Anna Niia Varfolomeeva

I am an environmental social scientist specializing in human–resource relations and post-industrial transformations in the Arctic. My current project explores the impacts of energy transition on human-landscape relations, well-being and sustainability in northern Finland. In 2024, this project received an expenditure grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. I am now extending my research into the field of digital infrastructures.

Before joining the University of Oulu in 2023, I held positions as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Indigenous Sustainabilities at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and as a fixed-term Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Tyumen in Siberia. I received my PhD in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Central European University (Budapest and Vienna).

I have contributed to interdisciplinary teaching on sustainability, conservation, Arctic and Indigenous communities with courses including Sustainable Development in the Nordic Countries, The Arctic and Human Beings, Biocultural Approaches to the Environment and Conservation, and Indigenous Research Ethics.

I currently serve as Secretary of the Social and Human Working Group at the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and as a Steering Committee member of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility.