His writings have been published by Aeon, the American Philosophical Association (APA), Dialogue and Universalism, Cosmopolis, etc., and he was formerly a columnist for Al Jazeera English.

Herbjørnsrud was the guest editor of a special issue of the bilingual journal Cosmopolis (Brussels), on "Decolonizing the Academy";[1][2] one of his contributors was the author and Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.

Here, Herbjørnsrud proposed a global comparative method for the discipline, based on the three concepts of "context, connection, and comparison.

[23][24] As an editor of Ny Tid and responsible for its "Without Borders" ("Uten grenser") column, Herbjørnsrud was responsible for contacting the paper's columnists; like Anna Politkovskaya (Russia), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Irshad Manji (Canada), Elena Milashina (Russia), Marta Beatrize Roque (Cuba), Parvin Ardalan (Iran), Tsering Woeser (Tibet) and Ethel Kabwato (Zimbabwe).

[25][26] Herbjørnsrud contributed to the production of the TV and Netflix thriller Occupied (2015), in which he ("editor Dag") was played by the actor Øystein Røger.