Veera
Ojala
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Areas of expertise
Biography
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.
I am working as a doctoral researcher in the Juno-doctoral program from June 2024 to May 2025.My research was supported by a grant from the Satakunta Regional Fund of The Finnish Cultural Foundation from December 2022 to May 2023.
My research was supported by a grant from the Satakunta Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation from October 2022 to May 2023.
I participated in the Piippumuistoja project as a quest researcher from August 2023 to September 2023.
I worked as a project researcher on the Nuclear Waste Disposal and Societal Memory Project from December 2022 to January 2023.
Teaching
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
Research
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."