Doctoral Researcher Hedayat Selim successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled “Psychological aspects in the evaluation of asylum claims based on sexual orientation” on Friday, 22 August 2025. Professor Jan Antfolk served as the custos, while Associate Professor Hilary Evans Cameron served as the opponent.
The Psych-AID Network, along with partners and collaborators, had a productive week at the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) Conference 2025 in Lithuania. Researchers from the Psych-AID network actively participated in numerous oral presentations and even received several awards.
Professor Jan Antfolk has been awarded more grants for his research on improving asylum procedures. The project is entitled “Experimental Tests of the Stereotype-Matching Hypothesis in Asylum Claims Based on Religious or Sexual Identity [ExClaim]!” and it aims to use novel methods to understand psychological mechanisms that affect decision-making in the asylum process.
Members of the Psych-AID network were at the 2025 biennial conference of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC), held in Ireland. The team members presented their individual works at the symposium titled “Interviewing and Decision-Making in the Asylum Context.”
Dr. Jenny Skrifvars and Hedayat Selim presented their research studies on the psychology of asylum interviewing and decision-making at the May seminar of the PALOMA research network, hosted at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
Doctoral researchers represented the Psych-AID research network in the 2025 Nordic Asylum Law and Data Lab workshop at the University of Copenhagen. The event was organized by the Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law and brought together researchers working on asylum issues.
Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jenny Skrifvars (Ph.D.) presented her results on a training program she developed for Finnish asylum officials at the Invest Flagship Centre’s Brownbag session.
Postdoctoral researcher Jenny Skrifvars, Prof. Julia Korkman, and Prof. Jan Antfolk designed a training package on interviews for asylum officials.
Doctoral Researcher Jenny Skrifvars successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled “Investigating and Improving the Quality of Asylum Interviewing and Decision-Making Practices in Finland” on Saturday, 26 October 2024. Professor of Practice Julia Korkman served as the custos, while Professor Pär-Anders Granhag served as the opponent
Doctoral Researcher Hedayat Selim presented her findings at the recent Religion as a Ground for International Protection Conference in Rome.
Psych-AID is a Centre of Excellence at Åbo Akademi University, funded by the Åbo Akademi University Foundation during 2024–2028.
