- Interested in facial expression analysis — become a test user!
- HSSH Research Group Survey 2026 launching soon
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Brown Bag Seminar every Wednesday – change of location & time!
Please note – CHANGES! HSSH’s weekly Brown Bag Seminar is moving to new location. Same building and floor (Fabianinkatu 24 A, 5th floor) as before, but we’re moving to room 532 (except at the end of April on 15.4. and 294 the seminar will be held in room 531). Start time has also changed: we start and end 15 minutes earlier – 12.00 (sharp) to 13.00.
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The seminars are organized as hybrid events. You’re warmly welcome to join us at the HSSH Seminar Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A, room 532, 5th floor, or on Zoom.
According to a researcher at the Methodological Unit, Matti Pohjonen, the idea of the meetings “is to introduce methodological innovations and cutting-edge research in various disciplines in an easily accessible manner and have an interdisciplinary discussion in an easy-going atmosphere over lunch.”
On Wednesday 4.3. at 12.00 Salla Kurhila will talk about co-constructing meaning through the interplay of linguistic, embodied, and material resources.
AI for SSH Research Network launched at kick-off event
The rapid development of artificial intelligence both opens new opportunities and raises questions for SSH-research. The ongoing adaption to these calls for a critical and focused discussion in the SSH-field. To energize this debate, HSSH and DIVSOL have launched the AI for SSH Research Network.
The kick-off of the network, at the Kaisa Library in Helsinki on Thursday, 29 January 2026 brought together about 40 researchers interested in AI-assisted methods and infrastructures. The programme included presentations by
The AI for SSH Research Network will develop and support cooperation and sharing of information inside the SSH-community but also bridging computer science and AI-applications to other fields. As professor Arto Klami (Department of Computer Science) whose team is developing virtual AI labs connecting all UH-campuses pointed out, “researchers have surprisingly much in common across fields, with all of us searching for reliable new knowledge. Together we can work towards efficient and safe use of AI in supporting this.”
The event also included a group session focused on planning the network’s future activities as well as time for informal discussion and networking. Future plans and activities of the network will be announced later. To stay informed, please follow HSSH and DIVSOL communications for upcoming updates.
Researchers whose work connects with
Interested in facial expression analysis — become a test user!
With the support of an HSSH Catalyst Grant, a manual is being developed to enable the automatic analysis of human facial expressions (facial expression analysis) from video or image data. The manual will allow researchers on the City Centre Campus to independently carry out the entire research process at
Get in touch by March 15 at
New article about conspiracy talk from HSSH funded research
A new study from HSSH-funded research was published in Social Forces. The research shows that conspiracy talk appears in 10% of life course interviews with ordinary Americans – despite no questions about conspiracies being asked.
Analyzing 1,612 interviews from the American Voices Project, researchers show that people reference, challenge, and sometimes support conspiracy theories when discussing everyday topics like work, religion, and politics. Notably, pandemic-era increases were driven mainly by people pushing back against conspiracy claims.
The study highlights how conspiracy culture is negotiated in ordinary daily life – not just among committed believers.
HSSH Research Group Survey 2026 launching soon
Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH) will soon share the 2026 Research Group Survey with all affiliated research groups at the University of Helsinki’s City Centre Campus.
Conducted every two years, the survey updates the previous round and provides an up-to-date overview of research groups’ topics, methods, data, and contact persons. The information forms the basis of an internal database designed to support networking, multidisciplinary collaboration, and methodological development.
New in this round is a section on the use of AI tools in research. The responses will help inform the development of the SSH Virtual AI Lab network in collaboration with the DIVSOL (PROFI8) project.
The survey takes approximately 15–20 minutes to complete, and only one representative per research group needs to respond. All previously affiliated groups are kindly asked to participate once the survey is launched.
Digital Humanities Early-Career Välipala. Spring 2026
Digital Humanities Early-Career Välipala is back this spring! This event for early career humanities and social sciences researchers offers a free form opportunity to discuss and share experiences of digital methods in research. The focus is on digital good practices, stumbling blocks and tricks regarding use of data, tools and analysis methods.
Find below information for this Spring's DH välipala sessions. Welcome from 2 – 3:30 pm at Metsätalo (DH coffee room – A133).
- Tuesday, March 24: Digital approaches to modern social and political history. Two doctoral researchers,
and , give short presentations about their methodological approaches to analysing societal and political phenomena in contemporary public discourse by digital methods and data. - Tuesday April 21: Processing and analysing interview data We introduce a range of infrastructures available for processing and sharing interview data safely during research, but more importantly, we invite researchers to share experiences with tools to transcribe and code data, or approach multimodality in interviews. This session is organized in collaboration with researchers from social data science, cultural heritage and European ethnology.
- Friday, May 29: Digital Humanities Hackathon (time/place tbc). Visit to the Digital Humanities Hackathon (DHH) and listen to final project presentations. In this session, we brainstorm topics for future DH Välipala sessions.
Each session starts with a brief introduction into the theme by researchers working on that topic to facilitate free-form and open conversation. We aim to build a community and space to create and find connections. The DH välipalat are organised by and for PhD and early-career researchers. We are a group of interdisciplinary folk based in Helsinki supported by DARIAH-FI, the digital research infrastructure for the social sciences and humanities.
Inquiries can be sent to
Register now! HEPP6 – Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation conference 18.–20.5.2026
The 6th HEPP Conference will be held 18-20 May, 2026 at the University of Helsinki and online.
Registration for HEPP6 is now open! The deadline for participants who have had an abstract accepted and will present is March 8. Non-presenting participants may register until 4 May.
Call for papers for Thanatos special issue THANATOCENE NOW! Death in Today's Ecological Crisis
Invitation to contribute:
THANATOS SPECIAL ISSUE 2026
THANATOCENE NOW! Death in Today's Ecological Crisis
Every year Thanatos launches a special issue in the field of thanatology on a timely theme that calls for attention. This year, we welcome scholars from diverse disciplines to collaborate on the 2026 special issue, which focuses on “death and ecology”.
There are two possible categories of articles to which authors can contribute. Peer-reviewed original research articles (max. 8000 words) and discussion papers (3000 words) that comment on or elaborate on some aspects of the special issue theme in an academic or societal manner. The research articles are sent to two external reviewers, the discussion papers are reviewed by the editorial board.
For this special issue, we welcome papers from both scientific and artistic research perspectives that touch upon death, grief, and ecology. The theme of ecology can be broadly interpreted as relating to questions of sustainability in social and/or “natural” environments. Here, ecological crisis can refer to different aspects of the contemporary polycrisis, which tend to be entangled in multiple ways with death and destruction.
Submission deadline for full articles to be considered for the special issue is the 10th of May. More information about the journal and the submission guidelines can be found at
Kotimaisilla kielillä kirjoitetut artikkelit ja puheenvuorot ovat erittäin tervetulleita!
Papers in English are welcome! Any questions about the issue, please get in touch via