Svein Atle Skålevåg is a professor in history of sciences at the University of Bergen, Norway, with an interest in the historical epistemology of medicine. He is interested in the history of psychiatry and more generally in the social and cultural history of medical knowledge of man and society. He has written on the history of psychiatric knowledge as it emerges in texts from medical practice, such a s case notes and expert reports. He also has an enduring interest in medicine, law and literature.

The last few years he has worked on the history of forensic psychiatry, the topic of a book published in 2016 (Utilregnelighet. En historie om rett og medisin). Currently he is working on the biomedicalization of psychiatry in the 20th century, especially as this relates to psychiatry as a forensic expertise.