University of Helsinki
Organisers:
Battles over birth – Finnish birth culture in transition (Kone Foundation, 2020-25, University of Helsinki) led by Kaisa Kuurne
Learning from new religion and spirituality (Academy of Finland, 2019-23, University of Turku) led by Terhi Utriainen
Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care, Migration, care and ageing (Academy of Finland, 2018-25, University of Helsinki) led by Sirpa Wrede
Nutrition, expertise and media – MEX (Academy of Finland, 2019-22, Tampere University) led by Piia Jallinoja
THE SYMPOSIUM
This interdisciplinary symposium discusses the mighty forces of life that set something transformative in motion. It addresses various social, cultural and material aspects of transformative moments and crossroads in which life itself is in action, breaking the existing orders. How do we confront birth, death and other life-altering crises? How do we make sense of large historic turning points like global pandemics or war?
The symposium addresses the following topics. How do we endure, navigate and signify liminal spaces between different identities and social orders? How are the transformations more-than-human? What kind of impact do powerful affects, drives to attain and hold power, money and politics have in organizing our lives? What kind of ways of knowing and narrating change affect our culture and society, and which ones of them are seen as legitimate? How do symbolic, ritual and spiritual engagements help people confront the mighty forces of life – were their level personal, cultural, social or global?
Programme:
Monday June 6, 2022
13.00 Welcoming words
13.20 – 15.00 The first plenary session: Olli Pyyhtinen (Tampere University): Restoring Things to Life: How We Come into Being, Change, and Perish. Comments by Kaisa Kuurne. Discussion, chaired by Piia Jallinoja
Coffee break
15.30-17.30 Session 1: Liminal Spaces
18.15 – After work wine and snacks at Hietsun Paviljonki
Tuesday June 7, 2022
9-10.30 Second plenary session: Brenda Matthjissen (University of Groningen, Netherlands): Ritual worldmaking: Speculative experiments and embodied practices at the beginning and the end of life.
Comments by Terhi Utriainen. Discussion, chaired by Sirpa Wrede
Coffee break
10.45-12.45 Session 2: Affect, attachments and Power
12.45-14.00 Lunch break
14-16.00 Session 3: Money and politics in the ordering of life
Coffee break
16.15-18.15 Session 4: Ways of knowing and narrating change in life
Wednesday June 8, 2022
9-9.30 Morning coffee
SESSIONS 1-5:
SESSION 1: Liminal Spaces (Chair: Kaisa Kuurne)
Kaisa Kuurne: Not quite from this world: Birthing as a luminous experience
Elina Vuola: Women’s Shield: The Birth-Giving Mother of God and Birth-Giving Catholic and Orthodox Women
Outi Hakola: Transformative Journey to Alleviate Fear of Death in End-of-Life Documentary Films
Auli Vähäkangas: Spousal loss and continuing bondsLaura Huttunen: Violent absences, haunting presences: The liminality of human disappearances
SESSION 2: Affect and power (Chair: Keiju Vihreäsalo)
Keiju Vihreäsalo: At the crossroads of experience and structure: Shame and medical rationale in narratives of obstetric violence
Anna Leppo & Eeva Itkonen: Coming to terms with the dangers of childbirth – institutionalisation of fear and desire
Tiina Suopajärvi: Resistance and the transformative possibilities of affects in academia
SESSION 3: Money and politics in the ordering of life (Chair: Sirpa Wrede)
Sirpa Wrede: Social ordering of life
Emilie Larsson: The closure of a rural municipality’s maternity ward: Risk, depoliticization and peripheralization
Johanna Sarlio-Nieminen: Negotiating the urgency of birth – midwives, birthgivers and the constraints of leaned hospital birth
Linda Haapajärvi: Fixing the final journey. Varieties of transnational death, money and belonging
Anastasya Novkunskaya: Bureaucracy vs. money: institutional logics dominating the field of maternity care in Russia
SESSION 4: Ways of knowing and narrating change in life (Chair: Piia Jallinoja)
Piia Jallinoja: Eating right, identity and visions of better society
Mikko Jauho: Transformative experiences and experiential knowledge: contestation and institutionalization
Marjaana Jones: Narrative competence in the context of health and illness – exploring potentials and dangers
Helena Kupari: Spiritual transformation and secular culture: Orthodox Christian conversion narratives of Finnish cultural workers
SESSION 5: Ritual and spiritual engagements (Chair: Terhi Utriainen)
Maija Butters: Spirituality of Aesthetics: A way to talk and do death
Johanna Sumiala: Mighty Forces of Death – Ritual Transformations in the Face of Mediated War
Igor Mikeshin: “Seven evil spirits”: bodily relapse and spiritual collapse in a Russian Baptist ministry
Linda Annunen: Singing bowl sound healing and Covid19: Ritual creativity in times of social isolation
Terhi Utriainen: How to understand ritual responses to forces of life in modernity?
Want to take part? The event is open to public and free of charge.
SIGN UP by May 30, 2022 by sending an email: eeva.itkonen@helsinki.fi
When signing up, please, specify which days you will attend and whether you will attend the Monday evening event at Hietsun Paviljonki.