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, (non-)religiosity and relationships with nature in community gardens as well as crevices and intersections of masculinity, religion and nonreligion.
My research project is titled “Gendered neuronormativity in the discussion on ADHD and women in Finnish media”. I approach my media data as cultural texts from perspectives provided by e.g. neurodiversity studies and neuroqueer theory to explore normativities concerning both neurocognitive functioning and gender, and how these normativities intertwine.
My research group explores how cells adapt their metabolism under stress and how these changes influence tissue repair and regeneration in cardiometabolic diseases. We aim to uncover the underlying mechanisms of impaired tissue regeneration in chronic diseases, ultimately aiming to improve treatment options for cardiovascular and chronic liver diseases. In the RCF Finland funded GrowMeLiver and Novo Nordisk Foundation funded LiverXComm projects (Emerging Investigator Grant in Endocrinology and Metabolism) explore cell organelle interactions and their regulatory gene networks in the hepatocyte plasticity and metabolic reprogramming to understand the disturbed liver regeneration capacity in MASH. As part of the GeneCellNano Flagship Program, we strive to develop RNA therapies for cardiometabolic diseases. We are also part of MSCA MIRACLE Doctoral Network where we aim to better understand the metabolic programming in inflammatory cells.
I am a literary scholar whose research contributes to the field of mobility humanities, especially in terms of bringing mobility studies perspectives into the study of literature. I am specialised in African literatures, which I approach from the perspective of mobilities research. Postcolonial literary studies and studies in travel writing have also been central areas of academic interest for me. My five-year Academy Research Fellow project, titled “The Poetics of Afroeuropean Mobility in Francophone African Literatures” (2020–2025; project number 330906), focused on how Francophone African literatures depict diverse forms and practices of mobility from the mid-20th century to the present day. In January 2026, I was nominated for a three-year position as Extraordinary Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). My key publications include the monographs Mobilities and Cosmopolitanisms in African and Afrodiasporic Literatures (Brill, 2021) and Afroeuropean Mobilities in Francophone African Literatures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). In addition, I have published numerous scholarly articles and edited two special issues for academic journals (Journal of Postcolonial Writing; English Studies in Africa) as well as one edited volume (Palgrave Macmillan). I have served as Editor-in-Chief of the Finnish literary studies journal Avain (2017–2019), as Literature Section Editor for the Nordic Journal of African Studies (2021–2025), and since 2024, I have been the Novel Review Editor for Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies.
Anna-Maija works as a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland. She is the coordinator of the multi-disciplinary bachelor program (social psychology, social pedagogy, and sociology) in the UEF’s Kuopio campus. Anna-Maija did her master’s and doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki and defended her PhD on everyday social networks and their life historical formation in Helsinki and in St. Petersburg in 2001. In her post doc, she focused on the networks of personal relationships, family, and kin, after separation. Both studies were published as monographs in Finnish. Anna-Maija has expertise in qualitative social network analysis and together with colleagues has developed the figurational perspective (also configurational perspective) in studying personal relationships. She is interested in family understandings in different settings and life-stages, in friendship, family trajectories, marriage and weddings, and paths to parenthood. Her recent works focus on the families of new-borns (in Helsinki) whose mother was not in a hetero marriage at the time of the birth. NETREP is her recent research project that focuses on young adults’ intimate futures in Finland, Portugal and Scotland in the context of global crises. Anna-Maija is a long-time board member of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Families and Intimate Lives (ESA RN13) and was elected as the chair of recently funded multi-disciplinary association, the Finnish Society for Research on Families and Personal Relationships (PELS).
I work as Professor of Education, and my research interests concern processes of societal inclusion, belonging, and inequalities. I have studied these topics through analyses of, for example, the life course and educational paths of young people and young adults, as well as the policies and practices of special education and intersecting social differences. My research is positioned in the academic fields of sociology of education, youth studies, and disability studies. I am involved in the SURE research unit. The development of qualitative research methodologies is an important part of my work, and I lead the national Ethnography seminar focusing on ethnographic research methodologies. I am also Editor-in-Chief of Nuorisotutkimus (Finnish Journal of Youth Research). My publications for 2022-2025 and 2008-2021 are available via the links.
I have multidisciplinary background (MSc in bioinformatics, PhD in genetic epidemiology and >15 years’ experience in different fields and application areas of epidemiology since completing my PhD. My current research focusses on pharmacoepidemiology and clinical epidemiology. The overarching aim of my research is to develop and implement methods and approaches for evaluating effectiveness and safety of treatments by using real-world data. The applied data ranges from national register-based studies to multi- and single-center studies using data from electronic medical records and medical reports as well as data collected specifically for research purposes. My group has produced internationally recognized real-world evidence on utilisation and outcomes of different treatments, compared and validated different patient-reported outcome measurements and determined clinically important threshold values for them, and evaluated health inequalities in neurodegenerative disorders. My research has been funded by e.g Academy of Finland research fellowship, 3x grants from Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research, work package leadership in Horizon-EU funded project Real4Reg coordinated by the German Medicines Agency. I collaborate actively with different stakeholders.
I am a critical sociologist studying political economy, ecology and social change. My research is empirical, based on interviews, case studies and other qualitative sources; and conceptual, drawing on critical theory, feminism, historical materialism and decolonial scholarship. I am currently working on two key research projects, one on the social and ecological significance of “wasting”, and the other an empirically-driven study of the paid and unpaid care work done by healthcare professionals.
My doctoral research explores constructions of tropicality in Finland; how tropical nature is presented in northern everyday, leisure, and consumer environments. The empirical material consists of hybrid ethnography in 20 sites (e.g. botanical gardens, zoos, spas) and ‘tropical’ grocery product offerings by Finnish companies. Of the wider phenomenon I use the term artificial tropical (keinotrooppisuus, Sysser 2021) in which tropicality is created and represented outside the borders of geographical tropics. To my observations I apply critical theories of tropicality (e.g. Arnold 1996; Bowd & Clayton 2019; Driver & Martins 2005; Kaartinen 2004, 11–32, 115–147) and discussions of cultural studies, visual culture, everyday aesthetics, and postcoloniality. As the tropics have been typically constructed as environmentally Other to the temperate, my research contributes to understanding how meanings and imaginaries of the tropics are currently constructed and negotiated here in the warming north. Since 2016 I have explored themes of the artificial tropical and Finnish tropicality also in my artistic work. Homepage: www.annasofiasysser.com
I am Professor in Molecular Neurodegeneration and Research Group Leader. My current research interests are: Potential synaptic dysfunction, contribution of microglia, and neuron-microglia interaction in the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) spectrum and other neurodegenerative disorders. I’m also interested in fluid biomarkers of these diseases. I coordinate the EU JPND programme-funded SynaDeg (Pre-diagnostic early synaptic disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases) project and we are partners in two EU Horizon projects, SYNAPSING and PREDICTFTD. In addition, I am Chair of the Regional Steering Group of the Kuopio Brain & Mind network belonging under the umbrella of Neurocenter Finland. The aim of our studies is to provide new insights into the molecular basis of genetic (especially C9orf72 repeat expansion-associated) and sporadic FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases and translate our findings for the benefit of the patients by discovering novel biomarker or therapeutic candidate targets. We widely utilize patient-derived cells and samples in our research and disease modeling. We closely collaborate with clinical researchers working on FTD and other neurodegenerative disorders.
