Sari Päivikki Pietikäinen
Job description
I am Professor of Arctic Human–Nature Relations at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
My research focuses on changing human–nature relations in the Arctic, particularly in the context of climate change, natural resource use, multilingualism, and Indigenous and minority knowledge. I am Principal Investigator of RiverPulse, an ERC Advanced Grant project examining how human–nature relations are being reconfigured along Arctic salmon rivers amid accelerating climate change.
Publications outside Cristin
Pietikäinen, S. (2024). Cold Rush: Critical Assemblage Analysis of a Heating Arctic. Palgrave Macmillan.
Heller, M., Pietikäinen, S. & Pujolar, J. (2024). Critical Sociolinguistic Research Methods: Studying Language Issues That Matter. Routledge.
Research interests
My research interests include critical assemblage analysis of climate change and multispecies interaction in the Arctic, changing human–nature relations, and the power of discourse in revaluing natural resources. I am also interested in the rights of nature and politics of governance, coloniality, and knowledge in moments of transitions.
My current research examines living with climate change along Arctic salmon rivers, including ecological change, multispecies relations, Indigenous and local knowledge, river governance, and processes of ecological and relational repair. Methodologically, I work with critical assemblage analysis, critical discourse analysis, and ethnography.
Member of research group / centre
Member of project
CV
Current position
Professor of Arctic Human–Nature Relations, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Selected previous positions
Professor of Discourse Studies, University of Jyväskylä, 2006–2026
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2022–2024
Current major research project
Principal Investigator, RiverPulse: Reconfiguring human–nature interaction as assemblage at the Arctic frontline of climate change, European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant.