Elina Kestilä-Kekkonen

PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Project Director, Discontinuities in Intergenerational Transmission of Political Values in Finland (DISCO), 2023–2027. Funded by the Kone Foundation.

Project Director, Kaksilla korteilla äänestyskoppiin? Kunta- ja aluevaalitutkimus 2025 (Municipal and Regional Elections Study 2025), 2025. Funded by the Foundation for Municipal Development.

Principal Investigator (with Lauri Rapeli & Peter Söderlund), Finnish National Election Study 2023 – Finnish National Election Study 2021–2024. Funded by the Ministry of Justice.

Project Director, Education, Political Efficacy and Informed Citizenship (EPIC), 1 September 2019 – 31 December 2023, Tampere University. Funded by the Research Council of Finland.

Project Director, Tulevaisuuden kuntapäättäjät (Future Municipal Decision-Makers) 2021–2022, Tampere University. Funded by the Foundation for Municipal Development.

Consortium Leader, Consortium of Trust Research – Pathways to Political Trust (CONTRE), 1 September 2015 – 31 August 2019. Joint project between Tampere University and Åbo Akademi University. Funded by the Research Council of Finland.

Principal Investigator (with Sami Borg & Hanna Wass), Finnish National Election Study 2019, 2018–2020. Funded by the Ministry of Justice. Election Study Consortium homepage.

Principal Investigator, Kuntavaali-indikaattorit 2017 (Municipal Election Indicators 2017), 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2017. Joint project between Tampere University and the University of Helsinki. Data collection funded by the Ministry of Justice.

Survey Expert, Imposing Security: Gendered Gun Politics of ‘Campus Carry’, 1 September 2017 – 31 August 2021, University of Turku, John Morton Center. Funded by the Research Council of Finland, PI Prof. Benita Heiskanen.

AWARDS

Societal Influencer of the Year, 2025, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University.

Teacher of the Year, 2024, Degree Programme in Politics, Iltakoulu ry – Student Association of Politics at Tampere University.

Honorary Standard of Iltakoulu ry, 2023, awarded for work benefitting students and the student association.

Honorary Mention for Excellent Teaching and Teaching Development, 2023, Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC, TAU) and Tampere University.

Teacher of the Year, 2023, Degree Programme in Politics, Iltakoulu ry – Student Association of Politics at Tampere University.

Course of the Year, 2023, Quantitative Methods. Degree Programme in Politics, Iltakoulu ry – Student Association of Politics at Tampere University.

Teacher of the Year, 2018, P-club (Political Science Students’ Association), University of Turku.

Elizabeth Meehan Prize, Best article published in 2017 (with Peter Söderlund), Government & Opposition, awarded in 2018.

Tampere University Good Teacher of the Year, 2015, awarded by the Tampere University Foundation and the Student Union of Tampere University.

JKK Teacher of the Year, 2015, Student Association of the School of Management.

Best Teacher of the Year, 2013 and 2015, Degree Programme in Politics, Iltakoulu ry – Student Association of Politics at Tampere University.

Best Course of the Year, 2013, Degree Programme in Politics, Iltakoulu ry – Student Association of Politics at Tampere University.

Director of the Finnish National Election Study Consortium (FNES), 2025–2029
 

Koivula, Aki & Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina (2026, forthcoming). Internal efficacy and political trust: Evaluating Political Institutions through Pandemic Crisis Policy. International Political Science Review.

Herne, Kaisa, Sipinen, Josefina, Söderlund, Peter & Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina (2026, forthcoming). The Influence of Justification Content and Argument Source on Perceived Argument Quality. Argumentation.

Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Sipinen, Josefina & Söderlund, Peter (2025). Family Beats School? Adolescents' Turnout Intention on Different Educational Tracks. Scandinavian Political Studies, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.12300

Butters, Albion, Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina & Ruoppila, Sampo (2024). A Mirror of Political Ideology: Undergraduates' Attitudinal Drivers on Implemented Campus Carry. Frontiers in Political Science.

Bäck, Maria, Karv, Thomas & Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina (2024). Finland: A Country of High Political Trust and Weak Political Self-efficacy. In Åsa von Schoultz & Kim Strandberg (eds.), Political Behaviour in Contemporary Finland: Studies of Voting and Campaigning in a Candidate-oriented Political System. Routledge.

Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Sipinen, Josefina & Söderlund, Peter (2023). Mummy’s girls, daddy’s boys: the gendered transmission of political engagement in families. West European Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2023.2275447

Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Sipinen, Josefina, Rapeli, Lauri & Vadén, Salla (2023). The Role of Political Engagement of Parents in Reducing the Gender Gap in Political Self-Efficacy. European Journal of Politics and Gender. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2023D000000005

Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Korvela, Paul-Erik & Vento, Isak (2022). Demokratitiinnovation ur ett språkminoritets perspektiv: Fördjupas eller försvagas demokratin? Nordisk Administrativt Tidsskrift, 99(3), 1–16.

Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Koivula, Aki & Tiihonen, Aino (2022). When trust is not enough. A longitudinal analysis of political trust and political competence during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland. European Political Science Review, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773922000224

Herne, Kaisa, Sipinen, Josefina, Kestilä-Kekkonen, Elina, Mattinen, Laura & Söderlund, Peter (2022). The force of the argument source: The partiality of the source influences the evaluation of political arguments. Frontiers in Communication.