Land is a powerful asset, but it also has a social function. Its economic and social aspects are central in advancing gender equality. Legal control of land as well as legal and social recognition of women’s uses of and rights to land, can also have catalytic effects of empowerment, increasing women’s influence and status in their homes and communities. My article-based PhD thesis focuses on Chinese rural women and their social and equal status in Chinese society. The research has received funding from Academy of Finland's Actors, Structures and Law (ASLA) - project

Projects

Rural women´s land rights in China

Lisa Grans holds a PhD in Public International Law from Åbo Akademi University (2018) and has published extensively on the issue of women’s rights, with a particular focus on violence against women. Her expertise also includes the prohibition of discrimination, the prohibition of torture and linguistic rights. Grans has worked practically for over 20 years with promoting the human rights of women and other disadvantaged groups in cooperation with the relevant governmental bodies in countries such as Georgia, Kosovo and Turkey, having been based in the latter two.

Projects

Prevention of honour-related violence through the lens of the right to physical and psychological integrity

Quivine Ndomo is working on her PhD in Social Policy on the labour market integration of highly educated African migrants in Finland, using biographic methods to research workplace discrimination and labour market segmentation. She has successfully authored or co-authored a number of peer reviewed book chapters on labour market experiences of migrants and internationalisation of higher education in Finland. Ms. Ndomo has worked in national and international research consortia on internationalisation, mobilities, and migration, including projects of ministry of Education and Culture Finland, and the European Commission, as a project assistant in the DG Employment funded SMUG project. She also worked on the H2020 SIRIUS project, and from this has substantial experience in interviewing and managing stakeholder relations.

Projects

PREparing for a Long-Term Joint EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy (PRE-LEAP-RE)

Internationalizing Finnish Science: Building Sustainable Bridges to Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (BRIDGES)

Saila-Maria Saaristo is a doctoral researcher and lecturer in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, and a member of Urbaria (Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies). Her current research project focuses on studying inequalities and discriminations, which are approached through the case of inequalities in access to housing, with a particular focus on homelessness and forced evictions. The study investigates especially gendered, classed and racialised housing exclusions. In addition to the academic career, Saaristo has worked extensively as a consultor, manager and coordinator of different kinds of international cooperation projects financed by the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, in the areas of urban development and housing, civil society, good governance and democracy, human rights, and gender. She has worked and lived in many countries, including Cape Verde, Tanzania, Mozambique, Brazil, Bolivia and Portugal.

Projects

Transformative Actions? Occupations and Evictions in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal

Researcher of world politics with an emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. In my PhD project, I examined the post-war realities of former girl and women soldiers in Liberia and gained my doctorate in 2017. My recent publications include a book 'Liberia's Women Veterans: War, Roles and Reintegration' (Zed Books 2018) and several peer-reviewed articles on gender, post-war reconstruction, child soldiers, inequality, and visual research methods. I have lived, studied and/or worked in Liberia, Senegal as well as Zambia and am eager to develop innovative ways to study and understand different phenomena around the world.