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Karelian-speaking people at the border

This project studied the Karelian people living in both sides of the border between Finland and Russia. A book ‘Karjalankieliset rajalla’ was published in 2021.

Kari Korolainen (kari.korolainen@uef.fi)

How do traditions – cultural continuities within immaterial and material folklore and customs – relate to geographical and other, more symbolic borders as well the plurality of mobilities? And what kinds of perspectives open up, when these issues are addressed from the viewpoint of material and visual culture, and aesthetic matters? How do we visualize, especially by means of sketching, things like immaterial folklore, beauty, or borders? What viewpoints research and arts, separately and together, provide for these questions?

Folklore and culture studies researcher Kari Korolainen is specialized in cultural traditions and mundane aesthetic issues, as well in visual and material culture, not only in the research but also from the practical stance. In the project the Lost Mitten and Other Stories (Jan 1, 2018-July 31, 2020), Korolainen combined research and visual arts. Accordingly, “Marjatta & Ilman Kinna” comic book was published (by Kirjokansi) in February 2020 In the earlier studies, Korolainen dealt with issues as the borderlands of (visual) arts, home decoration and cultural customs from the viewpoint of artification. Korolainen possess multidimensional expertise also in the issues relating to the collecting and the archives of the folklore materials. He used to work in the Finnish Literature Society Archive and in the North Karelian Museum. Formerly, he worked as a visual artist.

Krista Sutinen (krista.sutinen@uef.fi)

Coordinator in the Humanities: Cultural studies, English, Finnish for foreigners, French, Japanese, Karelian, Media culture and communication, Swedish and Teaching Finnish as L2 language.

Coordinator in Digistartti.
Course teacher in the study module of Ikävoimaa työhön (Work and organizational psychology).
Educator of online pedagogy.

Master of Administration (Administration, especially Leadership of Psychology)

Master of Education

Bachelor of Theology

 

Book time for a counselling.

Maarit Sireni (maarit.sireni@uef.fi)

Main research interests: 1. Gender and Space: feminist rural studies, farm women, entrepreneurship, motherhood and childcare in the countryside; 2. Imagined and Lived Rural Space: changing rural communities, sense of place, everyday life and mobility patterns in rural areas; 3. Cultural Geographies of Home: domestic material cultures of Karelian people; 4. Land Use Planning in the Countryside: sparsity, living in low density areas; 5. Geographies of Food: local food and second home owners; 6. Rural Services: integration of services.

Courses: Feminist Geography, 5116378, 5 cr; Rural Geography, 5116228, 5 cr (lectures in Finnish).
Editor of TERRA, Geographical journal

Milla Uusitupa (milla.uusitupa@uef.fi)

Milla Uusitupa’s research interests lie in the fields of grammar of spoken language, Finnish and Karelian dialects, and other Finnic languages. In her doctoral dissertation (Open person constructions in Border Karelian dialects, 2017), Uusitupa has studied the open usage of second and third person singular in Border Karelian dialects, which form an inter-dialect area between Eastern Finnish and Karelian varieties.

Minna Piipponen (minna.piipponen@uef.fi)

I am a Human Geographer, D.Soc.Sci. My latest research interests focus on international migratory processes related to Russia. The earlier interests covered community and regional development related to restructuring processes of natural resource industries especially in North-West Russia and border regions. In addition, I do organizational tasks at the Karelian Institute including e.g. providing support for the Institute’s researchers and projects in their daily work, as well as communication and reporting tasks.

I work also as the Coordinator of the Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters research community (BOMOCULT RC). This research community brings together research teams and scholars from the Karelian Institute, the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Historical and Geographical Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, as well as from the School of Humanities and the School of Theology at the Philosophical Faculty.

Nollatutkijat

Our group began at the Joensuu campus through joint discussions between three fellow academics. Very soon we realized that we were wondering the same thing: what is happening to the university: who defines what can be studied at the university, how the perception of human sciences and ways of working are changing, and why academics are being monitored increasingly.
The group consists of three people whose disciplines and methodological skills are complementary. The team’s work has been characterized by the testing and development of methods related to different types of texts – oral and written – and their interpretation.
Ismo Björn is a senior researcher at the Karelian Institute. His background is in the study of history, where social and nature-related topics are in the focus of the analysis. Pirjo Pöllänen is a researcher at the Karelian Institute and specializes in social policy issues, e.g. changes in working life. Jarmo Saarti is the director of the University Library. In his research he has dealt e.g. the management at the universities and also communication process of fiction.
The group has published studies about university strategies and the rhetoric of the academic leadership and management.