Mikael Brunila

Mikael Brunila is a Kone Foundation postdoctoral researcher at médialab. His project explores questions of opacity and information asymmetry in the domains of maritime logistics and urban housing. He is also investigating the epistemological foundations of large language models (LLMs) through a mixture of practical, computational engagement, and science and technology studies (STS). These projects all extend his PhD thesis in Geography from McGill University.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Brunila earned a Master’s degree in quantitative methods from Columbia University, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Political Science (IR) from the University of Helsinki. Brunila was also an applied machine learning researcher with Curbcut in Montreal, investigating quantification methods for areal interpolation between different spatial units and hierarchical modeling techniques for housing policy.

Before his academic career, Brunila worked as a journalist with an emphasis on politics, technology, and finance. He published journalistic books on the Finnish far-right, urban politics in Helsinki, and new digital enclosures. In 2023, he co-authored a book on the politics of friendship.