Dr Kaisu Koski gives talk on vaccine-hesitancy at Finnish Science Forum
Dr Kaisu Koski, Associate Professor of Art and Design in Lab4Living, will give a talk about vaccine-hesitancy at the Tampere Science Forum in Finland this Saturday morning.
The Science Forum (Finnish: Tieteen päivät) is a biennial science festival in Finland and takes place on 22nd and 23rd January 2021. The event opens the Tampere Smart City Week.
One of Kaisu’s long-term research projects is related to negative perceptions of vaccination and how these perceptions are treated in medical studies. She has interviewed non-vaccinating parents in the Netherlands and Finland, and mapped the underlying health perceptions behind their attitudes. Based on these, she has developed an arts-based intervention for medical students.
Kaisu recently received two film festival awards for her film ‘Rehearsals for Empathy‘.
About the artist
Kaisu Koski is an Associate Professor of Art and Design and joined Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University in 2020. She is a cross-disciplinary artist and humanities scholar with a background in performance and screen-based media. She also works with biological materials such as soil and plants. Kaisu collaborates with scientists, clinicians, and engineers, focusing on empathy, simulation, and human–nonhuman interactions. She has conducted research fellowships in various medical schools and developed films for medical curricula on topics such as vaccine-hesitancy and breaking bad news.
Kaisu’s work has been exhibited and performed in multiple gallery shows and theatres, and received awards in the film festival circuit. The venues include Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Hasselt Triennial, Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Estonian Museum of Applied Arts, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Korea, Helsinki International Film Festival, and Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. She has also received several research grants including organizations such as the Academy of Finland and the Portuguese National Science Foundation.