Eeva Aromaa (eeva.aromaa@uef.fi)
I work as a Post Doctoral Researcher in the Neuro impact and innovation research team. My research interests cover topics such as social processes of research collaboration with private and public sector stakeholders, co-research and patients’ experiental knowledge. My teaching experience focuses on qualitative research methods, innovation culture and innovation management research courses. Before entering the UEF, I worked as a researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and in the international HRD in the steel industry.
Marjukka Laiho (marjukka.laiho@uef.fi)
The focus of my academic exercises is the process of doing research – that is, research settings and methods, as well as the positioning, power structures and partnership of the people involved in the research process. For me, it is important to make new openings and look for new ways of doing things – to be part of creating a better world and to enhance social justice and solidarity. Interdisciplinarity and equality are guiding principles in both my empirical and theoretical work. These perspectives might also be observed in my teaching and lecturing.
In practice, my research is rooted in the sociology of religion and the sociology of knowledge, through which I look at knowing about theology and the processes of theological knowledge production. The “sociology of theology” forms the core of my research, but I look at the world – and the academia and religious communities as part of it – more broadly from a power-analytic, i.e. critical, perspective. For this, I draw from my roots in political science.
Methodologically, I am oriented towards the border crossing, cosmopolitan and equality building, i.e. collaborative research approaches (see the Co-Research Network). In particular, I draw on reflexive, critical and creative methods; I like to experiment with these analytical tools. I characterize research as strongly interactive, intersubjective process where the boundary between the researcher and the researched becomes blurred. Experience, or the permeability of lived everyday life, serves as a guiding thread in my research; in our experience we are all equal as human-beings.
On-going teaching in University of Eastern Finland
Master’s course (obligatory) 5 ects: Practical Theology, Lived religion and Social Scientific Research (head teacher, in Finnish) (2020 –>)
Bachelor’s course (optional) 5 ects: Methods Circle for Theology and Religious Studies (head teacher, in Finnish) (2024 –>)
Bachelor’s course (optional) 5 ects: Religion and Gender Studies: a Workshop (vieraileva luennoitsija, in English) (2024–>)
Sari-Johanna Karhapää (sari-johanna.karhapaa@uef.fi)
I am a researcher and teacher in Service Management (master’s program) and international retail (bachelor’s program).
I am a researcher in the Intellectual Capital Management research group and UEFDigs Research Community.
In my dissertation I explored trust development in an organizational merger context.
My research interests relate to trust, management, leadership, organizational change, and managing stakeholders, especially customer relations in international retail. I apply mainly qualitative research methods and process approach. I am interested in quality management and co-research methods.