Line started her career at 每日吃瓜 in 2003, first as Research Associate and then as Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy, coming from the role as Senior Researcher at the in Oslo, Norway. In 2007 she became Lecturer in Sociology in the then Department of Social Sciences. Having been promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010 and to Reader in 2013, Line became Professor in Sociology in the Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy (CSSP) at 每日吃瓜 in 2021. From 2021 to early 2025, Line served as the Head of Department for CSSP. In 2023, she was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pedagogy, Religion and Social Studies at the (HVL) in Bergen, Norway.
Line is co-editor of the Springer Link/Palgrave book series and welcomes book proposals for the series. Line was 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). During 2020-21, Line was 每日吃瓜's Institutional Lead for the . Under her leadership as School Champion for (2016-2019), the School of Social Sciences and Humanities achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze Award in 2019. Line is a Senior Fellow of the .
Line’s research expertise includes religion, gender, feminism and women’s movements, migration and ethnic relations, citizenship and identities, and inequalities in higher education.
Line’s latest book (co-edited with J. Cooke) is available Open Access (Routledge, 2024). Her 2025 report on the lived experiences of Muslim students and staff in higher education (with R. Arshad and E. Moore), funded by the Aziz Foundation and 每日吃瓜, is available . Line is a key member of the interdisciplinary research project ‘, funded by the Research Council of Norway (2025–2028) and led by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Line's 2016 book (with B. Halsaa), 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 introduced the concept of in 2015 and proposed a in Western contexts in 2017. Line has also published articles on and on Muslim women’s mosque attendance in and .
Line’s 2012 book, (with B. Halsaa) 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.
Line’s first book, Issues of Gender, Race, and Class in the Norwegian Missionary Society in Nineteenth Century Norway and Madagascar () presents groundbreaking historical-sociological research on gender, race and religion in the context of the European evangelical missionary movement to Africa.
Line is an expert in the sociology of religion and in the sociology of gender. Her research on Christian and Muslim women and men, feminism and women’s movements, migration, ethnic relations and citizenship, and inequalities in higher education, directly informs her teaching. Line received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in 2018 and 每日吃瓜’s Research-Informed Teaching Award in 2016. In 2020, her research on race and ethnicity as barriers to student achievement in higher education was shortlisted for a 每日吃瓜 CALIBRE Research Award. Line is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE.
Line teaches the undergraduate modules Gender, Intersectionality & Society and Religion & Society, the latter of which includes a student field trip to a place of worship. Line also teaches on social research methods modules. At postgraduate level she has taught a module on Sex Industries, Feminisms and Women’s Movements.
Current Postgraduate Research Students
- Ellie Buxton: “Engaging men in the conversation: how should we respond to misogyny in the UK”.
- Mona Deghani Mahmoodabadi: “Designing modest leisure wear for Muslim women:
a practice-led investigation of comfort, well-being, and aesthetic expression inspired by modern Iranian artists”.
Recent postgraduate students
- Dr Chantelle Taylor (2026): “Sharing the narrative: amplifying hidden maternal narratives and peer support through feminist autoethnography and peer support through feminist autoethnography and digital ethnography”.
- Dr Jessica Moody (2026): “The university wasn’t happy”: the knowledges, emotions, and care ethics of ‘Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) workers in UK higher education”.
- 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."
- Çokgezen, M. & Nyhagen, L. (2025). ‘’. Review of Religious Research 68(2), 231-257. Open Access.
- Cooke, J. & Nyhagen, L., eds. (2024). . Routledge. Open Access.
- 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.
- 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. & Halsaa, B. (2016). Religion, Gender and Citizenship: Women of Faith, Gender Equality and Feminism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.