Polin Day 4.11.2025 Religion, Ecology and Diversity

The autumn Polin Day will be held on Tuesday 4th of November, 2025, from 10.00-16.15 with the theme Religion, Ecology and Diversity in collaboration with the research collective RED. Possibility to participate via Zoom, https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/63372804680 (Meeting ID: 633 7280 4680).

Dinner at 17:30 at Restaurant Kuori. Attention, registration required!

Program

10:00              Laura Wickström: Introduction to the topic of the day

10:15               Panu Pihkala (University of Helsinki): Exploring the impacts of environmental issues for Finnish Christianity

11:00               Ksenia Medvedeva (University of Helsinki): “Coming through the back door”: Environmental initiatives in Eastern Orthodox communities

12:00               Lunch in Grädda

13:00               Teuvo Laitila (University of Eastern Finland): Animal Release in Mahayana Buddhism

13:40               Johannes Cairns (University of Turku, University of Helsinki): How Finnish Extinction Rebellion activists practicing Buddhism negotiate polarization

14:20               Afternoon tea or coffee

14:40               Ville Niemelä (University of Helsinki): “Hwad är det för ett land, der wargarne äta upp barn?”: The Construction of the Finnish Wolf Trauma in 19th-Century Newspapers  

15:20               Anna Jarske-Fransas (University of Helsinki): Municipality as Part of Nature – Dismantling Anthropocentric Thinking in Municipal Work   

16:00               Laura Wickström (Polin Institute, Åbo Akademi University): Research and Activism: Four Contemporary Key Figures of Eco-Islam

16:40               Closing of the Polin Day

17.30               Dinner at Restaurant Kuori

The Polin Institute offers both lunch and dinner. The Polin dinner takes place at Restaurant Kuori, Hämeenkatu 8, at 17:30. The dinner consists of a tasting menu, taking into account possible allergies and dietary restrictions. The dinner is open to all, but pre-registration is required by 20 October by emailing tove.hoglund@abo.fi. Please remember to inform of any dietary restrictions. Also let us know if you would like to join us for lunch at Grädda with allergies and table reservations in mind.

Panu Pihkala, a docent in environmental theology at the University of Helsinki, has extensive experience in researching the relationship between religion and the environment. He is also recognised as Finland’s foremost expert in multidisciplinary research related to environmental anxiety. His non-fiction book, Päin helvettiä? Ympäristöahdistus ja toivo (Headed to Hell? Environmental Anxiety and Hope) (2017), sparked widespread public debate. In 2018, The Lifelong Learning Foundation awarded him the Sivistyspalkinto for his contributions to the field.

Ksenia Medvedeva is a sociologist specializing in various aspects of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. She defended her PhD magna cum laude at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), with doctoral research on contemporary Eastern Orthodox monasticism in North America. Her current work explores religion and the environment, particularly ecological initiatives within Orthodox Churches. As an academic nomad, she has studied or worked in Belarus, Russia, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, the United States, and Greece.

Teuvo Laitila is a PhD, docent of religious studies at the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Turku, as well as a freelance researcher. His research interests include animal relations in religion and animal theology, religion and politics in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, anti-Semitism and Japan.

Johannes Cairns (PhD, docent) is a researcher at the Universities of Turku and Helsinki, working on antimicrobial resistance, community resilience and the intersections of belief and environmental action. He is also a founding member of One Health Finland.

Ville Niemelä (MTh) is a doctoral researcher in religious studies at the University of Helsinki. His interests lie particularly in natural mythology and deep ecology. In his doctoral dissertation, Niemelä examines the Finnish relationship with wolves as a worldview question built on the post-Durkheimian concept of the sacred.

Anna Jarske-Fransas (M.Th., Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki) is a doctoral researcher in the Study of Religions at the University of Helsinki. She is completing her dissertation within the multidisciplinary MESSU research project, which examines how social norms and beliefs related to health, illness, medicine, and healthcare influence the ability of medicine to adapt to a societal sustainability transition. Anna also has a background as a photographer (VAT) and works as a project planner at the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH) and as a sustainability expert at Kudelma – Co-op for comprehensive and sustainable systemic change.

Laura Wickström (MA, MSSc), PhD researcher in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University, specialises in researching the relationship between Islam and ecology. She has collected empirical data, particularly in Turkey and Lebanon, where she has also worked as a researcher-coordinator at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (FIME). She is currently a board member representing ÅAU of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East and the chair of the Friends of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (SLIY). She is currently working as the coordinator at the Polin Institute.