Panel Session: Repairing for Peace
In this panel session, the ABOAGORA Research Retreat participants will discuss their academic and artistic work and search for imaginaries of peace at the time of accelerating militarisation.
For the eight consecutive year, ABOAGORA hosts a research retreat for doctoral researchers and MA arts students, this year on the island of Seili in the Turku archipelago on 7–9 September. This year the participants, led by curator and researcher Taru Elfving (CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago), imagine peace together at the time of accelerating militarisation. What kind of peace is promised by the securitisation of all aspects of everyday life? How to repair relations needed for peace as something other than a transactional, compromised or predetermined contract?
The current time of escalating conflicts over resources and reorganisation of the global axes of power urgently calls for solidarities between situated struggles. We are witnessing a steep reversal of the progress achieved in recent decades on both social justice and ecological protections. Militarisation as a deterrent against war is already a state of exception, a looming disaster for the environment and for democracy. It can only be countered by intersectional alliances between resistance movements that are now largely dispersed across generational, identitarian, cultural and geographical divides.
Speakers
Sami Ahonen is a PhD researcher in Economic Sociology at the University of Turku, where his work focuses on environmental policy attitudes involving economic tradeoffs. Ahonen’s research covers shifts and stability in environmental policy attitudes during crises, the impact of crisis-related messaging on climate policy support, and the role of political trust in Finland and globally. His research mainly uses surveys with experimental, longitudinal, and international designs, alongside qualitative methods like interviews and workshops. Furthermore, his planned post doc explores how security threats in Europe affect support for exceptional measures. Outside academia, Ahonen is a devoted jazz enthusiast.
Elisavet Antoniou is completing a Master’s Degree in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research, with a thesis that explores how animation can serve as an analytical method to reveal necropolitics within liberal peacebuilding. Using the artist’s studio as the site of knowledge production, she critically engages with structural violence in liberal peace. Outside her academic work, she creates animation and illustrations as a form of storytelling on the themes of identity, exclusion and lived experience. Her work contributes to emerging discussions on peace research, artistic input and visual storytelling.
Asiimwe Dorcus is a scholar with a Master’s Degree in Social Exclusion from Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. Her academic background in the study of religion explores how identity, power, and belief systems intersect. Her thesis focused on the social exclusion of unmarried women in Kampala, Uganda, laying the foundation for her interest in the nuanced experiences of marginalized groups within religious frameworks. She has worked with grassroots human rights organizations in Uganda, gaining deep insight into the spiritual trauma and resilience of LGBTQI+ communities. Her work emphasizes amplifying marginalized voices and examining religion’s role in both oppression and liberation.
Kristof Heidemann is a PhD researcher under the supervision of Prof. Janne Salminen at the Faculty of Law of the University of Turku. Previously, he studied at the University of Göttingen in Germany, the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan. His previous research focused on constitutionalism and democracy, especially legal protections against interferences into the democratic process and the prospects of constitutional implementations of democratic innovation proposals.
I am Sara Ilveskorpi, a visual artist, researcher, art educator and agroecologist, who explores deep ecology as practice. My work focuses on reciprocity and resilience as well as encounters with multispecies in a time of sustainability crisis. I work on the Nytorp homestead in Kemiönsaari Finland. I study towards Doctor of Arts degree in Aalto University, Department of Art and Media. My research explores the potential of artistic practice committed to strong sustainability on ecological rebuilding. My artistic work embraces different materials and techniques. I am e.g. member of Finnish Printmakers, Bio Art Society and Av-arkki.
Hanne Lammi graduated as a puppeteer artist (AMK) in 2016 and is currently studying at the Turku University of Applied Sciences Art Academy in the Contemporary Contexts of Arts programme. Her Master of Culture and Arts thesis focuses on the practice of decomposing art and the context that revolves around it. In her artistic work, which combines visual art and performing art, she shifts attention to the intertwining moments. The focus of art is on ecological materials and the dialogue with them. The materials tell stories from which Lammi weaves art works that live as part of the landscape.
My name is Andrei Morariu, and I’m passionate about computer engineering, project development, and technical communication. I enjoy leading teams, planning smart solutions, and reaching goals through creative thinking. My interests include engine technology, content management systems, and solving complex challenges. I’m currently pursuing a doctorate focused on embedded systems, with research on decarbonization, 5G advanced communication in maritime, and engineering education within The Sea strategic group (Åbo Akademi). I’m a sociable and hardworking person who builds strong, effective relationships with colleagues and aiming to make a positive impact through my work.
Juulia Niiniranta is a doctoral researcher at Tampere Peace Research Institute TAPRI. Juulia is now working with her doctoral research project dealing with peace narratives of people living in war affected circumstances. The research also explores the potential of photography in peace research, using photography as a primary language with participants. Visual narratives convey another story of war and peace, stories where hope, recovery and capability are present. Outside the academia, Juulia works at art department in film productions, do illustrations and photography, and voluntary work in Youth Walk in -therapy consultation.
Muhammad Hassan Qadeer Butt is a PhD student in English Literature at Abo Akademi University, Turku. His areas of interest include Literary Urban studies, Postcolonial studies, South Asian literature, and Partition studies.
Rut Karin Zettergren is a PhD candidate in artistic research at Uniarts Helsinki. Her thesis Cyborg Perception investigates how infrared imaging technologies, rooted in military applications, can be (mis)used through speculative technofeminism to imagine alternative ways of sensing and seeing worlds beyond the visible.Her practice combines drawing, performance, moving image, and installation, exploring how modernity and its technological heritage shape our present, while employing science fiction and futuristic imaginaries to envision alternative futures. Zettergren also works collaboratively as part of Whyte&Zettergren and S.O.N.G. Her work has been presented at art institutions and festivals such as Barbican Centre, Oberhausen Film Festival, Havana Biennale (CU), Impakt Festival (NL), Living Art Museum (IS), and Göteborgs Konsthall (SE).