Elias Vartio, Master of Social Science, started as the new research coordinator at the Åland Islands Peace Institute in February. He has previously studied public international law at both Helsinki University and Åbo Akademi University. Besides his background in public international law, human rights and social sciences he has also previously worked as journalist both in print and broadcasting media.
Elias is looking forward to the professional challenges ahead in his role as the research coordinator at the institute.
– My original reason for endeavouring studies in public international law was due to my interest concerning conflict resolution. Since then I have shifted focus perhaps to conflict prevention and have also tried a career as a journalist. In that sense, I see this opportunity to work at the peace institute as a return to my roots. However, at the same time I think my previous experience in journalism will be a definitive advantage when I’ll begin my work on making our research more accessible and perhaps also more popularised – something that I really look forward too.
Earlier Elias has also been actively engaged in the Brussels based youth think thank Futurelab Europe and the Turku University affiliated Finland Futures Research Centre (ffrc), where he was involved in two research projects on the impact of new and emerging technologies on security and privacy.