Faculty of political and social science

International Spring School in Karelia

The International Spring School in Karelia (ISSK) is an extraordinary meeting-point for Russian and Finnish as well as other Nordic university students focusing on European, Russian and Northern studies in their research. Since the pilot Summer School in 2003 the ISSK’s goal has been to bring together a modest number of master’s degree students for one week at Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU) in Petrozavodsk, Russia, or other locations in Russia (or Finland), and activate their knowledge of topics they have covered during tuition at their home universities during the academic year.

The Spring School provides not only academic lectures but a forum for academics and public policy makers to weigh in on different issues of governance from their own perspectives. Simultaneously, students are able to actively participate during the lectures and a roundtable discussion with invited experts in order to activate their own understanding of the issues under discussion. As a related part of the academic tuition, it would be good that students have an opportunity to experience some of the issues introduced on an excursion in the Republic of Karelia.

Daily studying at the ISSK is organised in the form of both lectures by experts on the main theme (in mornings) and theme-workshops based on the lectures by students (in afternoons). The lecturers are Nordic and Russian scholars, scientists and experts, who also act as supervisors for the work in theme-workshops.

Participation
The participation of the ISSK is based on applications, which should include the following information of each student: name, address, discipline, university, studies on and / or special interest to the main theme. For the successful completion of the course, students are supposed to write an essay of 10-12 pages (25 000 characters minimum), within a month after the course. This will bring 5 ECTS.
There is no registration fee for the ISSK. The participation costs mainly consist of travelling costs and costs related to Russian visa application.

ISSK topics
Among the main themes of the ISSK have been Geopolitics, Security, Eurasia, The Nordic cooperation, Energy and Environment.

2003 – Pilot summer school on different issues of life in the North
2004 – Geopolitics: from traditional to critical approaches
2005 – Eurasia and Asia in European and Russian discourses
2006 – The Nordic model and Cooperation
2007 – Regional security in the European North
2008 – Energy Security in (Northern) Europe
2009 – Environmental politics and security in the European North
2010 - Changing Geopolitics and International Relations in the North

Coming now into its 9th year of existence in 2011, the International Summer/Spring School in Karelia is expanding its scope, vision and geography to include larger audience of students and provide them with a more diversified academic, professional and social learning experience.

Further and detailed information about ISSK is available from Gleb Yarovoy (e-mail: gleb.yarovoy@mail.ru) and Eeva Korteniemi (eeva.korteniemi@helsinki.fi), who act as Coordinators of the ISSK, or from other members of the Organizing Committee:
- Lassi Heininen, Docent, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Finland (lassi.heininen@ulapland.fi) – Co-Director of the ISSK from the Finnish side
- Valentina Maksimova, Professor, Dean at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Petrozavodsk State University, Russia (maksimova@petrsu.ru) – Co-Director of the ISSK from the Russian side
- Björn Gunnarsson, Director, School of Renewable Energy Sciences, Iceland (bjorn.gunnarsson@res.is)
- Tapani Kaakkuriniemi, Director, Master’s Programme (tapani.kaakkuriniemi@helsinki.fi) / Eeva Korteniemi, Tempus Project (eeva.korteniemi@helsinki.fi), Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)
- Nina Tynkkynen, Senior assistant, Department of Environmental Politics, University of Tampere, Finland (nina.tynkkynen@uta.fi)
- Joni Virkkunen, Researcher, Karelian Institure, University of Joensuu (joni.virkkunen@joensuu.fi)