Anna Niia Varfolomeeva

Tag: travel

  • Summer gratitude

    So many things have happened in the past few weeks.

    We had a wonderful two-day retreat with our AniMate more-than-human research team: talking about small wins, sharing dreams, eating good food, and listening to the sounds of nature.

    I also met many inspiring researchers during the SAFIRE Thematic Semester event Bridging Ways of Knowing, where I talked about the interconnected industrial histories of Leppiniemi and Muhos, two small settlements near Oulu.

    Later in June, together with my student assistant Julia, I visited Muhos. We chose the venue for our upcoming community workshop and visited the local museum run by volunteers.

    There, next to the boat that once carried tar along the Oulujoki river, I learned that I had been awarded a four-year Academy Research Fellowship from the Finnish Research Council.

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  • Conversations at the edge of the world

    A conference where you are slightly afraid to leave the guesthouse because of the strong wind bending low-growing trees down. A conference set amongst stunning landscapes, where fish and chips are sold next to woolen sweaters, and coinciding with a traditional Faroese whale hunt. Yes, the UArctic Congress 2026 at the Faroe Islands (sometimes referred to as The Edge of the World) was a very unique conference experience.

    My participation was seemingly straightforward: I presented my research on the impact of energy transition on more-than-human landscapes in the panel on meaningful stakeholder engagement co-organized with my colleagues from UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources. However, large academic events represent much more than a presentation slot.

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  • One bright Fulbright day

    Fulbright scholarship recipients often call themselves family. Before leaving Oulu for the orientation day with Fulbright Finland in Helsinki last week as a new grant recipient, I had been wondering whether this sounds too affectionate.

    After spending the day with them, I see that there is indeed a certain aura among Fulbrighters: openness to conversation, genuine interest in other cultures, ease and academic rigour, all combined. This is an atmosphere where I felt at home.

    My comparative project on data centres in post-industrial Arctic settlements recently received funding from Fulbright, and next spring I will be visiting Alaska for the first time ever, building collaborations with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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  • On changing and staying: reflections from ASSW 2026

    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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  • Notes from an Arctic retreat

    Last week, just as the grant submission emotions were finally settling down, I got to experience a bit of tourist Lapland. The project REBOUND, focusing on just green transition in the Finnish North, had a two-day workshop and retreat in a holiday village right at the Arctic Circle.

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  • Reconnecting with Hungary

    As busy May comes to an end, it’s time to recap my recent two-week research visit to the Center for Contemporary Challenges at the University of Pécs in Hungary, hosted by Dr. Judit Farkas. This visit was generously supported by a mobility grant from the Frontiers of Arctic and Global Resilience (FRONT) research program at the University of Oulu.

    I had not been to Hungary since my PhD defense at Central European University, so I saw this visit as an opportunity to reconnect with the Hungarian research environment. The history of higher education in Pécs dates back to 1367, and, as you can see, the main university building looks quite a bit like Hogwarts (and feels like a labyrinth at times, too).

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