I am a professor of Russian language at the University of Eastern Finland. My research interests include language contacts, Samoyedic languages, and non-standard varieties of Russian including colloquial Russian, Russian in contact with Finno-Ugric languages, and language use in media. My approach to language is typological and usage-based. I studied Russian-Finnish contact in the speech of Finland Russians, in particular code switching, word order in possessive noun phrases, gender integration of Finnish nouns, and the case of the direct object. I traced the impact of Northern Baltic Finnic influence in Old East Slavic and Old Russian. I am a specialist in Samoyedic (<Uralic) languages, in particular Nganasan. I conducted field work with Forest Finns in Sweden, Finland Russians, Inari Sámi, Estonian Old Believers, as well as Northern Samoyeds in Siberia: Nganasans, Forest Enets, Forest Nenets, and Tundra Nenets.
Laura Mussalo ([email protected])
I’m working in a group Cellular Neurobiology led by Katja Kanninen, at A.I.Virtanen institute. My research aims to decipher the effects of traffic related ultrafine particles (UFPs) on olfactory mucosa of healthy and Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Marja Sorvari ([email protected])
Marja Sorvari is Professor of Russian Literature and Culture, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus. She specializes in post-Soviet Russian literature from the perspectives of gender, cultural memory and multilingualism. Her Ph.D. dissertation examined Russian women’s autobiographical texts of the 1990s. Her current research focuses on multi- and translingual literature, displacement and (post)memory, and the reception of Russian literature in Finland. She has published two monographs, many peer-reviewed articles and co-edited several collections of articles.
Matthieu Roussey ([email protected])
I am working in Integrated Optics, nano- and micro-structures on/in waveguide, new waveguide concepts, and other light manipulators. I am involved in applications of photonics for everyday life use. Typically: detection of micro and nanoplastic in water, atmospheric sensing, telecom on-chip components. I am also working on more fundamental topics related to dielectric surface waves, smart PICs…
Migration and Transnational Everyday Life in Finnish-Russian Border Area at Era of Austerity
This project is on-going ethnographic research of migrants in North Karelia. Since the beginning of the 2000s, I have been carrying on my research among Russian migrants from the everyday ethnographic perspective, in the border areas of North Karelia. The theoretical framework of the project lies in the intersection of welfare politics, transnational everyday life, rural border areas and everyday geopolitics (see e.g. Pöllänen & Davydova-Minguet 2017). Methodologically the study continues the border ethnography tradition (Davydova & Pöllänen 2010, 2011; Vila 2003). This project conducts research on migration and transnationalism in the contexts of border areas in the era of austerity policy and politics.
Minna Piipponen ([email protected])
I am a Human Geographer, DSocSci, 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.
Mirkka Rovamo ([email protected])
I am working on a dissertation in a project called Towards Strong Sustainability Forest Services. The aim of the project is to create a new business model for forest services that aligns with the concept of strong sustainability and to implement it in practice. In strong sustainability forest services, the aim is to make the use of forests more nature-conscious with solutions that are suitable for forest owners. The goal is to bring diversify the forest discussion and bring more practices alongside the traditional ones. The project is funded by Kone Foundation and its Metsän puolella (In the Woods) initiative.
Mobilising Populism
Populist parties have succeeded in the elections both in Finland, in Europe and globally. As a result of political popularity the scientific community has become interested in populism, producing diverse research on its causes and consequences. Inspired by previous research we aim to build a social psychological approach on understanding populism.
In this study populism is approached as a mobilising communication. We examine how the populist message attracts its supporters by evoking images and emotions and building identities. The phenomenon will be studied in four European countries: Finland, Switzerland, France and Greece. We will study the formation and spread of populist rhetoric in hybrid media and how it’s received by citizens – particularly how it is structured in dialogue between populist supporters and opponents and how it polarises the discussion and exchange of thoughts in the society. The project utilises a variety of materials: interviews, news, video, blogs and online discussions from a variety of traditional and social media platforms.
Moritz Albrecht ([email protected])
I am a human-geographer specialized on relational aspect of environmental and sustainability governance. My core expertise is to study socio-spatial processes of bio-based resource policy, management and local materialization to evaluate development frameworks, barriers and alternatives. I am experienced in research on policy mobility and translations in an EU context, case studies on regional and local development and policy materialization as well as sustainability perspectives in economic contexts.
My current research is focused on the socio-spatial processes and materialization of regenerative bioeconomy development with key attention to water based sectors, particularly seaweed farming but also recirculating aquaculture systems. Additionally, a side branch of my research interest deals with development in shrinking and peripheral localities in the North.
I am currently also acting as board member of the Finnisch Geographical Association (Suomen Maantieteen Seura) and the SOBIO network at UEF on social scientific biosociety focused research. I am further the coordinator of the Nord+ geographers Network GEONORDBALT on shrinking and peripheral locality development in the Baltics and Northern Europe.
Past projects:
– “Sustainability governance of BioAssemblages: A trifold perspective on bioeconomy clusters in the making” (2017-2019)
– Karelia CBC; WasteLess Karelias (Project coordinator) (2018-2022)
Previous research:
-EU bioenergy policy design and transformation between Brussels and local implementation
-Perspectives on sustainable forest certification in European supply chains
-Cross-border management of natural resources.