(Link to Flamma)
HSSH Visiting Professor Program is open for applications – DL 15.9.!
The yearly call for applications is open 18.6.–15.9.2025 16.00.
The mission of HSSH is to support multidisciplinary research, cross-faculty cooperation and methodological development at the City Center Campus. In order to support this, we invite proposals for HSSH Visiting Professor positions for 2025.
The program aims to support international research networks at the city center campus. All HSSH-affiliated research groups can propose candidates. We are seeking visiting professors that will catalyze research group cooperation inside the university of Helsinki by serving more than one research group, and enhance interdisciplinary debates and help.
This is how the HSSH Visiting Professor program works:
1. The program aims at supporting international research networks at the city center campus. All HSSH-affiliated researchers can propose candidates. We are seeking VPs that will catalyze research group cooperation (inside UH) by serving more than one research group, enhance interdisciplinary debates and help.
2. The application is submitted by a PI at the University Helsinki center campus and has to be supported by another PI from a different research group.
3. We expect the VPs to spend a minimum period of 2 weeks/year in Helsinki.
4. For 2026, we are opening 4-5 VP slots (depending on budget details).
HSSH will support each visitor with a budget that includes:
- a 4000 € fee for the VP (note: possible taxes paid in Finland will be deducted)
- travel costs
- accommodation costs
Visiting professor’s program in Helsinki should consist of elements such as:
- one public lecture / an open workshop
- mentoring PhD candidates
- participation activities of at least two HSSH-research groups
The PIs at the University of Helsinki have an important role in hosting the visiting professors and acting as a strong point of contact between the Visiting Professor and the research group.
For more information on the Visiting Professor Program, contact Pekka Mäkelä
Invitation (23.9.): A new direction for humanities and social sciences: Finnish SSH expertise at the heart of Europe
Open invitation to participate in our hybrid event on September 23, 2025.
We invite you to participate in the event organized by the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) network on Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 13.30-15.00. The event will be held in a hybrid format – you can participate either on-site at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Common Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A Helsinki (3rd floor) or remotely. The event will be held in English.
At the event, we will discuss the strengths of Finnish humanities and social sciences research in the European context, as well as how we can strengthen the funding and significance of this research in both Finland and the EU.
Program
- A brief introduction to EASSH's activities and operating models
- Discussion on the visibility of research fields, new openings, and opportunities and challenges to influence at the European level
- Dialogue with funders
The event is aimed at SSH researchers, representatives of higher education institutions, research funders, and anyone interested in the topic.
Come along to listen, discuss, and make an impact – register soon and latest 15.9.2025!
Register here:
P.S. You are also welcome to attend an English-language panel discussion on Monday, September 22, 2025, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Maijansali room of the Oodi Library in Helsinki on the topic: Europe's future – Is sivistys/Bildung a pillar of EU competitiveness? (
The European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) is an alliance founded in 2015 with the aim of influencing EU science policy and strengthening the position of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in EU research activities and RDI funding programs. The network already includes more than 70 European organizations and universities. Members from Finland include the University of Helsinki, the University of Eastern Finland, Turku University of Applied Sciences, the University of Turku, and the University of Oulu.
12.9. Helsinki Design Week event: Galleria Forum Box and Tiuku-klubi presents: Afterlives and AI
Date: Fri 12.09.2025
PROGRAM 18-21
at 18:00 Welcome! Introduction to Anton Berg's Hannah Arendt bot.
at 18:30 Short film by Petter Korkman, introduction by the director. The duration of the short film is approx. 7 min.
at 19:00 Panel discussion and refreshments.
Address: Ruoholahdenranta 3a, 00180, Helsinki
Tickets: Free Admission
Accessible: Yes
More infromation on accessibility from our website
Language: Finnish
We are delighted to welcome you to experience Markus Kåhre’s solo exhibition at Gallery Forum Box. Alongside the art, an inspiring event hosted by Tiuku-klubi on the 12th of September, where artists and researchers will come together to explore the theme of "Afterlife and AI".
The evening will feature the premiere of thanabot of philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), an AI-driven creation coded and trained, by researcher and coder Anton Berg. Followed by a screening of a short film by Petter Korkman, about the stage play, Afterlife that premiered at the Finnish National Theatre in November 2024.
The play Afterlife – Conversations with the Living Dead was produced in collaboration with the multidisciplinary and multinational, EU-funded Digital Death research project led by the University of Helsinki and Professor Johanna Sumiala. Sumiala's research project considers how the participation of the “living dead” in the human world changes us, society, death, and life.
This event offers an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about the intersection of art, artificial intelligence, life, and death—and how these evolving concepts shape our future. Drinks and light snacks provided. Free entry. Welcome!
Professor Iginio Gagliardone visits Helsinki and HSSH
Professor Iginio Gagliardone (Wits University) visited Helsinki at the end of August as a part of the Africa Programme Seed Funding. The purpose of Professor Gagliardone’s visit was to learn how (and if) the work developed at HSSH over the past 5 years could provide inspiration for South Africa.
Gagliardone was recently appointed the inaugural SARChI SA–UK Bilateral Chair in Digital Humanities, a five-year collaboration between Wits University and the University of Edinburgh that aims to place African scholarship at the centre of global debates on digital futures. Over the next five years, the Chair will develop new computational and AI-related methods, pedagogical training and public resources to support more inclusive and just uses of digital technologies in the African context.
His visit to Helsinki included two public events. During the HSSH brown bag seminar, Gagliardone and HSSH Senior Researcher Matti Pohjonen engaged in dialogue on how AI is potentially reshaping research in the social sciences and humanities in different global contexts. The discussion asked practical questions: how do we build fair methods, share data responsibly, and recognise knowledge traditions that have often been sidelined from dominant debates on AI? It also reflected on the limits of our “epistemological imagination” – what counts as valid knowledge and who gets to decide.
In his public New Research Culture lecture, Gagliardone contrasted older, nation state-centred approaches to digital and AI governance with what he calls more “networked” forms of authority – an idea rooted in African political thought that looks beyond borders toward collaborative governance of digital life.
The next stage of this collaboration between Helsinki/HSSH and Wits will include a return visit by University Researcher Matti Pohjonen in November and two workshops to advance these ideas with selected PhD and post-doctoral students.
The University of Helsinki Citizen Barometer is now open to researchers – apply for a spot for your study by October 20th!
The University of Helsinki Citizen Barometer (
The Citizen Barometer consists of online panels designed for survey research. Currently, we maintain two panels: one consisting of approximately 6,000 randomly recruited Finns aged 18–80, and another consisting of about 5,000 self-recruited panelists.
We are now opening for collaboration with the research community, and it is possible to apply for space in our surveys. Applications may include individual questions/batteries of questions, experiments, or full surveys. The average response time for a single study must not exceed 10 minutes.
If you or your research group are interested in posing questions on societally relevant topics, you are welcome to apply for collaboration with us. This autumn, we are organizing two application rounds. The first deadline is August 20th, with fieldwork estimated for October. The second deadline is October 20th, with fieldwork estimated for December.
What does it cost?
The cost of using the Citizen Barometer depends on your preferences regarding sample type, sample size, and the number of questions. Our operation is nonprofit, and the fee only covers the costs of maintaining the Citizen Barometer.
Application
Submit your proposal for questions, surveys, or experiments to the Citizen Barometer's email address:
- Name of the lead researcher (including contact details) and possible research team
- Background and purpose of the study (max. 1 page)
- List of all questions and the order in which they are to be asked
- Description of any experimental designs or other special requirements
- Information on the number of responses needed and which of the panels (based on random sample or self-recruitment) that can be used
- Information regarding the ethics review or a justification for why it is not needed
How it works
Applications are quality reviewed by us, and if needed, the Citizen Barometer steering group is consulted. We reserve the right to reject questions that are not suited to the Citizen Barometer or whose scientific quality is insufficient.
If necessary, question formulations and translations are discussed with the research group that has submitted the application. Please note that all surveys are carried out in both Swedish and Finnish. If needed, we can help with translating questions.
We will manage the data collection, and once completed, the research group receives both the data and a codebook that includes the requested variables as well as the relevant background variables. The data is weighted to be representative of the adult Finnish population.
Common background variables (age, gender, region, party preference, political interest, ideology, etc.) have been collected in previous survey rounds. These can be linked to the current data collection and do therefore not need to be asked again.
Please contact us if you have any questions (
Invitation to Participate in Researcher Interviews on Speech Recognition Tools in Research
CSC – IT Center for Science is looking for experts from various fields to participate in researcher interviews. The aim is to explore the use and needs related to speech recognition tools in research workflows. The goal is to gather insights that will help improve support services and tools available to researchers in Finland. This initiative is part of a broader effort by CSC, which provides national research infrastructure and services. One of the tools we are exploring is Whisper, an AI-based speech-to-text solution that can be used for transcribing research data securely.
We are looking for researchers who:
- Use or are interested in using speech recognition tools (e.g., in transcription, summarization, data analysis)
- Are willing to share their experiences, needs, and expectations in a short interview (15–20 minutes)
Results are being used for CSC's services/applications and singular answer will not be published.
ReproducibiliTea event at Think Corner: “What Counts as Evidence? How measurement, context, and values shape research findings”
The ReproducibiliTea network organizes its first event at Centre Campus on September 16th, 2-4 pm at Think Corner, sponsored by the HSSH. The topic is “What Counts as Evidence?
How measurement, context, and values shape research findings”.
Coffee and snacks will be provided.
Reading material
Sauvé SA and Bhachu D “Let’s talk about it: positivism and critical theory in dialogue” (2023).
Extra
ReproducibiliTea podcast discussed this pre-print in one of their latest episodes. You can listen to it on
You can also find commentary on the episode plus more related to this topic in a blog by Alex Byrnes “A crossroads for metascience and positivism” (
What is ReproducibiliTea?
A global, grassroots journal club for better, more reproducible science and UniHelsinki hosts local Helsinki events. Every other week we pop up on different UH campuses to unpack papers on research integrity, bias, good practices, stats, and open science. It’s a relaxed, no-judgement space to ask hard questions, share tips, and spark lively discussions. Curious? Check
16.10. Open lecture with Visiting Professor Simona Pekarek Doehler: The grammar-body interface in social interaction
Project launch seminar:
Speaking of art: Speaker positioning and interactional competence in L1/L2 Swedish
Thursday, October 16, 2025, room F3003 main building (Fabianinkatu 33).
The project “Speaking of art” investigates interactional and grammatical practices in conversations where lay speakers are discussing works of visual art. Central points of interest relate to how speakers express epistemic stances, assessments, and display affiliation. The project has collected a parallel corpus of L1 and L2 talk in Swedish which enables comparisons across these speaker profiles. The methodological framework is interactional linguistics and multimodal interaction analysis. In this launch seminar, the project’s researchers present their ongoing work, and our international collaborators will inspire us with presentations of their research interests. The project is funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland and placed at the University of Helsinki, Scandinavian languages.
Program
14.00 Jan Lindström: “I’m wondering” (how to launch a project?)
14.20 Sanna Heittola: Multimodality in word searches
14.40 Sara Rönnqvist: Explaining and arguing for favorite pieces of art
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
15.30 Yuval Geva & Yael Maschler: Social action, syntactic (un)integration, and embodiment: The multimodality of Hebrew concessive clauses
16.10 Leelo Keevallik: Epistemics and embodied knowledge in multimodal interaction
16.50-17.00 Short break
17.00 Simona Pekarek Doehler: The grammar-body interface in social interaction
17:45 Final discussion
19.9. Representing Data in Digital Archives (New Trends in Digital Culture Studies, Online Workshop 3)
Converting cultural heritage into digital form opens up new possibilities in terms of scale, arrangement, and linking of data, which can lead to novel insights into the past. From digital data, we can distill temporal dynamics, repetitions, connections, and continuums of similarities, and analyse them in various ways. This workshop addresses the potentialities and possible pitfalls of computationally examining digitised cultural heritage materials, with examples of exemplary digital collection interfaces and the latest methodological approaches applied in historical research. We ask, what are the best ways of representing digital archives to enable users to grasp meaningful parts of them, and how can we create connections between related archives?
Location: online
Date: Friday September 19, 2025
Schedule (East European Time zone)
14:00 – 14:05 Welcome and Introduction, Merit Maran
14:05 – 14:35 Revisiting Cultural Heritage Collections: A Benchmark View on Data Visualization, Speaker: Hannu Salmi
14:35 – 14:45 Break
14:45 – 15:15 Visualizing the Lotman-Mints Digital Archive with AI, Speaker: Mila Oiva
15:15 – 15:45 Discussion, Moderator: Petri Paju
Registration:
For more information, see the news article: