Stacie Uitti

Stacie Uitti is an AuDHD (autism co‑occurring with ADHD) Doctoral Researcher specializing in diaspora studies and feminist peace research at Tampere University in Finland. She earned her BA in Justice, Law, and Society from the American University in Washington, D.C. and her MA in Security Governance from Tampere University in Finland. Her dissertation examines the everyday experiences of second‑generation women of Somali origin in Finland through a gendered lens. 

She specializes in decolonial, intersectional, and feminist peace approaches, and her methods are always community co‑created, evolving with each project and with the practices of the communities she partners with. Her methods are also her epistemologies: culturally grounded, embodied, artistic, disability‑friendly, trauma-informed, and neurodiverse practices, such as coloring, drawing, storytelling, hanging‑out sessions, poetry, and photos, that treat mind, body, sensory, relational, historical, Indigenous, and cultural lived experiences as valid knowledge and archives.

Stacie Uitti is committed to ethical, reciprocal research and is attentive to the extractive dynamics that have often characterized research involving historically marginalized and securitized communities. She prioritizes building long-term relationships grounded in trust and meaningful contributions to the communities she works alongside.

In Finland, she collaborates with migrant-led organizations, including African Care ry, and Naistari, as well as Somali community associations, including Daryeel Human Rights Organization, the Finnish Somali Society (Suomen Somali-Seura), Somalia Network Finland (Suomen Somalia-verkosto), the Somali Federation in Finland (Somaliliitto), and the Oulu Somali Association.

Recognizing that diaspora communities maintain enduring social, political, and familial ties across borders, she also collaborates with NGOs in Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Kenya, including the Somali Resilience Program (SomRep), the Somali Social Services Guild (SSSG), and the Rotary Clubs of Nairobi and Isiolo. Through these partnerships, she has helped secure thousands of dollars in funding for women's empowerment initiatives and maternal and child health programs. Her work is grounded in supporting community resilience across both diaspora communities and the homeland.

Before entering academia, she worked for about five years in investigations, hybrid‑threat analysis, and security‑vulnerability assessment in Washington, D.C.