Centre for the Social Study of Microbes

CSSM panels at the upcoming EASST 2026 in Kraków – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The CSSM is once again super excited to share our members’ contributions to the upcoming EASST conference, this year in Kraków between the 8th and the 11th of September, 2026. Find below all of the pa...

The CSSM is excited to share panels convened by our members in the upcoming EASST 2026 conference in Kraków, September 8-11. See the post linked below for more details on CSSM members' panels, and don't hesitate to contact us if any questions arise!

📆The call for papers is open until February 28.

📢CALL FOR PROPOSALS: CSSM Conference 2026

We are excited to invite submissions for the CSSM conference, taking place in Helsinki, Finland, 19-22 October 2026 as an in-person gathering!

📅Submission deadline: 30 Jan 2026
🦠More information on the conference website: blogs.helsinki.fi/cssm-confere...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM Visiting Fellowships for May 2026 – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes at the University of Helsinki is looking for fellows for the month of May 2026. The annual CSSM fellowship is awarded to three scholars who may be at any ca...

📢CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM Visiting Fellowships for May 2026. The CSSM is looking for three fellows at any career stage for the month of May 2026!

📅Application deadline: 8 January 2026
🦠For more details, please visit our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

Late to the party - but at long last this wonderful collection of papers came out in the summer. Thanks @joseacanada.bsky.social and Salla Sariola for doing this together

SAVE THE DATE! The CSSM is organizing a conference in 2026 to celebrate its first 5 years of life. More info coming soon through this channel, our website socialmicrobes.org and our mailing list. Looking forward to welcoming you all in Helsinki!

More-than-human Aquatic Relations and Algal Blooms MARBLOOM analyses from a social scientific perspective the changing relationship between humans and the environment in connection to algal blooms, a growing global phenomenon that is altering marine a...

Page project for More-than-human Aquatic Relations and Algal Blooms (MARBLOOM) just went up on the website of @cssmicrobes.bsky.social Project is still a baby (22 days old) but we'll get up to some really cool stuffy soon.

www.socialmicrobes.org/projects/mar...

10 days until the deadline on the 14th of August!

One of the CSSM projects is looking for a postdoc 📣! Find more information in the link.

STS in and out of the Laboratory - Artistic Contributions and Exploratory Practices Please fill out this form to register for the Artistic and Exploratory Practices sessions. We look forward to your participation! (Step 1/3)

With @heymayahey.bsky.social, Aliisa Talja, Yuning Chen, Marie-Louise Wöhrle, I am organizing an art&practice session at the upcoming Nordic STS in Stockholm (11-13). The session is titled 'Protocols for Knowing Microbes Otherwise' and you can register using this link: forms.gle/3xzbm8TVFRp1...

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Wording and worlding with microbes - A lexicon for the microbial social – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes We are excited to be inviting contributions to a new lexicon in the field of social study of microbes, titled Wording and worlding with microbes. What is the aim of this lexicon? Wording and worlding ...

📢 CALL FOR ENTRIES TO A NEW LEXICON: Wording and worlding with microbes – A lexicon for the microbial social

📅 Register for descriptive entries by 23 June 2025
🔎 For more information, please visit our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM PhD School in June 2025 – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes At present, research on microbes – whether in social sciences or in life sciences and biomedicine – is undergoing dramatic changes. A boom of microbiome research since the early 2000s has shown that m...

📢CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: The CSSM now welcomes applications for The CSSM PhD School, held in Helsinki, 4-6 June 2025.

📅Deadline: 7 March 2025
🦠For more details, please visit our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Grant for seminar exploring human-microbial relations – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes at the University of Helsinki aims to develop theory and methods to better make sense of the complex relations between humans, nonhumans, microbes, and thei...

📣CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM grant for seminar exploring human-microbial relations!

📅DL: 28 February 2025
🦠For more details please visit our website:
www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

The documentary film Walking with Fermenters - A Story of Rice Beer by Kazu Ahmed, Salla Sariola and Meri Teperi also saw its premiere and inspired a conversation on human-microbe relations in fermentation practices and ethics of ethnographic filmmaking.🎥

Ana Delgado presenting in front of a full small room of audience.

Aaron Bradshaw presenting in front of a room.

A warm thank you to the keynote speakers Ana Delgado and Aaron Bradshaw for sharing their latest research and engaging in fascinating discussions with us!👏

Salla Sariola presenting in front of a screen that on which text: 'Exciting two days ahead'

Riina Hannula sitting in front of a room next to an art piece presenting research and art.

Researchers and artists @joseacanada.bsky.social, Faidon Papadakis, Viljami Kankaanpää-Kukkonen, Aga Pokrywka, Tiia Sudenkaarne, Tiina Vaittinen, Riina Hannula, Salla Sariola and Oona Virtanen from the project presented their inspiring work and visions for the future of the social study of microbes.

People looking at an installation with photos, sound and soil, by Faidon Papadakis.

A small room full of people listening to two people discussing in the front.

✨The outcomes of the foundational Microbial Lives project were celebrated among the CSSM members and network in a wonderful Final Symposium! A big thank you to @koneensaatio.fi for supporting our work on the ever more interesting human-microbe relations for the past six years!

OPEN CALL for CSSM artist-in-residence in 2025 – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes is pleased to announce the open call for its artist residency in Helsinki in spring/summer 2025. Artists are invited to submit proposals that aim to produce...

📢Attention all artists! OPEN CALL for the CSSM Artist-in-Residence 2025 is open until this Sunday!
We look forward to your applications!

⏰DL: 1st December 2024
🦠Check out the details on our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/open...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM Visiting Fellowships for Spring 2025 (April-June) – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes at the University of Helsinki is looking for fellows for the Spring 2025. The next period is April to June 2025. The annual CSSM fellowship is awarded to th...

OPEN CALL for CSSM fellowships in spring 2025!

We are looking for three scholars, currently at any career stage, to join us in Helsinki for 1-3 months.
🗓️DL: 5th December 2024
🔬Check out the details on our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

OPEN CALL for CSSM artist-in-residence in 2025 – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes is pleased to announce the open call for its artist residency in Helsinki in spring/summer 2025. Artists are invited to submit proposals that aim to produce...

OPEN CALL for the CSSM Artist-in-Residence 2025!

Join us to create new ways of knowing microbes!
🗓️DL: 1st December 2024
🦠Check out the details on our website: www.socialmicrobes.org/current/open...

CSSM PhD School 2024 kicks off with an introductory talk by Salla Sariola! We are thrilled to welcome 15 doctoral researchers in Helsinki and look forward to learning with and from the next generation of microbial scholars in the coming three days.

CSSM Sensory Week registration form The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes is organising a Sensory Week on 27–31 May 2024. Over the course of five days, we will host activities that engage with the senses, including sound, smell, t...

Curious about microbes and senses? Sign up for CSSM Sensory Week on 27–31 May! We are hosting activities that engage with microbes through the senses, including sound, smell, taste, vision & touch. In-person participation only (in Helsinki), registration closes on 22 May. forms.gle/DsgKL2uF2hPL...

“I think about the temporal justifications in most of these toxicants and how our human penchant for short-term capital-gain should have us be called Homo myopiens.”

@heymayahey.bsky.social reviews “Toxic Transits” at Hagströmer Library, open until May 8!
 
www.socialmicrobes.org/current/revi...

What/where is the microbial in the garden? – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The popularisation of microbiology, from school biology classes to popular science books and online materials, produces an idea of lively activity all the way down to a very small scale, a presence of...

"In the still sharpness of the pictures, I get a feeling of an undercurrent and loud noise. Is this the microbial?"
 
Read our latest blog post to find out how Faidon Papadakis, a doctoral researcher at the CSSM, searches for the microbial in the garden. #STS
 
www.socialmicrobes.org/current/what...

Alma Heikkilä starts as the new artist-in-residence at CSSM – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes We are happy to announce that Alma Heikkilä is the new artist-in-residence at the CSSM. Through painting, installation and sculpture, Alma examines things that are difficult to experience through the ...

We are thrilled to announce that Alma Heikkilä is the new artist-in-residence at the CSSM! By working with painting, installation and sculpture, Alma makes space and time for wondering and digesting scientific accounts that challenge familiar ways of thinking.

www.socialmicrobes.org/current/alma...

A group of people gathered around a box, holding pieces of paper connected by string

Do you want to develop your PhD research and explore microbial questions with inspiring researchers in summery Helsinki? Apply to the CSSM PhD School in June! Applications open until 31 March.

#STS #FeministSky #histsci #sociology

www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CSSM PhD School in June 2024 – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes is happy to announce that we are now accepting applications to our annual PhD School in Helsinki on June 12–14, 2024. The PhD School is a unique opportunity...

Applications are now open for the CSSM PhD School 2024! Join us in Helsinki this June to develop your research in a supportive atmosphere and get mentoring from CSSM researchers.

📍 Helsinki, June 12–14, 2024
🗓️ Application deadline: March 31, 2024

www.socialmicrobes.org/current/call...

We now have a newsletter! Read to find out about upcoming events, calls for papers & new publications pushing forward the social study of microbes.

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive all future newsletters: forms.gle/VEbC3Z1uW3kU...

"In sickness and in health food", and beyond: making space for microbes at the CSSM – The Centre f... By Antonia Modelhart I remember walking home after one literature discussion at the CSSM, feeling intimidated and a little bit down about how small my world is and how there is only so much I (can) kn...

Visiting fellow Antonia Modelhart reflects on her experiences at the CSSM:

"My world became bigger in turning more seriously, with widened eyes, sensitized hands, and sharpened senses to the very small ones ..." 🦠

www.socialmicrobes.org/current/in-s...

Ferment Radio is now up on our website! 📻

Listen to this fascinating podcast by CSSM member Aga Pokrywka to learn more about the world of microbes with the guidance of artists, researchers, chefs, activists, and other microbial experts.

www.socialmicrobes.org/ferment-radio/

And our call for external seminars is also open until the 17th of December!