governance-staff

Stefan is specialising in international law. The focus of his work is the regulation of spaces and interactions between different actors in the Arctic, for example through the international law of the sea and international human rights law. In addition to his academic work, he has extensive practical experience in international law, having worked in both private practice and public administration.

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tel. +358 40 484 4001

Timo Koivurova has a multidisciplinary specialisation in Arctic law and government but has also conducted broader research on global law. Some of his research areas include e.g. the legal status of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, regulations and politics regarding climate change, regulating mining industry practices, Arctic immigration, the opening of the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic Council, rapidly-changing geopolitical trends, both from a broader geopolitical perspective and also with a special focus on China's role in the region, and possibilities for an Arctic treaty. He has been involved as an expert in several international processes globally and in the Arctic region and has published on the above-mentioned topics extensively.

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tel. +358 40 551 9522

Katharina Heinrich holds a master’s degree in Polar Law from the University of Akureyri, Iceland. Additionally, she is pursuing a Master of Resource Management degree in Coastal and Marine Management at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland. Her research interests lie in Arctic and Antarctic Law and Policy, Environmental Law, Marine Biodiversity Conservation and Management, Indigenous Peoples Rights and how these are impacted by climate change.

Ilona Mettiäinen’s research focuses on the use and co-production of knowledge (or in other words, sense-making) on climate change for societal and business-related decision-making in the Arctic. She has conducted research on e.g. regional climate change strategies, climate services, and climate geoengineering by ice sheet conservation and SAI. Her work is essentially multi and transdisciplinary, where the combination of social sciences and natural sciences are a key element. Her other fields of expertise include sustainable Arctic tourism, collaborative planning and co-design, and Arctic regional development. Ilona Mettiäinen has also wide experience of science communications, including on visualizing social sciences research by art.

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tel. +358 40 484 4273

Adam Stepien is a political scientist. His interests include: policy coherence, Arctic governance, law and cooperation, indigenous governance, participatory decision-making, as well as development cooperation partnerships. Adam took part in several projects dedicated to the EU and the Arctic. The latter is the topic of his ongoing PhD.

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tel. +358 40 484 4298

Pavel Tkach is an experienced practising lawyer. With a background in Arctic Law and Policy, as well as Russian law and EU law, his research interests cover various fields of law. His research mainly focuses on Migration law, Commercial law, Intellectual Property law, and how the features of the Arctic regions affect the development of mentioned fields of law.

Pamela’s background is in land use and urban planning as well as in environmental impact assessment. Her research at the Arctic Center focuses primarily on the social license to operate (SLO) and sustainable mining in the Nordic countries. The topic of her dissertation centers on the social license to operate concept as a form of private governance and seeks to operationalize SLO via economic compensation mechanisms such as Impact and Benefit Agreements.

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tel. +358 40 484 4051

Katri holds a Master’s degree from the University of Lapland in Political Science and International Relations. During her studies she specialised in two different topics; one being sustainability and environmental issues, and the other ideological extremism in cyberspace. She was an intern at the Arctic Governance research team and works now as a Junior Researcher in SUMEX project, which addresses the definition of sustainability in connection with the extractive industry in Europe.

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Laura is an ERASMUS+ trainee with the Arctic Governance Research Group. She pursues a degree in "European Studies" at the University of Passau in Germany with a focus on applied geographical regional science and geographical methods. In the Arctic Governance Research Group, she researches sustainable solutions and environmental challenges.

Jenni Ervasti is the Project Coordinator in a EU-funded project Attract Lappi. Jenni has studied tourism and entrepreneurship and has worked in the tourism field in many roles. During her studies, she did internships in Japan and in England, which left her with a great interest towards foreign cultures. She is also interested in enabling versatile working opportunities in Northern Finland.

Ayonghe Akonwi is a Postdoc Researcher. He specializes in Anthropology and has conducted ethnography on the co-management of national parks and indigenous relations among peoples in and around protected areas. He currently has an interdisciplinary specialisation on Nordic Forest Policies –pursuing Environmental Law and Governance within the EU and Nordic framework, assessments of forest policy outcomes (climate, biodiversity, and wider societal impacts), trade-offs, present and future implications. He is also a member of Arctic Anthropology and Arctic Governance teams.

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tel. +358 404844231/ 294157987

Dr. Cristani is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for International Law of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Czech Republic. She earlier worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the World Trade Institute of the University of Berne, Switzerland, and at the University of Verona, Italy, and has been a Visiting Researcher in different universities and research centres in Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Her main research interests include international investment law with a focus on sub-regional groups in Europe and cybersecurity.

Medy Dervovic holds an LL.M in Polar Law from the University of Akureyri, Iceland. His main interests are Arctic governance, the law of the sea, public international law, environmental law, and human rights.

Waliul Hasanat, LLD is a Professor of Law and Justice Discipline in Khulna University, Bangladesh. He has done his Doctor of Laws at the Faculty of Law in the University of Lapland on the Arctic Council. His main research interests include public international law, international soft-law, soft-law forms of cooperation, the Arctic Council, Arctic law and governance, changes in the Circumpolar North, sustainable development, and the protection of minorities.

Liisa Holmberg works as the Film Commissioner, at the International Sámi Film Institute, in Norway. She is a Sámi filmmaker who originally comes from the Finnish side of Saamiland. The main part of her work as a Film Commissioner is to support Sámi and other Indigenous filmmakers in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Sápmi and Russia through Arctic Indigenous Film Fund. During the years 2008-2017, Holmberg worked as the Rector of the Sámi Education Institute in Inari, Finland. In 2016-2021, Holmberg was nominated as the Chair of the Assembly of the University of the Arctic.

Ana Belén López Tárraga is a journalist and doctoral researcher in Social Sciences at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Ana is conducting her research on the evolution of European Union Policy in the Arctic space. With a multidisciplinary perspective, she is analyzing current aspects such as Governance, Security and Defense, Environment and Indigenous Communities.

Eline Lüschen is a pursuing a Masters degree in International Security at the university of Groningen. Her background includes various Russian and intelligence studies. She is mainly interested in the current developments of security related issues in the Arctic region, with a special focus on the interaction of the Russian Federation with other Arctic states.

Frank is a Doctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences. His interest is in justice, equity and equality through migration policy, holistic integration of immigrants from the global south into the Arctic region, social entrepreneurship and technology application in improving immigrants’ welfare, mental health and well-being, and economic trajectories for regular and irregular immigrants in Finland. Frank is a US Professional Fellow and has experience in project management and reporting.

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Mirkka is a sociologist from the University of Helsinki with a multidisciplinary background focused on the rights of minorities living in the Arctic regions, emphasizing Russia and Nordic countries. She wants to pay special attention to the relationship and history between rights enforcement and state policy. She aims to focus on the legal status of Indigenous peoples, the relationship between the changing environment and laws, and the impact of social phenomena in the Arctic regions.

Sami Pekola is a PhD candidate in law in the doctoral programme The Arctic in Changing World at the University of Lapland. His PhD research focuses on the regulation and social construction of the northern border between Finland and Sweden. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Lapland, Master of Social Sciences (Communication Studies) degree from the University of Helsinki and Master of Arts (History of Science and Ideas) degree from the University of Oulu.

Susanna is also holding a position as a Doctoral candidate with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oulu. Her thesis concerns human physiology and human thermoregulation in cold environments, which covers essential questions in the context of personal human safety in the Arctic. Lately she has been working for the maritime safety enhancement. Her research interests include human physiology, cold environment, health, tourism safety, economics, medical and biosciences and natural sciences.

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tel. +358 40 484 4297

Rashmi Ramesh is a PhD student at the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, India. Her research interests include the Arctic geopolitics and governance, Asian interest in the Arctic, and India's foreign policy. Her doctoral thesis is dedicated to understanding the role of institutions and governance mechanisms in the Arctic, with special reference to the Arctic Council and the Saami Council. She has a Master's degree in Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.

Tuukka Rautio is Human Geographer and PhD student in Real Estate Economics at Aalto University. Tuukka is Researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and is focused on socio-economic impacts of climate change. Tuukka’s main research focus is especially on sustainable urbanization. Tuukka has gained expertise in climate change adaption and has been part of the project, which conducted an assessment of the direct and induced cost of climate change induced risks for Finland for different levels of adaption.

Álvaro Augusto Sanabria-Rangel is a PhD researcher at the University of Lapland Faculty of Law. He holds a master's degree in Political Sciences with the major subject International Law from International Human Rights programme at Åbo Akademi. His main research topics are international human rights law, international law, victim’s rights and environmental law.

Mirva Salminen is political scientist with a particular interest in security studies, digitalisation and cybersecurity. Mirva conducted her doctoral research at the University of Lapland and after working in a number of projects inter alia at the Arctic Centre, she is now Assistant Professor in Societal Security at UiT – the Arctic University of Norway, as well as Project Specialist at Aalto University.

Academic dissertation: The government of one and all in everyday digital security in Finnish Lapland (2022)

Krittika Singh is a PhD candidate and Researcher in the Doctoral Programme: The Arctic in a Changing World at the University of Lapland, Finland. She is also an Assistant Professor (currently on leave) at the O.P. Jindal Global University, India where she has taught law of the sea, public international law, law and practice of the United Nations, and environmental law and practice. She holds a master of arts in law and diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA. Her research focusses on marine environmental governance, deep-sea bed mining regulation, India’s Arctic policy and governance linkages between the Arctic and the Himalayas.

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Geographer, her research interest are: Community-based development in sparsely populated and peripheral places; Tourism in small-scale regions; Socio- cultural impacts of tourism development in peripheral places; Community resilience and adaptation to changes; Management, policies and planning in peripheral areas; Regional development in Arctic communities. Conducted several research projects in Greenland.

Paula Tulppo works as a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences and as a project manager at the Graduate School, University of Lapland. In addition, she is a PhD candidate in the field of Administrative Science and in her PhD research she scrutinizes European Union’s cross-border cooperation as a tool for regional development at the northern border region between Finland and Sweden. She graduated as a Master of Administrative Sciences from the University of Tampere, with Regional Studies as a main subject.

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tel. +358 40 484 4379

Gerald completed the study International Development at the University of Vienna with a Magister degree. His current research focus is on global-local power dynamics related to the diffusion of digital technologies in the Arctic. His research interests are on sociology of technology studies, international political economy, hegemony theories, digitalisation, and environmental governance. He is a PhD-candidate in political sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland. He is currently working on an individual research grant awarded by the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth foundation.

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