Author: Jennifer L De Paola

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Lessons from the margin: Indigenous Peace Ecology – 19th November at 13:00-15:00 Helsus Hub Lounge (Porthania, 2nd floor)

Welcome to the Helsus-Development Studies Seminar: 

Lessons from the margin: Indigenous Peace Ecology

– Prof. Alberto Gomes, La Trobe University (AU) and DEEP Network 

Monday 19th November at 13:00-15:00

Helsus Hub Lounge (Porthania, 2nd floor) or streamed online https://connect.funet.fi/helsus-events/

 

Humanity is confronted with several inter-related crises: ecological, social or humanitarian and growing violence, both direct and structural. Much evidence indicates that solutions implemented to resolve them, from development and modernisation to neoliberalism and sustainable development, have not just failed but paradoxically have exacerbated these crises. Inspired by the life-ways and practices of Indigenous peoples, especially the Orang Asli (Aborigines) in Malaysia, this paper outlines a peace ecology that combines peacebuilding with ecological regenerative strategies. The key contention is that subscribing to an Indigenous peace ecology will foster effective solutions to the triple crisis, entailing a paradigmatic shift from an anthropocentric to an eco-centric perception of nature; from hyper-individualism to a community-focus responsibility; from a competitive outlook to one that is focused on empathy, cooperation, sharing and altruism; and from a growth-fetish to a needs-based regenerative lifestyle.

 

Alberto Gomes is an Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University, Australia, Affiliated Professor at Universitat Jaume 1, Spain, and Global Director of the Dialogue, Empathic Engagement and Peacebuilding (DEEP) Network (https://globaldeepnetwork.org). Well known for his scholarly work on the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aborigines), he has published numerous articles and several books. His books include Modernity and Identity: Asian Illustrations (edited volume, La Trobe University Press, 1994), Malaysia and the Original People (with R. Dentan, K. Endicott, and M. B. Hooker, Allyn and Bacon, 1997), Looking for Money (COAC and Trans Pacific Press, 2004), Modernity and Malaysia: Settling the Menraq Forest Nomads (Routledge, 2007) and Multiethnic Malaysia (edited with Lim Teck Ghee and Azly Rahman, USCI and SIRD, 2009).

 

Programme:

13:00 Introduction           Paola Minoia, Senior Lecturer, Development Studies

DEEP13:15 Presentation          Alberto Gomes

14:00 Discussants:         Karen Heikkilä, Geography

Timo Kaartinen, Professor, Anthropology

14:20 Q&As

 

Contact: paola.minoia@helsinki.fi

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Events on Venezuela 26-27 Nov / Think Corner: Over-escalated populism and its consequences, 26 Nov, 11-13 hrs (Mainsteaming Populism)

Dear all,

my colleague Raul Sanchez Urribarri from La Trobe University, Australia, will be visiting us 26-27 November for two events.

·         Mainstreaming Populism Consortium has an event on Venezuela at the Think Corner on Monday, 26 November 11am-1pm: “Venezuela: Over-escalated populism and its consequences“

·         Raul also discusses ‘High Courts and Authoritarian Consolidation: The Venezuelan Supreme Court under Maduro’s Rule’ in the Political Constitutional Theory network’s seminar on Tuesday, 27 November, 2-4pm.

Details and further contacts below, all welcome!

Best, Emilia

*****

INVITATION

A panel discussion “Venezuela: Over-escalated populism and its consequences“ will be held on Monday, November 26, at 11:00-13:00 in Think Corner (Tiedekulma, Yliopistonkatu 4).

 

During the last few months, Venezuela has been in the headlines because of a large wave of migrants leaving the country. Since 2015, more than two million Venezuelans have left, and this has already started to have a visible and political impact in the neighboring countries and other countries receiving immigrants. Their reasons for leaving lie in the deterioration of public finance and infrastructure that causes general power cuts, severe food and medicine shortages, growing violent crime rates, and hyperinflation, the annual rate of which has exceeded one million percent in 2018, according the International Monetary Fund. The basis of the poor economic and political decisions of the current and past governments lie in the populist politics that relies on antagonism against the country’s economic elite, the opposition and, for example, the United States.

 

President Nicolás Maduro, the successor to Chavismo’s founding father Hugo Chávez, denies the existence of large-scale migrant flows because of the crisis, continues blaming its populist “enemies” for the country’s economic problems, and relies in authoritarian measures.

The panel’s participants will discuss the current political situation of Venezuela and its underlying problems; the crisis’ national and regional consequences; and how it has affected citizens in Venezuela and in diasporic communities.

 

Panelists:

Raul Sanchez Urribarri, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies, La Trobe University, Australia

Mikko Pyhälä, former Ambassador of Finland in Venezuela

Agueda Veintie, medical doctor and citizen activist

 

Moderator: Virpi Salojärvi, postdoctoral researcher, Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki

Organizer: Mainstreaming Populism Consortium (MAPO) https://blogs.helsinki.fi/populismi/ 

Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/574250366321105/

Introduction of the panelists:

Dr. Raul Sanchez Urribarri (PhD, LLM) is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Crime, Justice and Legal Studies at the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia).  His research focuses on comparative constitutionalism, rule of law issues and judicial decision-making in comparative perspective, with an emphasis on Latin America. In the panel his topic is “Venezuela: A Consolidating Autocracy.”

Mikko Pyhälä (YTK) is retired ambassador of Finland and nonfiction writer. He has served 14 years as a diplomat in Latin America and co-authored an award-winning book “Amazonia”. His most recent book “On Power and Resistance” focused on wars and political murders he observed closely mostly in Asia. In the panel he will discuss on a topic “From Hegemonic Regional Power to Pariah State.”

 

Agueda Veintie is a Venezuelan Medical Doctor (Universidad Central de Venezuela) living in Finland. She works at Suursuon Hospital as part of the Finnish medical licensing process. Veintie is also a Venezuelan humanitarian crisis activist through the organization Apua Venezuelaan. In the panel she will discuss the crisis as a “Collapse of Venezuelan health care system, complex emergency and citizen activism.”

 

Contact: Virpi Salojärvi, PhD, Postdoctoral researcher, Media and Communication Studies

virpi.salojarvi@helsinki.fi +358 50 448 9727

 

****

 

Dr Raul Sanchez Urribarri (La Trobe University) will be presenting research from his ongoing project: 

‘High Courts and Authoritarian Consolidation: The Venezuelan Supreme Court under Maduro’s Rule’

on Tuesday, 27 November 2018, 2pm-4pm, Auditorium II (University Main Building, Senate Square entry).

 The seminar addresses the role of high courts in the context of a political transition from competitive authoritarianism towards full dictatorship. You will find more information about the seminar and the presenter here:

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/polcon-network/2018/11/09/urribarri-27-november-2018/

The seminar is organised by the Political Constitutional Theory network (PolCon, https://blogs.helsinki.fi/polcon-network/). All are cordially welcome.

 Attendance will count as one session in the OTT-917 Postgraduate Research Seminar (‘tutkijaseminaari’) for General Jurisprudential Studies (i.e. legal history, legal theory, law and society, law and gender studies).

Contact: Panu Minkkinen, Professor of Jurisprudence, panu.minkkinen@helsinki.fi, 02941 22944

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Westermarck-seminar- 10th December 4 pm – 6 pm University of Helsinki: Unioninkatu 35

Event: Westermarck-seminar

Presentation: Robert Lynch: Integration involves a trade-off between fertility and status for Finnish evacuees in World War II

Time: Monday 10th December at 4 pm to 6 pm

Place: University of Helsinki: Unioninkatu 35, ground floor, seminar room sh 114

Robert Lynch is an evolutionary scientist who currently works in the University of Turku. He graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey with a PhD in biological anthropology in 2014. His advisor was Robert Trivers. After Rutgers he did a postdoc with Napoleon Chagnon at the University of Missouri. Still early in his research career Lynch have already published high-quality articles in several respected journals, e.g., PNAS, Nature Scientific Reports, Human Nature and Evolution and Human Behavior.

Robert Lynch currently works in a project “Learning from our past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life” (PI John Loehr). Project’s webpage: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/projects/learning-from-our-past/data

 

Welcome to listen and discuss, no preregistration required!

Open Moodle platform for seminar can be found here: https://moodle.helsinki.fi/course/view.php?id=31386

Edward Westermarck (1862-1939) is a founding father of Finnish sociology and one of the world’s first evolutionary sociologist whose scientific thinking was a century ahead of its time. Westermarck seminar gathers together researchers and students interested in evolutionary research from different disciplines. Cross-disciplinary seminar is open to all.

Yhteystiedot / Contact:

Antti Tanskanen

antti.tanskanen@helsinki.fi

Mirkka Danielsbacka

mirkka.danielsbacka@vaestoliitto.fi

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The faculty has decided to hire 5–12 doctoral students for a period of 6–12 months to finish their dissertations.

Dear doctoral students and supervisors,

The Faculty of Social Sciences calls for proposals for doctoral students to be employed for the completion of their dissertations. Because e.g. many foundations offer dissertation grants for a maximum period of three years, the faculty has decided to hire 5–12 doctoral students for a period of 6–12 months to finish their dissertations.

The persons to be employed have to fulfill the following criteria:

·         The person’s doctoral degree is done at the Faculty of Social Sciences

·         The person’s supervisor considers that the thesis will be ready for pre-examination after 6–12 months’ period of work (but the dissertation completion grant offered by the University for 1–3 months is considered to be too short)

·         The person currently has no grant or other funding for the completion of his/her thesis

·         The person has not previously received funding from the Faculty or the University for the completion of his/her thesis

·         The period of employment will start as soon as possible, and no later than 1 March 2019

The persons to be employed are selected from among proposals made by their supervisors working at the Faculty of Social Sciences. A supervisor can propose one candidate only. As an exception to this rule, a supervisor can propose two candidates if one or both work in the thematic areas of the Centre for Consumer Society Research.

Proposals are made by filling in this e-form. The form is attached with a separate document prepared by the doctoral student and accepted by the supervisor, including the following information:

·         Concise yet illustrative report of the dissertation and its current stage, incl. degree studies (max. 3 pages)

·         Detailed working plan for the completion of the dissertation (max. 2 pages)

·         Information about the previous funding for the dissertation work (presented in a table format, including the funding source; the length of funding period; and the starting and ending dates of the funding period) and about pending funding applications

The deadline for proposals is 7 December 2018. The Dean makes the employment decisions based on Research Committee’s recommendations.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me (on 12-16 November, I am on vacation).

Ystävällisin terveisin / Kind regards, 

Katri Huutoniemi
Tutkimushallinnon asiantuntija, VTT | Senior Advisor in Research Administration, D.Soc.Sc
Helsingin yliopisto, Tutkimuspalvelut | University of Helsinki, Research Services
+358 (0)2941 22552
P.O. Box 4 (Yliopistonkatu 3), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

 

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Call for Papers: “Voices from the Margin(s) – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Diverse Nordic Experiences” 3rd Nordic Challenges Conference, 6.-8.3.2019 Copenhagen, Denmark.

Call for Papers: “Voices from the Margin(s) – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Diverse Nordic Experiences”

Please find bellow a call for papers for a paper panel “Voices from the Margin(s) – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Diverse Nordic Experiences” taking place at the 3rd Nordic Challenges Conference, 6.-8.3.2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. You can submit your proposal for the paper panel by sending an abstract of 150-250 words including your name, title, organization and e-mail address to Merle Weβel merle.wessel@uni-greifswald.de and Tuire Liimatainen tuire.liimatainen@helsinki.fi by 25.11.2018.

For more information, please see https://www.tilmeld.dk/thirdnordicchallenges/

Description

Nordic countries are often depicted as homogenous nations – view reified in recent years by the rise of right-wing political ideologies, often emphasizing an understanding of Nordic countries as ethnically and culturally similar ethno-national states. At the same time, movements such as #metoo, have increasingly brought historical and contemporary experiences of gender inequality into the daylight also in Nordic countries.

While Nordic countries often position themselves as forerunners of human rights, historical legacies and contemporary practices of exclusion are still today visible in a wide range of social attitudes and cultural practices. However, these challenges are at the same time met increasingly with aims to build genuinely inclusive societies accommodating diversity. These inclusive views are gaining ground both due to globalization and diversification of Nordic societies, but also due to growing awareness of historical diversity previously overshadowed by normative identity politics. While some marginal experiences are increasingly gaining voice, other experiences, both historical and contemporary, continue to stay marginalized.

This paper panel explores both historical and contemporary experiences of marginality in the Nordic context. We are interested in papers examining various marginal experiences in relation to, for example, ethnicity, gender, class and/or religion, which problematize the understanding of the Nordic countries as exceptional examples of inclusive, modern nation-states and their relation to the global world. We welcome especially papers examining these diverse experiences from bottom-up perspective, for example in the context of colonization, whiteness, migration and minorities, but also papers examining how specific experiences are positioned as marginal.

 
—
Tuire Liimatainen
PhD Student
Centre for Nordic Studies CENS
 
Department of Cultures
University of Helsinki
 
P.O. Box 59 (Unioninkatu 38 A 107)
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
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HCAS WINTER SCHOOL 2019: “WRITING AND PUBLISHING”

HCAS WINTER SCHOOL 2019: “WRITING AND PUBLISHING”

The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS) welcomes doctoral candidates of the Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki to the HCAS Winter School on Humanities and Social Sciences, January 23–25, 2019. Registration opens on November 8 and closes on November 23. 

HCAS is an independent research institute within the University of Helsinki. Its intensive Winter Schools are organized annually and give doctoral students a chance to learn crucial skills and practices related to academic research and career and to discuss their work with more experienced researchers in an interdisciplinary and international setting. The Winter schools train doctoral candidates in interdisciplinary research, practice and thinking and offer junior scholars the opportunity to envision their work in refreshing and unconventional ways.

This year our special focus is writing and publishing. The School will thus deal with questions such as

  • how to improve your academic writing skills 
  • publishing in academic journals; publishing your first monograph
  • PhD theses: articles or a monograph
  • how to write effective grant and fellowship applications
  • public outreach: how to present and disseminate your research beyond academia and how to include this dimension in your career as a researcher
  • how open science is changing academic publishing


The Winter School is organized and taught by Collegium fellows. The fellows are specialized in interdisciplinary research in the humanities, social sciences, law, behavioral sciences, and theology. The Collegium aims at enhancing high-quality interdisciplinary research within these disciplines by fostering dialogue between different academic orientations, by encouraging the integration of approaches from different disciplines, and by supporting the internationality of Finnish research in these fields and interaction between scholars from all over the world. 


The Winter School consists of lectures and of workshops geared to students’ own contributions and questions. The workshops offer doctoral candidates the opportunity to receive feedback from the teaching faculty and other doctoral candidates in a relaxed environment. The various thematic panels during the Winter School program gather together both current Collegium Fellows and researchers and specialists from outside the Collegium, who share their knowledge of different facets of academic publishing. The School days begin around 9 am and end around 4 pm. The workload of the Winter School is 3 ECTS. The registration of the credits will be done at the doctoral schools or disciplines, so the students will have to speak to their supervisors about this beforehand. The Collegium will only write a certificate of attendance to the participants. The language of the Winter School is English. The detailed program of the Winter School will be sent to the participants in the beginning of January.

 

Registration and submission of papers:

 

Doctoral candidates wishing to participate in the Winter School are requested to register in Weboodi by November 23, 2018. Upon registration participants are asked to give their basic information and summarize their biography as a writer of academic texts and their possible previous experience in academic publishing and popularization of science. The registration form can be accessed on Weboodi (from Thursday, November 8, at 9 am; you can access it when you are signed in in the system): https://weboodi.helsinki.fi/hy/opasopettaptied.jsp?MD5avain=ed4ec400-4baa-4b55-bbcd-783247179992&Kieli=1&k_OpasSurr=1&OpetTap=126545409&sortJarj=6

Participants should also submit a piece of writing in advance; this text will serve as a basis for assignments and discussions in small groups during the Winter School. Please choose one of the following assignments, follow the detailed instructions and submit one piece of writing by January 15, 2019. The instructions for sending the assignment will be sent to registered participants. Be prepared to present and discuss your text with the members of your small group.

1) Submit a sample (max. 5 pages) of a piece of academic writing you want to revise for publication and an abstract of the whole text (max. 1 page). Your sample may be from an article draft or dissertation manuscript and it should ideally include the introduction of the text. Please also include an additional paragraph in which you explain the current status of the project and the possible venue(s) for publication.

2) Submit a hypothetical or real research plan for a funding application for a specific foundation or for e.g. the University of Helsinki funded doctoral position (max. 5 pages) and abstract (max. 1 page).

3) Submit an abstract of an academic text (aka journal article, introduction of PhD thesis) that you wish to revise for publication in a different format. Explain the publication venue that you will be aiming for (e.g. a post in a scholarly blog, an article in a non-academic journal or newspaper, a report etc.), detailing in particular: who is your imagined target audience for this piece & why do you wish to reach them?

 Organizers: 

Miia Halme-Tuomisaari, HCAS Core Fellow 

Alexandre Nikolaev, HCAS Core Fellow

Ritva Palmén, HCAS Core Fellow

 

Contact: Kaisa Kaakinen (kaisa.kaakinen@helsinki.fi), Project Planner, HCAS

Kaisa Kaakinen

Projektisuunnittelija / Project Planner

The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

University of Helsinki

Fabianinkatu 24 (P.O.Box 4)

FI-00014 University of Helsinki

kaisa.kaakinen@helsinki.fi

+358 2 941 22493

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Practical skills in Ph.D. studies – supervision and assessment FRRESH AUTUMN SEMINAR 2018  November 23, 2018

FRRESH AUTUMN SEMINAR 2018 

November 23, 2018 

At the main building of the University of Helsinki, 4th floor, room 16 (Fabianinkatu 33, Helsinki)

Practical skills in Ph.D. studies – supervision and assessment

The FRRESH Autumn seminar will focus on practical skills. The seminar is divided into two sessions with one focusing on supervision and the other on teaching. The morning panel will discuss supervision both from the supervisor’s and the graduate students’ viewpoint and the afternoon workshop will share best practices in assessment of the undergraduate students. 

The relationship between the supervisor and the Ph.D. candidate is crucial for a successful completion of a dissertation. What do supervisors expect from Ph.D. students and what do students expect from supervisors? Are there differences in the way supervision is conducted in national academic contexts? These are among the questions tackled in the panel with supervisors and Ph.D. candidates from Finland, Russia, and the UK.

The panel will be followed by a workshop on teaching. Among the many challenges in teaching at a university level, assessment of undergraduate students’ work is often the hard one. Come and share your experience of teaching, discuss difficulties, and discover best practices with the Aleksanteri Institute’s teaching and research staff!

Please register by Friday 16 November at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/93323/lomake.html.

Preliminary programme:

 Friday, 23 November

 10:00-12:00                          Panel on supervision

12:00-13:00                          Lunch break

 13:00-16:00                          Workshop on teaching and assessment

 

Ira Jänis-Isokangas, PhD

Aleksanteri Institute/ University of Helsinki

Head of research training

Email: ira.janis-isokangas@helsinki.fi

Mobile: +358 (0)50 448 4056/ +358 (0)400841161

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What kind of help do you need when leaving for a conference? Please answer our survey!

(on behalf of HYMY-Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Science)
We are compiling essential instructions for outgoing conference delegates for easy access. Please tell us what instructions you have used or would use when leaving for a conference! Answer the survey no later than xxxx at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/92401/lomake.html. Thank you for your help!
 
Have you participated in organising a conference at the University of Helsinki? Every conference can be a success – all it takes is good organisation. The conference team at University Services can help you whether your conference or questions are big or small and whether you are the main organiser or a supporting partner. Support for organising conferences = Link in Flamma: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/fi/HY276260
 
Stay up to date on matters related to organising conferences by subscribing to a newsletter: https://international-affairs.creamailer.fi/subscribe/5bbb4e1eb7307

 

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Invitation. CEREN 20 YEARS: NEW CHALLENGES TO RESEARCH ON ETHNIC RELATIONS seminar 3.12.2018 at 12 – 17

The Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN) is celebrating its 20 years anniversary. As part of the festivities, we organise a thematic seminar on 3.12.2018. The event is open for all interested, welcome!

 

CEREN 20 YEARS: NEW CHALLENGES TO RESEARCH ON ETHNIC RELATIONS seminar 3.12.2018 at 12 – 17

Venue: Festsalen, 1st floor, Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Snellmansgatan 12

Programme:

12:15-12:30 Welcoming words: Prof. Suvi Keskinen, Rector Johan Bärlund

12:30 – 14:45 Keynote lectures:

Dr. Marta Araújo (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal): Academic (mis)understandings: Knowledge production and institutional racism

Assoc.Prof. Lena Näre (Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki): How institutions recognise? Human capitalisation and intersections of racialised migrancy, gender and class in the activation of unemployed youth

Comments: Emeritus Prof. Charles Husband (University of Bradford/University of Helsinki)

Discussion

14:45-15:00 Break

15:00-16:30 CEREN yesterday and today

Prof. emeritus Tom Sandlund (Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki): Establishment and history of CEREN

Introduction of current research at CEREN

16:30-16:45 Closing words

Please register latest 26.11.2018 through the link below

 https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/92214/lomake.html