Doctoral Research Profiles

Niina Kari is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics from the University of Sheffield and a Master’s degree from the Global Politics and Communications program at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include a wide range of issues related to the global political economy, including neoliberalism, questions of economic policy space, different currency arrangements (particularly the eurozone), and central banking. 

Her Master's Thesis was entitled Whither New Constitutionalism? Disciplinary Neoliberalism in the European Economic and Monetary Union between 2015-2020, whereas her PhD analyses different proposals for an international clearing union and evaluates the potential merits and prospects of a reconstructed version of ICU in the 21st century. 

Kari has also researched Finnish PA/PR consultancies and is one of the authors of the peer-reviewed book Viestintitätoimistojen valta: Politiikan uudet välittäjät (in Finnish) published in August 2022. 

Niina Kari is currently unavailable for secondary thesis supervision. 

PhD Dissertation Title: 

A Revised International Clearing Union: Solution to 21st Century Challenges?

Niklas Söderman holds a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies and World Politics from the University of Helsinki. His doctoral research investigates how nationalism is rooted in terms of framing and different forms of meaning-making, and how these in combination with various cognitive biases can result in the spread and normalisation of nationalist narratives.

Furthermore, he considers how such narratives gain strength particularly in periods of social turbulence, how that applies to our contemporary situation and how we might work to counter exclusionary tendencies of nationalist sentiment.

Niklas is available for secondary Master's thesis supervision upon approval.

PhD Dissertation Title: 

Feeding on Social Instability: Cognitive Roots and Historical Dialectics of Nationalist Narratives