- Upcoming visits to Helsinki in the Visiting Professor Program
- Citizen Barometer results featured at Think Corner
- HSSH-affiliated article on "Synthetic Ethnography" for studying generative AI published in December
- Brown Bag Seminar every Tuesday at 12.15 – next sessions with Kirsten Fischer on 29.1. with Antti Kanner on 5.2.
- Digital Humanities early career välipala
- HCAS Data Sessions
Upcoming visits to Helsinki in the Visiting Professor Program
The HSSH Visiting Professor Program continues to bring many internationally recognized scholars to the City Center Campus of the University of Helsinki in 2025.
This article features preliminary information on visits during the spring term. Detailed information will be posted once it is available. You can also contact the local contact(s) of the Visiting Professors for more information on the detailed program of the visits.
Kirsten Fischer, University of Minnesota
Local contact: Laura Kolbe
Kirsten Fischer is currently visiting Helsinki and will give a talk at the HSSH Brown Bag Seminar on 29.1.2025 (today at 12.15!). Click here for more information.
Ingrid Schoon, University College London
Local contacts: Katariina Salmela-Aro & Katja Upadaya
Ingrid Schoon is visiting Helsinki in February, 17.–28.2.2025. She will hold a lecture and a workshop during her visit in Helsinki. You can reach out to the local contacts for more information.
Kohei Saito, University of Tokyo
Local contacts: Michiru Nagatsu & Sakari Säynäjoki
Kohei Saito’s second visit to Helsinki is coming up in March. There will be seminar events during the week 10.–14.3. and more information about these will be posted later.
Mirko Schäfer, University of Utrecht
Local contact: Minna Ruckenstein
Mirko Schäfer is visiting Helsinki in March, 12.–16.3.
Nick Couldry, The London School of Economics and Political Science
Local contact: Risto Kunelius
Nick Couldry is visiting Helsinki in April, 7.–16.4. and he will give a keynote talk on 9.4. More information on this and other events will be posted later.
Fred Markowitz, Northern Illinois University
Local contact: Janne Kivivuori
Fred Markowitz is visiting Helsinki for the month of May, 2025. The visit is jointly funded by HSSH and Northern Illinois University. On May 7th Professor Markowitz will give a presentation on the topic “Mental Illness, Social Integration, and Criminal Offending” at the Criminological Seminar. On May 14th he will give a presentation at HSSH’s Brown Bag Seminar, titled “Mental Illness, Social Integration, and Criminal Offending”.
Surinder Jodhka, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Local contact: Johanna Rainio-Niemi & Meri Kulmala
Surinder Jodhka is visiting Helsinki during May–June, approximately around 25.5.–16.6.2025. More information about the visit will be posted later.
Citizen Barometer results featured at Think Corner
The University of Helsinki Citizen Barometer (www.kansalaisbarometri.fi) is an new research infrastructure established in 2023 to support survey and survey experimental research on societal themes. The Citizen Barometer is a web panel, which means the same people are followed over time and regularly answer survey questions. It can be used for longitudinal as well as cross-sectional research designs.
In 2025, Finland will experience a significant political moment with county and municipal elections scheduled for April. The Citizen Barometer serves as a useful tool for understanding the public's views on the current government and the evolving political climate at a more general level. A selection of these survey results is currently showcased at Think Corner, offering an engaging and informative display for those interested in the dynamics of Finnish politics.
If you or your research group would like to use the Citizen Barometer to field your own survey-based studies, you can email kansalaisbarometri@helsinki.fi.
The Citizen Barometer website is currently being updated and more results, and other news, will be available on the website soon. We'll notify everyone once the update is complete!
HSSH-affiliated article on "Synthetic Ethnography" for studying generative AI published in December
A new article, "Synthetic Ethnography: Field Devices for the Qualitative Study of Generative Models," published on December 18, 2024, in Big Data & Society, introduces "synthetic ethnography," a novel approach to studying generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Authored by Gabriele de Seta (University of Bergen), Matti Pohjonen, and Aleksi Knuutila (HSSH, University of Helsinki), the paper explores how ethnographic research methods could respond to recent developments in generative AI. It introduces three innovative "field devices" for studying generative AI systems: creative participation in AI communities, exploration of AI models as trace archives, and speculative modelling through latent walks.
"We were experimenting with ways to study AI that were not just based on observing it from the outside but allowed researchers to repurpose it and actively engage with it", Aleksi Knuutila said.
Brown Bag Seminar every Tuesday at 12.15 – next sessions with Kirsten Fischer on 29.1. with Antti Kanner on 5.2.
The Methodological Unit of HSSH hosts a weekly event, Brown Bag Seminar, to highlight novel methodological approaches in humanities and social sciences.
The seminars are organized as hybrid events. You’re warmly welcome to join us at the HSSH Seminar Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A, room 524, 5th floor (access via door, not courtyard due to renovations), or on Zoom.
Click here to add the Brown Bag Seminar events directly to your calendar (.ics file).
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.”
Every Wednesday at 12.15. Today, 29.1., Visiting Professor Kirsten Fischer’s is giving a talk titled “Memory and Memoir: Family Stories and the Imperfect Art of Inoculation Against Authoritarianism” and next week on Wednesday 5.2. Antti Kanner will talk about “Dynamics of functional language change”.
Read more about the event on our website!
Digital Humanities early career välipala
Digital Humanities early career välipala is a monthly meet-up for early career humanities and social sciences researchers. It 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.
Snacks will be provided in the form of insights on new methods, best practice testimonials… and cake!
Välipalat Spring 2025:
18.2. Historical sources and network analysis
18.3. Digital ethnographers and folklorists, how to analyse data?
22.4. Digitizing your own data? Whats and what-nots
23.5. Fieldtrip: Digital Humanities Hackathon
Welcome from 3 to 4 pm at Metsätalo UniCafe!
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 arts and humanities. Inquiries can be sent to ines.matres@helsinki.fi.
About this event: https://dariah.fi/event/valipala
HCAS Data Sessions
The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies organises regular data sessions, which are open to the University of Helsinki researchers with a doctoral degree in any field of the humanities and social sciences.
HCAS Data Sessions provide a platform for interdisciplinary interaction and exchange of ideas by focusing on data and methods. Each data session is led by a presenter who shares their data and code (prefereably in R) and walks the group through the analysis. Participants follow along and reproduce the analysis on their laptops. This format allows ample opportunity to discuss practical questions and dig deeper into the methodological practices of our respective disciplines. The data sessions serve as a meeting point for HCAS fellows and faculty researchers.
If you are interested in joining the data sessions and maybe leading one yourself, please write an email to Svetlana Vetchinnikova (svetlana.vetchinnikova@helsinki.fi). The group meets on select Tuesdays at 14:00 – 16:00.