Dr. Hannah Strauss is based at a multidisciplinary research institution, Thule Institute, at the University of Oulu in northern Finland. In summer 2011 she visited Ecologic Institute in Berlin, Germany. From October 2009 to July 2010 she visited the Canadian Circumpolar Institute in Edmonton, Alberta. In the academic year 2007/2008 she worked as a teaching assistant at the sociology department of the University of Aberdeen. In 2006 Hannah graduated from the University of Manchester (UK) with an MSc in Science and Technology Policy and Management and from Bielefeld University (Germany) with an MA in Sociology and Social Psychology.
Her completed PhD work on large-scale energy project siting procedures in the circumpolar North was part of the project Human-Environment Relations in the North, funded by the Academy of Finland. Her PhD thesis "For the Good of Society: Public participation in the siting of nuclear and hydro power projects in Finland" has been published and is available for download.
Currently, Hannah continues this line of sociological analysis of planning and decision making in the energy context with a regional focus on the circumpolar North. In particular, she follows up on the recent decision to build a nuclear power plant in the vicinity of Oulu, and continues to examine planning processes towards the construction of uranium mines and wind parks in Finnish and Swedish Lapland. On a more general level, she observes the conceptual politics of an Arctic region-building, which is closely tied to industrial activity in the energy sector.