BOMOCULT research community stems from the strategic objective of the University of Eastern Finland to provide answers to global challenges through research and it forms the core of the university’s profile area Cultural Encounters, Mobilities, and Borders. BOMOCULT is an abbreviation for these key terms in our research. We bring together research teams and scholars especially from the Karelian Institute, the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Historical and Geographical Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, as well as from the School of Humanities and the School of Theology at the Philosophical Faculty. Our research community performs top-level interdisciplinary and internationally networked scientific research as evidenced in numerous peer-reviewed publications, externally-funded research, interaction with policy stakeholders and civil society organizations, seminars, and the annual BOMOCULT conference.
News and events
News
Upcoming events
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Research
Through its research on borders and different encounters, BOMOCULT provides in-depth knowledge concerning the transformation of socio-cultural phenomena given increasing complexity and accelerating globalization. The RC has developed research expertise on borders and diverse encounters. In our work, the traditional focus on political and geographical borders is complemented by studies of cultural, linguistic and social borders. In other words, our added value and greatest asset is to address diverse border phenomena in ways that take into account social, political and cultural aspects.
Bomocult research has linked the transformation of contemporary societies with socio-cultural processes of border-making and border-crossing by addressing the three key issues. These key issues are European borders and Russia, mobilities and migration, and cultural and linguistic encounters in their diverse contexts. Our recent research has devised novel ways of understanding the emergence and role of transnational and transcultural phenomena at various levels, extending from the (nation-)state to the everyday, to show the role(s) of borders and crossings in contemporary life.
BOMOCULT research offers an interdisciplinary understanding of frictions and flows between cultural and political values, language, community, colonial and imperial legacies. We investigate these different bordering processes as they impact on intercultural relations and significant political challenges and opportunities in global and local contexts.
The leading group of the RC consists of members representing participating UEF units and key research teams. Together with the director of the RC, the leading group is responsible for RC’s strategic development and action plan, and it also plans and confirms the use of RC’s funding, and the format and arrangment of special funding calls. The leading groups meets approximately once every month.
- Professor Jopi Nyman, English Language and Culture, School of Humanities, Philosophical Faculty, Director
- Professor James Scott, Karelian Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Vice-Director
- Associate Professor Tiina Sotkasiira, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Vice-Director
- Professor Teo Kurki, Cultural studies, School of Humanities, Philosophical Faculty
- Professor Pekka Metso, Orthodox Theology, School of Theology, Philosophical Faculty
- Associate Professor Sanna Mustasaari, Law School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
- University lecturer Paul Fryer, Department of Geographical and Historical Studies Historia- ja maantieteiden laitos, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
- Research Manager Joni Virkkunen, Karelian Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
- Coordinator of BOMOCULT RC, Research Manager. Minna Piipponen is the draftsman of the Leading group.
BOMOCULT Researchers
Janet Anand
International Social Work
Laura Assmuth
Social and Public Policy
Olga Davydova-Minguet
Russian and Border Studies
Eerika Finell
Social Psychology
Ilkka Huhta
Church History
Heta Hurskainen
Systematic Theology, Ecumenics
Helmi Järviluoma-Mäkelä
Cultural Studies
Timo Kallinen
Comparative Religion
Kimmo Katajala
History of Finland
Jaana Kolu
Swedish Language and Culture
Maarit Koponen
Translation Studies
Tuulikki Kurki
Cultural Studies
Marja Laasonen
Finnish Language and Cultural Research
Jussi Laine
Multidisciplinary Border Studies
Mikko Laitinen
English Language, Digital Humanities
Hanna Lappalainen
Finnish Language and Cultural Research
Kati Launis
Literary Culture
Larisa Leisiö
Russian Language and Culture
Ilkka Liikanen
Border and Russian Studies
Aija Lulle
Human Geography
Teemu Makkonen
Regional Studies
Jari Martikainen
Social Psychology
Pekka Metso
Orthodox Theology
Simo Mikkonen
Sociocultural Remembering
Irmeli Mustalahti
Natural Resources Governance
Sanna Mustasaari
Family Law
Jopi Nyman
English Language and Culture
Marjatta Palander
Finnish Language
Esa Penttilä
English Language and Translation
Michael Rießler
General Linguistics
Helka Riionheimo
Finnish Language
Suvi-Maria Saarelainen
Practical Theology
Tuija Saresma
Cultural Studies
James Scott
Regional and Border Studies
Jeremy Smith
Border and Russian Studies
Marja Sorvari
Russian Language and Culture
Tiina Sotkasiira
Social and Public Policy
Blog
Pekka Suutari
Cultural Studies
Lauri Thurén
Biblical Studies
Martin Ubani
Religious Education
Heikki Uimonen
Cultural Studies
Juhana Venäläinen
Cultural Studies
Jaana Vuori
Gender Studies
Päivi Armila
Sociology
Ismo Björn
History
Lena Englund
Literary Studies
Matti Fritsch
Human Geography
Paul Fryer
Human Geography
Outi Hakola
Media Studies
Eeva Houtbeckers
Environmental Social Sciences
Elina Hytönen-Ng
Ethnomusicology
Arja Jolkkonen
Working Life Studies
Tuomas Järvenpää
Cultural Studies
Petri Kahila
Regional Studies
Saija Kaskinen
Cultural Studies
Pekka Kilpeläinen
English Language and Culture
Saara Koikkalainen
Cultural Encounters, Mobilities and Borders
Maria Kok
Finnish Language
Jukka Kokkonen
History
Kari Korolainen
Cultural Studies
Helena Kupari
Theology
Arja Kurvinen
Working Life Studies
Hanna Laako
Conservation Politics
Teuvo Laitila
Religious Studies (Comparative Religion) and Orthodox Church History
Kirsi Laurén
Cultural Studies
Lea Meriläinen
English Language
Marja Nenonen
Finnish Language
Kati Parppei
History
Heli Paulasto
English Language
Minna Piipponen
Human Geography
Pirjo Pöllänen
Social and Public Policy
Anni Rannikko
Sociology
Paula Rautionaho
English Language
Tatjana Rynkänen
Russian Language and Culture
Tiina Seppä
Cultural Studies
Elina Siltanen
English Language and Culture
Alexandra Simon
German Language and Culture
Maarit Sireni
Regional and Rural Studies
Maria Takala-Roszczenko
Church Music (Orthodox)
Anna-Leena Toivanen
Literary Studies
Elina Turjanmaa
Social Psychology
Pasi Tuunainen
History
Milla Uusitupa
Finnish Language
Kaisa Viinikka
Theology
Joni Virkkunen
Human Geography
Fredrik Westerlund
French Language and Culture
Dmitry Zimin
Regional Development, Russia
Tuomo Alhojärvi
Geography
Evgenia Amey
Cultural Studies, Media Studies
Blaz Bajic
Cultural Studies
Enkhjargal Batbaatar
International Social Work
Olga Cielemecka
Gender Studies
Juha Halme
Human Geography
Samuli Kaislaniemi
English Language
Laura Kallatsa
Practical Theology
Alina Kuusisto
History
Annukka Lahti
Gender Studies
Niilo Lahti
Biblical Studies
Marjukka Laiho
Theology
Tiia Liuski
Theology
Pauliina Lukinmaa
Cultural Studies
Laura Mankki
Social and Public Policy, Social Sciences
Henna Massinen
Finnish Language
Ilia Moshnikov
Finnish Language
Jenni Mölkänen
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Ágnes Németh
Human Geography
Teemu Oivo
Russian and Border Studies
Aleksandr Osipov
History
Vadim Romashov
Social Sciences
Sandi Abram
Cultural Studies
Tuuli Ahonen
Russian Language and Translation Studies
Judith Brenner, email: jbrenner(at)student.uef.fi
Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. Machine translation and communication across cultures
Anni Calcara
English Language and Culture
Richard Croft
Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. Practical Theology
Henrik Dorf Nielsen
Human Geography
Hadi Farahani
Social Work
Masoud Fatemi
Machine Learning, Computer Science
Idaliia Fedotova, email: idal.fedotova(at)gmail.com
Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. Linguistic contacts of indigenous minority populations in Western Siberia.
Aimee Ghanem, aimeeghanem(at)gmail.com
Social Work. Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. Strengthening resilience for a sustainable post-disaster community development: Case of Beirut.
Katherine Hall
Environmental Policy
Ville-Samuli Haverinen
Sociology
Antti Härkönen
History
Omotomilola Ikotun, omotomilola.ikotun(at)uef.fi
Environmental Policy. Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. Transhumance in West Africa, borders, migration between Africa and Europe.
Hilla Inkilä
Theology
Falguny Islam, falgis(at)student.uef.fi
Social Work and Public Policy. Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. The transgressive practices of everyday lives of South Asian interfaith families living in Finland
Chao Jiang
Border Studies
Natalie Joubert
Social Work
Teele Jänes
Social and Public Policy
Inga Kontkanen, ingako(at)student.uef.fi
Russian Language and Culture. Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. The representation of gender and sexuality in Russian women´s poetry
Yusuf Koşar, ykosar(at)student.uef.fi
Human Geography. Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. The Finnish Influence on International Peacebuilding: A Comparative Study of the Ukrainian War and Palestinian Crisis.
Katariina Kotila
Human Geography
Anna Laakkonen
History
Katja Laakkonen
Social Sciences
Mairéad Lordan
Border Studies
Katja Lötjönen
Social Psychology
Shahidul Mallick, smallick(at)student.uef.fi
Enviromental Policy. Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. Culture, climate change and water conservation.
Jenni Merovuo
History
Temitayo Oluwayemisi Olatoye
English Language and Culture
Lauri Partanen
History
Tamara Polyakova
History
Eeva Pärjälä
Cultural Studies
Sonja Pöllänen
Cultural Studies
Tuulia Reponen
Human Geography
Helena Rovamo
Human Geography
Ari Räisänen
English Language and Culture
Iiris Salminen
Sociolinguistics, iiris.salminen(at)uef.fi. Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. Migrants' linguistic variation and change.
Pasi Schultz
Theology
Anupam Kamal Sen
English Language and Culture
Sofia Silfvast, ssilfvas(at)student.uef.fi
Study of Religions. Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty
Juho Suokas
English Language and Translation Studies
Taufiqurrohman, tauftauf(at)uef.fi
English Language and Culture. Doctoral Programme of the Philosophical Faculty. Mysticism in English literatures. ORCID
Susanna Tavi
Finnish Language
Heidi Toivanen
Theology
Dirk van Rens
English Language and Culture
Erja Vottonen
Translation Studies
Gleb Yarovoy
Human Geography
Aytaç Yürükçü
History
Stanislaw Domaniewski
Border Studies
Alicja Fajfer
Linguistics, Border Studies
Olga Filippova
Sociology
Yasemin Kontkanen
Social Sciences
Juuso Loikkanen
Systematic Theology
Tarja Tanttu
Communication
Dawid Bunikowski
Philosophy of Law
Andrew Copus
Rural Studies
Mathias Ebot
Sociology
Md Azmeary Ferdoush
Human Geography
Dominique van de Klundert
Media Studies
Karin Sandell
Cultural Studies
Karli Storm-Närväinen
Human Geography
BOMOCULT research related groups and projects
- Actors' Karelias: 30 Years of Cross-Border Interaction in North Karelia
- BorderLAB Advancing Trans-regional Border Studies
- Borderscapes within Folklore
- CASPER: Citizen Activation in Shrinking rural areas for Place-based policies to Enhance Resilience
- Climate crisis and religious change in Sub-Saharan Africa
- COMET: Weak-tie hypothesis in complex digital networks
- DECA The democratic epistemic capacities in the age of algorithms
- DigiFREN Digital Aestheticization of Fragile Environments
- Digital History for Literature in Finland
- ESPON CHANEBO - Challenges at EU’s North-East External Borders
- ESSPIN Economic, Social and SPatial Inequalities in Europe in the Era of Global Mega-trends
- EUARENAS Cities as Arenas of Political Innovation in the Strengthening of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy
- FriendMUM Mothers' intercultural friendships
- General linguistics
- Grand Duchy of Finland as Political Space: A conceptual history
- Hundred Sweden Finnish and Tornedalian linguistic autobiographies
- HUOMA Care and concern in the countryside
- Impact of Covid-19 to experience of meaning
- Intergroup relations and local encounters
- Karelian and language contacts
- Karelian aspects of folk music in Finland
- Karelian language revival
- KUMU - The changing role of municipalities in employment and business services
- Laments in contemporary Finland
- Language bridge between Ukraine and Finland
- Language tensions - Multidisciplinary study on hate speech directed at linguistic minorities in Finland, Sweden and Russia
- Linguistic variation, social class and experiences on inequality in Eastern Finland
- Live Meaningfully – Toward Existential Wellbeing of the Older People
- Mamanet
- MARS - Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective
- Menopausing: Exploring diversity, awareness and activism
- Mobilising Populism
- Not just a fence: Disentangling the boundaries of order, logic, and control
- Parables as persuasive narratives
- Poetics of Afroeuropean Mobilities in Francophone African Literatures
- Political Forests - The Maya Forest
- Populist attraction
- Post-ownership as an interpretation and experience of economic change
- Primary Schools Amidst Rural Transition: Oral History of Village Schools
- ProPSI Professionalisation of Public Service Interpreting
- Public financial flows to rural and urban areas
- Religion, meaning and masculinities: Religion in the lives of men in Finland
- Responsive Natural Resources Governance Research Group
- ReTra - Multilingualism and translation in researcher’s changing work: perspectives from practice and philosophy of science
- RUSTIK Rural Sustainability Transitions through Integration of Knowledge for Improved Policy Processes
- SERIGO: Enhancing Resilience, Social Inclusion, and Well-being in rural areas through Social Innovation
- SOMECO - Sonic Mediations and Ecocritical Listening
- TOTAL - Rural economic security and vitality
- Towns on the Eastern border of the Swedish Great Power
- To Integrate or Return? Policies, Aspirations and Outcomes for Ukrainian Refugees in the Nordic Countries
- TRACTION An attractive multicultural work environment in the wellbeing services county of North Savo
- Transnational death: practices of death and remembrance in the transnational everyday on the Finnish-Russian border
- Wandering in the woods. Forest-human relations in archival oral folklore
- ACMESOCS Auditory Cultures, Mediated Sounds and Constructed Spaces
- B-Air. Art Infinity Radio. Creating Sound Art for Babies, Toddlers and Vulnerable Groups
- COSPIN: Effects of subsidized collaboration on spatial innovation capacity
- ECoC-SME: Actions for inducing SME growth and innovation via the ECoC event and legacy
- English in coexistence with the national languages of Finland
- ESPON ESCAPE - European Shrinking Rural Areas: Challenges, Actions and Perspectives for Territorial Governance
- ESPON IRiE Interregional relations in Europe
- ESPON QoL - Quality of Life Measurements and Methodology
- Ethnic Russians in the Near Abroad
- Gender and Rurality
- “Let Live” but “Make Wait?”
- A Lost Mitten and Other Stories
- Kantele Goes Global! Ground Zero
- Karelian-speaking people at the border
- MATILDE - Migration Impact Assessment to Enhance Integration and Local Development in European Rural and Mountain Areas
- Narrated Nation
- Nordic Baltic Regional Resource Centre
- PISH: Problem-Based Learning, Intercultural Communication and STEM in Higher Education
- PIP Prospects in Peripheries
- RELOCAL: Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development
- SENSOTRA: Sensory Transformations and Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe, 1950-2020
- TRANSLINES
BOMOCULT research related education
Cooperation
Research is based on cooperation with international and national research partners and networks in research projects, education, and developing our research fields.
Research Organizations
Aleksanteri Institute, Institute for the Languages of Finland, Migration Institute of Finland, Finnish Environment Institute, Finnish Institute of International Affairs…
Comparative Research Network, Akademie für Islam in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft (AIWG), Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR), Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Jožef Stefan Institute, Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS), Nordregio…
Higher Education Organizations
University of Helsinki, University of Turku, University of Tampere, University of Oulu, University of Jyväskylä, Finnish Border and Coast Guard Academy...
Vrije Universiteit Brussels, V.N. Karazin National University, University of Tartu, Carleton University, University of Vienna, University of Frankfurt, Linnaeus University, University of Gdańsk, Higher School of Economics St. Petersburg, State University of Tver, Binghamton University State University of New York, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, European University at St. Petersburg, YUFE (Young European Universities for the Future)…
Research Infrastructure Partners
FIN-CLARIAH Research Infrastructure Network, National Library, National Archives, Finnish Literature Society, Finnish Social Science Data Archive…
Other Scientific Partners
Researchers contribute actively to the work of national and international scientific societies in their respective research areas.
Cooperation with an extensive variety of stakeholders develops the impact of our research.
European Union Organizations
European Commission, European Union Regional and Urban Programmes (ESPON, URBACT), Erasmus+, European Cooperation Networks in Science and Technology (COST)…
National Authorities
Finnish Parliament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare…
International and National NGOs
Finnish Refugee Council, Finnish Red Cross, The National Forum for Cooperation of Religions in Finland (CORE Forum), congregations, Teosto, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Association of European Journalists (AEJ), Caritas Bulgaria, Support to Life…
Think Tanks
European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH), EUTROPIAN Research & Action, People’s Voice Media…
Media
Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, Radio television Slovenia (RTV SLO), European Data Journalism Network…
Regional and Local Authorities
Many research projects cooperate with regional authorities and development organisations, cities, municipalities, and their organisations in Finland and abroad.
Private Sector
RadioTeatar Bajsic (Croatia), Bazaart (Serbia), Twixtlab (Greece), Companhia de Música Teatral (Portugal)…
Local NGOs and Citizens
JoMoni – multicultural association in the region of Joensuu, okay.zusammen leben, Tür an Tür (TaT)…