Anna Niia Varfolomeeva

Tag: conference

  • The web of work

    When I was a PhD student, my supervisor told me I had a true luxury: time to concentrate on my writing. At that time, I was puzzled: I certainly did not feel privileged. However, recently I keep returning to these words as tasks interweave as a web: revisions to respond to, co-teaching, meetings, reimbursement claims, Finnish lessons, contacting local organizations for a citizen science project, and planning for upcoming deadlines.

    This interweaving is especially visible after grant applications. For weeks prior to submission, I have to put other work aside. But after I click “submit,” it is hard to relax as the web of assignments reappears in my calendar and, more importantly, my mind, – resembling, in some way, my recent photos from the art-science conference side event.

    The web is an interesting metaphor, as this is also the way I think about my topic – interrelation of industries and technologies in Arctic landscapes, points of connection across times and geographies, or intersections of physical and symbolic lines. Recently, however, I have been thinking: how to approach the daily web of work as a meaningful arrangement, not a daunting accumulation of assignments?

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  • On Changing and Staying the Same

    Since 2021, I have served as the Secretary of Social and Human Working Group at the International Arctic Science Committee. I have just returned from the annual Arctic Science Summit Week, this year held in Aarhus, Denmark, where, for the fifth time, I was responsible for preparing and hosting the Working Group meeting. This is an all-day event: we began the meeting at 8:30 am and finished at 6:30 pm, ten hours in a row!

    When I envisioned this blog post on the evening train to Aarhus, I thought I would write: I remember my first WG meeting as a very new Secretary. It required such an investment of energy, and I was so worried and tired, but this year I managed the same meeting effortlessly…

    It didn’t happen like that. There were once again unpredictable last-minute changes: presentations needed to be transferred, videos displayed, minutes taken, and Zoom links and agendas sent. I was, once again, worried and tired.

    What has changed? I knew I would manage nevertheless, and I was not surprised when the meeting ran smoothly in the end. I still cannot prepare for everything, but I believe in myself more than I did five years ago.

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  • A Citizen Science Exploration

    I am quite late in reflecting on the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) conference I attended at the beginning of March. But I still have to write this post because:

    • the conference’s welcome ceremony began with ice fishing;
    • it included a pitch by a mermaid;
    • in your free time, you could do some crocheting and think about Deleuze and Guattari at the Rhizome Salon;
    • finally, its closing featured a keynote speech by the former First Lady of Iceland, Eliza Reid, and a children’s address during which I could not hold back tears.
    • anyway, this most probably was…
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  • Feelings of sustainability

    Amidst the heat of the grant application season, it is difficult to keep up with the blog. But very cool things are happening: over the past two weeks, I have taken part in conversations on emotional practices and relations within sustainability transitions at two conferences in opposite parts of Finland.

    First, at the Science for Sustainability conference in the heart of Helsinki, we held a panel devoted to actors often marginalized in energy transition debates in the North: Indigenous residents, migrant workers, animals, and nature. Our five-minute lightning talks were followed by a discussion on just transition and belonging (including some critical remarks on whether justice for all is actually achievable).

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