Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Well-being of Children and Young People - Welcome to a seminar on Oct 24

Are you an early career researcher working on a topic related to or relevant for the wellbeing of children and/or youth including (but not limited to) physical, psychological, social, financial and school wellbeing? Do you want to

• Strengthen your understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls of multidisciplinary research?
• Create contacts to fellow early career researchers across disciplines and faculty lines?
• Gain experience in presenting your research to multidisciplinary audiences?

As many research funders require research projects to include multidisciplinary elements for them to be eligible for funding, the UTU’s Children, young people and learning multidisciplinary theme offers a platform for early career researchers to build the capacities needed to meet these demands. 

Thus, we welcome you to the seminar Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Wellbeing of Children and Young People in Educarium on October 24 at 12:15–18:00.

The seminar is targeted especially for early career researchers across the faculties of the University and different perspectives of research on children and young people. 

However, we welcome and encourage everyone interested in these topics to join the seminar regardless of their career stage or affiliation.

Programme of the seminar

• 12:15–13:45 (Lecture hall Edu2) 
  Panel discussion: Multidisciplinarity in practice: Why and how? 
  

  Jaakko Suominen, Professor, University of Turku, Faculty of Humanities
  Saija Westerlund-Cook, Expert/Doctoral Researcher, Folkhälsan 
  Jaana Kilpinen, Head of Development, City of Turku
  Niina Pietikäinen, CEO, Fingerroos Foundation
  Mira Kalalahti, Associate Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Education and Psychology

  Moderator: Tero Järvinen, professori, University of Turku, Faculty of Education

• 13:45–14:30 (Educarium, 2. floor) 
  Poster exhibition and coffee
  Emerging research on the wellbeing of children and young people across the disciplines
• 14:30–16:00 (Lecture hall Edu2) 
  Keynote lecture
  Enabling capabilities in educational transitions – spatial and intersectional approaches to youth work and counselling 
  Associate professor, Dr. Mira Kalalahti, University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Department of Teacher Education
• 16:00–18:00 (Educarium, 1. floor) 
  Early career researchers’ mingle
  Networking, snacks and refreshments

We reserve the right to amend the schedule and programme. All the presentations and discussions will be in English, but you can ask questions also in Finnish during the event if you wish.

Present your work in our poster exhibition

Also, we invite you, early career researchers to present your own work in our poster exhibition (see the programme); please note, that you need to present the poster in person). We will handle printing and its costs, but you can keep your poster for future purposes after the event. 

We kindly ask you to submit an abstract of your research (maximum 200 words) via Webropol no later than September 26, 2025.

You will be informed about the acceptance of your abstract and receive instructions for submitting your poster by October 1, 2025 at the latest. The poster should follow the University of Turku's poster guidelines and use the A0-sized poster template. The language of the poster is English. 

Please note that presenting a poster is not a requirement for participation in the seminar, but we strongly recommend using this low-threshold opportunity!

Registration and poster submissions have now ended. Thank you very much for your interest!