Before the summer break, we will offer two more public events addressing an extensive variety of issues relating to inequality early June, as described below:
The first, organized by INEQ & DigiIN Consortium (SRC), is “Digital Exclusion: Conceptual and Methodological Approaches,“ which is scheduled for Thursday, June 3 at 12:00-16:30, 2021.
This workshop will elaborate the processes and forms of digital exclusion. Contrary to the overwhelmingly positive PR that digitization receives, digital exclusion is more commonplace than most of us are made aware and may even be far more widespread than we know. This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars from various social and educational sciences to discuss the following questions: What concepts can we use to best understand digital exclusion, digital inequalities and their connections to wider social inequalities? How can we ensure that no one is left behind in a rapidly digitizing society? The programme includes invited presentations by a keynote speaker and six leading researchers looking at the key concepts that can be used to connect digital and wider social exclusion. More information about the program and the link to registration can be found here.
The Inequality Talks continue with Dr. Wendy Bottero’s (University of Manchester) talk “A Sense of Inequality” on Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 14:00-15:30. The talk is based on Bottero’s book, 'A Sense of Inequality' (2019) where she brings together a range of different pieces of literature in order to better understand what provokes a sense of inequality. Bottero argues for a more situated understanding about people’s knowledge, beliefs and values. The emphasis is for participants to understand inequalities on our own terms, locating inequalities within ordinary practical concerns and contexts. Then, the idea is to resolve inherent problems of experience. INEQ Affiliate, Associate Professor Lena Näre will be providing a comment for this talk. More information about the talk and the link to registration can be found here.
Inequality talks and research seminars will continue after the summer break. The program for the autumn will be updated later.
Meet our new Research Coordinator
Moreover, we have a new member in our team. University Researcher, Dr. Anna-Leena Riitaoja, began as an INEQ research coordinator in May 2021.
As Anna-Leena informs us: “I am an interdisciplinary-oriented scholar whose research focuses on inequalities and social justice in educational and social service institutions and in the professional curricula and knowledge bases of the helping professions. My current research projects focus on understandings of transnational migration in the social work knowledge base, and on access of migrant background students and scholars in Finnish higher education institutions.
“I am excited about the opportunity to work as an INEQ affiliate and as a research coordinator. INEQ’s proactive mission of research on inequality and social justice are important to me, and to us all, in personal, academic and societal levels. Due to my educational and academic background I am fascinated to work in a multidisciplinary research environment that brings together so many different fields and perspectives. I might add that the work of INEQ holds profound international implications. I am someone who believes that both scholarship and activism must be viewed from a global perspective, even when the focus is local.
“My educational and academic background is multidisciplinary: I hold a Ph.D. in education from the University of Helsinki and the title of Docent in education in the University of Oulu. Moreover, I have studied geography and biology. During the last four years, I have expanded my research on inequality and social justice from the context of education to social services and worked in the fields of social work and sociology. I have worked in Finnish, Swedish, and in English speaking institutions and research groups. I am happy to bring my networks and experiences from different disciplines and contexts in the INEQ context.
“I am a member of the Centre of Excellence on Ageing and Care (AgeCare) and an affiliated member in the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN). I am also a founding member of the Finnish Interdisciplinary Society, FINTERDIS. The aim of the Society is to support multi- and interdisciplinary researchers, especially scholars in early career phases. I look forward to increasing collaboration among these research centers and network in the future.”
Another personnel news concerns our Research Assistant, Sainab Mohamed, whose term is coming to end in early June. Sainab has been working in INEQ since January 2021 and, in her various roles, she has consistently conducted extensive and successful work, particularly with online events, teaching and research initiatives. Sainab will graduate from the Master’s program in Public and Global Health at Tampere University in the fall. We are lucky to have worked with Sainab and we have no doubt that her future prospects are excellent. We warmly recommend her to our affiliates. In fact, we hope to stay close in touch.
We look forward to seeing you in the last upcoming events of this spring term, and wish you a nice and relaxing summer break.