Visiting Fellowships

The Social Science Research Institute at Åbo Akademi University invites international scholars to apply for scholarships in our Visiting Fellowship Program. Visiting Fellowships are intended to foster research and writing suitable for publication in a journal. Applicants should be engaged in cutting-edge empirical or theoretical work in the fields of public opinion, political behavior, electoral studies or democratic innovations, and hold an ongoing position at a university or research institution.
Visiting scholars are expected to be in residence at Åbo Akademi for the fellowship period and participate fully in the academic life of the Institute, engaging with both researchers and faculty members. The Institute is located at both campuses of the University, in Åbo (Turku) and Vasa (Vaasa).

Previous visiting fellows include:

Nicole Curato, University of Canberra, June – July 2022
Theme: Global deliberative theory

Sebastien Rojon, Université libre de Bruxelles, May – June 2022
Theme: Public opinion on alternative ways of doing government

Saskia Goldberg, University of Stuttgart, May – June 2022
Theme: Research on perceived legitimacy of minipublics across different country contexts and subgroups of citizens

Graham Smith, University of Westminster, May – June 2022
Theme: What is next for climate assemblies?

Franziska Maier, University of Stuttgart, May – June 2022
Theme: German citizens’ definition of common ground for citizenship under conditions of pluralism

Sergiu Gherghina, University of Glasgow, April 2022
Theme: Ethnic minorities and democratic deliberation

Luca Bernardi, University of Liverpool, September – October 2022
Theme: Cross-national research on mental health and political participation

Annika Lindholm, University of Lausanne, June – October 2021
Theme: The well-being bases of populist and nativist attitudes in Finland

Jean-Paul Gagnon, University of Canberra, September 2019
Theme: Democracy’s Linguistic Artefacts

Hans Asenbaum, University of Westminster, September – December 2018
Theme: Anonymity and deliberation on the internet

Åsa von Schoultz, Mid Sweden University, March – April 2017
Theme: Citizens’ preferences for political processes

André Bächtiger, University of Stuttgart, March 2016 – February 2017
Theme: Deliberative democracy in connection with minorities and underrepresented groups

Sergiu Ghergina, Frankfurt, May 2017
Theme: The ways in which direct democracy has an instrumental purpose for political parties

Hilde Coffe, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, June 2017, (1 month)
Theme: The effect of political candidates’ background on voters’ support for candidates

Holly Garnett, McGill University, Montreal, April – June 2017
Theme: Electoral management and electoral integrity

Jonathan Rinne, Goethe-University, September – October 2015
Theme: Citizens Set the Course. Elaborating and Testing a New Approach to Translating Preferences into Political Decisions by Utilizing Program-Voting on Goals

Stephen Elstub, May 2014
Theme: Citizens’ juries

Simon Niemeyer, May – June 2012,
Theme: Scaling up deliberation

Henry Milner, Université de Montréal, Spring 2008
Theme: The challenge of civic literacy facing contemporary democracies, that of maintaining and fostering an informed, attentive and participating citizenry

Brigitte Geißel, April – September 2008
Theme: Democratic participative innovations and citizens in the EU

Outgoing visiting researchers from Åbo Akademi in 2022:

Nanulia Silagadze, University of Siena

Kim Backström, Göteborgs universitet

Fredrik Malmberg, Linköpings universitet

Janette Huttunen

Partnerships and Cooperation

The Social Science Research Institute at Åbo Akademi University and its researchers are actively engaged with other research institutions and networks.

Finnish Centre for Democracy Research (FinDem)

The Finnish Centre for Democracy Studies (FinDem) was established in 2015 by the discipline of Political Science of the University of Turku and disciplines of Political Science and Public Administration together with the Social Science Research Institute of Åbo Akademi University.

Stanford University /  Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy, USA

Åbo Akademi University has signed a Memory of Understanding (MOU) with Stanford University in Palo Alto, California as part of its research profiling. The MOU, which was signed with the Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy, primarily involves researcher mobility and joint research. The agreement is the result of co-operation between Professor James Fishkin of Stanford and Professor Kimmo Grönlund from our institute. Fishkin’s model for Deliberative Polling® is currently used by policy-makers all over the world.

Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, Australia

The Institute conducts interdisciplinary research in governance and policy analysis to deepen theory, advance knowledge and improve practice, in a way that is of significance to scholars and practitioners in Australia and internationally.

ECPR Standing Group on Democratic Innovations

Democratic Innovations is a standing group at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). The focus is on innovations that aim at deepening “thin” representative democracy and their impacts on communities, structures, systems, policies and democratic participation.

Deliberative Democracy Summer School

The Deliberative Democracy Summer School is now at its third edition. The first and second were organised by the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, Australia, the third and last one was held in Åbo/Turku, Finland between 27 – 29 June 2018 and its topic was “Implementing Citizen Deliberation as a Democratic Practice”.