Magdalena Kosova is a social anthropologist currently pursuing her PhD at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. She holds an MSc in Social and Cultural Anthropology from University College London and a BA in Scandinavian Studies with Management from UCL. Her research focuses on issues of immigration, identity, and designing social impact analyses. She has 10 years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research projects for academia and private organizations. In addition to research, she works as a graphic designer, photographer, and translator. She is fluent in English, Swedish, German, and Finnish with basic skills in additional languages.
1. Magdalena Kosova, MSc
Education
2016-now/ Åbo Akademi, Finland; PhD in Sociology
2011-2013/ University College London, UK; MSc Social and Cultural Anthropology
2008/ Liberal Institute Summer University by Liberal Institute, Czech Republic
2008/ Visegrad Summer School by Villa Decius, Kraków, Poland
2005-2010/ University College London, UK; BA Scandinavian Studies with Management
2007-2008/ Uppsala Universitet, Sweden. University exchange programme
2006/ Focus on Management by Deloitte in cooperation with UCL, London, UK
2004/ Summer School in Financial Economics for Prospective Managers, by Liberal Institute, Czech Republic
1997–2005/ Gymnázium Jana Keplera, Czech Republic. Equivalent of lukio. Awards in languages and sport.
Work experience
Jan 2015-Feb 2016 / Karjalainen Nuorisoliitto - Karelian Youth League, Helsinki, Finland
/Graphic Designer; Researcher
- Designing promotion materials and shaping new visual identity for the League
- Through implementing qualitative research methods I’m designing and implementing new ways to wake interest in Finnish
and Karelian traditions in young people – designing board games, organizing workshops, updating social media, etc.
Mar 2013-Jul 2014 / City of Helsinki, Finland
/Child carer in a Swedish speaking daycare
- Responsible for a group of 1-4 year olds. The main focus of my work was on language and art education.
Feb 2011-May 2011 / University of Tübingen, Germany
/PR Assistant
- Participated in preparations of the Open Day Event by producing promotion and information materials in English and Ger-
man
- Actively took part on shaping new CSR strategy of the Language Centre by conducting an analysis of the contents of the
courses and operations of the Language Centre, suggested improvements towards sustainable lifestyle awareness
Oct 2010-Jun 2011/ Volkshochchule Tübingen, Germany
/Lecturer in Swedish
- Independently ran courses in Swedish at Levels A1/A2
Apr-Jul 2009 / University of Tübingen, Germany
/Teaching assistant in Swedish
- Assisted the lecturer in Swedish in beginners’ (Level A1-A2) lectures and seminars
- My common tasks included assistance both during and outside the lectures and seminars: checking students’ work in and out-
side the class, pronunciation and grammar assistance, helping students with their classwork, giving extra conversation lessons,
assisting students with the need of or desire for extra tuition
Nov 2008 -Mar 09 / PriceWaterhouseCoopers Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
/Audit Intern
- Learned about work of the auditor by conducting hand-on work during he busy auditing season
- Was responsible for testing, controlling and analyzing client’s accounting data, and presented the results to more senior mem-
bers of the team
- Was involved in direct communication with the client - face-to-face as well as phone/email contact with the client, interview-
ing key contacts, verifying the accuracy of data and raising any discrepancies or queries
- Compiled reports on individual steps of the team task
- Got a strong insight into audit business and gained extensive knowledge about how various businesses operate
I’m a 30-year-old social anthropologist, with background in Scandinavian Studies and Business, Project and Change Manage-
ment. My strongest areas of expertise are Social Research and Analysis, Social Impact Analysis, Organizational Anthropology,
Communication and solution making based on results using above-mentioned (and other) research methods.
I’m creative, flexible, organized and a fast learner. I am particularly interested in issues related to Corporate Social Responsi-
bility, Cultural Integration and Social Impact Analysis. Besides, I free-lance as a Printed Media Graphic Designer, Photographer
and Translator.
I live in Helsinki with my partner and in my free time I (still) enjoy photography, painting, boxing and baking.
2. Specific Skills
/Qualitative and quantitative research
My main areas of interest are issues of immigration, identity and design and implementation of Social Impact Analysis/Corpo-
rate Social Responsibility projects for the academia as well as the private sector. The research projects involved all stages and
consisted of interviewing and surveying research subjects, conducting participant observation, collecting background informa-
tion from secondary sources, analyzing and presenting the data and creating a plan of actions to be taken.
To name the most important projects I have been working on I would start with research project for the Municipality of Prague
6 a part of a larger urban planning initiative with an aim to identify needs and worries of various citizen groups in the rapidly
changing part of Prague. My dissertation project was from a related field: I was dealing with the relationship between locality,
identity, economy and politics in a small Swedish town. My findings have been then used in larger ongoing urban planning
projects. Furthermore, I conducted a comprehensive data research for Czech Academy of Science where I was analyzing the
situation of women on Swedish labour market in 2011. Since 2011 I have also been cooperating with First Heating Ltd, a small
Czech exporting business. I have conducted a number of Market Research and Economic and Political Risk Analysis projects
with a particular focus on emerging markets. The final reports produced in conjunction with my tasks are crucial for further
expansion of the company. In addition, in October 2006 I participated in preparing the Newshour programme at BBC UK by
conducting an extensive data research on current media trends and topics.
/Graphic design & Photography
I work as a free-lance graphic designer, illustrator and photographer. Assigned/commissioned work consists mainly of promo-
tion materials (posters), illustrations and layouts of online and printed media; organizations based in Finland I have cooperated
with include Arbis (layout of Arbisbladet magazine), CRE8 (realizations of websites and political campaign materials for parlia-
mentary elections in 2015) and the City of Turku (creating visual identity for the upcoming Europeade in 2017).
/Languages
Czech (native), English and Swedish (fluent), German and Finnish (upper-intermediate), Spanish, Russian and French (begin-
ner). I have been working as private language tutor and freelance translator since 2010.
/Voluntary activities
I have been working as pro-bono translator for UNICEF Czech Republic and TEDx since 2008. Within UCL Volunteering
Society I participated in a number of one-off volunteering events and in UCL Tutoring Programme. Actively volunteered in
several projects in Tübingen/Reutlingen area in Germany in 2009 and 2010/11 (animal shelters, coaching children in floorball
an integrating marginalized people into society). I’m a member of the board of Red Cross Espoo, Finland, with a responsibility
for multicultural education; currently we are preparing an education project on everyday racism. And last but not least, I’m a
member of the board of a newly established association Acceptans for young people suffering with mental ill-health problems
within which I’m responsible for graphic design and media as well as organizing various workshops.
/Computer skills
MS Windows and Office, Apple OS X, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, Lotus Notes, various database packages;
reasonable keyboard skills (70+ wpm).
/Leadership and other achievements
Floorball/ Besides goalkeeping on elite level I repeatedly participated in organizing international sports events (Czech Open,
World Championship) in 2001-2005. My roles included General assistant, Assistant manager and National team representa-
tive. I also functioned as Youth coach of Tübingen U16 team (2010/11) and Health and Safety Officer of South-East English
League (2011-2013)
UCL Scandinavian Society/ President in 2006-07
Mensa Czech Republic/ Member since 2005, correspondent since 2014
Contact details:
/Magdalena Kosova
Lutherinkatu 8C 46, 00 100 Helsinki
magdalena.kosova@gmail.com
+358 (0) 406 547 447