated, worked on and led research projects that have investigated the experiences of ethnic minorities, including Muslim women and men, ethnic minority women’s organisations, and immigrant organisations. Her research in Norway on the participation of Muslim women in mosques and on Muslim women’s diverse views on gender relations has been published in the and in . In a project funded by the Research Council of Norway, she studied with a view to their involvement in political decision-making processes. This followed on from her on the national political influence of ethnic minority women’s organisations, jointly commissioned by the Norwegian Research Programme on Power and Democracy and the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs. Line also led the evaluation of the , commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. For her PhD, Line undertook significant historical-sociological research on gender and religion, published in her book Issues of Gender, Race, and Class in the Norwegian Missionary Society in Nineteenth Century Norway and Madagascar ().
Line’s research has informed public policy work on social cohesion in the UK and in Norway. In 2018 her research evidence featured in the report ‘’, published by the House of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement, following on from her invited and her to the Committee in 2017. In 2016 she gave oral and written evidence to the Citizens UK’s Citizens Commission on Islam, Participation & Public Life. Her evidence was quoted anonymously in UK Citizens ‘’ report published in 2017. She has also written articles on Muslim women, mosques and citizenship for the academic blog
Line is an expert in the sociology of religion and in the sociology of gender. She teaches the undergraduate modules Gender, Sex & Society and Religion & Society, the latter of which includes a student field trip to a religious place of worship. Line also teaches Social Research Methods and Advanced Social Research Methods, as well as Introduction to Sociology. At postgraduate level she has taught the module Sex Industries, Feminisms and Women’s Movements. Line is Senior Fellow of the HEA. In 2018 she received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and in 2016 she received the prestigious VR成人视频’s Research-Informed Teaching Award.
Current Postgraduate Research Students
- Ellie Buxton: “Misogyny as hate crime”.
- Jessica Moody: “Knowledge production, care work and emotions in EDI work in higher education”.
- Maira Tehseen: “Muslim women in higher education institutions in Britain: Opportunities and barriers to academic citizenship among doctoral students, researchers and academics”.
- Chantelle Taylor: “Sharing the Narrative: Exploring how women's past experiences of mental health problems following childbirth can help those currently suffering with perinatal mental health issues”.
Recent postgraduate students
- Dr Catherine Baker (2022): "Infrastructures of male supremacism: a mixed-methods analysis of the Incel Wiki’.
- Dr Dayei Oh (2021): "Emotion and incivility in online political discussions."
- Dr Rafaela Orphanides (2020) "Construction of gender in glossy magazines during the current age of austerity: A cross-cultural study."
- Dr Hanah Newman (2020) "Exploring female strength and power: an ethnography of strongwoman."
- Dr Ådne Meling (2019) “Funding classical music: A comparison of Norwegian public policy and practitioner perspectives.”
- Dr Xinan Li (2019) "Believing through Belonging: A Sociological Study of Christian Conversion of Chinese Migrants in Britain."
- Dr Gennaro Errichiello (2018) "'Dubai is a transit lounge'. Migration, belonging and national identity in Pakistani Professionals in the UAE."
- Dr Sarah C. Lewis (2014) "A Grounded Theory Analysis of the Forms of Support on Two Online Anorexia Forums."
- Dr Nicola Reynolds (2014) "Resurgence of Religion in Public Life: Expressing Christianity through Public Service Provision."
- Dr Roxana Morosanu (2014) "Presents of the Midlands: Domestic Time, ‘Ordinary Agency’ and Family Life in an English Town."
- Cooke, J. & Nyhagen, L., eds. (2024). Intersectional Feminist Research Methodologies: Applications in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Routledge. Open Access, available .
- Nyhagen, L. & Halsaa, B. (2024). ‘Religion, Gender and Citizenship’, in Birte Siim and Pauline Stoltz, eds., , 121-144. Springer Link.
- Nyhagen, L. (2022). ‘Oppression or liberation? Moving beyond binaries in religion and gender studies.’ Invited chapter, in Caroline Starkey and Emma Tomlinson, eds., Routledge Handbook of Religions, Gender and Society. New York: Routledge, pp. 52-66.
- Errichiello, G. & Nyhagen, L. (2021). ‘Dubai is a transit lounge’: Temporariness and class among Pakistani professional migrants in the United Arab Emirates’. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 30(2), pp. 119-142.
- Nyhagen L. (2020). ‘It’s not macho, is it? Contemporary British Christian Men’s Constructions of Masculinities’. The Journal of Men’s Studies. Online first, December 2020, pp. 1-19.
- Nyhagen, L. (2019). ‘Mosques as Gendered Spaces: The Complexity of Women’s Compliance with, and Resistance to, Dominant Gender Norms, and the Importance of Male Allies’. Religions 10, 321: 1-15.
- Nyhagen, L. (2019). 'Contestations of Feminism, Secularism and Religion in the West: The Discursive Othering of Religious and Secular Women'. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 32 (1), 2019.
- Nyhagen, L. (2018). ‘Citizenship, Religion, Gender and the Politics of Belonging: A Case Study of White, Middle-Class Christian Men in the East Midlands, United Kingdom’. Culture and Religion 19 (3): 253-272.
- Nyhagen, L. (2017). 'The Lived Religion Approach in the Sociology of Religion and its Implications for Secular Feminist Analyses of Religion'. Social Compass 64 (4): 495-511.
- Nyhagen, L. & Halsaa, B. (2016). Religion, Gender and Citizenship: Women of Faith, Gender Equality and Feminism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Nyhagen, L. (2015). 'Conceptualizing Lived Religious Citizenship: A Case-Study of Christian and Muslim Women in Norway and the United Kingdom'. Citizenship Studies 19 (6-7): 768-784.