The ARENAS consortium gathered in Helsinki last week for its Annual Meeting and General Assembly Meeting. The University of Helsinki hosted the meetings, and the three days of activities were excellently planned and coordinated by Katalin Miklossy, Gwenaëlle Bauvois and Simo Määttä.
The meeting was opened by Katalin Miklossy, who welcomed the project participants to Helsinki and the University, and by Julien Longhi, Project Co-ordinator from CY Cergy Paris University. They set out the schedule for the event and introduced the theme for the day – Knowledge.
During the first day of the meeting, the ARENAS consortium heard from a series of excellent speakers, each addressing a specific topic or theme related to the work of the ARENAS project.
- Roundtable: Saija Benjamin (Radia Knowledge Centre: Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism) and Niko Pyrhönen (researcher of misinformation and propaganda, scholar of religion)
- Extremist Think Tanks interconnected: Annastiina Kallius (Institute of Advanced Studies, social anthropologist)
- High School teacher’s experience: Hanna Toikkanen-Maher (Eira High School) about extremism amongst students
- Attacks on the Freedom of Academia: Oula Silvennoinen (University of Helsinki, historian)
Day two of the meeting began with a walking tour of Helsinki, learning about the history of Finland, Helsinki and the impact of that history on the city’s architecture and on present-day Finland. The walking tour concluded at the University, where the consortium broke into Work Package groups and worked together for the rest of the morning.
After lunch, the members of the General Assembly gathered for their meeting, joined online by the external representatives of the General Assembly. Each work package leader presented an overview of the work done in the past six months and the planned work for the next six months, identifying challenges and highlights that occurred.
In the final session of the meeting, Denise Callan of Momentum, who leads Dissemination and Communications for the project, updated the consortium on the success to date of the project in reaching its target audience with the research published to date, and outlined the communications strategy for the final year of the project to ensure ARENAS maximises its impact.
The day finished with a final dinner together with wonderful views overlooking Helsinki. The dinners and lunches together provided opportunities for all the consortium members to interact informally and strengthen relationships. There was unanimous praise for the organising team from the University of Helsinki for the excellent programme, and the marvellous selection of restaurants selected and the success of the meeting.
