I work as a post-doctoral researcher in a culture studies project Post-ownership as an Interpretation and Experience of Economic Change (2022-2026), funded by the Kone Foundation. In my research I focus on the everyday enactments and more-than-human agencies of economy.
In my dissertation Omakätisen ruoantuotannon monilajiset taloudet I examined the everyday economic practices of small-scale food production in Finland. Drawing on the work of feminist economic geographer J.K. Gibson-Graham and feminist naturecultures thinking by Donna Haraway, I approached food production as more-than-human livelihoods. One of the articles of the dissertation was awarded the Vuoden tiedekynä Academic Writing Award by the Kone Foundation in 2021.
I am a member in the international Community Economies Research Network and Community Economies Institute. I take part in the activities of the Finnish feminist network of political ecology and the Finnish network of sufficiency research. Additionally I am a member PALSTA (garden plot) research group as well as the network of Utopia Studies and the network of Gender Studies at the University of Eastern Finland.
As senior lecturer and adjunct professor in general history, my current research focuses on the history of university celebrations, student revolts, and on medical history, including the development of medical education at universities and colleges of higher education and changing attitudes towards medical uncertainty. My publications deal with, among other themes, the intercultural transfer of university ideas within Europe in the nineteenth century and the history of academic mobility.
Currently I am in charge of two projects dealing with “Changing attitudes towards medical uncertainty in the training of physicians from the 1880s” (NOS-HS, 2019-2022 and Academy of Finland project, 2019-2024).
Yearly I am teaching five to six courses, such as “World history since 1600”, “History of historiography and theory of history”, “History of ideas and cultural history”, “History of colonisation and decolonisation of (Central) Africa”, “History of the Baltic Sea Region”, “History of Medicine”, and Bachelor dissertation seminar.
I am a pharmaceutical chemist with my research interests now in short non-coding RNA sequences and how to mimic their function using synthetic drugs. My background is in Pharmacy, and I defended my Doctoral thesis in drug design of sirtuins in autumn 2015 in UEF. After my dissertation, I left to study molecular dynamics methods and enzyme engineering to Brno, Czech Republic. I can use all the basic tools of computational drug design, including docking and molecular dynamics simulations and up to some simple quantum chemistry calculations.
I am a doctoral researcher in the Department of Business at the University of Eastern Finland and a member of the Tourism Business Research Group. My doctoral research focuses on nature-based tourism firms, with particular emphasis on the role of nature as a key business resource, and on the role of tourism actors in preserving and enhancing the natural resources within their operating environments.
I am interested in responsible and sustainable tourism, regenerative tourism, nature-based tourism, outdoor recreation, the intangible values of nature, ecosystem services, natural resource governance, and environmental policy.
As an Impact Manager in the Neuro-Innovation PhD Programme, my job is to make sure the programme reaches it impact goals. I support our PhD researchers and act as a connector between the project, PhD researchers, supervisors, partners and other stakeholders.
As an Innovation Specialist in the UEF Brain Research Unit 2.0 project, my task is developing and piloting a new model for patient and public involvement (PPI) for UEF’s Brain Research Unit.
Previous projects:
Researcher, HIWE-project
As a researcher in the High-skilled internationals: bottom-up insights into policy innovation for work and entrepreneurship in Finland (HIWE) research project, I do research on how highly skilled internationals experience working and living in Finland.
My research
I am part of the Innovation Management (INNO) research group and NOVA Neuro-Impact and Innovation research team.
I am currently doing research on public sector co-creation, as well as highly skilled internationals’ wellbeing.
My research focuses on behavioral-based treatments and methods in primary dental care. The broader aim of the study is to identify new solutions for treatment pathways and effective approaches for managing dental anxiety in clinical practice. Additionally, I consider it essential to teach behavioral approaches to dental , as described in research, along with dentist-patient interaction and collaboration with other professionals in the field of oral health. In my teaching, I prefer to use a variety of various metohds, including peer group learning.
Research topics are the hollowing out of Finnish welfare state, migration and rural areas.
In translational dentistry, the goal is to perform multi-disciplinary research to enhance the translation of scientific knowledge to clinical dental practice and to identify research requirements from the clinical practice to be brought to the laboratory. The aim is to encourage and promote collaboration between laboratory and clinical researchers. The objective is to clarify how oral inflammations and dysbiosis contribute to the risk of general chronic health problems. On the other hand, the aim is to spread the word among medical practitioners and the general audience on the systemic risks associated with oral infections.
Polina Kuzhir specializes in terahertz (THz) and biophotonics, with a focus on the material aspects of low-dimensional and nanocarbon-based materials. Her research centers on optical and quantum biosensing using color centers in diamonds, super-resolution fluorescent bioimaging, and the electromagnetics of two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, aiming to develop advanced THz devices and sensors.
She leads several European projects, including the QuantERA project “Color centers in diamond nanoneedles for intra- and EXTRA-cellular quantum SENSing (EXTRASENS),” which develops quantum biosensors for biomedical applications, and Horizon Europe project “Fluorescent nano-agents for super-resolution bioimaging and sensing (FLORIN),” and contributes to initiatives like the Horizon 2020 project “Micromechanical Bolometer Arrays for THz Hyperspectral Imaging (H-Cube),” which focuses on cutting-edge THz imaging technologies.
Experience (PhD and postdoc) in the field of particle physics.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3689-0837
