Critical Arctic Studies Symposium
25 – 26 August 2026 Kemi, Finland,
The event is organized in a hybrid mode.
Keynote Speakers
Monica Tennberg
Monica Tennberg is a Research Professor at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. She studies multispecies world politics, with a particular focus on marine biopolitics. Her current research on water-society relations in the Bothnian Bay is funded by the Research Council of Finland (2023-2027).
Juha Ylimaunu
PhD, Senior Adviser Juha Ylimaunu is a natural scientist (University of Helsinki 1984). The topic of his doctoral dissertation (2000) was the Baltic Sea seal hunting cultures and the human-seal relationship. He has spent his working career in environmental protection and in the international steel and mining industry.
However, many of his work and hobbies have been related to the Bothnian Bay. He has written local history articles about the Bothnian Bay and the changing relationship between man and nature. Among other things, he conducted a study on alcohol smuggling and smugglers in the Gulf of Bothnia in 1919-1939 (2022) and a multidisciplinary non-fiction book about the Bothnian Bay (2025). He was one of the authors of the book on the history of maritime navigation on the Finnish side of the Bay of Bothnia (2022).