Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Universtity of Jyväskylä

*Remembering migration: Memory politics of forced migration in mediated societies (Academy of Finland Fellow, akademiforskare, 2014–2019, individual grant.)
This project opens a novel research area within research on present day forced migration. In the project, I examine: 1) how death and survival at Europe’s borders is memorialized and remembered and what kinds of cultural identities and social relations are produced, also transnationally, and 2) how these memories become part of the cultural memory of countries where the refugees settle. In other words, how is Finnish, Swedish or Italian “national” memory challenged by the memories of migrants and refugees?
*Borderscapes, memory and migration: cultural representations of forced migration Explorative workshops, Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils,  January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2017. (PI Karina Horsti, 12 Nordic scholars.)
This project continues my decade long involvement to strengthen Nordic research collaborations. It builds on a series of three workshops, which address how forced migration is represented in cultural productions and media in the Nordic region by bringing two theoretical approaches - critical migration studies and memory studies - into conjuncture with research on mediation. These workshops bring together 12 senior and junior scholars from different disciplines working in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Danish academia.
*Mobilizing the Disenfranchised in Finland, France, and the United States: Post-Truth Public Stories in the Transnational Hybrid Media Space (Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, August 1, 2017 – August 31, 2018, (PI Horsti, two post docs and one researcher.)
This project compares the key agents of the so-called ”post-truth era”: media that are founded on dissemination of mis-information and lies. We examine this phenomenon in Finland, France, and the US by focusing on the inter-connections of mainstream media and the mis-information media, such as MV-lehti, Fdesouche, and Breitbart News. Feeding into fear of cultural globalization these kinds of media aim to grow population that feels ”disenfranchised” from the society.
*Remembering the Tragedy of Lampedusa: radical participation in documentary filmmaking, Kone foundation,  January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2018. (PI Horsti, film maker, researcher, refugee activist.)
The European “refugee crisis” and its human implications, particularly mass death at the European frontier shape European societies and futures. In this participatory filmmaking project we examine the constitution of national and diasporic memory by focusing on the different memories of the so-called Tragedy of Lampedusa of October 3, 2013. In collaboration with survivors and the family members of victims we produce five short documentary films designed to be shared in social media and in mobile devices. In addition, the project develops and analyzes participatory methods in filmmaking.