Critical Arctic Studies Symposium
25 – 26 August 2026 Kemi, Finland,
The event is organized in a hybrid mode.
Program CASS2026
Tuesday 25 August 2026
9.00-10.00 Opening session & Keynote 1
Ylimaunu, Juha
Bothnian Bay – aspects from history and human-nature relationship.
10.00-10.30 Coffee
10.30-11.45 Session 1 Troubled waters
Chairperson: Heidi Konttinen
Tuuli Parviainen, Infusing marine community knowledge into reimaging just and crisis resilient marine futures
Agneta Andersson, Before the bloom – consequences of changed nutrient availability
Julia Olsen, Marine litter: shared responsibility for the Arctic Ocean
11.45-12.45 Lunch
12.45-14.25 Session 2 Water lives
Chairperson: Joonas Vola
Hindertje Hoarau-Heemstra & Chaima Elhichou-Ahmed, Care-full coastal tourism: thinking with algae in more-than-human waterscapes
Danielle Wilde, Aesthetics, morals, and participation in Gulf of Bothnia water relation
Mo Loui Karnbach, Care-violence entanglements in multispecies waterscapes: Conceptual reflections on fishing practices in Northern Norway
Sunna Kokkonen, Pink salmon paradoxes: more-than-human sensemaking in removing unwanted salmon from Barents Sea rivers
14.25-14.55 Coffee
14.55-16.35 Session 3 Water ontologies
Chairperson: Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo
Joonas Vola, Fluvial cyborgs: Environmental personhood, nature restoration and anamorphic wholeness
Iuliia Gataulina, Fractal paradigm of water-as-motion: Indeterminate being, decentred voluminosity, and orderly chaos
Johan Cederqvist, When Salmon ceased to return: Ecological rupture and the erosion of riverine cultures in the Swedish North
Heidi Konttinen, Participating in the absent worlds of artisanal seal hide tanning
17.00 – 20.00 Evening program
Cruise on the ship Jähti (departure from the Kemi harbour near the cultural centre) and dinner after the cruise in a nearby restaurant in the harbour.
Wednesday 26 August 2026
9.00-10.15 Session 4 Managed water
Chairperson: Joonas Vola
Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo, Water provision in Finnish Lapland’s small water cooperatives
Mari-Sohvi Miettinen & Riina Sirén, Near a stream, by a pond. Water practices on Finnish wilderness cabins as naturecultural care
Venla Isomäki & Mirjami Lantto Klein, Hydro-social politics of sustainability: Discursive constructs and material outcomes in Finnish water governance
10.15-10.45 Coffee
10.45-11.45 Keynote 2
Chairperson: Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo
Tennberg, Monica
Re-assembling the sea
11.45-12.45 Lunch
12.45-14.00 Session 5 Water as art
Chairperson: Heidi Konttinen
Mari Keskikorsu, More than a person river: Eco-socially engaged art practices towards more-than-human decision making
Lin Ni, Suturing disconnection: Artistic research, planetary water, and fragmented eco-cosmopolitanism
Lena Leimgruber Haraldsson, Archival waterscapes: Relationality and intimate localisation in Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water
14.00-14.30 Coffee
14.30-16.10 Session 6 Water-related technologies
Chairperson: Monica Tennberg
Hannele Mäkelä, Milla Helminen & Ilona Mettiäinen, Sustainable shipping in the Arctic
Alexandra Middleton, Reconsidering the value of water in Arctic hydrogen production
Beata Mäihäniemi, Regulating digital water for climate resilience: Digital twins, utility data, and EU law
15:45-16.00 Final discussion