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.
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:
AI for SSH Network: Roadmap Takes Shape After Successful Launch
Following the kick-off event in January, the AI for SSH research network is moving forward with developing a roadmap for activities. The first step for this to map the needs SSH researchers on AI. What kind of tools, application and data are scholars at the campus working and experimenting with?
In order to help us map the current state of things, the
If you have not completed the survey, there is still time - responses are welcome until the end of April.
Once the survey data collection is complete, the network will analyze the results to guide its priorities for autumn and beyond.
Meanwhile, the network is planned several other concrete action:
- A dedicated communication channel to keep the community connected between events and sharing new insights about the rapidly changing landscape. · The network will promote the services
, helping across SSH find how the group might be able to support their AI-related projects. - A recurring AI for SSH-themed seminar series is being planned for the HSSH autumn
, with guest speakers from across disciplines. - Plans for a winter school are under discussion.
If you have any suggestions or questions, or if you want join in our planning for future activities, send an email to Matti Pohjonen (
Stay tuned for further updates!
22.4. Guest lecture with Visiting Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd: AmericaIsrael – Zionism and Religious Dissent in the U.S.
Wednesday 22nd of April 2026, 12–14, Fabianinkatu 24 A, 5th floor, room 532. Coffee and snacks will be served –
AmericaIsrael: Zionism, Judaism, and the Politics of Religious Dissent in the Contemporary United States
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University
Drawing on Hurd’s new book Heaven Has a Wall, this lecture excavates and explores a cultural, religious and political consensus that appears to unite the US and Israel as if they were one supra-national state: “AmericaIsrael.” The political, religious, cultural, and commercial investments that sustain this consensus lend themselves to an eschatological American foreign policy reflecting not only Zionist religious and political ideals but also a wide spectrum of US nationalist fantasies. AmericaIsrael banks on a historical, religious, eschatological, topographical, and commercial fascination with the Holy Land among many Americans which predates 1948 and encompasses and exceeds Christian and Jewish Zionisms. This suspension of the US border with Israel is also bound up with the suspension of the border between Zionism and Judaism, such that to be or become American is to be or become a Zionist. In recent months and years, however, this consensus has begun to crumble.
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies and Professor of Political Science. She studies the politics of religion in U.S. foreign and immigration policy, the global politics of secularism and religious freedom, religion, politics, and American borders, the US and the Middle East, and the intersections of political theory and political theology. She co-directs the Global Religion & Politics Research Group, is a core faculty member in the MENA Studies program, and is a member of the French Interdisciplinary Group’s Sciences Po Partnership Advisory Committee.
31.3. From mentee to leader: Leading ethics and integrity in research - join ReproducibiliTea
Welcome to our next ReproducibiliTea event this time with special guests from Beyond Bad Apples.
From mentee to leader: Leading ethics and integrity in research
Research ethics and integrity are an integral part of the research process and any researcher’s skill set. But how do we grow into researchers with strong ethical skills, and what is the role of senior academics and supervisors in facilitating this learning process? What are some of the possible challenges and how can they be overcome? Join us for a discussion with Prof. Erika Löfström & Dr. Anu Tammeleht from Beyond Bad Apples who will guide a discussion on research ethics, the role of mentoring in learning research ethics and integrity, and the path of doing responsible science.
BEYOND is a Horizon Europe project that investigates the root causes of research misconduct, develops robust methodologies for impactful training and creates and enhances training materials.
The discussion will be informal. There are no stupid questions, so feel free to share whatever’s on your mind. If you’d rather just listen, that’s perfectly fine too! Drinks and small snacks will be served to give a little sugar boost and keep the ideas flowing.
When? March 31, 14:00-16:00 (2-4 pm)
Where? Minerva Plaza K232, Siltavuorenpenger 5 A, City Center campus
Speaker Prof. Erika Löfström & Dr. Anu Tammeleht, University of Helsinki & Beyond Bad Apples
READING MATERIAL
Löfström E & Tammeleht A (forthcoming 2026) Research ethics and integrity: Transitioning from being led to leading others.
Access: since this article has not been published yet, we will share it separately with registered participants. Please make sure you provide your correct email address below.
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 (
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
New book by Katja Valaskivi et al: Media and the Spirit of Populism
Media and the Spirit of Populism
editors. Katja Valaskivi, Johanna Sumiala, Kaisa Tiusanen and Helmi Halonen
Media and the Spirit of Populism explores the role of contemporary media in the formation, dissemination, and circulation of the spirit of populism. These cutting- edge contributions to the field, written by an interdisciplinary range of contributors from across the world, cover key topics including:
- New religious nationalisms
- The spirit of populism in Virtual Reality
- Apocalyptic populism in the 2024 Trump Campaign
- Truth, the self, and agency
- The rise of charismatic populist leaders
This book maintains that the idea of the "spirit of populism" helps to illuminate aspects of societal and political life that extend beyond the grasp of political science or sociological analysis of populism. By exploring dimensions of the spirit of populism, this book sheds light to these elusive aspects of political life; the shared sense of deeper truth, a true reality, some kind of transcendent dimension, and a sense of sacredness that has a transformational potential toward ideas of belonging/ exclusion and can motivate political engagement and participation.
This engaging volume will be an essential read for those within the fields of media and communication studies, religious studies, sociology, political science, feminist scholarship, and critical cultural studies.
Updates on ARM Project – published working papers and policy briefs
HSSH, with work led by university researcher Matti Pohjonen from HSSH’s Methodological Unit, is a partner in a EU Horizon ARM project led by CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute) in Bergen, Norway.
As an update there are many new policy briefs and working papers published on the project website.
Brown Bag Seminar every Wednesday – next event on 1.4. with Henri Schildt
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 1.4. at 12.00 Henri Schildt will talk about qualitative research and AI – from automating coding to augmenting collaboration
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 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
Apply for Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon #DHH26 | 20.-29.5.2026
Join us for the Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon 2026—an intensive opportunity to collaborate, innovate and push your mental and technical boundaries. Apply now to be part of this year’s efforts.
* #DHH26 application period has started:
* Participation to #DHH26 is free to all accepted participants. In addition, we also expect to sponsor a limited number of participants from outside Finland with flights and accommodation.
* 5 ECTS credits may be gained from participating in the hackathon for students in University of Helsinki and other universities.
Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon #DHH26 will be organised 20.–29.5.2026 as an international summer school. The event will be organized as an in-person hackathon. The event is organised by FIN-CLARIAH—particularly its DARIAH-FI component—in collaboration with HELDIG and the Department of Digital Humanities at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki, as well as Aalto University. The event is supported by CLARIN-EU, HIIT, the Helsinki Centre for Intellectual History, and Marie Curie Training Networks CASCADE & MECANO.
Application schedule for #DHH26:
* NOW: 17.3.–14.4.2026 Application period
* 27.4.2026 Registration period ends for #DHH26 for accepted participants
* 4.5. & 11.5.2026 Two #DHH26 pre-hackathon online preparatory sessions, 2 – 4 PM UTC+03:00
* 20.–29.5.2026 #DHH26 hackathon in Helsinki
The Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon is a chance to experience an interdisciplinary research project from start to finish within the span of 10 days.
For more information on this year's hackathon, including the themes, data, team leaders, and what the hackathon was like in previous years, see:
Regards,
#DHH26 General organizers
Mikko Tolonen, Eetu Mäkelä, Jukka Suomela & Jouni Tuominen