Events and public defences

Dissertation: The presence of absence through an artist's photographic vision

28.5.2025 13:30

The doctoral dissertation by Michael Marnin Jacobs, MA, explores how the presence of absence created by post-memory, personal and collective trauma can be approached through an artist's vision. Fine art photography proves to have an ability to bridge the personal to the collective memory and to create a space for reflection and understanding.

Dissertation: Social Media as a tool for Visitor Management in Nature Destinations

26.3.2025 14:10

Tourists are increasingly choosing their destinations inspired by social media. Elina Hutton’s doctoral dissertation provides new insights into tourist behaviour, and tools for visitor management in protected natural areas.

Dissertation: Empowering University Students with Employability Super Skills

25.2.2025 10:00

In his dissertation, MA Imran Chohan examines how students’ soft skills of employability can be enhanced during university education. These soft skills, referenced as super skills, include communication skills, motivation skills, initiative skills, and leadership skills. Chohan’s research provides a deeper understanding of the conceptual connection about the employability super skills and provides practical development tools.

Dissertation: Social Licence to Operate of Mining at the Societal Level

14.1.2025 10:03

In her doctoral dissertation, M.A. Pamela Lesser examines how the social licence to operate (SLO) of mining functions at the societal level. The research shows that societal SLO is actually not important for the local acceptance of a project and only has some influence in combination with local factors. The research corroborates that site level factors matter more to local communities and the public than do broader debates around societal benefits and costs.

Karolina Sikora by the riverbank of Ounasjoki on a bright autumn day.

Dissertation: The realities of law in the Russian North – Examining the human right to cultural heritage among the Izhma Komi people

10.12.2024 8:27

In her doctoral dissertation Karolina Sikora examines how the Indigenous Izhma Komi people perceive and engage with diverse forms of cultural heritage, such as folklore, and reindeer herding, that are governed by formal and informal normative systems. Sikora explores states laws, alongside customary norms, tacit agreements, and ad hoc practical solutions that have developed among the Izhma Komi population, particularly in the Komi Republic. The research draws on anthropological field methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

Dissertation: Student engagement in the post-Soviet university – the current state and prospects in Azerbaijan and Estonia

25.9.2024 10:00

In her doctoral dissertation, MBA Razia Isaeva explores ways to improve student learning experiences in post-Soviet countries. The study contributes to the current knowledge of student engagement by showcasing how it was constructed and applied in the post-soviet university.

Dissertation: How to study organizational creativity through a case of theatre?

10.10.2023 9:00

In her doctoral dissertation Carmen Pellegrinelli studies organisational creativity through the case of theatre. She offers a new conceptualisation of organisational creativity as a collective material process to which each human and non-human can contribute.

Dissertation: Millennial Finnish leaders are characterized by humanity - belief in learning and perseverance helps with challenges

29.9.2023 8:30

Millennial Finnish leaders, aged 30-40, are characterized by human values. They see leadership as a life-long process of growth and development through several paths. They face challenges arising from their everyday work and from the external environment, but an optimistic attitude, perseverance and passion help them to overcome them.

Dissertation: Holistic understanding of elderly's earlier life experiences could improve their care services

29.5.2023 9:00

Shaohua Pan, MA, investigates in his dissertation how the elderly's earlier life experiences could be considered in designing their current care and more appropriate services.

Dissertation: Drama as a tool to raise awareness of dementia

25.5.2023 12:55

In her dissertation, Abimbola Alao explores how to raise the awareness of frontotemporal dementia within the Nigerian immigrant community in the UK by using drama as an educational tool.

Dissertation: A holistic design framework for online degree programmes creates new possibilities for future higher education

21.2.2023 9:00

In Finnish higher education (HE), there is a need to create new solutions for flexible education and respond to the needs of the future world of work. In her dissertation, MA Marjo Joshi studied online degree programmes (ODPs) as a HE delivery mode. The holistic design framework that Joshi created for the design of online degree education can help HE organisations provide ODPs that are accessible to students and beneficial to the wider HE community.

Heidi Schaaf, a stone wall behind of her.

Dissertation: Museum structures should be opened towards genuine participation and inclusion

16.11.2022 11:50

According to the doctoral dissertation by Heidi Schaaf, MA, museums should examine critically what participation and inclusion mean in their Audience Development and how they are realized in practice. The methods and philosophy common for service design can offer museums tools for broader public participation.

Dissertation: Responsibility has expanded in the outdoor clothing industry during the past decade

14.11.2022 12:00

Over the past decade, responsibility and sustainability have become an inseparable part of the outdoor clothing industry, and acts of responsibility have become a competitive advantage. At the same time, the differences between the companies have grown. This is shown in the doctoral dissertation by Laura Seppälä, PhD, MA where she studies the responsibility communication of international outdoor clothing companies.

Dissertation: Recorded inner feelings become a part of performance

28.10.2022 14:20

In her cross-disciplinary dissertation, Marija Griniuk, MFA, studies new ways of presenting the audience the inner feelings of performing artists. The real time experience provided by utilising electroencephalography (EEG) measurements could enable the audience to have an authentic glance into the performer as a human being.

Dissertation: Sled dogs transforming the tourist landscape

22.9.2022 8:30

In his dissertation in tourism research, Mikko Äijälä, MSocSc, studies the agency of sled dogs in forming a local tourist landscape. His idea of multispecies trails helps us understand how the significance of animals can be included in the implementation of animal tourism services.