Veera Ojala
veera.ka.ojala@utu.fi ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9447-3348 |
Anthropocene; industrial heritage; toxic heritage; post-industrial landscapes; the cultural heritage of the Anthropocene; nuclear cultural heritage; visual research methodologies; photography
I graduated with a master's degree in social sciences from the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) in 2020. My master's thesis dealt with the imaginary and visual production of cultural heritage in the Chornobyl exclusion zone from the point of view of visitors to the area. I used visual ethnographic methods in my research, which the Mohyla Academy in Kyiv supported.
In my ongoing dissertation research, I examine the production of the nuclear cultural heritage of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) as captured in the qualitative interviews and photographs of the research participants and visitors to the zone. When taking into consideration the visual meaning-making of the visitors to the Chornobyl nuclear accident site, the research seeks to advance knowledge on the cultural construction of radioactive landscapes and, with the assistance of visual methods, produce information about the meaning of participatory culture's memory work as an agent that co-creates collective representations of the contaminated area.
In addition, the research reflects on the importance of polluted and post-industrial landscapes from the perspective of the cultural and critical heritage of the Anthropocene. This study provides insights into digital and participatory culture as agents that change how radioactive heritage is viewed, perceived, and experienced.
Currently, I am investigating with a longitudinal approach how the visual representations of the zone have evolved in a ten-year time frame.
In my dissertation research, I focus on the visual culture of the Chornobyl exclusion zone, emphasising participant-oriented perspectives. Supported by interviews and photographs of visitors to the area, my research explores the cultural experiences of nuclear power and people's ways of creating images of nuclear power. The research joins an international and multidisciplinary research orientation that combines nuclear power and cultural heritage research under the heading "Nuclear Cultural Heritage."
Corresponding teacher for the course "Presence of Heritage; Discussion and Practices", in spring 2024 (University of Turku)
Corresponding teacher for the course "Narratives and Representations of Industrial Heritage: Alternative Approaches to the Industrial Past", September–December 2023 (University of Turku)
Lecture on the "Introduction to Digital Humanities" course in May 2023 (University of Oulu)
Lecture on the "Human and Nature Relationship as Part of the Cultural Heritage" course in November 2022 (University of Turku)
Lecture as part of the "Dark Cultural Heritage Course" in February 2022 (University of Turku)
Lecture in the seminar series of the Mohyla Academy in Kyiv: 35 years since Chornobyl in May 2021
- Chernobyl dreams: investigating visitors’ storytelling in the Chernobyl exclusion zone (2024)
- International Journal of Tourism Cities
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Chornobyl visual lexicon: exploring the visual framing of toxic heritage from the point of view of participatory culture (2024)
- Visual Studies
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Co-constructing chernobyl: Investigating visitors' heritage meaning-making through performativity in the chernobyl exclusion zone (2024) Connecting with Ambivalent Heritage: Creative Uses of Postindustrial Spaces Ojala, Veera
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Kylmästä sodasta kuumaan
Tšernobylin suojavyöhykkeen merkityksestä sodan ajan uutisoinnissa neljän Ukrainan tiedeyhteisön jäsenen kokemana (2024)- Lähikuva
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Tšernobyl-unelmia: atomimatkailijoiden tarinoita suojavyöhykkeeltä (2022)
- AntroBlogi
(E1 Popularised article) - Chernobyl Dreams. A Study on the Role of Narrative Imagination in Consumption
Experience (2020) Ojala Veera
(G2 Master’s thesis, polytechnic Master’s thesis)