Brown Bag Seminar: Indigenous and minority perspectives in research

Assoc. Prof Nykänen will talk about the concept of resilience and theoretical developing of resilience research especially in the context of research concerning Sámi. The concept of resilience does not always align with Indigenous experiences of the world, and in particular not with the normative goals they pursue. Since ongoing polycrisis will inevitably alter conditions in the Sápmi, threatening, for instance, the traditional livelihoods, resilience should not be entirely abandoned as either a normative goal or a theoretical concept. However, to understand and conceptualize resilience from a Sámi perspective, there is a need to focus on the forms and timelines of endurance and adaptation that the Sámi themselves have enacted and pursued, and on the other hand, to the limits of resilience as the Sámi see it.

Postdoc. Kähäri will discuss minorities and memory activism by analyzing the concept of postmemory and presenting practices of postmemorial resistance to oppressive authorities of descendants of Ingrians. By focusing on questions of historical and contemporary social injustice activated by family memory, Kähäri addresses Ingrians’ descendants’ experiences of marginalization. These experiences are based both on their inherited family memories of transnational oppression and on their own experiences of having a different family story than those of the social majority. In her presentation, she illustrates how postmemorial work of individuals belonging to minorities can be socially, politically and temporally expansive.

The seminar will take place on Tuesday 28th of January from 11 am to 12 pm at Tellus Stage on Linnanmaa campus. Lunch will be provided for those who register by Thursday 23rd of January at 12 pm. The seminar will be in English. 

If you cannot make it to the Linnanmaa campus, you can also participate via  Zoom. If you participate via Zoom, you don’t need to register for the event.

Tapio Nykänen is an Associate Professor of Resilience, Resistance, and Reconciliation in Profi7 Frontiers of Arctic and Global Resilience (FRONT) research programme. He has started in September 2024 and is affiliated with the Giellagas Institute and the Faculty of Humanities. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä. Previously he worked as a university lecturer at the University of Lapland. Nykänen holds a doctorate in the field of Political Science and Government and is also a kayaker enthusiast and a freelance journalist. His research topics cover wide range of themes related to Northern politics, societies, and cultures, such as Sámi political history, Northern identity politics, civil disobedience and activism.

Outi Kähäri is a postdoctoral researcher in the research unit for History, Culture and Communication studies. She holds a doctoral degree in sociology (University of Turku, 2017) with a specialization in minorities, migration, integration, work life studies and trust research. Her recent research has focused on social history, biographical research and retheorizing postmemory in the context of the Ingrian family histories. She has specifically addressed these themes in the Academy of Finland project Postmemory of Family Separation: An Intergenerational Perspective (2019–2023). Currently, she works in the Mobile Futures project exploring how young adults make everyday racism visible and tackle it, by using the methods of digital ethnography. Kähäri’s field of expertise includes qualitative methods, research on trust and interaction, sociological memory studies and minority history.

Note UniOGS Doctoral Researchers: You can add Brown Bag Seminars in your personal learning plan and once you have attended 10 Brown Bag Seminars, you can get 0,5 credits of doctoral studies.

The aim of the Brown Bag Seminars is to showcase University of Oulu’s research and to encourage knowledge-sharing and networking amongst our researchers. Once a month, we invite two of our researchers from different fields to talk about their research related to the same topic. Brown Bag Seminars are open to everyone - come learn something new and join in the conversation!