Knut Olav Åmås (born 19 January 1968) is a Norwegian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

, editor and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

for the Conservative Party. He hails from

Odda Odda () is a list of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Hordaland counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1913 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Ullensvang Municipality i ...

. He holds a cand.philol. degree in philosophy, having taken his master's thesis on

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

. He later took a

dr.philos. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree on a biographical thesis about Olav H. Hauge. He has worked as a journalist in ''

Bergens Tidende is Norway's fifth-largest newspaper, and the country's largest newspaper outside Oslo. is owned by the public company Schibsted ASA. Norwegian owners held a mere 42% of the shares in Schibsted at the end of 2015. History and profile Founded ...

'', and is from 2006 debate editor (from 2008: editor of culture and debate) in ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

''. He was an editor in the publishing house

Universitetsforlaget Universitetsforlaget AS (English: "The University Press"), also known in English as Scandinavian University Press, is a Norway, Norwegian academic publishing company, which publishes non-fiction literature and scholarly journal, journals mainly ...

from 1996 to 2001, and edited the periodical ''

Samtiden ''Samtiden'' is a Norwegian political and literary magazine. History and profile ''Samtiden'' was founded by Jørgen Brunchorst and Gerhard Gran in 1890. The magazine's first publisher was ''John Griegs forlag'' (Bergen), and from 1900 Ascheh ...

'' from 2001 to 2006. In 2013, he was named in Solberg's Cabinet as State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. He is currently the Director of '' Fritt Ord''. Åmås is openly gay.

References

1968 births Living people People from Odda University of Bergen alumni Norwegian non-fiction writers Norwegian biographers Norwegian gay writers Norwegian gay politicians Norwegian male biographers Norwegian magazine editors Aftenposten people LGBTQ conservatism Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian state secretaries 21st-century Norwegian politicians 21st-century Norwegian journalists 21st-century Norwegian male writers 21st-century Norwegian LGBTQ people {{Norway-writer-stub