HSSH April Newsletter 4/2026

HSSH Research Group Survey 2026 – deadline extended until end of April!

HSSH – Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities – has opened the third iteration of its biannual affiliation survey for City Centre Campus research groups. The survey updates basic information about the research groups to maintain HSSH research group network. This year we have added sections related to City Center Campus research infrastructure and how research groups are using recent AI tools.

Answering the questionnaire should not take more than 15–20 minutes.

We kindly ask the already affiliated research groups, as well as other active or emerging research groups who want to be part of the HSSH network, to take your time to fill in the survey.

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Please note that only one person from your research group (leader / contact person) needs to fill the survey.

The survey will remain open thorough the spring, but we urge you to fill in your answers by April 30, allowing us to digest the information before summer.

The information is used to update the HSSH research group network database and help HSSH to support multidisciplinary research networks, facilitate cooperation between research groups, and advance methodological development at the City Centre Campus of the University of Helsinki (UH).

By answering this survey, you agree to share your answers with other researchers at the UH.

If you have any questions about the survey – or other ideas related to HSSH activities – do not hesitate to ask:

11.5. HSSH Guest lecture with Professor D’Lane R. Compton: Future Considerations for LGBT Population Measurement and Analysis

Please join us on Monday 11.5. at 14.00 (Soc&Kom) to listen and discuss!

American Visiting Professor D’Lane R. Compton (University of New Orleans): Future Considerations for LGBT Population Measurement and Analysis

Date: Monday, May 11, 2026
Time:14:00-15:00 (Helsinki Time)
Location:  Swedish School of Social Science (Soc&Kom), Room 210 (2nd floor), Snellmaninkatu 12, 00170 Helsinki

Hybrid: No

Abstract: Population-based data on sexual orientation and gender identity have expanded substantially in recent years, however persistent issues remain in how these identities are operationalized, collected, and analyzed across surveys, administrative sources, and researchers. Most methodological discussions focus on sampling, data collection, and measurement, comparatively less attention has been given to how analytic decisions themselves are being made and shape what we conclude about LGBT populations. This talk focuses on key issues and obstacles Professor Compton has encountered in their own research on marriage and families, usually U.S. based. It highlights analytic assumptions, including how researchers group, categorize, and interpret sexual and gender minority populations in ways that are not always fully theorized or transparent. It also raises comparisons and questions among census data, self-identification survey data, and registry-based data, especially as census and survey sources may become less available in the U.S., with implications for research in Nordic and European contexts. Drawing primarily from U.S. based demographic work, Compton shows how these issues arise in practice and consider their broader applicability to other survey and national contexts.

D’Lane R. Compton is a professor of sociology at the University of New Orleans whose areas of interest are social psychology, LGBT demography (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender demography), and family and relationship studies. Internationally recognized for their contributions to family sociology and the demography of sexuality and gender, Compton’s work examines how individual characteristics, social networks, and institutional contexts shape personal relationships, family formations, and broader social inequalities. They have been at the forefront of improving how gender identity and sexual orientation are measured in American population surveys, highlighting how flawed or limited measures can obscure important social patterns and reinforce exclusion.

Full house for Visiting Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s guest lecture at HSSH 

On 22nd pf April 2026, HSSH Visiting Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd from Northwestern University gave a guest lecture at the University of Helsinki titled AmericaIsrael: Zionism, Judaism, and the Politics of Religious Dissent in the Contemporary United States.

The event drew a full house and sparked a highly engaging discussion on the complex religious, political, and cultural ties between the United States and Israel. Drawing on her new book Heaven Has a Wall, Hurd explored the idea of “AmericaIsrael” and the ways in which Zionism, Judaism, nationalism, foreign policy, and religious dissent intersect in contemporary U.S. politics.

The lecture left us with much to think about, and the full room showed just how timely and important these questions are right now.

In Finnish: 7.5. Horizon Europe Cluster 2 webinar on 2025 application statistics and upcoming 2026 calls

A Finnish-language webinar on Horizon Europe Cluster 2, Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society, will present key application statistics from 2025 and introduce the upcoming 2026 calls opening in mid-May.

The session will also cover current Cluster 2 updates, including EU partnerships and other topical developments. Participants can submit questions in advance when registering, allowing National Contact Points to prepare detailed answers for the webinar.

The event will be held in Finnish, with questions answered in English if needed. The presentation part will be recorded.

Researcher, join the RDM Advanced Webinar Series (in Finnish and English)

In May 2026, University of Helsinki Data Support will organise four webinars targeted at researchers on the themes of efficient and responsible data management.

The webinars are aimed for University of Helsinki and HUS staff, and participation in them requires registration in the Lyyti system. 

The webinars are arranged in Finnish in spring and in English in autumn.

Diversity, Relationality and Everyday Life - panel and networking event on 16.6.2026

Please note these two events organized by Diversity in Society and Life () researchers Sirpa Wrede, Sointu Leikas, and Henrietta Grönlund. This is an opportunity to learn about the research perspectives developed at the  at University of Manchester

The morning panel is open to all, and you are cordially invited—no registration needed.

The afternoon networking meeting is open to all researchers in the DIVSOL research community, but registration is required due to refreshments. Please register through this link by the deadline of June 8th.

Below you will find a description of the two events. Please join us for interesting insights and lively discussions!

DIVSOL Panel Diversity, Relationality and Everyday Life 

Date and time         Tuesday 16 June 2026 10-12

Venue                 Porthania P674 

This event is a scholarly panel focusing on diversity in everyday lives, with a strong conceptual emphasis on relationality and lived experience. The panel brings together Professor  (University of Manchester), Dr  (University of Sheffield), and Dr  (University of Bath), all of whom have played significant roles at the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives at University of Manchester. Their research addresses personal relationships, politics and social change, the political economy of ageing and later-life disability, and the self, belonging, migration, family life, and temporality. The first hour is dedicated to the short presentations of the panelists and the second hour for discussion. The panel is sponsored by the profiling action Diversity in Society and Life (DIVSOL) and organised by DIVSOL researchers Professor Sirpa Wrede, Dr Sointu Leikas and Professor Henrietta Grönlund. Morgan Centre is one of DIVSOL'S collaborating institutions. The panel will be moderated by Professor Sirpa Wrede and Dr Sointu Leikas.

DIVSOL Networking Event Diversity, Relationality and Everyday Life

Date and time      Tuesday 16 June 2026 13-16

Venue            University of Helsinki Main Building U3039 

This  networking event is organised to bring together researchers interested in everyday diversity in society. The aim of the meeting is to provide opportunities to shortly present and discuss participants' related research interests and activities, to increase opportunities for contact and collaboration. The meeting is related to the scholarly panel organised the same day that is closely aligned with several DIVSOL research themes: The theme of Participation, Inclusion & Empowerment, through its focus on how social difference, marginalisation, and belonging are lived, negotiated, and resisted in everyday relationships and institutional contexts. The theme of Social & Environmental Adaptation, by examining how individuals and groups adapt to social, political, and demographic change across the life course. The theme of New Methods, as the panel draws on innovative qualitative and mixed methodological approaches developed at the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives.

Remember the   by 8th of June!

26.5. Unhurried Science: Towards Sustainable Academic Culture

When? Tuesday, May 26th 2026, at 17–20

Where? The common room of Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies (Fabianinkatu 24A, Helsinki)

What? Welcome all to discuss current academic practices in a transdisciplinary atmosphere. The event aims to create a space for sparking discussion and connecting with others who share the desire to do unhurried, meaningful science. The event is organized jointly by Critical Academy of Uniarts Helsinki and University of Helsinki's Slow Science Research Group (HSSH), in collaboration with the Research Association Suoni. See more below and register! 

Sign-up to the event by May 19th:

Please note that the registration is binding.

Description: 

Is there an alternative to academic capitalism or do you just have to play the game to survive? As an ideal, academia is a place where ideas are developed and knowledge is formed in close connection with trusted colleagues, thus building a community of constructive academic culture. In practice, however, contemporary academia is often competitive and hierarchical. While its structures offer future prospects and supportive structures for some, many feel overwhelmed amidst competition, scarce resources, and precarity. At the same time, those working within academia may feel burdened by the constant assessment of their work through productivity targets and increased administrative workload.

However, a positive change is cooking in various local communities inside and outside academia. The Unhurried Science event is designed to turn our attention to the possible futures and hopeful prospects of academic life by gathering together people who share willingness to develop socially sustainable academic practices. Sustainability can entail, for instance, sustainable knowledge building and slow science, as well as various forms of affective, cultural, and pedagogical sustainability. The emphasis of the event is in the prospect of hope: the purpose is to turn our attention towards existing possibilities and resources and to offer a space to connect with others in a search for more sustainable academic life.

We will hear two presentations and one critical commentary to the presentations. Beth Ferholt is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Brooklyn College, and an affiliated faculty member in the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at The Graduate Center, of The City University of New York. She is a founder and co-leader of the International Playworld Network (IPWNW) and her current research includes a transdisciplinary study with University of Helsinki researchers that connects dance and play to expand understandings of how play can transform our ways of knowing (). Sociologist JohannaHokka is a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Tampere. She is a co-editor of the book Tiede ja tunteet: tutkimustyön arki ja arvot kilpailuyliopistossa (Gaudeamus, 2024). Her research interests span from the study of academic emotions to the research of emotions in urban settings. KaarinaKilpiö is a university lecturer from the Sibelius Academy of the Uniarts Helsinki. She will give us a critical commentary on the presentations heard at the event. 

The event aims to create a space for sparking discussion and connecting with others who share the desire to do unhurried, meaningful science. The event is organized jointly by Critical Academy of Uniarts Helsinki and University of Helsinki's Slow Science Research Group (HSSH), in collaboration with the Research Association Suoni.

Program:

17:00 Opening words and welcome (Leena Julin, Sini Mononen, Anna Rainio & Michiru Nagatsu)

17:30 Beth Ferholt: Lessons from Restorative and Transformative Justice Work for "Unhurried" Academia

18:00 Johanna Hokka: In Search of an Average Academic in Competitive Academia

18:30 Kaarina Kilpiö’s commentary

Get together and refreshments

The event ends at 20:00

13.5. What makes a good Open Education Resource? DARIAH Campus workshop

This event invites digital humanities and social science researchers, projects and infrastructure developers in Finland to an introduction to DARIAH Campus. In this workshop participants will find support for integrating learning resources in their teaching/studies, or to create learning resources themselves. More information and sign-up: