Pre-conference workshop for doctoral researchers 24.-25.4.2024

Call for papers

Pre-conference workshop for doctoral researchers: Multiple methodological approaches to families and close relationships

Note! Registration for the workshop is now closed.

A pre-conference workshop prior to Finnish Conference on Research on Families and Personal Relationships will be organized 24-25 April 2024 at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio campus. The workshop provides doctoral researchers an opportunity to get to know other doctoral researchers studying themes related to families and personal relationships, and to present their on-going research with a paper. In the workshop, the papers will be discussed among doctoral researchers, and senior researchers who represent different fields and have different methodological expertise.

The participants can send a paper in either English or Finnish. Workshop discussions are in English and in Finnish. The paper can be of any theme related to research on families and personal relationships, and it can be related to the main theme of the workshop, methodology, or any other part of the doctoral dissertation.

Participation in the workshop is free and does not require participation in the conference. The workshop is organized by the Finnish Society on Research on Families and Personal Relationships (PELS) in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland. It is sponsored by The Alli Paasikivi Foundation. The coordinators of the workshop are Petteri Eerola (JYU), Aino Luotonen (UEF), and Rosi Enroos (TUNI).

The Finnish Society on Research on Families and Personal Relationships (PELS), sponsored by Alli Paasikivi Foundation, will award travel grants of 250 euros to max. 12 doctoral researchers who do not have a possibility to get travel expenses paid by other sources. In order to get a travel grant, the doctoral researcher must participante to the pre-conference workshop and the Finnish Family and Personal Relationships Research Conference. The grant can be used for travel and accommodation costs and to the conference fee (70 euros for doctoral students). The grant will be paid after the conference.

Program (changes possible)

Wednesday 24 April

If coming by train from Helsinki, Tampere, or Jyväskylä, arrival in Kuopio at 12.29, after which dropping baggage at the hotel before going to university.

14.00 Opening lecture (topic to be confirmed) by Dr. Shruti Chaudry (University of Edinburgh), and discussion

15.00 Coffee break 

15.30 Presentations and practicalities of the workshop

16.00-18.00 Workshops

19.00 Dinner in the city centre (everyone pays for themselves)

Thursday 25 April

9.30-11.30 Workshops

11.30-12.00 Concluding discussion together

12.00 Lunch (everyone pays for themselves)

Dr. Shruti Chaudhry is a Chancellor’s Fellow in sociology at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include family and intimate relationships, marriage, migration, aging and life-course, race and ethnicity, care, and social change. She has conducted for example comparative ethnographic research in rural north India among women who migrate for marriage and studied relational lives of older adults of South Asian heritage in Scotland.

Sign up for the workshop

The number of participants is limited. To sign up, please send an abstract about your paper by 6 february to the coordinators: aino.luotonen@uef.fi, rosi.enroos@tuni.fi, j.petteri.eerola@jyu.fi.

The abstract should include:

  • Author information: name, affiliation, and contact information
  • Title of the paper
  • Clear and concise description of the paper that you will send

For the workshop, each participant is asked to send a paper of maximum length of 5000 words, based on for example research plan of the doctoral dissertation, or an article draft or a chapter that is part of the dissertation. The papers will be shared among the workshop participants and senior researchers on 15 April 2024. Further instructions concerning sending the paper and practicalities of the workshop will be sent to the participants together with the approval letter, as well as decision on the travel grant. 

If you wish to apply for the travel grant of 250 euros, please include the following information on your e-mail: 

  • Are you full-time or part-time doctoral researcher, and on which kind of funding
  • Do you have a possibility to apply for travel grant from your university, doctoral program, or other
  • Will you participate both to the pre-conference workshop and to the conference

If you have questions, e-mail at aino.luotonen@uef.fi, j.petteri.eerola@jyu.fi, rosi.enroos@tuni.fi

Important dates

  • Deadline of the abstracts: 6 February 2024
  • Approval letter and decision of the travel grant if applied for: 14 February 2024
  • Deadline of the papers: 15 April 2024