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Nicola Kokkonen ([email protected])

Originally from western Canada, Nicola studied Forest Engineering at the University of British Columbia and completed her Bachelors studies in 2009. After a few years working in the forestry in central and northern British Columbia, she returned to her studies participating in the Trans-Atlantic Forestry Masters program (TransFor-M). In 2013 Nicola received her M.Sc. in Forest Biology and Management from the University of Alberta and M.Sc. in Agriculture and Forestry from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). She competed her D.Sc. in Forestry and Agriculture at UEF in February 2024. Her doctoral dissertation focused on peatland vegetation ecology and dynamics with special attention to the potential effects of a changing climate on peatland ecosystems.

Currently, Nicola is working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Disturbances and Biogeochemistry group in the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Here, her research focusses on greenhouse gas emissions from forest soils following fire.

 

Niina Väänänen ([email protected])

I work as a University Lecturer and teach basic, intermediate and advanced studies in crafts and craft teacher education. My research focusses on sustainability in crafts and I am studying the topic from various viewpoints.

Nilay Kilinc ([email protected])

I am a migration and mobility studies scholar whose interdisciplinary research sits at the intersection of social anthropology and urban sociology with a focus on second generation, return migration, highly skilled migration, labour market integration, transnationalism, gender in migration, identities, home and belonging. I hold a PhD in Migration and Mobility Studies from the University of Surrey (UK, 2018) and an MA in European Studies from Lund University (Sweden).

Before my current position as a Senior Researcher at UEF, I served as a Grant-funded Researcher at the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki) through my three-year KONE Foundation-funded project, “Narrating and Performing the Art of Becoming Citizens: Creative Migrants’ Democratic Participation in Finland.” (2023-2026). Previous to the KONE Foundation project, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship under the “Urban Inequalities” research group at the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (URBARIA), University of Helsinki, investigating the social and labor market integration of highly skilled Turkish nationals in Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen. I am currently still affiliated with the University of Helsinki wherein I am a visiting scholar at the Department of Geosciences and Geography.

My international trajectory includes fellowships at prestigious institutions across Europe, including the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (Gerda Henkel Fellowship), the New Europe College in Bucharest (Pontica Magna Fellowship, Volkswagen Stiftung), the Centre for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe at the University of Rijeka and Leipzig University.

I authored and co-authored extensive peer-reviewed literature in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Global Networks, and Population, Space and Place. My major publications include the monograph A Place in the Homeland? Turkish-German Return Migration (Edinburgh University Press, 2025, co-authored with Russell King) and the edited volume Handbook on Diasporas and Migration (Edward Elgar, 2026, co-edited with Ayhan Kaya).

I hold leadership roles within IMISCOE, including serving as co-chair of the PhD Academy Training Committee and a board member for the Standing Committee on Migration, Migrants, and Labour Markets (IILME). I previously served as vice-chair of the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU) in Finland. Alongside holding a Senior Fellow credential from the UK Higher Education Academy, I design and teach postgraduate courses on sociology of migration, urban diversity, inequalities and qualitative methodologies. Between 2021 and 2024, I represented Finland as an expert on immigration and integration in the Nordic Migrant Expert Forum under the Nordic Council of Ministers. I also integrates arts-based methodologies into my academic practice; I wrote and directed the award-winning ethnographic film Arkadaşloch: Nobody’s Problem (2022), which was screened at 18 international film festivals.

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.

Northern Dimensions of European Union Actorness

This research deals with the EU’s role as a global actor by focusing on one of the a highly sensitive area: relations with Russia. Despite the apparent frustration of EU neighbourhood policy ambitions due to Russian interventions, particularly in regard to Ukraine, lessons need to be learned from this experience. There will be little alternative to interest-based but mutually constructed regional cooperation and the EU still offers the most attractive alternative.

Oksana Skaldina ([email protected])

I am an environmental ecologist working on sustainable nature-based solutions (NBs) for the improving of environmental quality. My current research focuses on urban ecology, restoration ecology,  biodiversity and interactions of plant-pollinator systems in urban landscapes. I am investigating practical frameworks to increase sustainability of polluted and fragmented habitats. Besides, I am developing novel ecological indicators and biomarkers from insect and plant models and investigating plant-insect interactions mediated by chemical signals. I believe in the power of environmental research, education, and art!

My duties include research, teaching, supervision of bachelors, masters, and doctoral students, as well as negotiation with public and private sectors. I am engaged in discussions and collaborative projects with policy makers and business sector to enable practical sustainable solutions.

 

Olga Hannonen ([email protected])

Experienced researcher in lifestyle and trans-border tourism mobility, including digital nomads around the world, Russian trans-border second-home ownership in Finland, intra-European residential tourism on Gran Canaria, Spain, and residential mobility in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Recent research focus includes nature-based tourism with the focus on Russian recreational fishing in Finland and in Russia.

Oskari Timonen ([email protected])

PhD student in Doctoral Program in Molecular Medicine (DPMM) in Reetta Kälviäinen’s Clinical Epileptology research group. Supervisors are Jussi Paananen and Reetta Kälviäinen.

Research in epilepsy genetics: clinical exome sequencing data analysis and management, analysis pipeline development and REDCap management (phenotype data collection).

Pasi Fränti ([email protected])

Home page: http://cs.uef.fi/pages/franti/

Pasi Fränti received his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Turku, 1991 and 1994 in Science. Since 2000, he has been a professor of Computer Science at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). He has published 79 journals and 167 peer review conference papers, including 14 IEEE transaction papers. His main research interests are in machine learning, data mining, and pattern recognition including clustering algorithms and intelligent location-aware systems. Significant contributions have also been made in image compression, image analysis, vector quantization and speech technology.

Pasi Fränti is the head of the Machine Learning group at the school of computing at UEF. He has supervised 25 PhD students on the following topics: Clustering (9), Image and audio compression (5), Speech technology (4), Image processing, de-noising and HDR (3), Location-aware systems (3), and web mining (1). Six of the students originate from Russian including St. Petersburg (3), Uljanovsk (2) and Novosibirsk (1). All graduates work in research, teaching (postdoc, lecturer, associate professor), or in research & development in academia or in IT companies located in Finland, Shanghai, Singapore, Germany, Romania and Iran.