The Africa-EU relations, migration, development and integration (AEMDI) project, aims to bring into conversation leading academics, policy makers, political observers and practitioners from civil society to explore and examine intra-Africa migration on one hand and EU-Africa relationships vis-à-vis migration on the other hand. Efforts to integrate Africa, through the RECs, should, then, be informed by lessons and parallels drawn from across Africa, and chiefly, the integration experience of the EU—particularly the Schengen Area—in moving from free movement of labour (only) to EU citizenship, as enshrined in Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its main activities of AEMDI will include two international workshops and one international conference. One workshop will be hosted by the University of Eastern Finland and another by the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The main output of AEMDI activities will be a scientific edited volume, based on deliberations in and papers from the workshops. The main outcome of AEMDI is the promotion of the Jean Monnet Programme and adoption of best practices from the EU`s successes in regional integration, in Africa. The impacts of AEMDI will include increased networking and expertise between/of academics, policy makers, professionals and relevant stakeholders in Africa and the EU. AEMDI responds to the need to promote development and well-being in Africa through, among other things, learned experiences from observed successes in EU integration.
Ágnes Németh (agnes.nemeth@uef.fi)
Currently, she is managing two European projects: “CASPER: Citizen Activation in Shrinking rural areas for Place-based policies to Enhance Resilience” (Interreg Europe, 2023-2027) and “SERIGO: Social Economy for Resilience, Inclusion and Good Life in Rural areas” (Horizon Europe, 2024-2027).
She is involved in the research project “ESSPIN: Economic, Social and SPatial INequalities in Europe in the Era of Global Mega-trends” (Horizon Europe, 2022-2025).
Her doctoral thesis dealt with issues of regional policy, relational-governance and mega-events planning. She has been involved in European research projects (European Science Foundation, FP7) in border studies focusing on cross-border cooperation processes and the social (de)construction of borders. In her post-doctoral research, she studies foreigners’ socio-economic engagement in different Finnish urban environments with the aim of producing knowledge on the local particularities and challenges of integration processes. She was managing the international project “ECoC-SME: Actions for inducing SME growth and innovation via the ECoC event and legacy” (Interreg Europe, 2019-2021).
Albert Mills (albert.mills@uef.fi)
Albert’s research interests include gender discrimination at work; intersectionality and diversity management; management history; and existentialism and management theory. He is the author and editor of over 150 scholarly articles; 100 book chapters and 50 books. He is the co-developer of Critical Sensemaking and ANTi-History and played an important role in the development of the field of gender and organizational theory. Albert is currently the Co-Chair of the international Critical Management Studies organization and has previously served as President of the Atlantic Schools of Business; President of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada; Divisional Co-Chair of the Critical Management Studies division of the Academy of Management; and board member of the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management and of the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism. He is the Co-editor of the international journal Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management and serves on the editorial board of several leading journals. He has supervised 30 plus doctoral students in Canada and Finland. Albert’s association with Finland began in 1996 when he co-taught an international course on gender, culture and management at Lappeenranta University; taught doctoral courses at Hanken University and at the UEF since 2011. He has also been involved in several Canadian and Finnish-funded research to the tune of CAN$12 million.
Andrew Agbaje (andrew.agbaje@uef.fi)
Prof. Agbaje is an award-winning physician and professor (associate) of clinical epidemiology and child health who currently investigates causal relationships of aerobic fitness, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, body composition, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and metabolic syndrome with arterial, cardiac, liver, and kidney structure and function from childhood through young adulthood.
He discovered arterial stiffness as a novel risk factor for paediatric obesity and insulin resistance, identified adolescence as the critical time to interrupt fat mass-insulin resistance pathologic cycle, and demonstrated light-intensity physical activity as a highly effective antidote for reversing excessive fat deposit induced by childhood sedentariness. Recently, he discovered waist-to-height ratio as a specific surrogate for fat mass but not muscle mass that could replace BMI in assessing childhood obesity. Subsequently, he was interviewed LIVE on BBC World News TV to discuss the novel findings.
As of September/October 2023, two of Prof. Agbaje’s publications were placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Clinical Medicine, while a third publication was placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Biology & Biochemistry by Clarivate’s Web of Science.
He has a first authored paper in Nature Communications and was interviewed LIVE on BBC World Service Radio Newsday programme on 15th Dec 2023, BBC Radio Devon on 16th Jan 2024, and BBC World News LIVE TV programme on 14th March 2024. The University of Eastern Finland recently recorded a podcast interview of his latest findings as well as a video.
The Endocrine Society in US, recently recorded a podcast interview of his research and discussed his research in the prestigious Endocrine Magazine March 2024 edition. He was recently interviewed by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, a federation of 36 European countries’ professional associations.
His research has received extensive press coverage, with over 2,000 media mentions in 2022 and 2023 in outlets such as BBC, CNN, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mirror, BILD, Infobae, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo Sport, US News & World report, DocCheck, MSN, WebMD, Medscape, The Conversation, Jerusalem Post, Helsingin Sanomat, etc, potentially reaching a global audience of more than 4.5 billion. The equivalent advertising value of these news articles is more than 30 million US dollars.
He is the principal investigator of the urFIT-child research group and has strong collaboration with world-renowned pediatricians, exercise physiologists, epidemiologists, and adult clinicians in Canada, US, UK, Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc.
He has received several scientific excellence awards including the prestigious EASO-Novo Nordisk Foundation for New Investigator Award in Childhood Obesity with a 300,000 Danish Kroner (~40,000 euro) prize. Other awards are the American Heart Association’s Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award in Epidemiology and Prevention (once), Jeremiah and Rose Stamler Research Award (twice), and Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award (thrice).
He co-authored an American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Environmental Exposures and Pediatric Cardiology, published in Circulation. He had a video discussion of the Scientific Statement. He was an invited guest speaker to the largest mother and child center in Canada – CHU Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital Center, Canada in March 2023 to speak on the determinants of carotid intima-media thickness and arterial stiffness in pediatrics.
He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC), Department of Public Health and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
He was recently appointed an Associate Editor in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle (JCSM). He serves on the editorial board of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB), and mentors early career editorial board members. He also serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Exercise Science journal.
He is an elected Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). These titles of honour, symbol of excellence and lifetime achievement recognizes his significant contribution to cardiovascular field in Europe and America.
He is an expert advisor to the World Health Organization’s task force on preventing childhood obesity.
Primary email is andrew.agbaje@uef.fi
Secondary email is a.agbaje@exeter.ac.uk
Anna Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen (anna.maki-petaja-leinonen@uef.fi)
Anna Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen is Professor of Law and Ageing. Her research has focused on Elder Law combining jurisprudence (Civil Law and Social- and Medical Law) with social and medical sciences.
Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen received her PhD (law) from the University of Helsinki in 2003. The title of her thesis is “Legal Rights of People with Dementia”. Her second monograph (2013) deals with the legal possibilities to anticipate aging. In autumn 2017, she published a book “Basics of Elder Law” with Anja Karvonen-Kälkäjä.
Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen is involved in many research projects. She is sub-consortium PI in an international research project focusing on the specific issues concerning people who develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment while still working (MCI@work). She is also sub-consortium PI in national research project scrutinizing home-based palliative care of the elderly (MeRela). At the University of Eastern Finland, Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen leads the Neuro-Ethics and Law research team, which is part of the university’s multidisciplinary Neuroscience research community.
Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen teaches Elder and Guardianship law and is a teacher in course “Social Law Clinic”. She is docent (adjunct professor) in Family law at the University of Helsinki and docent (adjunct professor) in Elder law at the University of Lapland.
Anna Salonen (anna.salonen@uef.fi)
I am a Doctor of Theology with a title of docent in Church and Social studies, a multidisciplinary and internationally networked researcher and a curious observer of human social life. My research interests include faith-based charitable food aid, social inequality and charity economy; affluence, moderation and everyday food consumption; therapeutic culture; and lived (non)religion. Right now my research focuses on lived utopias in food aid as well as (non-)religiosity and relationships with nature in community gardens.
Annalisa Savaresi (annalisa.savaresi@uef.fi)
Annalisa Savaresi is an environmental law expert with a 20-year track record working alongside international and non-governmental organizations. Annalisa’s academic portfolio comprises more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and contributions to well-regarded collections, enjoying widespread citations, including by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In addition to her academic work, Annalisa serves as the Director for Europe within the Global Network on Human Rights and the Environment. She also holds the role of Associate Editor at the Review of European, Comparative, and International Law and is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Annalisa is actively engaged in providing evidence to legislative bodies, including the UK, EU, and Scottish Parliaments. She further sits on the Board of Environmental Standards Scotland, a body established under the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, which oversees the compliance of Scottish public authorities with environmental law.
Annele Virtanen (annele.virtanen@uef.fi)
Head of the Aerosol Physics Research Group: http://www.uef.fi/aerosol/ I received my PhD in Tampere University of Technology (TUT, Department of Physics) 2004. After that I continued working as a postdoc and group leader at TUT. On January 2012 I moved to University of Eastern Finland (UEF) to lead the Aerosol Physics Laboratory. I have a strong background in measurement method development and applications related to atmospheric aerosols. My major research questions are related to the atmospheric aerosols: how they form, what are their properties and what is the role they play in the Earth’s climate through their interactions with water vapour. To study these questions in a comprehensive way I have established a wide international collaborative networks and consistently developed our own research infrastructure at UEF. Major part of my research is funded by EU Framework program (e.g. project FORCeS, EUROCHAMP2020, ERC Starting Grant project QAPPA) and Academy of Finland.
Anniina Hakkarainen (anniina.hakkarainen@uef.fi)
Hi! I work as an amanuensis at the Business School on Kuopio campus. My duties include the study administration of international master’s programs, as well as the coordination of internships and exchange studies.
Anniina Kämäräinen (anniina.kamarainen@uef.fi)
I work as a university lecturer in the field of special education. My areas of expertise include the topics of Qualitative research methods, Core mathematical skills and pedagogical support for learning mathematics, and Assessment for learning. Additionally, I supervise bachelor’s theses, master’s theses, and teaching practices. Besides teaching, I work as a postdoctoral researcher on an interdisciplinary and international research project “Peer interactions involving children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive classrooms” (PEICAS). The project aims at developing understanding and strategies for support the social participation of children on the autism spectrum in inclusive settings. We are using the combination of various research methods involving conversation analysis and multimodal interaction analysis for researching social interaction. In addition to school data, we collected a life course data including interviews and written accounts of the 33 adults on the autism spectrum.