Gunar Olsen

• Published Work
• Media Appearances

I am PhD student in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley, School of Law. Broadly I’m interested in the political economy of law and capitalism. My writing has been published in The New Republic, The Nation, Jacobin, Damage Magazine, and elsewhere.

Prior to starting grad school, I lived and worked in New York City as a freelance writer and journalist, covering the politics of US foreign policy. I did research stints at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in 2019-20 and The Nation magazine in 2017. As an undergraduate, I co-founded Fordham University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in 2015, which successfully sued the university after the dean rejected our application to become an official club. I wrote my thesis on the weaponization of law and human rights in Obama’s drone wars. I also worked in restaurants for a long time, including a few years as a wine sommelier.