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Aija Lulle (aija.lulle@uef.fi)

I am a migration scholar and geographer, currently working on a project Returning home? Making and imagining ageing futures. This research examines the lives of ageing people in the historical context of recent large-scale emigration and the unprecedented acceleration of population ageing in Eastern Europe. Its rationale originates from an urgent necessity to understand the wellbeing needs of ageing people. The theoretical approach is grounded in concepts from human geography and migration theory, focusing on migrants’ capabilities to aspire. The project utilises sensory, practical and imaginative homemaking practices.

Prior to my current research post, I was Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, UK. My experience includes intense teaching and diverse fieldwork in Baltics, Nordic countries, border regions with Russia and the UK. In addition, I have significant leadership and administrative skills (as Director of the Diaspora and Migration Research Centre in Latvia (2014-2015) and as head of Doctoral Programmes in Geography and Environment in Loughborough (2021-2022).

 

Between the Normal and the Abnormal – Cultural Meanings of Dementia and Old Age in Finland and Russia (DemOldCult)

The study focuses on perceptions and representations of old age and dementia. The main aim of the research project is to make visible those cultural practices and discourses that produce marginalising stereotypes and stigmatise aging people, by means of deconstruction and critical approach. The examination of two cultural spheres, Finnish and Russian, both together and apart, will help in discovering and deconstructing cultural stereotypes.

Christopher Asquith (christopher.asquith@uef.fi)

Dr Asquith first completed a BSc and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Southampton. During this time, he worked for Prof. A. Ganesan on novel asthma targets and epigenetic prostate cancer modulators, which included a 3-month placement abroad at the University of Eastern Finland. He then went on to do a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at University College London under the supervision of Dr S. Hilton, working on zinc abstractors as a treatment for retroviral infections. This work was part of a broad international Consortium including the University of Zurich, Switzerland and Zelinsky Institute, Moscow, Russia and others, targeting the nucleocapsid protein of FIV/HIV. Subsequently, he continued his interest in innovative ring systems with a short stay at the University of Cyprus working with Prof. P. Koutentis, before joining the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on chemical probe development for kinases with Prof. T. Willson. This was followed by a move to the School of Medicine to work as the lead medicinal chemist on the Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) kinase program working with Prof. G. Johnson. Starting his own research team, he moved to the University of Eastern Finland to start a medicinal Chemistry program, working on novel kinase indications and understanding kinase solvation shells as a prognostic marker for Kinome wide inhibitor promiscuity.

Dawid Bunikowski (dawid.bunikowski@uef.fi)

I am a legal philosopher of Polish descent, residing in Eastern Finland (North Karelia, Joensuu). I did my PhD in Poland in 2009 (on law and morality: abortion, euthanasia, human fertilisation, cloning, pornography, prostitution, same-sex couples, etc.). I did different postgraduate studies in: 1) human resources management, 2) economics, 3) MBA-sustainable and inclusive leadership, 4) Jews in Poland. I carried out my postdoctoral research at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF, School of Law), in 2013-2015 (on the recent global financial crisis as an axiological crisis: the crisis of law and the crisis of morality; business ethics/corporate governance). My Docent title was granted by the University of Lapland in 2022 (in the field of philosophy of law in the Arctic).

I have been a Visiting Researcher at the UEF School of Theology since 2020. Additionally, I am a University Professor at the State University of Applied Sciences in Wloclawek (Department of Administration) in Poland. I am a Lecturer at the University of Guyana (Department of Law) in Guyana. I am a former Visiting Professor at Carleton University (Department of Law and Legal Studies) in Ottawa, Canada.

I am a law and religion scholar. I work on state church relations, religious freedom, Catholicism and Judaism, but also on relations between law, morality and religion. My main research interests concern as well: law and morality, law and politics, law and society, law and anthropology, law and language, etc. Much of my research has covered indigenous cultures in the Arctic like customary laws, recognition of indigenous rights or protection of sacred sites. I am also to ethical foundations of economy.

Moreover, I do “all things Polish”.

While in the School, I teach:

I also taught here (2022/2023):

  • “Jews and Judaism in Poland, Russia, the Baltic countries and East Central Europe”,
  • “Ukrainian-Polish relations: history, politics, culture, law, religion”.

Moreover, while in social sciences (2023/2024), I am the coordinator of the YUFE course “Global Migration and European Identity” and have taught “Populism in East Central Europe”.

Diversities of the Environmental Movement in Russia

‘Diversities of the Environmental Movement in Russia’ is an academic research project funded by Kone Foundation. We explore the on-going transformations of the environmental movement in Russia. We investigate the current state of the environmental movement, its different forms of action and recent changes in them, and the possibilities of the movement to have an impact on sustainable development. We analyse the transformations of the movement through three case studies: non-governmental organisations (NGOs) focussed on the conservation of biodiversity, alliances between environmental NGOs and indigenous groups, and eco-villages. All these different forms of the environmental movement operate through social networks in Russia and internationally, and in our research we analyse the recent changes in these networks.

Gleb Iarovoi (gleb.iarovoi@uef.fi)

Having defended my Russian “candidate of science” dissertation in 2007, I am currently writing my “European” PhD thesis, which was devoted to cross-border governance on the EU-Russian border, participatory arrangements in cross-border programmes and the role of non-state actors in inter-regional cooperation. However, after Russian invasion of Ukraine there is no more “cross-border cooperation” and “cross-border governance” on the EU-Russian border. So my current research is being revisited towards exploring the “subaltern geopolitics” of the Finnish-Russian border, i.e. the geopolitical imagination of subaltern groups having direct or indirect relations to this border. Also, as a research hobby and a natural scope of interest, I study academic freedoms in Russia (and Russian academia as subaltern).

As a freetime hobby, for many years now, I do journalism. Previously, I reported on sensitive issues of Russian political and social life, such as human rights violations by the state, by the Russian Orthodox Church, by security agencies and courts. Currently, I cover different issues of the Finnish-Russian relations for Russian readers.

Jeremy Smith (jeremy.smith@uef.fi)

I carry out research on the recent and contemporary history on the countries of the Former Soviet Union. At present, there is an especial emphasis on the five countries of Central Asia. My research interests range from very specific, localized events and their impacts, to broad understandings of the interactions of time and space and the legacies of empires and long-distance trade routes on peripheral landscapes. My current projects involve work on post-Soviet borders, the role concern for ethnic Russians in neighbouring countries plays in Russian policy making, and constitutional arrangements and understandings of national minority rights in new post-Imperial countries.