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A Lost Mitten and Other Stories

The project, Lost Mitten and Other Stories, examines a new sense of neighbour relations that transpires as a result of growing mobility. The project focuses on the ways in which these new neighbour relations or a sense of neighbourliness emerge from stories related to personal items of significance, and the way in which these stories are perceived. Lost Mitten and Other Stories is an interdisciplinary project that seeks collaboration between art and science. The project is carried out in eastern Finland.

The main concern of the project is to find out how the items of personal significance and the stories related to them help establish dialogue and, consequently, new kinds of mobile and cross-border neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. Furthermore, the purpose is to explore how dialogic interaction helps promote, for example, the construction of cultural citizenship and create new, migrating, deterritorial cultural heritages. The items of personal significance as well as the stories relating to them are examined through a materialistic, cultural, linguistic, and narrative point of view and are, additionally, exhibited through artistic, interactive displays. The items of personal significance are understood as a poetic and political medium of various dialogues between past and present, between immigrants and natives, between different generations, between mobile and sedentary people.

The approach and the subject matter of the project are topical: immigration, different mobilities, the encounter of languages and cultures, and thereby, emerging new neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. The multidisciplinary approach, combining different methods of science and art, enables new ways of examining the issue of neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness.

The project combines science and art innovatively and, therefore, generates new methods to investigate the current issues of different mobilities, language and cultural encounters, and challenges arising from new neighbour relations.

The project is funded by the Kone Foundation.

Alessandro Indelicato (alessandro.indelicato@uef.fi)

Alessandro Indelicato received a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the University of Bologna in 2016. Two years later, he obtained a master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, and Management. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His doctoral thesis focused on immigration and national identity, both analysed with novel mathematical approaches. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and is also on a visiting research stay at the School of Theology at the University of Eastern Finland until June 2025. He is co-leading a WG of the COST ACTION CA20107 – CONNECTING THEORY AND PRACTICAL ISSUES OF MIGRATION AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY.

Helena Rovamo (helena.rovamo@uef.fi)

Hi! I’m Helena, a PhD researcher in social psychology. Nice of you to check out my profile! 😊

I am currently finishing my dissertation on populism. In my dissertation, I aim to explore the appeal of populism through qualitative research. My dissertation is part of a broader research project called Mobilizing Populism led by Professor Inari Sakki of the University of Helsinki.

My research is based on interview data collected in the research project in 2021. In these interviews, we discussed with voters of different Finnish parties different political issues, such as immigration and populism, and the reasons for their voting decisions. In my research, I have focused primarily on examining the divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ as constructed in the interviewees’ talk. The sub-studies of my dissertation have been published in social psychology journals and I actively communicate about my research on my LinkedIn profile. The sub-studies are listed below:

Rovamo, H., Pettersson, K., & Sakki, I. (2023). Who’s to blame for failed integration of immigrants? Blame attributions as an affectively polarizing force in lay discussions of immigration in Finland. Political Psychology, 45(2), 235–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12917

Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2023). Lay representations of populism: discursive negotiation of naturalized social representation. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology., 34(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2755

Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2024). Mobilization of shared victimhood in the radical right populist Finns Party supporters’ identity work: A narrative-discursive approach to populist support. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54(2), 495–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3021

Since spring 2024, I have been working as part of a research project called Intergroup Relations and Local Encounters, led by Jari Martikainen from the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Kone Foundation. The research project focuses on studying how Ukrainian, Middle Eastern, and Finnish young people living in the Savo area perceive each other, their lives, and their future in multicultural Savo.

Alongside my research, I teach and supervise students in social psychology.

Before my studies in social sciences, I graduated as a nurse from the Savonia University of Applied Sciences. I consider that my professional strengths are, on the one hand, my ability to be analytical and systematic and, on the other, my ability to listen and have empathy towards others.

In my work, I get excited about learning or practicing something new every day. I enjoy conversations and listening to others. I sometimes immerse myself in details, but I also love to outline big patterns.

Meysam Haddadi Barzoki (meysamh@uef.fi)

Dr Barzoki currently foucese on the sexual objectification among Muslim immigrant women in Europe as a vulnerable group who suffer from serious psychological trauma raises from difficult time of immigration and resettlement in Europe.