Anna Varfolomeeva

I am an environmental social scientist specializing in data centres, energy infrastructures, and industrial transformations in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. My research examines how new infrastructure developments build on industrial legacies and reshape relations between communities, industries, and landscapes.

I am the Principal Investigator of From a Void to the Cloud? Data Centres in the Afterlives of Arctic Industries (DATAVOID), funded by the Research Council of Finland through an Academy Research Fellowship (2026–2030). The project investigates data centre development in former industrial areas, focusing on how these developments draw on existing infrastructures and local histories, and how communities engage with their promises of renewal.

My work combines ethnography with interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches, including research-art projects and citizen science.

Before joining the University of Oulu in 2023, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). 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, the Arctic and Indigenous communities, and intercultural education.

I serve as a Steering Committee member of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility.