Peter Hervik (born 27 September 1956) is a Danish anthropologist and former professor in Media and Migration. He focuses on the media's representation and popular consciousness in the context of identities and everyday lives of ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees in Denmark. while taking special interest in the historical evolvement of Danish neo-nationalism, neo-racism and populism ^[1][2]

He received his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Copenhagen and a Swedish Docent degree in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) at Malmö University. He completed his Ph.D. thesis based on ethnographic fieldwork in Yucatán Mexico where he studied the incongruency between external representation of "Maya culture" and the self-categorization of people associated with "Mayan culture".^[3][4]

Peter Hervik was appointed Assistant Professor (1999–2001) at the University of Oslo, and Associate Professor at Malmö University (2003–2009). In 2009–2010 he was invited visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and later Associate as well as Professor, mso, at Aalborg University (2010–2019). Currently, he is a member of the Network of Independent Scholars in Education (NOISE) in Denmark.

Among other research projects, Peter Hervik has done extensive research on Muhammad cartoon crisis showing how the Danish news media shapes our understandings and perceptions of Islam and Muslims. He also analyzed the role of anthropological inquiry in addressing media representations of migrant minorities.^[5][6][7] In his book The Annoying Difference; The Emergence of Danish Neo-nationalism, Neo-racism, and Populism the post 1989 World (2011), Hervik brings together research on three significant historical media events in Denmark in order to show the drastic changes and fissures in Danish society, which also exposes the politicalization of Danish news journalism. Recently, he completed a book in Danish on racialization in Denmark, as well as co-editing and contributing to a book on "Digital Hate."

Selected works

• Hervik, Peter (2021). Sådan er det bare! Antropologiske perspektiver på oplevelser og reaktioner på racialisering i Danmark. Aarhus: Klims Forlag. ISBN 978-87-7204-754-6
• Peter Hervik (co-editor) (2021). Digital Hate. Global Perspectives on Online Extreme Culture. India-na University Press. ISBN 9780253059253
• Hervik, Peter (ed.) (2019). Racialization, Racism and anti-Racism in the Nordic Countries. Series: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-319-74629-6.
• Hervik, Peter (co-author) (2017). Can Behaviour Be Controlled? Women in Post-Revolutionary Egypt. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-71735-6
• Hervik, Peter (2012). The Danish Muhammad Cartoon Conflict. Current Themes in IMER Research 13, Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM), Malmö University. https://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/14094 ISBN 978-91-7104-438-9
• Hervik, Peter (2011). The Annoying Difference. The Emergence of Danish Neonationalism, Neoracism, and Populism in the Post-1989 World. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-100-2
• Hervik, Peter (2003). Mayan People Within and Beyond Boundaries. Social Categories and Lived Identity in Yucatan. Routledge ISBN 0-415-94526-7 (pb)
• Hervik, Peter (2002). Mediernes muslimer. En antropologisk undersøgelse af mediernes dækning af religioner i Danmark. The Board for Ethnic Equality: Copenhagen. ISBN 87-91004-41-1
• Hervik, Peter (editor) (1999). Den generende forskellighed. Danske svar på den stigende multikultu-ralisme. Hans Reitzels Forlag. ISBN 87-412-2716-6
• Peter Hervik (co-editor). 1994. Social Experience and Anthropological Knowledge. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10657-5