News & Activities

Check out this article summarizing the potential of Virtual Reality technology for reducing prejudice.

ESSO-group, Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ), and the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN) will organize an online research workshop focusing on im­mig­ra­tion, ra­cism and nationalism on Monday, November 30, 2020, at 9:15–16:15. 

The workshop brings together scholars from social psychology, media and communication studies, sociology, and political science to discuss the challenges of representing immigration, racism, and nationalism. Read more about the workshop and register for the event here.

This autumn, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our research group. To mark the occasion, we will organize a seminar to bring together researchers, authorities, journalists and representatives of different organizations working in the fields of ethnic relations and immigrant integration in Finland. By launching a new TIET network (Tietoa etnisistä suhteista, Information about ethnic relations), we aim to facilitate dialogue between research, practice and policy. The seminar will be held on December 13th in Think Corner, Helsinki. For further information about the event, please contact Tuuli Anna Renvik.

This July, our ESSO group is well represented at the ISPP Annual Meeting in Lisbon (presenters: Göksu Celikkol, Viivi Eskelinen, Eerika Finell, Emma Nortio, Katarina Pettersson & Tuuli Anna Renvik). Come and say hi!

ESSO-group had a workshop at the 16th ETMU Conference 2019: Solidarity, Participation, and Politics. The 16th ETMU Conference was held November 14-15, 2019, at Tampere University and it addressed different meanings and concrete practices of solidarity, participation, and politics and their effects in the context of global mobility and ethnic relations. Read more about the 16th ETMU Conference from the official site.

Social psychological perspectives on interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup solidarity (Thu 14.11.2019 at 12.30-14.00)

Chair: Tuuli Anna Renvik

Adolescents’ gratitude and indebtedness toward parents: Interpreting intergenerational conflicts and solidarity after migration, Elina Turjanmaa (University of Helsinki)

Intergroup relations of mothers of young children in multiethnic neighborhoods, Eerika Finell, Paula Paajanen & Tuija Seppälä

Exclusionary definitions of citizenship in political and lay discourse, Emma Nortio & Katarina Pettersson

Testing a school-based vicarious contact intervention in three countries: Does it matter how the students perceive the facilitator’s engagement?, Viivi Mäkinen & Tuuli Anna Renvik

The Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU) is a multidisciplinary scientific association that promotes research in this field in Finland. Read more about ETMU from the official site.

Professor Jolanda Jetten from University of Queensland visited us at the unit of Social Psychology and gave two lectures. The first lecture, The wealth paradox: Economic prosperity, populism and opposition to immigration, was on Monday, April 15th, 2019. The second lecture, Unlocking the social cure: How group memberships are key to health and well-being, was on Tuesday, April 16th, 2019.

Jolanda Jetten (PhD, University of Amsterdam, 1997) is a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Queensland. She was employed as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, a UQ Development Fellow and she will commence an Australian Research Council Laureate fellowship in May 2019. Her research is concerned with group processes, social identity and intergroup relations. She has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles, over 35 chapters and 5 books. Jolanda currently serves as co Chief Editor of Social Issues and Policy Review and as an associate editor with CRSP. She was awarded the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal in 2004 and the Kurt Lewin Medal from the European Association of Social Psychology in 2014. Jolanda is the former President of the Society of Australasian Social Psychology (SASP) and served on the ARC College of Experts. She was elected as fellow of the Association of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) in 2015.

Teemu Pauha defended his doctoral dissertation on September 15, 2018. The dissertation is titled “Religious and national identities among young Muslims in Finland: A view from the social constructionist social psychology of religion” and it can be accessed here.

Professor Jonas Otterbeck from University of Lund served as the opponent, and Professor Teemu Taira as the custos.

On Friday, January 19^th 2018, the closing seminar of Wise choices -project was held at Hotel Arthur. The Wise choices -project was organized in collaboration with the Centre for Continuing Education HY+ and the discipline of Social Psychology of the University of Helsinki. The participators of the seminar were mainly school guidance counselors.

PhD student Viivi Mäkinen gave a presentation on the research results of Wise choices –project’s prejudice-reduction interventions in secondary schools. Thereafter, Dr. Loris Vezzali (the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) held a presentation about research on fostering intergroup tolerance in school environments.

The program of the day also included a word from head of development of HY+ about the three-year-long project, and a workshop for school guidance counselors on the seminar’s topics.

You can read more about the project on Wise choices’ website in Finnish viisaatvalinnat.fi or on our Research Projects page in English wise-choices-2015-2018.

Members of the research group presented their current research in the EASP General Meeting. You can find our contributions to the conference below.

Katarina Pettersson’s poster

Emma Nortio’s poster

Göksu Celikkol’s presentation