Programme

All times are Helsinki local times (UTC +03:00 EEST)
Wednesday, 27 October
10:00–11:30 Workshop hosted by Ministry of Interior of Finland

An online workshop organized by the Ministry of the Interior of FinlandA Participative Framework for Politics of Immigration”

Harri Sivula, Anna Rundgren and Mariana Salgado (Ministry of the Interior of Finland)

Pre-registration mandatory. More information available in the conference newsletter posted to registered participants. Please contact fcree-aleksconf@helsinki.fi if you haven't received the invitation link.

12:00–12:30 Opening Ceremony

Opening words by Professor Markku Kangaspuro, Director of the Aleksanteri Institute and Dr. Anna-Liisa Heusala, Chair of the organising committee.

Ceremonial speaker Dr. Maria Ohisalo, Minister of the Interior, Finland.

12:30–13:30 Plenary Session I

Chair: Anna-Liisa Heusala (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Franklin Obeng-Odoom (University of Helsinki, Finland): Global Migration beyond Limits

Caress Schenk (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan): There is Fear Enough for All

13.30–14.30 Break
14:30–16:00 Panel session 1

1A New perspectives on Finnish Immigration to the Soviet Union

Chair: Ira Jänis-Isokangas (National Archives of Finland)

Discussant: Ilya Solomeshch (Petrozavodsk State University, Russia)

Anna Laakkonen (University of Eastern Finland):  News from the Past: Finnish Press in Soviet Karelia in 1920–1937

Jesse Hirvelä and Ira Jänis-Isokangas (National Archives of Finland): Future Citizens or Useful Workforce? Finnish Immigrants and the Communist Party in Svirstroi, 1931-1934

Sami Outinen (National Archives of Finland): Return Migration from Soviet Union to Finland between World Wars – Migrant’s Living Conditions, Ideology and Control before and after the Soviet Experience. A Research Plan

1B Roundtable: Transferring Spirituality – Religious and Spiritual Practices among Central Asian Migrants in Russia

Chair: Anna Cieślewska (Jagiellonian University and University of Bialystok, Poland)

Dimitry Oparin (Higher School of Economics, Russia & Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences)

Juliette Cleuziou (University Lumière Lyon 2, France)

Rustamjon Urinboyev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Edvard Lemon (Texas A&M University, USA)                                                          

1C Transnationalism in Pandemic Conditions: Life Experience of Social Scholars I

Chair: Anna Temkina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Discussant: Anna Avdeeva (Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Larisa Shpakovskaya (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Who Cares: Mobile and Immobile Family Practices in the Time of Pandemic

Alisher Sharipov (Institute of Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences): Transformations of a Subject's Docile Body in the "Covid Diary" Discourse

Marina Hakkarainen (European University at St. Petersburg, Russian Federation): Cultural Facets of Distancing in a Pandemic

1D Transnationalism, Diasporas and Participation

Chair: Jouni Järvinen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Ajar Chekirova (Lake Forest College, USA): Kyrgyz Diaspora Online: Understanding New Forms of Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Political Participation

Iraida Nam (Tomsk University, Russia) and Diana Bryazgina (National Research Tomsk State University, Russia): The Interaction of the State and Diaspora Organizations within Adaptation and Integration of Migrants (Case of Tomsk and Irkutsk)

Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova (Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland): Contested Nationhood and the Politics of Diaspora Mobilisation: the Case of Bosnian Communities in Switzerland

1E Russia in Global Context Poster Session of the Master's Programme in Russian Studies

Chair: Sari Autio-Sarasmo (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Robin van Berlo: Russian Threat Perception during the Covid-19 Crisis

Carter Boone: Canada-Russia Relations in the Era of Great Power Competition

Fanni Linnala: Postcolonialism and EU -Russia - the Policy Changes in the EU's Approach to Moscow in 2020/21

Maria Piipponen: Investigative Journalism and Russia

Maria Rajasalmi: Private Care Homes for the Elderly as Part of Care Service Provision in the Russian Federation – a Picture Portraited by Private Companies

Julie Řičářová: Czech Responses to Security Threats from Russia

Arto Sillanpää: Russia Today (RT) and the Western Fringe Left: Networks and Narratives

Laurel Wheeler: How Has the Pandemic and the Move to Virtual Learning Impacted the Availability of and Demand for Russian Language Instruction 

1F Local Politics in Russia under Pressure

Chair: Elena Gorbacheva (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Discussant: Margarita Zavadskaya (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Irina Shevtsova (Perm State University, Russia) and Aleksei Gilev (Higher School of Economics, Russia): "Serving the Two Masters": Factors of Local Political and Administrative Autonomy in Russia

Margarita Zavadskaya (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland) and Lev Shilov (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia & European University Institute, Italy): Measuring Local Governance in Russia: Do Autocracies Serve People's Interests?

Mikhail Turchenko (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)  and Tatiana Tkacheva (Higher School of Economics, Russia): Electoral Success of Independents under Authoritarianism: Evidence from Russia’s Local Elections, 2014-2018

16:15–17:45 Panel session 2

2A Historical Perspectives on Migration and War Refuge

Chair: Anatoly Pinsky (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Tatsian Astrouskaya (Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Germany): Jewish Movement for Emigration and the Petitioning Practices in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1970s

Olga Davydova-Minguet (University of Eastern Finland): How to Immigrate into History: Russian Speakers in the Finnish Border Region and the Politics of Memory in Transnational Settings

Marja Honkakorpi (Independent researcher): Livestock and People in the Karelian Evacuations 1939 and 1944

Petra Rethmann (McMaster University, Canada): Migrant Ruins: Russian German Right-Wing Nationalism, Historical Revisionism, and the Challenges of Victimization

2B Remaking Home away from Home

Chair: Ekaterina Protassova (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Julia Butschatskaja (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Kunstkamera, Russia): A Home in the New Home: Decorative Objects in Everyday Life of Russian Germans in Germany

Liaisan Şahin (Marmara University, Turkey): Moving “Homes” and “Homelands”: Some Findings on Perceptions of Post-Soviet Diaspora Women in Turkey

Sasha Razor (UCLA, USA): The Hollywood Kazwup: the Casus of White Émigré Restaurants in Los Angeles

Anna Kudyma (UCLA, USA): Flagship Program and Heritage Language Students

2C Second Generation Transnationalism: Trajectories of Mobility and Belonging

Chair: Karolina Kluczewska (Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany & Ghent Institute for International and European Studies, University of Ghent, Belgium)

Pietro Cingolani (University of Bologna, Italy): "Here or there? Social Remittances and Gender Issues among Moldova Migrants in Italy"

Mark Simon (Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Russia): Why (Don’t) Our Children Care about Their Homeland?’: Narratives on the Second-Generation Migrants among Central Asian Diasporic Activists in Russia

Tsypylma Darieva (Centre for East European and International Studies, ZOiS, Berlin, Germany): "Get Rooted!": A Second and Later Generation Transnationalism among Diasporic Armenians

Tamar Khutsishvili (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany): New Passports and Old Homelands. From Labour Migrants to New Types of Landowners (Armenia)

2D Authoritarian Governance and Migration

Chair: Anna-Liisa Heusala (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Henry Hale (George Washington University, USA): How Does Politicizing Immigration Impact Authoritarian Support? Evidence from Russia 

Lauren Woodard (Yale University, USA): Promoting Similarity and Constructing Compatriots in Russia’s Far East

Mirzokhid Karshiev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Circular Migration, Bad Governance and Neo-colonialism in Central Eurasia   

2E Roundtable: Not Free to Move: Carceral Mobilities in Soviet and Post-Soviet Space

Chair: Judith Pallot (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Mikhail Nakonechnyi (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Anni Reuter (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Costanza Curro (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Sofya Gavrilova (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany)

Rustamjon Urinboyev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)                                                  

2F Towards Good Neighbourliness? Russian Universities, Internationalisation and International Cooperation

Chair: Sirke Mäkinen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Iuliia Gataulina (Tampere University, Finland): Assembling Internationalisation of Russian Higher Education: Neoliberal Restructuring, Authoritarian Politics and Subjectivities of Compliance and Resistance

Svetlana Shenderova (Tampere University, Finland): Collaborative Degree Programmes in Internationalisation Policies: Stakeholders’ Perspective

Dmitry Lanko (St. Petersburg State University, Russia) and Gleb Yarovoy (University of Eastern Finland): Leadership in “Pockets of Effectiveness”: Universities of Northwest Russia in Cross Border Cooperation Projects with EU Member States?

Sirke Mäkinen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): No Politics! Internal Stakeholders in Double Degrees and Finnish-Russian Cooperation

Thursday, 28 October
10:00–11:30 Panel session 3

3A Colonialism

Chair: Brendan Humphreys (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Maria Oinas (University of Tartu, Estonia): Colonized or Colonialists? The Participation of the European Nationalities of the Russian Empire in the Colonization of Kazakhstan in the End Nineteenth - Early Twentieth Centuries

Galina Durinova (University of Basel, Switzerland): The Siberian Migrations in Global Perspective. Constructing the Transnationalism and the Dual Identities of the Russian Inorodtsy during the 19th Century. (On the Example of the Buryats)

3B Perspectives of Identity-building: Youth, Community, Academia

Chair: Katalin Miklossy (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Shreya Bhardwaj (Charles University, Prague, the Czech Republic): I Broke an Onion on My Nose: Muslim Migrant Youth Negotiating Masculinities and Femininities Through Body in the Czech Republic

Angelos Theocharis (Durham University, UK): In Search of the Russophone Community in Britain: From Russia Abroad to Global Russians

Riikkamari Muhonen (Central European University): Producing "Good Friends" of the Soviet Union: Soviet Soft Power in the Field of Higher Education During Cold War

3C Migrants, Law and State

Chair: Marianna Muravyeva (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Dimitry Kurnosov (University of Helsinki, Finland): Legal Approaches to Migration and Electoral Rights: The Experience of Russia 

Joni Virkkunen (University of Eastern Finland) and Minna Piipponen (University of Eastern Finland): Informal Practices and the Rule of Law. Russia, Migration and the ‘Arctic Route’

Elena Maslovskaya (Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, Russia): Legal Interpreters in Criminal Investigation Involving Migrants from Post-Soviet States in Contemporary Russia  

3D Eurasian Migration Regimes: Historical and Political Specificities of Migration Government

Chair: Vladimir Malakhov (Center for Political Theory and Applied Political Science, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Russia)

Discussant: Caress Schenk (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan)

Elena Barabantseva (University of Manchester, UK): Desiring a Beautiful Nation: Marriage, Governance, and Security across the Chinese-Post-Soviet Borders

Julia Glathe (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany): Politicization of Migration in Russia: Competing Political Projects of Postsocialist Development

Song Ha Joo (Zhejiang University, China): Varieties of Authoritarian Immigration Policy: A Comparison between Russia and Kazakhstan

3E Living Translocal Lives in Russia: Continuities, Ruptures, and Emerging (Im)mobility Regimes in the Post-Soviet Space

Chair: Sherzod Eraliev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Malika Bahovadinova (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands): Crossing the Border: From a Russian Soldier to a Tajik Migrant.

Elena Borisova (University of Manchester, UK): (Im)mobility, Masculinity, and Ambivalences of Care in the Context of Migration in Tajikistan 

Rustamjon Urinboyev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Smartphone Transnationalism: Everyday Transnational Lives of Uzbek Migrant Workers in Russia

Ekaterina Kapustina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia): Migration from Dagestan: Trajectories and Regimes of Mobility in Translocal Life

3F Roundtable: Enhancing Energy Transition in Russia and Finland by Making Resource Flows Visible

Chair: Sakari Höysniemi (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Marjukka Parkkinen (University of Turku, Finland)

Olga Bychkova (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Olga Dovbysh (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Alexandra Barmina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

11:30–12:00 Break
12:00–13:30 Panel session 4

4A New Approaches to the Civil War in Russian Karelia, 1918-1922: People, Nature, Historiography

Chair: Markku Kangaspuro (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Discussant: Aapo Roselius (Independent researcher)

Aleksi Huhta (University of Helsinki, Finland): “We Exchanged Our Proletarian Beliefs for Biscuits and Canned Meat”: Finnish Red Guardists as Britain’s Native Auxiliaries in Northern Russia, 1918–1919

Tamara Polyakova (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA & University of Eastern Finland): “Let’s Surprise the World and Conquer the Unconquerable – the Nature!” Towards an Environmental History of the Russian Civil War

Alexander Osipov (University of Eastern Finland): "I Earnestly Ask You to Give Me Some Kind of Revolver”: Traditional and Contemporary Historiography of the Karelian Rebellion of 1921-1922

4B Materiality and Memory in Building Home Abroad

Chair: Maria Yelenevskaya (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)

Marika Kalyuga (Macquarie University, Australia): The Role of Possessions in Adaptation to a New Life

Ksenia Golovina (Toyo University, Japan): What Kettles, Satellite Dishes, and Khruschyovkas Have in Common: The “Spatiotemporal” Objects of the Russian-speaking Migrants in Japan

Anna Pechurina (Karlstad University, Sweden): Researching Russian Migrants’ Homes: Diasporic Objects and Ambivalences of Migration

Kira Kaurinkoski (Aix-Marseille University, France): Constructing Home away from Home: The Case of the Interwar Refugees and the post-Soviet Migrants in Greece

4C Migration and Everyday Life

Chair: Agnieszka Kubal (University College London, UK)

Irina Lapshyna (Ukrainian Catholic University): Navigating a Hostile Environment: Ukrainian Irregular Immigrants in the UK

Irina Kuznetsova (University of Birmingham, UK): Bordering and Citizenship: Lived Experiences of Displaced from Ukraine’s War-torn Territories

Sergey Ryazantsev (Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MGIMO University) and Alexey Smirnov (Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences): The Situation of Labour Migrants in Russia during the COVID-19 Pandemic

4D Integration, Communities and Migration

Chair: Kaarina Aitamurto (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Evgeni Varshaver (Russian Academy for National Economy and Public Administration), Anna Rocheva (RANEPA, Group for Migration and Ethnicity Research, Russia) and Nataliya Ivanova (RANEPA, Russia): Migrant Neighborhoods in Russia – Do They Exist and Is There a Pattern Behind Their Emergence? 

Zuzanna Brunarska (University of Warsaw, Poland) and Sabina Toruńczyk-Ruiz (University of Warsaw, Poland): With Time We Learn to Trust Others? Long-standing vs. Recent Ethnic Diversity and Outgroup Trust in Russia  

Lucie Tungul (Palacký University, the Czech Republic): The Turkish Community in Czechia: A Diaspora in the Making?

Larisa Shpakovskaya (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Russian Academic Migration to Finland: Institutional Culture, Gender and Ethnicity 

4E Roundtable:  Anthropology of Blasphemy in Eurasia: Approaches and Methodologies

Chair: Alexander Panchenko (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Sergey Shtyrkov (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Nikita Petrov (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Ekaterina Khonineva (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Stepan Drozdov (European University at St. Petersburg / Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

Julia Senina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

4F Roundtable: Russia’s Hybrid Policy Instruments in Northern Europe

Chair: Sinikukka Saari (Finnish Institute of International Affairs)

Carolina Vendil Pallin (Swedish Defence Research Agency)

Hanna Smith (Hybrid CoE)

Jakub Godzimirski (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs NUPI)

Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

13:45–15:15 Panel session 5

5A The Highly Qualified Migration in Russia

Chair: Cynthia Buckley (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA)

Discussant: Andrei Korobkov (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) 

Vladimir Mukomel (Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Russia): Highly Skilled Migrants from Central Asia at the Russian Labor Market

Andrei Korobkov (Middle Tennessee State University, USA): The Russian Elite Diaspora Abroad: Its Scale, Dynamics, and Structural Characteristics

Cynthia Buckley (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA): Remittances and Development in the Eurasian Migration System: Russia’s Remittances

5B Multiple Identities of the Multicultural Multilingual Immigrant Youth

Chair: Anka Bergmann (Humboldt University, Germany) 

Ekaterina Anastasova (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia): A National Narrative and Identity in Immigration

Monica Perotto (Bologna University, Italy): Translating with Second-Generation Migrants as Building Bridges between Cultures

Marina Niznik (Tel Aviv University, Israel): Between "Family" and "Foreign": What Happens to the Russian Language of the Immigrant Children in Israel

Julia Ekman (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Ekaterina Protassova (University of Helsinki, Finland): The Third Culture of the Second Generation Students

5C Political Economies of Migration

Chair: Sari Autio-Sarasmo (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Sergey Sosnovskikh (De Montfort University, UK): Entrepreneurial Chinese Migrants in Russia and a New Form of Parallel Trading 

Claudia Eggart (University of Manchester, UK): The Making of Geopolitics in the Everyday of Labor Migrants and Cross-Border Traders in Kyrgyzstan

Anni Kangas (Tampere University, Finland) and Safina Khidjobova (Independent artist): Aesthetic Political Economies of Care in the Migrant Metropolis

Aksana Ismailbekova (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany): Securing the Future of Children and Youth in Russia: Uzbek Private Kindergartens and Schools in Osh, Kyrgyzstan  

5D Labor Markets and Eurasian Migration

Chair: Sherzod Eraliev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Nonna Kushnirovich (Ruppin Academic Center, Israel): Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in the Israeli Labor Market 

Daria Krivonos (University of Helsinki, Finland): Ukrainian Workers in Poland and the Paper Market: ‘Bluffing Out’ and the Flight from Control  

5E Migration at the Micro Level

Chair: Rustamjon Urinboyev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Sabina Fiebig Lord (University of Gloucestershire, UK): The Emotional Implications in Migration Decision-Making as Reflected by Polish Women Migrants in the UK

Rustam Samadov (Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Germany): Marginalized Masculinity of Tajik Labor Migrants: The Effects of Russian Migration Regime and Sources of Manhood in a Discriminatory Environment  

Konstantin Galkin (Sociological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences): «Dacha» Migration and Features of «Squeezed» Bodies of Older People in Karelia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Varvara Preter (Ben Gurion University of Negev, Israel) and Julia Lerner (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel): Looking for (Trans)National Belonging: New Migration from Russia to Israel in 2010th 

5F State and Society Relations in Eurasia

Chair: Vladimir Gel’man (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Stanislav Shkel (Perm State University, Russia): Rage Against the Machine: Centralization, Ethnic Factor and Electoral Processes in the Russian Regions

Abel Polese (Dublin City University, Ireland): State Reproduction From Below: Informality, Mobility and Unorganized Resistance in the Reconfiguration of Eurasian States’ Political Life 

Svetlana Mareeva (Higher School of Economics, Russia), Ekaterina Slobodenyuk (Higher School of Economics, Russia) and Vasiliy Anikin (Higher School of Economics, Russia): Does the ‘Tunnel Effect’ Still Apply? Social Mobility and Perceptions of Inequality in the New Russia

15:15–16:00 Break
16:00–17:10 Plenary session II

Chair: Katalin Miklossy (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Ulf Brunnbauer (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies & University of Regensburg, Germany): Migration and the “Development” Conundrum in the Balkans. A Longue-durée Perspective

Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University, USA): Rethinking Russia in Eurasia: Migration, Empire, and Post/Neo-Colonialism

17:10–17:15 Unisport stretching session
17:30–18:30 Roundtable hosted by Ministry of the Interior of Finland ”Future Perspectives on Migration”

Chair: Tarja Rantala (Ministry of the Interior of Finland & Embassy of Finland, Moscow)

Joni Virkkunen (University of Eastern Finland & Finnish Association for Russian and East European Studies)

Kristiina Silvan (Finnish Institute of International Affairs)

Closing words: Sanna Sutter (Ministry of the Interior of Finland)

Friday, 29 October
12:00–13:30 Panel session 6

6A Emigration as a Professional Resource of Intelligentsia from Russia

Chair: Marina Maguidovitch (Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St.Petersburg)

Discussant: Mina Yang (Chung-Ang University, South Korea)

Kristian Feigelson (University Sorbonne Nouvelle, France): Exil, Nostalgie, Modernité: Autour de Svetlana Boym

Yuki Hayashi (University of Tokyo, Japan): Political Philosophy in the Works of D.S. Merezhkovsky in His Émigré Years

Oleg Sidorov (North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia) and Lena Sidorova (M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Russia): Migration Specifics of the Intelligentsia from Russian Regions on the Example of Yakutia

6B Literature of Migration – The Slavic Turn in German Literature - CANCELLED

Unfortunately this panel is cancelled

Chair: Ulf Brunnbauer (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies & University of Regensburg, Germany)

Alfrun Kliems  (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany): The Loser Takes it All. The Success of Tales of Slavic Failures

Didem Uca (Emory University, USA): "Fremder in diesem Land": Agency, Precarity, and Transnational Bildung in Elias Canetti and Vladimir Vertlib

Miranda Jakisa (University of Vienna, Austria): Marko Dinić’s Gastarbeiterexpress Connecting Serbia and Austria

6C Migration and Everyday Life – Russian Perspectives

Chair: Agnieszka Kubal (University College London, UK)

Discussant: Agnieszka Kubal (University College London, UK)

Anna-Liisa Heusala (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland) and Kaarina Aitamurto (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Authoritarian Context and Outsider Position in Fieldwork on Migration in Russia

Caress Schenk (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan): Migrants as Subjects. Seeing the State in the Everyday Migrant Experience

Agnieszka Kubal (University College London, UK): Migration in Russia - What is the Value of 'Human Stories'?

6D Migration and Policy Implementation

Chair: Judith Pallot (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Laura Dean (Millikin University, USA): Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia

Ivana Djuric (RANEPA, North-West Institute of Management, Department of International Relations and Political Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia): Croatia and the EU’s Migrant Integration Policy: Transfer, Implementation and Challenges to the Integration of Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Karolina Kluczewska (Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany & Ghent Institute for International and European Studies, University of Ghent, Belgium): When the IOM Encounters the Field: Localising the Migration and Development Paradigm in Tajikistan

6E Narratives of Location

Chair: Sanna Turoma (Tampere University, Finland)

Anna Ryzhova (Universität Passau, Germany): Transnational News Repertoires in times of Conflict: How Russian Speakers in Germany Navigate News Media Landscapes

Adam Kola (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland): What Does It Mean to Be a Translingual Writer in Eastern and Central Europe?

Anna Smoliarova (St. Petersburg State University, Russia): Narratives about Relocation: Which Stories Do Russian-Speaking Nomads Tell about their Relocation to Georgia?

13:45–15:15 Panel session 7

7A Transnationalism in Pandemic Conditions: Life Experience of Social Scholars II

Chair: Anna Temkina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)

Discussant: Anna Avdeeva (Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Anna Temkina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia) and Daria Litvina (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia): Transnational Communication in Corona Times: Reflexive Self at Distance

Irina Tartakovskaia (Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences): Trust in the Face of a Pandemic: in Search for Common Ground

Anastasia Novkunskaya (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia): Crossing Symbolical Borders and Changing Social Roles during Pandemia

7B Immigrant Artists as Subjects of Cultural Exchanges and Procedures of New Cultural Industries

Chair: Kristian Feigelson (University Sorbonne Nouvelle, France)

Discussant: Yuki Hayashi (University of Tokyo, Japan)

Marina Maguidovitch (Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St.Petersburg, Russia): Dynasties of Russian Immigrant Artists in Paris. Professional Trajectories and Strategies

Mina Yang (Chung-Ang University, South Korea): Russian Dance Culture Craze in Seoul During the 1920s-30s.

Kateryna Lobodenko (University Sorbonne Nouvelle, France): Role and Challenges of the Migrant Satirical Press: like the Periodicals Satyricon (Paris, 1931) and New Satirykon (San-Francisco, 1984-1986)

7C Roundtable:  Social Remittances in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Chair: Caress Schenk (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan)

Gwendolyn Sasse (Centre for East European and International Studies, ZOiS, Berlin, Germany)

Tsypylma Darieva (Centre for East European and International Studies, ZOiS, Berlin, Germany)

Madeleine Reeves (University of Manchester, UK)

Oleg Korneev (Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia)

Karolina Kluczewska (Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany & Ghent Institute for International and European Studies, University of Ghent, Belgium)                        

7D Post-1990s Labor Migration From Central Asia in Turkey

Chair: Marhabo Saparova (Northeastern University, USA)

Meltem Sancak (University of Zurich, Switzerland): Central Asian Migrants in Turkey

Rustamjon Urinboyev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland) and Sherzod Eraliev (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)): Informality and Uzbek Migrant Networks in Turkey and Russia

Shoirakhon Nurdinova (Namangan State University, Uzbekistan): Uzbek Women Care-workers as Circular Migrants to Turkey

7E Quantitative Research

Chair: Margarita Zavadskaya (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Chelsea Lissette Cervantes De Blois (University of Minnesota Twin-Cities, USA): Data Uncertainty and Efficiency Tradeoffs in Modeling Internal Climate Migration: The Case of Azerbaijan

Ivan Korolev (Russian Academy of Sciences), Arseniy Sinitsa (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia), Andrey Germanovitch Korovkin (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia): Identifying and Analyzing Factors That Determine the Intensity and Directions of Migration: The Example of the Regions of the Arctic Zone of Russia

Anna Rocheva (RANEPA, Group for Migration and Ethnicity Research, Russia), Evgeni Varshaver (RANEPA, Group for Migration and Ethnicity Research, Russia) and Nataliya Ivanova (Russian Academy for National Economy and Public Administration): Targeting in Social Networking Sites as a Method of Sampling for Migrant Studies in the Eurasian Context 

15:15–16:15 Break
16:15–17:15 Plenary session III

Chair: Kaarina Aitamurto (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Madeleine Reeves (University of Manchester, UK): The Empty House: Towards an Anthropology of Insecure Migration in Eurasia

Teivo Teivainen (University of Helsinki, Finland): Construction of Whiteness in Finland vis-à-vis Border with Asia, Natives in the North, and Migrants from the South 

17:15–17:45 Lamentation performance and discussion with the artists

Performance by two renowned Finnish folk musicians, Emmi Kuittinen and Charlotta Hagfors. More details about the workshop, performance and artists.

17:45–18:00 Closing Ceremony

Anna-Liisa Heusala (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Closing remarks

Katri Pynnöniemi (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Announcing the theme for the Aleksanteri Conference 2022

Cultural Programme

The Aleksanteri Conference has a long tradition of bringing in interesting artist and cultural actors to enrich the conference experience. This year we are happy to offer you a unique online lamentation workshop and a virtual tour of Helsinki from the view point of migrant history. Please, also remember the conference podcast, Eurasia and Global Migration, published since March 2021!

Tour to History of Migration

Have you ever thought how much the development of any city is dependent on migration?

Helsinki is a great example of this.

The Capitol itself had migrated from Southwestern Finland in the early 19th century due to the change in the geopolitical constellation of Finland. Geography played an important role ever since: Helsinki being a port city and having a railroad to Russia created an advantageous position being able to bridge East and West. This status on the other hand bore consequences on the mobility of people.

Whether the push and pull factors behind people’s movement was due to international crisis moments such as wars, revolutions, economic depressions or just because of the everyday search for better livelihood, jobs or just for family reasons, migration modified Helsinki enormously. It became an innovative, vibrant, and fast developing city.

If you want to know more of the past of migration in the Finnish capitol’s life why don’t you pop on to this tour?  Katalin Miklóssy will be your tour guide to the history of Helsinki.  

Lamentation workshop

The past year and a half has been a difficult time for all of us. The feelings of loneliness, alienation, displacement, fear and worry have at times been overwhelming. Those already in a vulnerable position - such as migrants and minorities - have carried the biggest burden, but no-one has been completely immune to the uncertainty and apathy of COVID times.

Luckily, mankind has come up with diverse remedies to soothe the pain and anxiety caused by exceptional times in history. One such remedy, endemic in many cultures around the world, is lamentation: expressing one's sorrows in a culturally structured way, in music or poetry.

The Karelian lament -  or 'itkuvirsi' in Finnish -  is an extraordinary expressive form found in eastern Finland and Soviet Karelia that uses music, language, gesture, and the icons of crying to communicate affect and power. *

Let’s lament together!

The conference organisers would like to share this piece of Finnish culture with you! We have teamed up with two renowned Finnish folk musicians, Emmi Kuittinen and Charlotta Hagfors, who are going to refine our sorrows and fears into a traditional Karelian lament.

We are asking you to send us content for a shared, communal cry. What has made you sad this year? What are the anxieties troubling you? Cry it all out on the registration form! There is a free text field on the form, where you can type single words or full sentences ('isolation', 'worry for my old parents', 'What will happen to my fieldwork plans?'). Emmi and Charlotta will work your input into a common conference lament 2021, a piece of communal art where individuals cannot be identified.

The lament will be performed at the conference, and you will have a chance to learn it during the three days!

About the artists:

Emmi Kuittinen is a Finnish folk singer and musician, who specializes in the Karelian singing traditions, especially laments. She performs laments both solo and with ensembles and has combined laments to other arts like dance, modern circus and stand up. Her own ensemble Emmi Kuittinen & Ikuisen ikävän orkesteri (the Orchestra of Eternal Longing) has made performances about Karelian death rituals, and released its first album, Itken ja laulan (I weep and sing) in autumn 2020. The album was nominated as the Ethno Album of the Year in Finland. Emmi is educated as a Master of Music, Music Pedagogue and Community Musician. Besides the artistic work, Emmi gives lament courses and teaches folk singing. 

Charlotta Hagfors (Lotta Hagfors) is a singer, performer and traditional musician from Helsinki. She graduated from Sibelius Academy with the Nordic Master degree in traditional music in 2017. Besides Finland, she studied the traditional music of Sweden (The Royal College of Music in Stockholm), Norway (Ole Bull Academy) and Denmark (Danish National Music Academy of Music). She performs laments with the Orchestra of Eternal Longing led by Emmi Kuittinen, and also performs with her own band, Kasvu, formed in 2020. Like a contemporary lament might, their music speaks for biodiversity and addresses the current climate crisis. She has performed and given workshops on Finnish traditional music in several countries including Norway, Sweden, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Estonia and USA.

* Elizabeth Tolbert: Women Cry with Words: Symbolization of Affect in the Karelian Lament, in Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 22 , 1990 , pp. 80 - 105  (published online in 2019)

 

 

 

Conference podcast

The Aleksanteri Conference podcast, Eurasia and Global Migration, introduces the themes of the conference. In the  monthly episodes, Dr. Katalin Miklóssy discusses Eurasian migration with scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds. The podcast can be followed via Soundcloud, iTunes or Spotify.