Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH) introduced a Visiting Professor Programme for 2022–2025. The programme is part of the HSSH/PROFI6 project that focuses specifically on the challenges and opportunities of datafication.
The Visiting Professor Programme concept includes a two-week visit to the University of Helsinki, present at the City Centre Campus, and working together with several research groups, including collaboration with at least two PIs. The PIs have an important role in hosting the visiting professors, as well as sending the application and acting as a strong point of contact between the visiting professor and the research group.
– The most important part of the Visiting Professor Programme are one-year commitments to the programs. This gives the opportunity for a variety of applicants to be accepted, says Risto Kunelius, director of HSSH. In addition to the one-year visitation, the programme also supports a few three-year commitments.
The first round of applications for the programme was open in early 2022 during a busy time and with a tight deadline. Nevertheless, a good number of applications that were well-thought-out and deserving of funds, were received.
The funding decisions were made based on the applications, and five one-year visitations and four three-year visitations will be funded after the first round. The applicants’ knowledge varies from Media Studies to study of religions, and a variety of methodological knowledge.
– Committing and funding a three-year visitation is possible with applicants that directly support the Datafication Research Program, as well as with applications where a longer commitment was seen as beneficial for methodological development, and where the visiting professor’s contribution was extremely well linked with supporting several research groups, Kunelius says.
The next round of applications will open soon with an application deadline on 4.11.2022. In this round the emphasis will be on one-year commitments to be fulfilled in 2023. The visiting professors receive a compensation as well as funding for travel and accommodation fees. For more information on the Visiting Professor Programme, contact Risto Kunelius risto.kunelius@helsinki.fi. Decisions based on the applications will be made at the HSSH office and the Research Committee.
First round of Visiting Professors
Below you can find more information on the Visiting Professors chosen in the first round, including the dates of their visits. The visits will include public lectures and talks in our weekly Brown Bag Seminar. More information on these events will be posted on our website soon.
Amanda Lagerkvist, Uppsala universitet
Visiting: 5.-18-12.
Amanda Lagerkvist is a Professor of Media and Communication Studies and a founder of existential media studies. Her work explores digital-human vulnerabilities in light of existential philosophy, focusing empirically on death online, digital memories, and on increased automation of human life and the Earth. She heads the BioMe project which explores existential and ethical challenges of biometric AI within the human lifeworld.
Dries Daems, Middle East Technical University
Visiting: TBA
Dries Daems is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Social Sciences in the M.Sc. program of Settlement Archaeology at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. He is also coordinator of the M.Sc. program of Digital Archaeology at METU. His research interests include the study of social complexity and urbanism through computational modeling (ABM) and material studies (macroscopic pottery analysis). He specializes in Iron Age to Hellenistic Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ruth Ayass, Universität Bielefeld
Visiting: 10.-19.9.
Ruth Ayaß is professor for sociology at Bielefeld University. Her research focuses on sociology of everyday interaction, ethnomethodology, and interpretive sociology.
Lars-Erik Malmberg, Oxford University
Visiting: 19-23.9.
Lars-Erik Malmberg is a Professor of Quantitative Methods in Education at Oxford University. He started off as a primary school teacher in Finland. He is Docent in Education with particular focus on quantitative methods, at Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland, where he earned his Doctorate of Education. He completed his post-doc at Yale University and enjoyed the prestigious Research Councils UK (RCUK) academic fellowship 2007-12. He applies advanced quantitative models to the investigation of substantive research questions in education. He recently completed the ESRC-funded seminar series called “Network on Intrapersonal Research in Education.”
Barbara Pfetsch, Freie Universität Berlin
Visiting: 1.-8.10.
Barbara Pfetsch is a Professor of Communication Theory and Media Effects Research at the Department of Media and Communication at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and principal investigator at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. She is also involved in the Collaborative Research Centre “Re-Figuration of Spaces” (SFB 1265) at the TU Berlin. Her research focuses on changes of public spheres and political communication through the digitization and transnationalization and her projects include analyses of digital spaces issue networks, political discourse, (online) media debates and agenda building and the emergence of European and transnational public spheres.
Mirko Schäfer, University of Utrecht
Visiting: 19-25.9.
Mirko Schäfer is Associate Professor at Utrecht University's research area Governing the Digital Society. He is co-founder and project leader of the Utrecht Data School. Schäfer's research interest revolves around the socio-political impact of (media) technology. With the Utrecht Data School and the Datafied Society research platform, he investigates the impact of data practices and algorithms on public management, public media and public space.
Mladen Popović, University of Groningen
Visiting: TBA
Mladen Popović studied at the University of Groningen, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Yale University. He conducted archaeological research in Megiddo and Jerusalem. Popović is head of the Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen, which has a leading role within the Netherlands in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As of September 2017, Popovic has been appointed as the dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
Timothy Mark Ellison, University of Cologne
Visiting: 24.9 -8.10.
Dr. Mark Ellison is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at University of Cologne. He is a specialist in mathematical and computational modelling to language variation, change, and evolution. He has degrees in mathematics, computer science, and linguistics and is currently working in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Centre on Prominence in Language.
Mike Ananny, University of Southern California
Visiting: 17.9.-8.10.
Mike Ananny is an Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism and Affiliated Faculty of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He studies the public significance of digital news infrastructures and algorithmic systems, and co-directs the interdisciplinary USC collective MASTS (Media As SocioTechnical Systems) and the Sloan Foundation project Knowing Machines (with Kate Crawford and Jason Schultz). He holds a PhD from Stanford University, a Masters from the MIT Media Laboratory, and has written for popular press publications including The Atlantic, Wired Magazine, Harvard's Nieman Lab, and the Columbia Journalism Review.