Community

The Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria) is a vibrant multidisciplinary research community of active researchers in academia and topical societal issues.
Who are we?

Urbaria's coordination team consists of Professor of geoinformatics who acts as the director of Urbaria, liaison manager , and coordinator .

On this page, you can find the full list of Urbaria affiliated researchers and learn more about them. We are happy to tell you more about our multidisciplinary research, societal engagement and other opportunities offered by Urbaria. Please don't hesitate to contact us! 

Email:
Phone: +358 50 471 6334
Apply for membership!

Urbaria membership is open for all researchers and postdoctoral students affiliated with the University of Helsinki. 
Members of the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies
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About
Research (in three projects,  2019-2024, 2019-2021, 2019-2022), and outside projects; supervision of doctoral students; higher education of Master's and Bachelor's students; third function (societal interaction) activities; paid external work (e.g., assessments of applicants to Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Docent positions, pre-examiner and official opponent roles concerning Doctoral dissertations)
JA
+358294140019
About
Onomastician. Head of Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies.
About
Coordinates Helsinki Urban Rat Project, teaches disease ecology and evolutionary parasitology and trains future biology teachers.
SA
+358294157891
SA
LA
+358294124216
+358294157707
About
Professor in Environmental Sustainability Science
IA
+358294124337
HA
+358294150771
About
Doctoral researcher, Faculty of Science / Doctoral Programme in School, Education, Society and Culture (SEDUCE) Research group: Affective Geographies and Politics of Education Teacher: Feminist and posthumanist geography (MAA-255, Bachelor's Programme in Geography, 2025–) Visiting lecturer: Geography teaching in practice (MAA-240, Bachelor's Programme in Geography, 2025–) Untenured teacher, Urban GIS and visual tools (USP-303, Master's Programme in Urban Studies and Planning, 2022 & 2023)
EB
CB
About
Kasper Braskén is Academy Research Fellow in Political History at the University of Helsinki. He is the Principal Investigator of the research project “Locating Global Protest against the Extreme Right: Anti-Fascism, Anti-Racism and Internationalism in Multiethnic Metropoles” (LGP) funded by the Research Council of Finland (Project number 355478; 2023–2027). As a part of the project I co-edit the open access journal "The Helsinki Notebooks: Global Dispatches against Fascism and the Far Right." In my research I have specialised in 20th century history with a main focus on transnational and global history, left internationalism, international communism, ethnic minorities, and anti-fascist movements in European and global contexts. 
+358294151547
+358294124625
About
I am a postdoctoral researcher in a project called Legacies, where I am researching socioenvironmental and material legacies in Göteborg, Sweden. Before joining the Legacies project, I did my doctoral studies in Environmental Communication at the Department Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).  My thesis focused on what comes to count as sustainable in a new and developing urban district called Rosendal, located in Uppsala. I approached the district as a sociomaterial assemblage and explored meanings of sustainability.   I have previously worked at the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University, and I have a Master’s degree in Creative Sustainability from Aalto University.  
XC
+358294157800
About
Behavioural Ecologist, I investigate how animals respond to human-caused environmental changes - which species are able to adjust and which are not - and how do the responses influence population dynamics, community composition, and ecosystem function and services.
CC
NC
SC
+358294124562
FD
+358294129690
About
Moshumee Dewoo is a feminist political historian and writer examining the friction between state sovereignty and human sovereignty in the Global South. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, where she focuses on feminist histories of African resistance in multiethnic urban centres, as part of the Locating Global Protest against the Extreme Right (LGP) project. She is co-founding editor of The Helsinki Notebooks, a peer-reviewed digital publication series that convenes scholars, artists, and activists at the intersections of anti-fascism, anti-colonialism, decolonial feminism, global protest cultures, urban insurgencies, and archival justice. She also serves as Consulting Curator at ESCAP3 Gallery in South Africa, where she curates research-based exhibitions on African political histories and ideas. Alongside her academic work, she writes poetry as another way of exploring resistance narratives across the Global South.   Her contributions include: "Fascism as Colonialism? Colonialism as Fascism? Entanglements, Transfers, and Interpretations (1930s–1950s)." Locating Global Protest (LGP) Project public panel in collaboration with Historians Without Borders, Helsinki. https://historianswithoutborders.fi/en/2026/09/exploring-the-connections-between-fascism-and-colonialism-at-think-corner "Military Takeovers in the Sahel: Decolonial Response or Neocolonial Reckoning?" Power Now! Return of the Vertical, Hierarchical and Coercive? University of Helsinki Conference (2026). https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/power-conference “Ray Alexander: A White Jewish Latvian Communist Woman at the Heart of South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Liberation Struggle." Dismantling Fascist Worlds Symposium, Freie Universität Berlin (2026) "District Six: The Afterlives of Urban Displacement." URBARIA Summaries Series. Available at https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2026-03/Summary%20Dewoo.pdf (2026) "Zainunissa 'Cissie' Gool and Anti-Fascist Politics in Cape Town, 1930s-1960s [Data set]." Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18685751 (2026) Blood Orange Gospel, Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon (2026) "Animist Healing, European Medicine, and the Third Space of Medical Legitimacy in Southern Africa." Between Marginal and Mainstream:  Negotiating Experimental Practices and Medical Knowledge, 1600–1900 – Medical Electricity, Embodied Experiences, and Knowledge Construction in Europe and the Atlantic World, c. 1740–1840 (ELBOW) Conference, Univeristy of Helsinki (2026). https://elbowresearch.com/ "Mandela, the Father of the South African Nation: And Gool, the Mother It Chose to Forget." In The Helsinki Notebooks (2026). Available at https://helsinkinotebooks.com/2026/01/15/mandela-the-father-of-the-south-african-nation-and-gool-the-mother-it-chose-to-forget/ "The Creole Communist Codebase of the South African Decolonial Turn." GRIP Seminar Series, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University (2025) "Casting Colonialism as Fascism: Global South Contributions for an Inclusive Historiography." Eighth European Congress on World and Global History (ENIUGH): Critical Global Histories: Methodological Reflections and Thematic Expansions (2025). https://eniugh.org/content/uploads/2025/08/Programm_screen_250811b.pdf  “The 1930s-1950s Capetonian War on Fascism: Cissie Gool, Anti-Colonial Urbanism, and the Global Communist Reframing of Apartheid.” Imagining the Anti-Fascist City: Contested Geographies of Resistance and Solidarity Conference, organised for the “Locating Global Protest against the Extreme Right: Anti-Fascism, Anti-Racism and Internationalism in Multiethnic Metropoles” (LGP), University of Helsinki "The Democratic Republic of Congo's $24 Trillion Betrayal of Africa." In Politiikasta (2025). Available at https://politiikasta.fi/en/the-democratic-republic-of-congos-24-trillion-betrayal-of-africa/ “The Decolonial Imperative: Confronting Fascism, Colonialism, and the Geopolitics of Selective Outrage.” In The Helsinki Notebooks (2025). Available at https://helsinkinotebooks.com/2025/02/03/the-decolonial-imperative-confronting-fascism-colonialism-and-the-geopolitics-of-selective-outrage/  “From Grey to Gone: The Perils of Ideological Purity.” In The Helsinki Notebooks (2025). Available at https://helsinkinotebooks.com/2025/01/15/from-grey-to-gone-the-perils-of-ideological-purity/  “BIPOC Optimism in Emancipation History: From Louis van Mauritius to Zainunissa ‘Cissie’ Gool.” In Nyamnjoh, F.B. Navigating Hope: Cultivating Inclusive Optimism in a Complex World. Langaa RPCIG (2025) “Mourning as an Act of Resistance: African Philosophical Thought and Poetic Practices.” Poetry of Mourning Series, Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), Cape Town, South Africa "An African Animist Take on Fascism." In The Helsinki Notebooks (2024). Available at https://helsinkinotebooks.com/2024/10/15/an-african-animist-take-on-fascism/  “Black Blakes: A Reconstruction of Black African Agency in Global Literature.” In Yosimbom, H.M. & Ndi, B.F. Centres and Peripheries in Literatures: Interrogating Hegemonic Canonism. Langaa RPCIG (2024) More Human than Human. Art exhibition focused on deconstructing the evolution of idealised human forms and their impact on contemporary perceptions of beauty, worth, and identity. ESCAP3 Gallery (2024) Breach (Langaa RPCIG, 2024) The Democracy Illusion in Mauritius. Langaa RPCIG (2024) Echo the Giant (Langaa RPCIG, 2023) – Featured as an African favourite in Toyin Falola’s “2023 Outstanding African Creative Books Written in English: Novels, Drama, Poetry, Children’s Books” The Really King of September. Langaa RPCIG (2023) Toemaar, Die Donker Kom (Hush, the Dark is Coming). Art exhibition focused on South African postcolonial national identity. ESCAPE Gallery (2023) The Nasyon: A Critical Exploration of the Nasyon’s Persisting Dissociation from Political Power in Mauritius. PhD Dissertation. University of Cape Town Libraries (2023) Polymorphism. Art exhibition on the politics of sustainability in Africa. ESCAP3 Gallery (2021-2022) Making Blackness Strange: An Examination of Creative Strategies of ‘Making Blackness Strange’ in Worlds where Black Bodies, Lives and Narratives have been Historically Distorted. Northwest University Research Niche for Visual Narratives and Creative Outputs, Northwest University (2021) “Reflecting on Language Activism in South Africa.” Panellist at the Symposium on Language Activism in South Africa, funded by the AW Mellon Foundation. A.C. Jordan Chair in African Studies and the Linguistics Section, University of Cape Town (2019). https://humanities.uct.ac.za/african-studies/articles/2019-11-09-language-activism-symposium  Zero Point Soldier. Langaa RPCIG (2019) – Interview for the Johannesburg Review of Books “My African Heart: The Obscure Gourmandise of an Enlightened Man.” In Nyamnjoh, F.B. Eating and Being Eaten: Cannibalism as Food for Thought. Langaa RPCIG (2018) “Belonging Nowhere and Everywhere: The Repercussion of the Indo-Mauritian Diaspora’s Connection with India.” In Nyamnjoh, F.B. & Brudvig, I. Mobilities, ICTs and Marginality in Africa: Comparative Perspectives. HSRC Press, (2016) “I, Another Rhodesian Monster under Construction.” Epilogue. In Nyamnjoh, F.B. #Rhodesmustfall. Nibbling at Resilient Colonialism in South Africa. Langaa RPCIG (2016) – Fage and Oliver Prize 2018 Ex Absurdo Sequitur Quodlibet. Langaa RPCIG (2015) Mauritianism or the Mitigated Euphoria of the Rainbow Nation. Masters Thesis. University of Cape Town Libraries (2013) The Sounds of Silence: Mauritian Tales Told After Midnight. Langaa RPCIG (2013) “The Coolitude of Coolietude: The Re-negotiation of the Indian Identity in Mauritius.” In Counter-Cultures in Contemporary Africa. PostAmble, vol. 8 (1) (2012) Postcolonial Cityscapes. PostAmble, vol. 7 (1) (2012) “Thinking Africa and the African Diaspora Differently.” Panellist at the joint International Conference and Workshop on Africa and the African diaspora by the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa; ‘The Names we Give,’ Chimurenga University of Cape Town, South Africa; Africana Studies Department, Brown University, USA; and the Faculty of Humanities, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (2011)   Dewoo has been awarded several grants and scholarships throughout her career, that reflect her contributions to her field, including: National Research Foundation (NRF) Grant – Land Reform and Democracy, University of Cape Town (2012, 2014, 2015, 2018) Wenner-Gren Fellowship (2018), Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town Photographic Unit Research Grant (2014), Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town De Villiers Smuts Scholarship (2011) for Outstanding Academic Achievement, University of Cape Town   Her professional memberships include: Historians Without Borders Anti-Fascism Studies Network The Political Studies Association Urbaria - Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies Golden Key - The International Honour Society
+358294123946
About
I am co-director of the Centre for Sociology of Democracy, one of the editors-in-chief of  and a member of the academic steering group of the Urban Studies and Planning Master’s degree program. I am also affiliated with the Urbaria institute for Urban and Regional Research. In my spare time, I moonlight as a senior expert at think tank Demos Helsinki. I used to edit the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology. My previous research project was called Total Democracy and the Parademocratic system. We took a look at Finnish housing companies, large customer co-operatives and the church as parts of our democratic system. The project was funded by the Kone Foundation. Research interests: urban sociology, political sociology, “new French pragmatism”, sociological theory, social media, participation, democracy, power.
+358294124318
About
Postdoctoral researcher, Indigenous studies
+358294157887
About
PhD Candidate, Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences. Researching the connections between urban aesthetics, digital visualising technologies and global finance.
+358294124947
About
INEQ Research Coordinator for the RESET Initiative.
RF
+358294123291
About
University Instructor in Japanese
SG
KG
+358294140018
+358294123472
About
Professor of urban theology
MG
+358294123071
MH
+358294123988
About
Post-doctoral researcher and principal investigator of a research project funded by Svenskaliteratursällskapet titled" "Swedish as second language for non-white migrant pupils in the minority Swedishspeaking context of the capital region of Finland: an alternate route to belonging?". Also guest lecturer in the course SOSK-209- Introduction to Inequality Studies on "Decolonizing Inequality Studies". Responsible teacher of the course KSV-BF501: Child and family-related questions in a changing society through a decolonial lens.
+358294150786
+358294121778
About
I am professor and discipline coordinator of Scandinavian languages. In my research I approach Swedish language in society from different perspectives, including language teaching and learning, linguistic landscapes, and variation in Swedish, particularly as regards interaction and comparisons between Swedish in Finland and Sweden.
EH
+358294123416
About
Personal website: http://www.helsinki.fi/~thiippal/
GH
+358294151627
+358294123937
CH
+358294151398
MH
BH
+358294124053
+358294121383
About
Työskentelen tutkimusjohtajana Helsingin yliopiston Ruralia-instituutissa, jolla on toimipaikat Mikkelissä ja Seinäjoella. Olen instituutin varajohtaja ja toimipaikkani on Mikkelissä. Asiantuntemusalojani maaseudun kehitys, kehittäminen ja maaseutupolitiikka sekä maaseutututkimus.
MH
IH
JJ
+358294128830
+358294157387
About
Sirkku is a professor of urban environmental policy at the Ecosystems and Environment Research Program at the University of Helsinki and the leader of our multidisciplinary research group Urban Environmental Policy. She is also a guest professor at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University in Sweden
+358294124577
About
Professor i socialt arbete
+358294124584
JJ
LJ
OJ
+358294151056
+358294150858
+358294124704
About
I am an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies in the discipline of Social Policy at the Faculty of Social Sciences. In recent years, my research has focused particularly on urban inequalities, including residential segregation and homelessness. More broadly, I have examined inequalities related to intergenerational transmission and life-course trajectories. My research relies primarily on register-based data from Statistics Finland.
KK
MK
+358294123695
About
Dr Marina Khmelnitskaya is a visiting research fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki and from February 2022 also a member of Urbaria, the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies. Marina joined the Aleksanteri Institute as a post-doctoral researcher at the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies “Choices of Russian Modernisation” in September 2015. She holds a doctorate from the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. Her research interests are Russian politics, public policy-making and governance, the politics of bureaucracy, policy experts, ideas and discourses in non-democratic contexts. Her empirical expertise includes the areas of social policy, housing and urban development, and family policy. Marina is interested in a comparative approach which analyses the case of Russia to understand governance and social policy in comparative terms and compares policy in Russia to other states in Eurasia, Central and Eastern Europe, and also to Turkey and China. She has been working on such themes with many colleagues from different countries which apart from Finland include the UK, Germany, Sweden and Australia. Marina is the author of The Policy-Making Process and Social Learning in Russia: the Case of Housing Policy, Palgrave Macmillan 2015. Her articles appeared in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Demokratizatsiya: the Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Post-Communist Economies, Russian Politics, Europe-Asia Studies and Russian Analytical Digest among other journals. She is a contributor to several edited volumes including The Russian Budget, Abingdon: Routledge, 2018; Russian Modernisation: A New Paradigm, London: Routledge 2020; and Social Distinctions in Contemporary Russia – Waiting for the Middle-class Society?, London: Routledge 2020.
AK
+358294121331
+358294122833
+358294129326
About
Professor, German language.
MK
+358294120309
About
Teaching: Bio- and Environmental Technology in Urban Context
AK
+358294157840
About
I am a professor of environmental change at the University of Helsinki, leader of ECRU and Arctic Avenue, member of HELSUS, as well as Vice-Dean of Societal Interaction of the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. My major research topics include climate change and its ecological and societal impacts, with particular reference to longer-term climatic and environmental changes, carbon cycling, black carbon, peatland dynamics and Arctic regions.
+358294151606
About
Head of Department of Geosciences and Geography, research director of the Insitute of Seismology
+358294120308
+358294120880
About
tohtorikoulutettava
+358294122839
About
Professor of Finnish and Nordic History at the University of Helsinki; Head of Subject (history), Director of the Doctoral Programme in the Humanities since 2026. Inspector of Åbo Nation since 2024. Member of the Teachers' Academy since 2022.
+358294128641
EL
About
I conducted my PhD on aquatic biodiversity in Finnish urban ponds during 2017 to 2021, after which I continue working on aquatic insects and biodiversity conservation. I have developed my interest in bringing findings of science to conservation practice via cooperation with relevant stakeholders, such as the City of Helsinki and the City of Vantaa.
About
Working as University Lecturer in horticulture I am specialized in urban forestry, in particular the plant material used to construct and maintain the green infrastructure.
+358294120271
About
PhD, director, academic outreach network Vice-director, Open University Senior lecturer, University of Helsinki, Adjunct professor, University of Jyväskylä Open University/sociology Research scientist in Faculty of Social Sciences
AL
+358294123076
About
Dr. Marta Lorenzon (PhD in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh) is an archaeologist and architectural specialist. Her research concentrates on developing an interdisciplinary methodology in the study of ancient architecture, combining geoarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology and social anthropology. Since 2005 she has worked in the Mediterranean region, in the Americas and Asia with a research focus in earthen architecture, knowledge of production, community archaeology and identity construction.
JL
JL
+358294150823
RL
+358294123290
About
Senior Lecturer in Japanese, Docent/Adjunct Professor of Japanese Studies, Disciplinary Coordinator of Asian Languages, Principal Investigator | MA Programme in Languages Chair (2018), Vice-Chair (2017–2018, 2019–)
+358294157847
MM
KM
+358294151626
About
Professorin tehtävät, tiedekunnan opetusvaradekaanin tehtävät
PM
+358294150775
About
Director of the degree programme, University lecturer (geoinformatics), Title of docent
+358294124821
PM
KM
KN
+358294124164
AN
+358294121780
About
Dr Samu Niskanen is Associate Professor of Medieval History. His research is mainly concerned with intellectual life in the Middle Ages and medieval literature, its publication, transmission, and reception, which he has studied in the contexts of letters, monastic theology, and the crusades. His books include The Letter Collections of Anselm of Canterbury (Brepols, 2011), the collaborative edition Ralph von Battle: Dialoge zur philosophischen Theologie (Herder, 2015), and Letters of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury: The Bec Correspondence (Oxford University Press, 2019). Niskanen is currently the Principal Investigator of two projects: Medieval Publishing from c. 1000 to 1500, funded by the European Research Council and to end in 2022, and Authorial Publishing in Early Medieval Europe (c. 400–1000), funded by the Academy of Finland and to end in 2023. He manages the Medieval Studies programme, supervises doctoral students, and mentors postdoctoral researchers in the fields of medieval history and medieval Latin literature. For the ERC-project Medieval Publishing, see https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/medieval-publishing
LN
About
University teacher (Latin)
+358294150007
About
Kai Nordlund is professor in computational materials physics and vice rector of the University of Helsinki.   Executive assistant Jessica Mildh, tel. 02 941 57664
+358294124827
About
Franklin Obeng-Odoom is currently Professor at Global Development Studies, the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a Fellow of the Teachers' Academy, the highest recognition bestowed on distinguished teachers at the university. A winner of the global Deborah Gerner Innovative Teaching Award for 'effective...pedagogy that engages students with issues of war, peace, identity, sovereignty, security, and sustainability - economic, environmental, or ethical - as they are evolving in the 21st century', Dr Obeng-Odoom previously taught at various universities in Australia. Obeng-Odoom's research interests are centred on the political economy of development, urban and regional economics, natural resources and the environment, fields in which he has published six sole-authored books, including Global Migration Beyond Limits (Oxford University Press, 2022), The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty (University of Toronto Press, 2021), and Property, Institutions, and Social Stratification in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2020), a winner of the European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy Joan Robinson Best Book Prize. Obeng-Odoom is the Global South Editor of Housing Studies, Associate Editor of the Forum for Social Economics, and Series Editor of the Edinburgh Studies in Urban Political Economy. A Docent in Urban and Economic Sociology at the University of Turku, Finland, Dr Obeng-Odoom serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, published continuously since 1941.  Professor Obeng-Odoom is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the oldest learned society in postcolonial Africa, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an assembly of the world's leading social scientists.    Photo Credit: Photographer Veikko Somerpuro
+358294128474
+358294123309
+358294123795
About
Professor of Area and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, Topics: nationalism, populism, Latin America, Spain
EP
+358294123571
About
Currently working as a Datafication Research Director at the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH) and the Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation (HEPP) research group leader, I am a political scientist working on interpretive and discoursive approaches in comparative context. My background expertise is Hungarian and Finnish politics as well as European identity through cultural policy. I took my first degree in Ideology and Discourse Analysis at the University of Essex and I have been teaching this in Helsinki since 2006. My current research involves in particular political discourses in social media, and we are going through data from ten countries on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
TP
+358294124186
About
Katarina Pettersson holds a PhD in social psychology and currently works as assistant professor in social psychology, University of Helsinki. Katarina does research in political rhetoric, mainly from critical discourse analytical perspectives. Her core areas of interest lie in nationalist and radical right-wing political rhetoric, political hate-speech and online political communication. 
EP
RP
+358294123518
About
Professor Latin American Studies. Topics: urban studies, cultural, urban and architectural history, Central America.
+358294121386
About
Research topic: Second homes (multiple dwellers) and regional development. Doctoral student in DENVI doctoral programme.
+358294157850
MR
+358294120921
+358294122570
About
Hourly Paid Teacher. Doctoral researcher in the Doctoral Programme in Law. Deputy member of the Faculty Council. Member of the Education Affairs Committee.
+358294120922
About
Petteri Repo's research focuses on how consumers wish to change markets. Dr. (Econ.) Repo is Research director at the Centre for Consumer Society Research at the University of Helsinki and Adjunct professor (Docent) at the Aalto University School of Business.
+358294151266
+358294150765
About
University lecturer in Physical geography. Director of Geography bachelor`s and master`s programme.
MS
HS
KS
+358294122759
About
Professor, Art history
+358294122985
About
McDonnell Douglas Professor of American Studies Director, Environmental Humanities Hub
About
I am a visiting researcher in Global Developmens Studies, where I previously served as a university lecturer for a couple of years. Currently, I am working as a senior specialist in the Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence for Multibeing Justice in Indigenous Societies (MultiBEING), which is a joint research consortium of the University of Lapland and the University of Helsinki. 
HS
About
Professor in Urban Ecosystem studies
About
Svetlana Shenderova, Dr. Econ.Sc., is a researcher, expert and consultant in higher education policy, university governance, and degree programme management. Svetlana studies higher education political economy focusing on internationalisation at policy, partnership, university, programme, and individual level. Svetlana’s experience includes over 30+ years in teaching and research combined with administrative duties and consultancy. Svetlana’s regional expertise encompasses BRICS, EEU, EHEA, EU, SCO, post-socialist countries, with a comprehensive understanding of Russia. University of Helsinki Research PortalORCIDLinkedIn
NS
RS
+358294158513
About
Bodo Steiner is Professor of Food Economics & Business Management, Head of the research group Management & Organizations For Sustainable Food Systems, Deputy director at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, and was Coordinator of  MATS, a research and innovation action project, funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (2021-24). He is affiliated with the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (URBARIA), the Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ), the InterTran Research Group for Sustainable Law and Business at the University of Helsinki (INTERTRAN), the Sustainable Change Research Network (SUCH) the Finnish Organic Research Institute, the Task Force of the Finnish National Food Research Strategy, and serves as advisory board member for the Institute for the Economy for the Common Good, member of the Agri-Food Transitions Advisory Group of the Climate Bonds Initiative, and as member to the Environmental Footprint Technical Advisory Board of the European Commission.
+358294150793
About
Maantieteen ja ympäristökasvatuksen professori
About
I am a doctoral researcher based in the Human Geography department. The focus of my research is on the geopolitical ‘realities’ of Russian speakers living in Finland. I am interested in how Russian speakers construct the concepts of space, territory and borders, and how those concepts are materially present in their everyday lives. My research is enlightened by feminist methodologies, highlighting the intertwinement of the personal and the geopolitical.    When considering the disembodied and tangible effects of nation states, I draw upon critical geopolitics and theories of nationalism. My further interests include masculinity studies, with a special focus on intersections with ethnicity, class and labor. Moreover, I engage with decolonization studies, specifically in the Russian context. 
LT
+358294124504
+358294151375
About
Acting Dean
HT
CT
About
I am a grant-funded researcher at the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki. ​I am also an affiliated scholar at the Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ) and Associate Editor of the Nordic Journal of Migration Research (Helsinki University Press). I have a PhD in Sociology from the Russian Academy of Sciences (2008), and the Title of Docent in Sociology, specially migration and welfare research, from the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus (2018). I have been doing qualitative research (on the fringes of sociology and anthropology) on everyday life. More specifically, I have been involved in two areas of research, which may or may not be intertwined in my projects. The first one is a cross-disciplinary area of home studies which led me to research on (migrant) homemaking, paid and unpaid domestic work, kin-related home-based elder care, housing and neighbour relations, home ownership and renting. Another research area is migration and mobility studies. In this area I have had several projects on post-Soviet and post-socialist migrations, migrant integration and governance, feminisation of migration, au pair placement, internal and intra-city residential mobility, cross-border mobility and tourism. I define my current research interest as multi-scaled home through feminist and mobility lenses.  Since Septermber 2022, I have been working in the of the project "Life-breaking and Life-making: A research project on social reproduction and survival in times of collapse" (LIFEMAKE, Kone Foundation, 2023-2026). In my case study, I focus on the voluntary accommodation of people displaced from Ukraine in private homes in Finland. Previously, I have worked at the Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petereburg, for more than 20 years in different positions in research, administration and teaching. I have supervised Bachelor’s and Master’s theses and taught courses on qualitative methods in sociology, social theory, social policy, gender studies and home studies at the European University at St. Petersburg and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University. Besides Finland and Russia, I also worked as a researcher in Norway and Scotland (UK). I have participated in 15 international projects and have led six projects, including the most recent one, "The Big Layered Cake: towards the conceptualization of neighborness" (Kone Foundation, 2019-2023).  
TT
+358294124886
About
Yliopistonlehtori (Lasten ja nuorten syrjäytymisen tutkimus) omat verkkosivut: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/tatolone/ Opetus: Sosiaalitutkimuksen kandiohjelma, laadulliset menetelmät Lapsuuden ja nuorisotutkimuksen valinnaiset opinnot (vastaava opettaja) Yunet (Nuorisotutkimuksen yliopistoverkosto) Sosnet (Valtakunnallinen sosiaalityön verkosto) Lapset, nuoret ja perheet erikoisalakoulutus Ohjaus: pro gradut, väitöskirjat
MT
+358294123982
+358294122166
About
I am an Associate Professor of Slavic Philology and teach courses in Slavic languages and linguistics. My research focuses on South Slavic languages (core areas Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, Burgenland Croatian). My research interests include sociolinguistic topics with a focus on minority languages, language and identity, linguistic landscape research, language commodification, writing systems and orthography.
+358294150776
JV
+358294150781
About
Visiting researcher and past Post-doctoral Researcher in DeCarbon Home -project. Dr Joni Vainikka is a human geographer whose research interests lie in our connections and identification with space, from everyday homely surroundings to planetary space and how we move both across different spaces and temporalities. Recently, his research interests have been organised around four interconnected strands that together examine how socio-spatial processes shape contemporary societies and their possible futures. First, he focuses on climate change attitudes, decarbonisation, and housing, examining how environmental concerns translate into everyday practices and policy-relevant behaviours. He approaches decarbonisation as a socially embedded process shaped by inequalities, local contexts, and the different capacities of households to adopt low-carbon lifestyles. This includes analysing attitudinal landscapes and segmenting climate attitudes, socio-spatial disparities, and the role of housing systems, mobility, and the built environment in enabling or constraining sustainable transitions. Second, he engages with questions of identity, particularly the relational construction of self and other, and the spatial theories that fortify these processes. His work has explored individuals’ reflexive identities through place-based experiences, emotions, and social interactions, and how distinctions such as “us” and “them” are negotiated across different scales. This strand draws on and contributes to debates in human geography and social theory concerning belonging, othering, and the spatiality of social life (in interaction). Third, and related to questions of identity he has examined regions, borders, and geopolitics, with a particular focus on how spatial imaginaries and discourses are constructed and contested in everyday contexts. By investigating how regional identities—or identification with regions—are shaped by historical legacies, institutional narratives, and the regional heritage, he has published several works on the role of regions in everyday life, as well as on how media and public discourse frame mobile populations and border dynamics. This work has also highlighted the importance of the local in producing geopolitical meanings and in mediating relationships between inclusion, exclusion, and belonging. Fourth, he explores the geographies of time, engaging with the temporal turn and future-oriented research in the lecture course ‘Geographies of Time’ and in forthcoming book chapters. In these, he analysies how temporal frameworks—from historical legacies to imagined futures—structure social practices, spatial identities, and policy horizons. This includes work on future scenarios, housing transitions, and societal pathways under climate change, as well as conceptual contributions on time, temporality, civilisations and their role in shaping socio-spatial relations and wider epistemological regimes. Across these strands, his research combines GIS, qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand how space, time, and society intersect, with the aim of contributing to theoretically informed and practically relevant insights into ongoing societal transformations and future outlooks. Dr. Vainikka got his MSc from the University of Turku and PhD from the University of Oulu (Pass with Distinction). He has also been a visiting scholar at University of Exeter, Aalborg University and Chalmers University of Technology. He has published in journals such as Progress in Human Geography, Geoforum, Ambio, Fennia, Social and Cultural Geography, and Tourism Geographies, as well as with publishers Berghahn and Routledge. Additionally, he has made media appearances in Huomenta Suomi and Yle, and has answered numerous Children's science questions for Helsingin Sanomat.
+358294123733
About
PI, Senior Researcher
JV
+358294158053
+358294124576
About
Teaching (Master and Bachelor -level courses; all courses 5 ECTS): - Social Justice and the City  - City and Culture - Urban Studies Reading Seminar  - Master seminar I & II (Social and Public Policy) - Urban Studies and Planning Research Methods (available to USP Master’s Programme students) - The Land Question and Sustainable Urban Development Ongoing research projects: - “Late Modern Urban Place Promotion and Its Discontents” - “Spaces of Confinement in the Institutions of Care and Control in Finland” - “'Us and Now': The Politics of Populism, Time and Space in Central Eastern Europe"
About
Post-doctoral researcher, Digital Geography Lab, Department of Geosciences and Geography.   I am a geographer, who is specialized in geoinformatics/GIScience and urban geography. I also teach advanced methods in geoinformatics.   My research focuses on: Urban multilingualism Socio-spatial effects of multilingualism Regional mobility and migration   To conduct research, I mainly use: Big data Population registers Advanced spatial analysis and spatial statistics Machine learning techniques   Central concepts in my work include: Superdiversity Segregation Gentrification Regional inequality
About
I am a geographer specialising in sustainable mobility and spatial data. I am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher on the GREENTRAVEL project.   My research interests include sustainable mobility, in particular walking and cycling accessibility environmental quality of travel, walkability and greenness environmental exposures during mobility equality in mobility geographic information systems and data that can help to understand and promote the social and environmental sustainability of everyday mobility.
LW
+358294123448
MW
+358294124585
About
(Ruotsinkielinen) yliopistonlehtori, sosiaalityö; opetusta (myös suomeksi) maisteritasolla, kursseja, seminaareja sekä ohjausta. Tutkimusaiheet; nuoret ja nivelvaiheet sekä nuorten hyvivointi. Erikoistunut kvalitatiivisiin pitkittäistutkimuksiin mutta mukana myös nuorisobarometreissä. 
LX
HY
About
PhD student experienced in assessment of non-monetary values of the environment using public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS). Current research revolves around changing urban human-nature relationships in response to platform, surveillance capitalism.
+358294123371
About
Professor of South Asian Studies ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Research and teaching topics: digital culture, as related to India, global Indian communities and beyond, foci video gaming, digital religion, popular culture, cultural heritage, mediatization
About
I am a doctoral researcher in the DENVI program. My research focuses on the accessibility and connectivity of urban green spaces. In the first part of my study, I analyze people's overall experience when using green spaces, emphasizing the environmental quality along their journey to and from green spaces. In the second part, I integrate human mobility perspectives with species dispersal and biodiversity to develop nature-based solutions that provide win-win solutions. I have a multidisciplinary background in forestry, ecology, and geography. I believe the collaborative integration of multidisciplinary knowledge is always the right approach to solving scientific questions. Please contact me via email at Jiawei.zhao@helsinki.fi.
GZ
+358294123094
About
I am Xu Zong, a PhD researcher in Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki since 2022 January (Helsinki, Finland).  I am currently involved in my PhD project projects of using Machine Learning methods and cross-national longitudinal surveys (SHARE, CHARLS)  to evaluate the influence of early life circumstances in late-life health inequality from the perspective of  Life Course and Inequality of Opportunity. My research interests mainly focus on Health Inequality, Childhood Adversity, Machine Learning, Population aging and Cognitive Health. My no-research interests include traveling, Kendo, and CrossFit, cooking, watching sunsets. 
Postdoc Forum

The Urbaria PostDoc Forum is an interdisciplinary co-development programme funded by the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa between postdoctoral researchers from the University of Helsinki and Aalto University and the cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Its aim is to develop urban-themed research, information exchange, and cooperation between universities and cities.