About this Organization
Arcada is a multi-professional University of Applied Sciences in Finland. At our campus in Helsinki (Finland), our 2,700 students and 170 staff work across disciplines to advance culture and knowledge.
At Arcada high level research with societal impact meets lifelong learning within all our areas of expertise; Business management and analytics, Energy and materials technology, Health and welfare, Culture and media, and Healthcare. Together with our partners, we are building Nordic bridges to be globally relevant. We create smart solutions for a dynamic working life and a vibrant Swedish-speaking culture.
Arcada was last audited in November 2017 by The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council.
Team Members
Susanne Ådahl holds a PhD in Social Anthropology with a specialisation in Medical Anthropology from the University of Helsinki. She has conducted research on technology and health, social suffering and uncanny experiences with a regional focus on Finland. Her primary areas of expertise are in practice theory, gift theory, phenomenology and science and technology studies.
She has also received training in Design Management at the University of Lapland and has been engaged in service design initiatives in the third sector and a museum environment. Her particular areas of interest lie in applying ethnographic thinking to user experiences and audience engagement in museums, as well as delving into the connection between wellbeing and cultural heritage.
Additional areas of interest in the field of cultural heritage management are in community involvement and living intangible cultural heritage. In the ReInherit project she conducts primary research on cultural heritage professionals.
Maria Bäck (MSc. (Econ.) FRSA) is currently Degree Program Director for Cultural Management at Arcada University of Applied Sciences. Her main interests in research are in Cultural leadership and Organizational studies. Involved in the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and acting as connector for the Finnish chapter international networking and design thinking is also of great importance both for educational reasons but also for developing society at large.
Maria has also for many years been involved in different projects connecting arts in both business and public Organizations. Maria has also been involved in ENCATC– being board member and treasurer between the years 2014 and 2017.
Tomas Träskman is Head of the Department of Culture and Media. He is an experienced director, teacher, curator, researcher, with a demonstrated history of working with innovation and experimentation. Innovation is doing away with the worlds it creates almost as soon as it forms them. It blends real and imagined details and the exploration and management of it is my daily work and fascination. As a researcher he travels between disciplines, sectors and hierarchies. He has one foot in art, one foot in economy,l and one in pedagogy. He was part of the movement in academia/art towards conceptualizing 'artistic research'.
Now he is doing his Phd in accounting, where he is looking into empirical contexts such as smart cities and digital platforms, in order to better understand the implications of our current move to a life-world in which it may actually be difficult to separate the social and material(as in technology), even in our everyday talk.
In terms of artistic publications Tomas has "published" together with the artist group YKON on some of the most prestigious scenes in the art world, such as Palais de Tokyo (France), Venice Biennale (Italy), MOCA (Taipei), Brioni (Utopia/Crotia).)
