People

Project researcher Teemu Oivo, MSSc is a doctoral student and researcher in the Department of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). In his dissertation, Oivo examines othering ‘Russianness’ in Finnish and Russian media. In the STRAPPA project, Oivo focuses on transnational information dissemination between Finland and Russia through online platforms of national conservatives. Oivo’s earlier research project affiliations include “Multilayered Borders of Global Security (GLASE)”, “Perceptions of Russia Across Eurasia: Memory, Images, Conflict (PREMIC)”, “Russian-speakers as media-users in Finland” and “Flexible Ethnicities. Ethnic Processes in Petrozavodsk and the Republic of Karelia in the 2010s”.

Project partner

STRAPPA collaborates with the AHRC-funded research project ‘Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere: From Cold War to ‘Information War’?’ (University of Manchester and Open University, 2017–2020), which studies Russian international broadcaster RT. For more information, consult the project website.

Previous project members

Project leader Dr Mariëlle Wijermars is a Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, and co-founder of Digital Russia Studies. She is associated with the project ‘Russian Media Lab: Freedom of Speech and Critical Journalism in Russia’ and currently works on the project ‘Selling Censorship: Affective Framing and the Legitimation of Internet Control in Russia’ (2018-2020) funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Her research focuses on political communication, media and internet governance, and (online) freedom of speech in Russia. Mariëlle’s recent publications include Memory Politics in Contemporary Russian: Television, Cinema and the State (Routledge 2019). As a former visiting fellow, she is part of the postdoctoral research network ‘Algorithmed Public Spheres’.

Research assistant Paula Rossi is a student of the international Master’s Programme in Russian Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is interested in the relationship between politics and media, as well as in nationalism and populism. Her master’s thesis will look at Russia’s disinformation campaigns in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.

Network

Dr. R. Fredheim, NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence

Dr. D. Gritsenko, University of Helsinki

Dr. J. Lassila, Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Dr. M. Kaprāns, University of Latvia

Dr. C. Puschmann, Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)

Dr. S. Ratilainen, University of Helsinki

Dr. Hanna Smith, Director of Strategic Planning and Responses, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (HybridCoE)

Dr. V. Zvereva, University of Jyväskylä

Dr. I. Yablokov, University of Leeds

Dr. D. Yagodin, University of Helsinki